Artisphere in Greenville

Sunday was another terrific, blue Spring Day. We loved being outdoors, moseying around in Down town Greenville around the waterfall and Reedy River Park. The whole area was packed full of boothes, and the artists came from all over the United States and even from around the world. It was a really nice Art Show, with music and belly dancers and Performance Art Demonstrations. It is always great to see all the families out and the kids playing in the river by the falls. It was an entirely perfect day that makes me very aware of all the blessings of our lives here. Sometimes it is so impossible for me to imagine that there is a Darfur or horrible war zones in other places or even that a Virginia Tech type incident can happen. Our world seems so removed from all that, and I truly do Thank God everyday for the happiness in my life. We are so blessed.

April Activity Group Field Trip

It still seems like a strange and wonderful thing to have field trips with the 11 other couples in our group, but it is always lots of fun and I'm really glad we are doing it. Every month a different couple hosts an activity and we all meet for a dinner or lunch out and then go do something unique. So far we've done the Dillard House and Foxfire Museum, a vineyard and winery, a Play and dinner, and last night a dinner and The Cuzzins General Store for a very unique Saturday Night.
At this little General Store in Mountain Rest, SC every Saturday Night, Bluegrass Musicians from 3 states come and jam, while visitors bring lawn chairs and sit in the parking lot around the gas pumps and listen, under twinkling stars. The tradition began in 1977 and has been going on ever since. It was really pretty cool and very laid back. The owners of the store, which are the kids who grew up there in their Mom and Pops store and the house out back, make the visitors Home baked Peach cobbler, topped with homemade ice-cream, and circulate with trays of Cheese... No wonder articles have been done on this place for 40 years, in magazines as big as National Geographic, who did a story on it in 1983. It has also been in Southern Living and many many others. The articles are all posted on the walls in the Strumming Room.
It is so down-home it could only be the South. Last night I counted 19 musicians, every string instrument imaginable, from banjo and guitar to homemade dulcimers and mandolins, to a harmonica and a bass. There was an outside group and another in an inside room called the Strumming Room, outfitted with church pews and rocking chairs around a pot-bellied stove. Another group of 5 played in the opposite end of the store blocking off the entrance to the bathroom. It couldn't get any more down home then that! Many of the people and musicians are multi-generational and have been coming all of their lives. It was really pretty neat and a bit surreal too, "yes", the theme from 'Deliverance' was played on the Banjo at least once!
Next month our group goes on our Field Trip to the BMW plant for a tour. Why should only kids have fun? If we are in our second childhood, we might as well enjoy Field trips!

Easter Blessings

What a lovely Easter. We went to church and then Ken's family came for a lovely afternoon and dinner. We were eleven, Ken's Dad, Ken, his beautiful daughter Nikki, his sister Pam and her significant other Adam, his brother Greg and Tara his wife, Ken's niece, Sonya (Pam's daughter), with Joseph and their adorable son Grover, who is 1 and a really good baby. He played and amused everyone and never fussed at all. What a nice day just enjoying good company and conversation with beautiful weather. We alternated between inside and out back around the waterfall, where everything is all bloomed out and rejoicing in spring. 4 out of 6 fish made it through the winter and even the lily pads came back.

Leaving the Old Mill......(a piece of Pickens County History)

What a busy weekend. I'm glad that at least it started with a fun Friday evening at Sharon and John's house for dinner and cards, which made for a terrific evening. Because Saturday and Sunday were spent peeling wall-paper, a job that never seemed to end..... Yuk, but by Sunday evening that job from Hell was finally completed. Who knew that wallpaper had as many layers as an onion (a stuborn, sticky onion)? The painting will all be completed now inside by the end of this week and the carpet will go in either on Friday or Saturday, then we just have some decks to finish and paint and some outside trim work. Maybe then the silly house will finally sell. We've had enough practice with excersizing patience! Although Ken is much better at it then I am.

To add to all our fun, Ken's warehouse in the old mill sold and he has been evicted as of April 30th. It will be a shame to leave a neat old historical textile mill, it had a certain aura of the old days. But it is being ripped apart for the old hand poured brick and the antique wood in it, and the textile industry has all died here as all cloth is now imported. It is a shame that we are no longer a production country and that we now import everything.... Anyway we had to find 10,000 square feet somewhere else and wage a legal battle to get back the money owed to him by the old landlord who was a crook and trying to leave without paying Ken for a Forklift he owed for. We finally attached the closing, so that he can't get his proceeds without paying Ken off first. So all's well that ends well, but we still have to move very fast to get all the warehouse stuff moved out before months end. 10,000 square feet of forklifts and parts is no small job. Wish us endurance.... We did fortunately find an old water treatment building that will work, so we will move in to it. And it will actually be closer to our new home on the lake when it is built. So once the move is done it will probably turn out to be a blessing. The old Mill was neat, but this building will probably work out better in the long run.