‘The Walking Man’ Discovers Rugby

By Barbara Stagg

Who could resist stopping and talking to the “mature” man on the side of the road near Elgin last Tuesday? He carried a bulging backpack and a handsome walking staff. Bright yellow and red colors adorned his getup. His blue eyes twinkled and his white mustache curled upward.

“My name is Curtis O’Dell and I’m walking from Knoxville, Tenn., to Elizabethtown, Ky.” he said. (That’s around 215 miles by his route on two-lane highways.)

Why?  “Well I’m 72 and I figured I’d better do it now while I think I can. How far is it to Jamestown?”

Turns out the retired x-ray technician grew up in Clinton and once lived and studied in Knoxville. He now lives in Elizabethtown where he worked for many years.

“I love to walk and I wanted to see if I could walk between two of the places I’ve lived. So far I’ve met some pretty special people.”

When told that a pretty special historic village was just 7 miles up the road on his way, he agreed to call me when he arrived.

“By golly this IS a pretty place,” he said by phone later. He’d enjoyed an early supper at the café with a nephew from near Clinton and was thinking about “walking a little farther” before finding a good spot to sleep.

When invited to spend the night in Rugby, well off the highway near an historic home, he changed his mind.

I left him happily laying out his bivy tent and sleeping bag under one of The Lindens’ 1882 trees. “I’ll tell people about this place,” he promised. And off he went the next morning, bound for Kentucky. 

Storm Damage on Swimming Hole Trail

A couple of large trees are down on the trail from the Laurel Dale Cemetery to the Gentlemen’s Swimming Hole from the recent storm. Be aware that you may have to detour through a wooded area to get around one of them. We do not know when the Park Service will clear the trail.   

38^th Spring Festival This Weekend

Beautiful Weather Predicted – And Bring Your Mom

 

The weather prediction for next Saturday, when Spring Festival starts, calls for 75 degrees and sunny weather.  So it seems like it will be the perfect opportunity to bring yourselves, your guests and your mother (for Mother’s Day weekend) to enjoy the music and crafts.

Historic Rugby’s Festival of British and Appalachian Culture is actually two days, May 12-13. Festival hours Saturday are 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. EDT.

On Saturday at the main music tent will be local musicians Standing Stone and Great Day in the Morning along with David Coe and the Appalachian-Irish Band. Sunday, Historic Rugby welcomes newcomers to the area - Mountain Soul and Four Leaf Peat, as well as old time music by Tony Thomas and Judy Carson.

The Rugby festival will showcase numerous traditional arts and crafts exhibitors and demonstrators. Children will especially enjoy storytelling, goat petting and demonstrations by Park Rangers and miniature horse rides plus other hands-on activities in several locations including the Christ Church lawn. The church is also sponsoring a Rummage Sale at Friendly House, behind the church.

Regional crafters and artists will display and sell pottery, dolls, weaving, woodwork, handmade soaps, jewelry, white oak and reed baskets, candles, stained glass, honey and beeswax candles, wreaths, bird carving, art prints, watercolors, photographs and much more at booths throughout the historic grounds.           

Lark In The Morn English Country Dancers will teach and perform on the grounds on Saturday and Sunday, including traditional Maypole dances for visitors.
                                                                       
Plenty of traditional food and drink will be available at Historic Rugby’s Harrow Road Cafe for home cooked meals, sandwiches and desserts and at booths with: pit-cooked barbecue, cold drinks and more; The House of Douglas Bakery with British baked goods; Muddy Pond Mennonite goodies (Saturday only), funnel cakes, homemade fruit cobbler, and ice cream, sassafras tea and others.

ALL ACTIVITIES are included in one $5 daily admission for adults, $2 for K-12 students. Preschoolers and Historic Rugby Members are free. Proceeds help support Historic Rugby’s preservation and year-round public programs.

Jody Hester Honored at Quilt Show

On April 28 Jody Hester was this year's honoree at the Scottsville Jacksonian Days Quilt Show.  Each year the Allen County Homemakers select a homemaker to honor.  Jody has been quilting for 30 years. She had an exhibit of some 23 quilts and 10 baskets that she has made.

Here’s Jody with a quilt that she and her mother, Mary P.Foster, made and sent to the “Quilt Pink for the Cure” online auction.  It was selected among hundreds of quilts to be in a book published by Better Homes and Gardens, Quilt Pink for Hope.  The Rugby Quilt group also made a quilt and sent it for the auction.

The photo is courtesy of the Scottsville newspaper, Matt Pedigo

WILO'TH'WISP OPENING FESTIVAL WEEKEND

By Vi Biehl

 Vi’s shop, Wilo’th’Wisp, is reopening this coming Friday. As before, it's the kind of place Vi wants it to be, a place to come for a breather from the daily “usual'”as you enjoy the provided tea/coffee/snacks (no charge: donations always accepted for the Rugby “Friend of Dumped Cats Fund,” feel free).

Some of you have already brought your cups/mugs and there's room for more. Wilo'th'Wisp is a place of peace (all negative baggage left at the shimmering curtain upon entry). It's where you can talk about good things, have philosophical discussions or just share nice experiences (you get the idea); where you can check out or browse books from my large book collection or just say Hi! There will be regularly changing displays of favorite treasures, both mine and others'.

Also, Vi will have on offer for sale the best offerings in arts and crafts from among area artisans (Vi's choices -- jury of one); check or cash only.

