Moore Cove Falls

We hiked to Moore Cove Falls this afternoon (me, Eli and Briggs). I saw an article in Mountain Express this week that mentioned it.

To get to US276 near Brevard using NC280 is about an hour. Moore Cove Falls is about 6.5 miles up 276 from 280. It's not got a prominent sign, so we drove by it first time; it was easy enough to turn around and get back. The river passes under 276 at this particular point in the road, so there was that to enjoy after the hike to the falls itself.

The first 200 yards were the toughtest: a pretty decent hill to begin with. After that it was a breeze. Because of rain yesterday there was plenty of mud. There are some places where they have had to construct elevated wooden walkways, but nothing much more remarkable.

The falls are pretty nice. The best part is that one can walk behind them. There is a nice-sized crevice with lots of head-room. The falls were a little slick (none of us fell, once we got respect for the rocks). There are un-official trails to the top of the falls, but a boy fell and died from there in 2007; that was enough for even Briggs and Eli to consent to remain at ground level. There were plenty of places to sit and enjoy, and obviously one can dress for the ocassion and let the falls rain down on oneself. Briggs enjoyed that immensely. Obviously, when the weather has been dry, the falls will be minimal; today they were respectable, if not gushing.

We made a journey of it and came back via the Parkway: another 8 miles up 276 to the Parkway and then 30 or so to get back to Asheville. The Parkway is now re-opened through the Mt. Pisgah area, though there is a section of one-lane road, with a traffic light controlling the flow (on a busy day it could lead to traffic backup). Not bad at all today.

Spencer Shops

We went to the NC Transportation Museum today.


Sure, we rode the train. Sure, we had a picnic lunch the midst of a thunderstorm. Sure, we rode the turntable. Sure we got to see more than 30 train locos and rolling stock. Sure we got to watch them working on an old passenger car.





But nothing, Nothing, NOTHING compares to see the collection of die-cast models of fire and police and rescue vehicles in the "Bumper-to-Bumper" exhibit. Eli especially was in total bliss. Sure, we have more: at least a hundred as reported in Briggs' quest for 100-something in K-garten. But these were in pristine condition, artfully displayed. The boys were in awe!

K-ville

We spent the day in Knoxville, TN Saturday. We stopped by the Ijams Nature Center, rode the TN Riverboat, played in the fountains at the World's Fair plaza and went to the top of the Sunsphere. Not too shabby for 7 hours.

We were in town while an anti-immigration rally of some type was going on. Apparently Neo-Nazis from Wisconsin decided to drop in. Law enforcement was present in spades! Cars, bikes, special ops vehicles: all over downtown. Plus a helicopter buzzing overhead the whole time we were there.

There were no apparent food options near Ijams; we had to fortify ourselves with chips and water and caught a late lunch on the way back downtown. We were on the TN River while a "wakeboarding" event sponsored by MasterCraft was being run and taped for later television broadcast. There's nothing like a thunderstorm to clear out the fountain area. People were leaving in droves as we pulled up. We waited a few minutes and had the place nearly to ourselves. Same with the Sunsphere.

Knoxville felt a lot like Richmond: the riverfront, the humidity, the big-city vibe, the humidity, the history, the humidity. There are a lot more things to do there, so I feel certain we'll head back to enjoy the humidity.


When planning the day, I noted that there is a steam train in Knoxville. This particular weekend was their rail-fest. Tickets for the event were way out of our league. However, we espied a couple of the locos tanking up on water. That was a nice serendipity while we waited for our cruise to depart.

Gap-acious!

Briggs lost the other front tooth today. He looks pretty goofy.

Briggs is in the top of one of the cabooses at the NC Transportation Museum. That thing on the right that looks like an eye is actually a light fixture inside the caboose!

Summer Conference Reflections

I've been attending the "Church Unbound" conference in Montreat for these couple of days. I actually led a seminar last year at the same event. I went just to listen this year.

Every few years I have realized it's a good thing to use continuing education time and funding for something other than music events. This year my registration for the PAM Worship and Music conference in Montreat was gratis because we loaned them handbells. So I had some spare funds.

The speaker this year was Brian McLaren, about whom I've heard a lot, but whom I've never heard or read. It's been very nice and enlightening. The only singing has been an ice-breaker at the beginning of the plenary sessions. They have offered a seminar on "unbound worship" which was interesting. The leadership for that came from the Covenant Community.

Last year when I was teaching, I also took in the plenary sessions. They were led by Shane Claiborne. They were very exciting also, and totally unrelated to music.

A colleague asked via Facebook who I would recommend to seek to hear, were she to try to engage in this sort of non-musical education event. My best answer is that it doesn't really matter. What matters most is that we church music professionals recognize the need for growth in our non-musical/spiritual/theological lives. Like many of us I attend a huge national event, teach once or twice for a local or regional event, and very quickly can be drained by all that leadership. That is unless I take commensurate time to get refueled at an event in which I can think in other ways than notes and rests and sharps and flats and toe and heel.

I suppose I'm a little unique in that I hold an MDiv degree. That may make it for likely that I get a kick out of non-musical and theology-related seminars. But I think any church professional would be well-suited to take in a similar event, outside of their usual area of expertise. This began years ago for me by taking in a retreat led by Richard Foster, who was big into spiritual disciplines and the contemplative life.

And for the record, I don't attend every session when I enroll in these events. It's not my personality style (as SJK has rightly noted). I pick and choose and spend plenty of time reading and watching hummingbirds.

Guitar Calvin

He doesn't know many chords,

but he can bust a move!

Erudite Calvin

Libby caught Calvin perusing the paper while waiting for his lunch today.

Last week the church nursery worker commented that Calvin said barely two words to her the whole time he was there. She was certain he knew a whole lot more than he was letting on. We assured her that, with chatterboxes like Eli and Briggs, Calvin does indeed know many, many words. He was just shining her on for effect.

Other veggies

This was this week's tomato haul. Libby fussed at me for picking before they were red. My argument is they they have been splitting badly on the vine.

There are two of these melons. We still are not sure what they will ultimately be.

Carrots

We planted two rows of carrots. We checked them at the beginning of July and they were not much at all. This weekend they look very nice.

This is the remaining row in the garden (getting a little weedy).

This is how they look straight out of the ground (hard to tell without pulling them up whether we'll get a nub or a 5-inch specimen).

This is how the first row cleaned up.

Here they are waiting to be cooked.

All that remained...

Cover with chicken stock, simmer for 60 minutes; add 1/4 cup of cream and a tablespoon of sugar and return to temperature. Righteous.