Steve Logan took this photo of a trillium during Saturday's wildflower walk
Atlanta Paper Features Rugby
Yesterday’s Atlanta Journal Constitution featured a prominent article about Rugby. Here is the link to the story called One-tank trip: Rugby, Tenn.
Narrator of Rugby Film Dies
The narrator of the award winning film that Historic Rugby shows at the Visitor Centre died unexpectedly last week. Dan Miller, longtime anchor on WSMV-TV in Nashville died Wednesday night at the age of 67.
Miller was a well known Nashville personality and it was nice to get his distinctive voice for the Rugby film’s narration. He had anchored evening newscasts for the Nashville station since the 1970s. He also worked in TV news in Los Angeles and was Pat Sajak's sidekick in 1989-1990 for a short-lived show Sajak did on CBS TV.
Drilling Controversy
The University of Tennessee stirred up a controversy with its plans to lease 8,600 acres of forestland in the Cumberland Mountains in Scott and Morgan Counties for natural gas drilling by a private company. To read about the controversy go to this link sent to me by George Zepp.
Rummage Sale Donations Needed
Benita Howell sent this request. “Christ Church will have a rummage sale again during Spring Festival this year. Please set aside items to donate for the sale as you clean and reorganize closets for spring. We'd like to gather all donations by the weekend of May 10. Someone is usually at Friendly House around 9:00 a.m. all weekdays except Tuesdays, or bring your donations by on Sunday morning. Our best sellers last year were household items such as kitchen equipment, dishes, linens, and small appliances; clothing, toys, games and other items for children; and decorative items. Of course, we also welcome adult clothing, books and DVDs, etc. Whatever we don't sell will be donated to the Habitat store at Sunbright or to Goodwill in Oneida. If you have questions or want to arrange to deliver items, please e-mail Benita Howell at bjhowell@highland.net.”
Upcoming Workshops
Just a reminder that Joyce Lantz’s quilting workshop is this weekend – it is called string pieced quilting and involves creating unique quilt blocks called Victorian Shadows with shared fabrics from fellow-quilters. Students can make pillow tops, shams or a wall hanging.
On Saturday, April 25 there are two workshops. One is an oil painting class instructed by Rugby artist Mara Trumbo which is titles the "Iris", Tennessee's State Flower (see photo of sample art project to the left).The other workshop is Tennessee Toads Throughout the Year which includes a slide and sound program as well as a walk around Rugby listening and identifying frogs and toads.
For information on how to register for any of the workshops see the workshop listing below.
Next Week’s Editor
Mara Trumbo has offered to edit next week’s newsletter/blog. If you have any items for next week, please email them directly to Mara at cadisama@earthlink.net And, thank you Mara!
Birthdays
April 13 - Betty Stokes
April 14 - Hadley Hury
Calendar of Events
April 18 – History Group excursion to Oliver Springs Museum - meet in front of Rugby’s Christ Church at 10:00 a.m. Eastern to carpool. Contact Linda Konig for more information at 423-628-5243.
April 18 – Excursion to Elk Viewing at Hatfield Knob Tower sponsored by Big South Fork Chapter of TTA. Meet at the Harrow Road Café at 3:30 p.m. Eastern to carpool to the wildlife area. The drive is about an hour and a half so we hope to arrive around 5:00 p.m. about the time for the elk to come out and feed. AWD or 4WD vehicles are needed for the carpool. To register, contact Rick Murphy by email at rickmurphy1@aol.com or by phone 423-319-7842.
May 2 – Community Potluck at 7:00 p.m. Eastern
Exercise Group – Monday and Thursday at 9:00 a.m. Eastern at the Friendly House
Quilters Group - Wed. and Sat. 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern at the Friendly House
Nature Notes
By Linda Konig
Unfortunately I had to miss the Spring Wildflower Walk with Jack Carman this past weekend, but he’ll be back in September. Meanwhile, I have been taking a few short walks around, one of which was to the rim of Northrup Falls gorge.
There were various wild flowers along the path – halberd-leaf yellow wood violets, common purple violets, Quaker ladies, Indian strawberries, and Trailing Arbutus. The big surprise, though, was that some of the box huckleberries were blooming. I assume they are called that because their leaves look like the leaves of box hedge. They grow in low ground-covering colonies in the weeds, often where there’s been a forest fire. They seldom bear berries, and seemingly no one plant will bear every year. Or is it that the forest critters always beat me to them? Anyway, I’d never seen them blooming before.
They bloom much earlier than I would have thought, but, their leaves are evergreen so that gives them a head start over the two kinds of wild blueberries (huckleberries), the high-bush and the low-bush.
What did the flowers look like? Like the small pinkish-white bell shapes of the other two. These other kinds were still bare when I looked a couple of days ago.
I’ve tasted the box huckleberries before on the rare occasions when I have seen a few. Now I am thinking their berries probably appear sooner than the others. The box huckleberries are tiny but packed with flowers and like their cousins, the other wild berries are a darker blue than the cultivated kinds. More antioxidants?
Box huckleberries don’t grow just everywhere. My understanding is that they only grow on the Cumberland Plateau and the Smokies. If I am wrong, someone out there let me know.
HRI Workshops
(For more details about workshops go to Historic Rugby Website at historicrugby.org)
April 18 - String Pieced Quilting (New) 10 am–5 pm Instructor: Joyce Lantz
April 25 – Oil painting – “Iris,” Tennessee’s State Flower 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Instructor: Mara Trumbo
April 25 - Tennessee’s Frogs and Toads Throughout the Year (New) 7 p.m. – 9 p.m. Instructor: Bob English
May 2 - Bark Basketry (New) 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Instructor: Fuzzy Orange
May 30 - Lessons With The Mountain Dulcimer – Novice/Intermediate 10 a.m.– 4 p.m. Instructor: June Goforth
May 30 - Nature Night Safari 8:30 p.m. until… Instructor: Linda Konig
TO REGISTER FOR WORKSHOPS: Call (423) 628-2441 or Toll-Free 1-888-214-3400. Lodging is available at Historic Rugby with a 10% discount to all workshop participants.
THIS WEEK’S EDITOR: RICK MURPHY