The Margaret Patterson Lace Museum will be my big event of this festival weekend, a permanent display collection for the viewing: don't miss it! Lace samples from antique to new can be viewed, some exceptionally complex and beautiful. Attendant collections of  “How To” examples of bobbin lace from a past teacher of the Penland School is part of the museum's permanent display, as well as Vi's own bobbin lace pillow, bobbins and samples worked by Vi to show how it's done. Also, books from Vi's permanent reference collection relative to the various kinds of laces and their histories will be available for browsing while in the shop.

 Festival Weekend Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Regular weekly hours for May: Thursday through Sunday, 1-5 p.m.

BIRTHDAYS

May 10 - Bob Trumbo

May 11- Valerie Donegan

CALENDAR

Rugby is in the Eastern time zone, just barely.

Saturday, May 12 and Sunday, May 13 – 38^th Rugby Festival of British and Appalachian Culture

Sunday May 13, Mother's Day Lunch Grey Gables Bed and Breakfast -12:30 and 3 p.m. seatings, Eastern Time. Call Linda for reservations: 423-628-5252

Friday, May 18 – History Night Dinner , 7:30 p.m., at Grey Gables. 423-628-5252 for reservations.
Ongoing Activities

Quilters’ Group - Wednesdays and Saturdays, 2–4 p.m. Eastern, at the Friendly House behind Christ Church

Rugby Yoga – Wednesdays, 8:30 a.m. Eastern, at the Friendly House. (Yoga is cancelled this week due to Church Rummage Sale)

Christ Church Episcopal -- Sunday morning services, 11 a.m. Eastern year round; all are welcomed.


Historic Rugby Workshops

Instructor Ken McFarland with the Moss and Liverwort workshop class from last Saturday. 

Spring Wildflower Walk and Picnic Lunch - On Saturday, May 19 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern, attendees can take part in one of the most diverse wildflower walks in Tennessee, led by instructor Jack Carmen, whose book Wildflowers of Tennessee is a definitive guide. Jack leads field trips and photo workshops for the Gatlinburg Spring Flower Pilgrimage, among others, and has won awards for his wildflower photos. The fee is $25 and includes a plant list of expected sightings. The day will finish with a film presentation and book signing in the late afternoon.

Sun to Shade Design Garden/Cumberland Plateau Garden Tour at Rugby  - Come spend the day in garden activities including a sun to shade design workshop plant sale, lunch and garden tour. Included in the day’s activities is a presentation including information about Rugby’s gardens, lunch and finishing the day with an Afternoon Tea in the garden. The event is Saturday, June 9 from 9 a.m. Eastern until 5:30 p.m. The all-inclusive fee is $40. Instructor Bob Washburn, co-owner of Wolf River Valley Growers in Pall Mall, will be joined by Rugby’s own Rick Murphy and Barbara Mitchell for this very special event. Register early – this is a day not to be missed.

Show Your Spirit Basket Workshop - Create a generously sized Spirit Basket that is perfect for tailgating or carrying with you. This is an intermediate level project. The workshop is Friday, June 22 from 4 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Eastern and Saturday, June 23 from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Eastern. Instructor Beth Hester is the owner of The Basket Maker’s Catalog. She has been teaching basketry workshops locally and throughout the southeastern U.S .for many years. Workshop fee is $99 ~ register early!

To register for workshops, call toll-free 1-888-214-3400 or 423-628-2441. Lodging may be available at 1880 Newbury House and Rugby's cottages at a 10% discount to students. Food service is available at the Harrow Road Café.

NATURE NOTES
Mystery Circles: A ‘What Done It?’

By Linda Konig

We've all heard about crop circles. Now it seems that we have dead pine bark circles in the area around Rugby. A few days ago, Eric Wilson brought me 2 pieces of bark off dead pine trees which had been blown over in a recent storm. Each piece of bark had circles built on the inside surface. The smaller piece, pictured below, has 2 circles; the other piece has 5 circles. All the circles are approximately the size of a quarter and seem to be made of minute shredded grass or wood fibers (?) laid and somewhat intertwined together to form a more-or-less perfect circle. 

I have a guess as to what might have made these, but it's only a guess. I think they might have been made by some type of beetle. There are many kinds of beetles that live in and eat decaying tree trunks, fallen trees, etc. Sometimes they lay their eggs between the bark and the interior of a dead tree. Anyway, I'm imagining that a female beetle might have laid her eggs in a round puddle, then proceeded to shred up some wood or bark, etc. and covered her eggs with the shreds and, at the same time, made sort of a wall around them to protect them. Later the eggs hatched, and the larvae or bugs or whatever may have eaten the shreds that covered them and then crawled away, leaving the circular walls intact. But why wouldn't they eat the walls? My theory doesn't seem to hold water.

I've been asking various people in and around Rugby if they could identify what made these circles, and so far, no one knows. One man, who's done a lot of dead tree clearing in his lifetime around Rugby, says he's seen these circles before, but he doesn't know what makes them either. 

I've searched the web and all my insect books, but unfortunately I haven't found anything about any beetles making circles like these. However, if we knew the name or even the approximate name of an insect or millipede or whatever that makes these circles, then we likely could find lots of information about their life cycle, mating habits, etc. If anyone out there reading this knows what creature makes these, please satisfy all of Rugby's curiosity by e-mailing cking@highland.net

This Week’s Editors: Rick Murphy and George Zepp