Author: Easin' Along

Pardon our pause, but we’re taking a short break for Faith, Family, and Fun! We’ll return soon and we want all of our online friends to join us as we prepare for an interesting summer (in Knoxville for a change).

We’re having a wonderful time with our children and grandchildren visiting from Charleston. This is just what Helen needed, and I am thrilled to have them here.

I think our kids enjoyed their time here as well. These lovely girls have a full schedule with soccer, school, and a myriad of other activities that keep them on the move from daylight to dark. I just wish I had their energy, but we managed to keep them in one place for a few days.

My mother joined us on Saturday. She loves spending time with her great-grandchildren.

The girls wanted to dye Easter Eggs, and BeBe couldn’t help it–she had to dive in!

Much time lost looking for the final piece, but it finally turned up and the puzzle is complete!

Helen had a second call from her surgeons this week. The biopsy results from lymph nodes removed during surgery confirmed that her cancer had not spread. She can relax for a little while–and she did. Our daughter-in-law helped her celebrate!

We’re blessed, we’re grateful, and we’re Easin’ Along! Lets chat soon. Joe

Spring in East Tennessee is a delightful time of the year. Crocus and Daffodils bloom in early March to announce the beginning of the season, and, by April, flowering Dogwoods, Weeping Cherry trees, and brightly colored tulips let us know that Spring is here in all its grandeur. I love it, but it just doesn’t last long enough. Hot weather sneaks in before we know it, and the air conditioner runs non-stop.

We celebrate the arrival of Spring in our region with the Dogwood Arts Festival. This 67-year-old celebration began with driving trails featuring our blooming trees and flowers and grew into a month-long celebration of the arts and nature. Festival organizers do a marvelous job highlighting our region and our artistic community.

A favorite event of mine is the annual Chalk Walk, a competition among 150 artists challenged with creating works of art on the sidewalk of our Market Square. COVID caused a suspension of the event for two years. Thankfully, it returned this year along with thousands of festival attendees. I joined them late in the afternoon, hoping to photograph many of the drawings upon completion or nearing it.

Anticipating a larger than usual gathering of attendees, festival organizers expanded the area for the artists. Good idea: the crowd size was enormous, with people, children, and dogs everywhere admiring the works in progress. Food truck operators were extremely busy serving up many menu items. Street musicians provided both Bluegrass and Classical music for the spectators.

My timing was good, and I captured most of the drawings near their finished state but could still include some of the artists in the photograph. The artwork is jaw-dropping in detail and color. The festival provides free chalk in unlimited quantities to the artists, and they put it to its highest and best use. I have inserted a gallery below of a few of my favorites and included the artist’s name on most of them. My thanks to Alan Sims (Inside of Knoxville) for help identifying a lot of them.

The drawing by Mene Manresa claimed the prize for Best in Show. It’s easy to see why.

A predominately Black and White drawing by Ryne Sandberg was heralded as Best in the Sidewalk of Fame and was probably my favorite.

Sonia Summers and her drawing of a Boy and His Bubbles was runner-up in the Sidewalk of Fame.

Around 4:00 pm, a bit of drama occurred during the competition. A festival spokesman announced rain showers in the area and advised participants to cover their drawings with plastic in the event of rain. Thankfully, the rain held off, and the artists completed all pictures before the judging. This is a great event, and I’m glad it’s back.

Now for the BIG event of the week…

Helen entered the hospital Thursday morning for breast cancer and reconstructive surgery. A two-surgeon team completed both tasks in about three hours, and she came home. After surgery, I spoke with both physicians. They described the surgery as “textbook” and that everything went well. We have a special place in our hearts for two nurses, Wilma, who retired the next day but treated us as if we were her first patients, and Richard, a skilled nurse, who left us after one of the most powerful prayers I’ve ever had the blessing to receive.  

During our days (and nights), time involves keeping up with meds and drains, and thank-yous to all of the wonderful friends, family, and church members who have reached out to us with love, support, and incredible food. We’re blessed, and we’re grateful for it all.

A final event for this week…

With Dogwoods comes Dogwood winter, and it arrived today. Temperatures plunged into the low 30’s, and along with it came the rain, sleet, and snow—go figure.

Time to be Easin’ Along.

With all that we have going on right now, one would think that the last thing we should do is plan a camping trip. Well, we did it anyway. Helen wanted a few days in the mountains to clear her head for the next week’s frenzy and do some light cleaning in Dora that we had to forgo when we returned from California.  We returned to Happy Holiday, our favorite campground in Cherokee, NC. Spending three nights beside a mountain stream was too tempting to resist.

In the days leading up to our trip, heavy winds had toppled power poles near the campground and touched off wildfires about two miles north of Bryson City, NC. Conditions for wildfires are usually very high in early spring due to dry underbrush in the forests, low rainfall amounts, and March winds. We didn’t let the threat deter us, but we kept our ears to the radio. During an early morning walk around the campground, I spotted light smoke in the distance. I also spotted a large grove of beautiful blue Phlox growing on the other side of the creek and climbing the mountainside.

On the first day, we tended to cleaning chores—Helen mopped floors, I washed windows and made repairs to Dora.  Bear in mind that Dora, our fifth wheel is only 260 square feet, so it doesn’t take all day. We whiled away the morning very leisurely and cleaned in the afternoon.

The next day, in perfect weather, we drove about ten miles to Deep Creek Campground in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to hike along the creek and look for wildflowers. National Park officials squelched our plan. All hiking trails were closed because the fires were not yet contained, and the winds had picked up. A young Park Ranger met us at the head of the trail and suggested that we walk through the campground instead since it was closed to campers and empty.

(Note: By the end of the week, the fires had taken a toll, and over 100 structures had burned to the ground. We send our prayers to those affected.)

However, all was not lost because we soon discovered early spring wildflowers scattered throughout the campsites along Deep Creek in small quantities, but striking, nonetheless. I captured several of them with my camera—some were not in proper focus, but I want to share them anyway. Helen and I think we have most of them named correctly, but feel free to alert us if we miss-named a few.

It is too early for Trillium and Dog Hobble, but they will put on a show in the coming weeks, both here and in the mountains on the Tennessee side of the National Park, where the Dogwoods are already in full bloom. Our spring weather doesn’t last as long as we would like, but the flower display is terrific.

Three days passed quickly, but we accomplished everything we wanted to achieve.  Helen had a (Money) Ball.

We’re Easin’ Along and Springin’ Along. See you next week….surgery is scheduled for April 7.  Keep Helen in your thoughts and prayers.