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/

Thousands of photos - what should I do?

Start here: https://lifehacker.com/how-do-i-digitize-and-share-a-ton-of-old-family-photos-1835484124

Explore Tennessee Tuesday 6/18/2019

The weather this week has been rain throughout each day, so our plan to visit the Cummins Fall State Park was put on hold for now. Instead, we headed to Cookeville, where we almost bought a house, to visit some of their local shoppes in the historic district. We were hungry, so we stopped for lunch at Seven Senses, a place we had enjoyed a year ago. John had the Southern Fried Chicken wrap and I had a Steak & Mushroom Wrap* Angus beef tenderloin, grilled mushrooms and onions, provolone, chipotle ranch, which was out of this world!

From there we wandered around the historic district shops, including a Team Memorabilia/Antique shop where John offered to buy me a canvas painting of Peyton as a Tennessee Volunteer for $399. Sorry, Peyton, but I had to pass. Down the street and around the corner was the Cookeville Depot Museum, where we spent a pleasant half hour looking around. Here are a few photos:

      

A trip to the Cream City Ice Cream Shop completed our day!

The shop is charming and the flavors are delicious. John had the salted caramel and I had a Mexican chocolate (chocolate, Mexican vanilla and a hint of cayenne).

Maybe the weather will cooperate next week and we can get to one of Tennessee's many state parks!