Mother Nature Smiles on Quilt Show

A beautiful quilt greeted visitors inside the entrance to Uffington House.  Top right: Reg and Mildred Murphy (Rick's wonderful parents) admire one of Dennie Green's quilts over the Uffington fireplace.  Bottom right: a quilt displayed on a trunk at Kingstone Lisle.

The rain clouds disappeared just in time for Rugby’s amazing quilt show Friday and Saturday. The beautiful spring weather made for an almost perfect setting (if only the dogwoods had been blooming) for folks to wander from building to building to enjoy the old and new quilts brought together by Rugby’s hardworking quilt guild.  Jonell Hester said that with the help of many quilt makers and collectors over 125 quilts were exhibited. 

Volunteer Tracey Stansberry showed quilts at Newbury House.  Top right: a Christmas tree quilt skirt at Uffington House. Bottom right: Actors during quilt play and their double wedding ring quilt.

 

Quilts were everywhere – in the historic buildings, the Visitor Centre, the Community Building, in private homes, in the Café and shops (even the print shop), on porches, and even in Julian Bankston’s 1926 Ford.

The Commissary looked beautiful with quilts displayed in the demonstration room upstairs.  Jessie Gully has handmade craft items displayed beautifully throughout the main room downstairs.

 

Bottom photo shows that Print shop volunteers were kept busy with quilt show visitors.  Top left shows print shop volunteers Julian Bankston, Walter Clement and Peter Merrill who were showing a new "toggle" for one of the printing presses that gets the shop closer to being able to print a newspaper. 

The audience gives a standing ovation to cast and crew of quilt play

 

And kudos to everyone who helped with the quilt play.  The theatre was nearly overflowing for both performances.  The Rugby writers did a great job of melding Rugby stories into an event honoring quilt makers.  And special thanks to Rugby’s Knoxville friend, director Courtney Woolard, and the wonderful actors from the Knoxville area who were very generous to dedicate so much time (commuting for numerous rehearsals) and talent.

Best-selling Author Coming to Rugby 

Historic Rugby’s Appalachian Writers Series proudly presents New York Times Best-selling Author Wiley Cash, at 7 pm (Eastern) on Saturday, April 20, in the Rebecca Johnson Theater (Visitor Center).  A Land More Kind Than Home tells the story of Jess Hall and his older, autistic, mute brother Christopher. The boys’ lives turn upside down when they are caught spying on their mother and her lover, an ex-convict turned snake-handling preacher. One reviewer has called A Land More Kind Than Home “Simply the best first novel I’ve ever read!” Wiley Cash is a native of western North Carolina who now lives in West Virginia.

Appreciation Photo for Eric

 

By Jessie Gully

This Wednesday, April 17, at 11 a.m. everyone is invited to bring items made by Eric Wilson to the Commissary for a special photo project.  Jim McBrayer will be taking an appreciation photo of the hand made items and their owners for Eric. Items will be returned immediately to the owners once photo is made.   

Birthdays

Today -- Misty Poss 

Calendar     

The Painted Rooster reopening

Rugby is in the Eastern time zone, just barely  

Fri. April 19 - The Nancy Swain Watters Memorial Walk -- a benefit walk (five miles) is scheduled in Oneida to help support education programs about child sexual abuse, domestic violence, professional training, and services for children seen at the Children’s Center of the Cumberlands, as well as clients of the Scott County Women’s Shelter.  We would like to get several people from Rugby to help support this important cause. For additional information and an entry form, email Debbie White at whited1@highland.net

Fri. April 19 - History Night Dinner - call Grey Gables for reservations, 423-628-5252

Sat. April 20 - 7 p.m. Eastern time for readings and book signing with author Wiley Cash, an author in Rugby’s Appalachian Writers Series. Free. Historic Rugby Visitor Centre.

Sat. May 4 – Community Potluck - 7 p.m.

Sat. May 11 – Morgan County Rabies Clinic at Brooks Store – 2:30 p.m. – Rabies vaccination for cats and dogs three months  or older. $10

Sat. May 11 – Special Presentation about Eduard Bertz, Rugby’s First Librarian – Wulfhard Stahl, a visiting scholar from Switzerland, will discuss Bertz who was important in helping organize Rugby’s historic library.

Fri. and Sat. May 17 and 18 – 39^th Annual Rugby Village Festival

June 29 – Rugby Independence Day picnic will be the Saturday before July 4 at John and Kathy Hicks’ house.

 

Nature Notes  

Tennessee's State Bird

 

By Linda Konig 

 

Several states claim the Northern Mockingbird as their official state bird, and Tennessee is one of them. We have them year-round, but I usually don't notice them except in Spring and Summer. The best place I know around Rugby to watch them is at Uffington House. Conditions are ideal for them there with no dogs or cats and usually no pesky humans. The property has woodland edges with open meadows sprinkled here and there with unpruned bushes and trees. Why do mockingbirds prefer unpruned vegetation? Because if bushes and trees are kept in a perfect tight round or oval shape, there aren't limbs and twigs sticking out to make perfect perching spots for mockingbirds, and there aren't open spaces in the bushes for a nest. Another place I often see them is along Delk Creek Road at Pall Mall. Lots of wild hedgerows are around the fields there, and there's probably plenty of Rosa Multiflora (wild rose) in those hedgerows. Mockingbirds are fond of the tiny rosehips of the wild roses, as well as other wild fruits and berries, insects, and earthworms. 

I read that mockingbirds will come to feeders if they contain suet, bread scraps, peanut butter, apples, raisins, etc., but I haven't seen this. Most feeders seem to major on birdseed that mainly attracts other kinds of birds. Why would someone want to attract mockingbirds to their yards? For their songs, if nothing else. The males are quite vocal and loud. Ornithologists are amazed at the number of songs a male can learn in a lifetime. One source I read said they can learn up to 200 songs. (I'm assuming some scientist had some caged up and constantly exposed to a great variety of sounds. He probably had a poor college student sitting there for weeks on end writing down and keeping lists and numbers of all the sounds that were mimicked.) They've been known to sound like a car horn, dogs barking, sirens, other species of bird, and various musical instruments.   

Mockingbirds tend to nest in the same trees and locales each year unless they've been pestered by humans or dogs and cats, etc. I've never seen mockingbirds mob intruders or potential predators the way crows do, but I've read that they will. They have a special call that draws other mockingbirds in the area to join them in the attack. They will even attack humans if they feel threatened. 

Today I found a great site on the web with close-up photos of mockingbirds: www.northrup.org/photos/mockingbird/. However, what you really want to do is hear the young males singing all night long under a full moon. If you haven't heard their spring-time warbling serenades in the moonlight, put this on your bucket list. The trick is to entice them to nest in your yard edges and to leave your bedroom window open. 

 

  

This Week’s Editors: Rick Murphy and George Zepp