The reading room at the Cumberland County Archives

Part of my answer to having too much time on my hands was to volunteer at the Cumberland County Archives. The Archives is wonderful and held up as a benchmark for other counties in Tennessee. It has been active now for about nine years, and in the next 18 months is slated to have a major remodel. As you can see from the first picture, it is housed in a former (Baptist) Church. The full immersion font is still in the basement! The reading room is beautiful and would have been the Nave of the original church. I don't think anything will be changed there. The major work will be to tear down an old 4 story section that is in questionable shape, and rebuild it for classrooms and staff processing areas. Here are some of the photos of the reading room. Stop by if you're ever in Crossville!

 

No pictures, just words

It's been about two months since we left NY after putting the house on the market, and one month since our last visit, where we discovered the vandalism. We accepted an offer on the house before we moved down, and it seems like an endless battle to get to the finish line. Barring other disasters, we should close on 7/22, and net about $6,000 after paying down our mortgage.
Life down here has settled into a routine of sorts. On Saturday or Sunday we attend Christ Lutheran Church. On Tuesdays, we "explore Tennessee." The rest of the time we spend working around the house, trying to get it just the way we want it, or spending money. I have started to work on going through the many photos we brought down. To aid in this, I bought an (expensive) scanner, which I have yet to use, deciding first to try and identify those photos that have already been scanned. I've been using my Picasa software to identify faces, that way I can more easily ascertain whether a photo is scanned. I'm down to a few hundred faces, I started out with many thousands.
Another way I spend hours every day is reading. I've read 30 books since I've been down here (vs. 42 in the previous 4 months), and while - yay!, it just shows I have too much time on my hands. Tomorrow I interview at the Cumberland County Archives, where I hope to volunteer one day a week. I think the biggest thing I struggle with is forming a new community. I'm trying, but sometimes I am so lonely for my family (the grandboys!!) and my colleagues from Brockport that I have to convince myself that moving down here was the right thing to do and the right time to do it.

Explore TN Tuesday 7/9/19 - Knoxville

We decided to spend the next few Tuesdays exploring the Tennessee Top Secret Trail, which begins in Knoxville. Every trip to Knoxville should start with a visit to the Visitor's Center, where you can get a free 2 hour parking pass, obtain information, and if your timing is right, listen to some bluegrass music.

From there we walked to Market Square, where you'll find outdoor entertainment for children, concerts, and lots of places to eat! We especially enjoyed Krutch Park with its beautiful water feature running through it and many statutes. Here are a few to enjoy.

 
 


From there, we caught the Free Trolley and explored the Old City with Mast General Story, the Downtown Grill and Brewery where we ate lunch, and the World's Fair Park with the famous Sunsphere. I didn't realize that Knoxville hosted the World's Fair in 1982, did you?

 

 

And of course, after hours of walking in the 90+ degree heat, you must end your day with -
ICE CREAM - at the Cruze Farm Ice Cream Store. We both enjoyed a yummy blackberry-lavender honey twist. So good!

 

That was the end of our fun trip to Knoxville, but we've barely started the trail. Maybe next week we'll go to Oak Ridge which was home to Tennessee's biggest secret!

Landscaping the front of the house

Here is the house as we bought it:

and here are the changes so far:

We've removed the ugly, unruly boxwoods, the untended bush that blocked the driveway, and added herbs to the front walk area. We still have to mulch by the garage, but the difference is striking! The butterfly bushes were purchased with a gift card from my good friend (and co-in-law) Vicky!

Landscaping our TN home

Once upon a time, we had a lovely French lilac tree, but sadly it was growing older. I feared there would come a time when it would just die, so about 5 years ago I tried propagating it by layering. I had no luck with my first attempt, but tried with two more branches.

It was still alive and healthy when we said good-bye to our Medina home, so I dug up the two starts and now they live in my yard, here. It will be interesting to see if they thrive and how long it will take them to reach maturity. 

Explore Tennessee Tuesday 7/2/2019

In this episode of "Explore Tennessee Tuesday" we face the question, how to explore when it's hot, hot, hot out. We decided to go to a cave where it was a cool 56 degrees. So we headed to McMinnville to:

Because every cave needs a chandelier!

Lunch was at a neat little diner where John had a ham and cabbage casserole that we may try to make ourselves!

And of course, no ETT would be complete without ice cream, this from Ember's Ice Cream Shoppe in Pikeville, TN. Check out the cute decor and yummy brownie sundae.

Just the thing to end a hot, hot, hot day! 

Oh, and did you know that McMinnville is the nursery capital of the world? That's what the sign says, anyway, and we sure did see a lot of them. 

Who are these people?

I am amazed at how our eating habits have changed since moving to Tennessee. We plan meals for the week around specials, shop for more fresh fruits and vegetables than we ate in a year in NY, and sit down to a healthy meal most nights of the week. Here was the star of tonight's dinner, a Shrimp, Corn, and Tomato Salad with Lemon-Basil Dressing that was out of this world.

Here's the recipe, if you want to try it yourself!
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/253257179032918838/