a good weekend

I'm back settling in after a long weekend away at a pottery festival in Townsend, TN. It was a small show of 3o potters with demonstrations and a wide variety of pottery. Unfortunately the sales were not great at all but there were other perks built into the weekend that brightened it up. Will and I went camping and explored the Smokies up to a hike at Clingman's Dome to Andrew's Bald, and along the Little River Trail in Elkmont.

One of the highlights was seeing the synchronous fireflies. Not knowing that this week in June was the peak time for viewing this rare species of fireflies only known to be in the Elkmont area of the Smoky Mountains, we lucked out and were camping right near there. In fact, it's such a popular event that the national park shuttles in 6 buses of curious people each night for two weeks to see these fireflies. Walking down the Little River Trail in Elkmont just before dusk with about 700 people around you that you can hardly see, you can feel the anticipation, waiting for the first fireflies to begin their mating calls. The forest was literally crawling with people with lawn chairs who had been waiting for 3 hours just to see some bugs! We were camping right there so were able just to stroll right down to the "best" viewing area. I kept wondering how the national park managed to get the lightening bugs to be down this particular road....bribing them to perform spectacular light shows each evening. I didn't get any pictures, but check out this picture and this to give you an idea of how amazing it was. There were hundreds of fireflies all lighting up the forest, sometimes sporadically, yet after a while they would get their act together and all become synchronous right before a short period of pitch black and then they would begin the show again.




This is Andrew's Bald, a couple of miles down from the top of Clingman's Dome, the second highest point east of Mississippi. The rhododendren were just beginning to bud out up there and the sunny view offered beautiful panoramas of the Nantahala National Forest.

Sweet little bluets along the trail

Feeling refreshed from the beauty of the weekend, now I'm back getting all the pots out and displayed for the June Studio Tour this weekend by the Toe River Arts Council. I'm cleaning out the shelves and am going to sell a lot of seconds, as well as firsts...so come on out to the studio, check the link for more information about the studio tour.