This is one blog where the photos can do all the talking. I think the Smoky Mountains Pottery Festival, held at the Townsend TN Visitor Center, is my favorite of the 26 area festivals each year. The colors, the glazes, the shapes & styles all just knock your socks off. Only takes an hour to walk through & parking is close. Plan on spending a bit of money, although it was reasonably priced. This years date is Sat, June 2nd, 2012.
The 6th Annual Townsend TN Winter Heritage Festival kept folks busy for four days. The festival is a celebration of human history and cultural traditions of the Tuckaleechee Cove area including Cades Cove, Townsend and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
I read one of Dwight McCarter’s books, Lost, several years ago. Since then I have never hiked without a whistle. Furthermore, my guests hike with whistles. Period. If you are too macho to wear a whistle, I send you to Pigeon Forge to shop instead of giving you an overview and map of trails in the Park. After a day in Pigeon Forge, you will happily wear a whistle. Over time, I have populated the entire eastern seaboard with at least a gross of Wal-Mart whistles that my guests have taken home in their glove boxes, dreaming of orange and yellow leaves against the blue skies, rivers and mountains of the Smokies.
A year ago I wrote about the Gatlinburg Scottish Festival held in Gatlinburg. For many reasons including space, they moved this year to Maryville College, re-branded themselves as the Smoky Mountain Highland Games, and there is no looking back. Attendance last year was between 2,500-2,700; celebrating this year, for the 30th annual time, the Maryville, TN inaugural event had over 6,000 in attendance.
Most beekeepers are in it for the honey, although others maintain colonies of bees to pollinate crops, or for the beeswax, propolis, pollen or royal jelly. My brother Mike and his son Kane started beekeeping four years ago, primarily for the pollen and propolis, and secondarily for the honey.
Herb and Wildflower Day, at the Townsend Visitor Center, is one of the many smaller festivals that they host all year long in Townsend, TN, but the participants are no less passionate about their subject matter. Booths were set up under the pavilion representing several of the local Herb and Wildflower Nurseries [...]
A rousing success, as always, the festival is one of the largest of it’s kind in the country and the biggest in the Southeast. It’s hosted by the Little River Chapter of Trout Unlimited to benefit trout stream preservation and restoration. Last year they netted $45,000 that was donated to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Fisheries Department.
The Fiber Arts Festival was held this past weekend at the Townsend Visitor Center amid beautiful spring weather. This is one of the smaller Townsend, TN festivals, but the attendees make up for the smaller numbers with enthusiasm and there is nothing like parking only 50 feet away from activities for guests at our Smoky Mountain Lodging!
In 2008, shortly after the economy tanked, again, I was trying to think of an activity I could do with my nephew, age five, that was on the cheap. Decided to take him to Sam Houston Schoolhouse and Museum. While there, I found an out of print copy of the Blount County Historic Tour Guide that became our map on a three-year long odyssey. It shows 30+ stops depicting the history of Blount County.
Before Mom and I moved to Tennessee 25 years ago, we left Illinois in a motor home with a motorcycle and scooter hanging off the front and back. My goal was to see every national park in the United States, and Canada from Victoria to St. John’s, Newfoundland.
For the fourth year in a row, the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center had a Blue Ribbon Country Fair on the same weekend as Old Timers Day in Cades Cove, the Nawger Nob Arts and Crafts Show, and the Fall Festival at the Townsend Visitor Center. Saying it is an action packed weekend is an understatement!
Gatlinburg, Tennessee Scottish Festival
Scottish Games
The 29thannual Gatlinburg Scottish Festival is a lot more than just a 2-½ day runner up to the week long Grandfather Mountain Highland Games held July 8-11, on Grandfather Mountain near Linville, NC.
The Gatlinburg, Tennessee games, held May 14-16, 2010 at Mills Park, 1230 E. Parkway, on the northeast side of [...]
Laurel Valley Golf Course & Country Club, Townsend, TN
If you need to feel righteous about golfing while your beloved “makes do” with a massage and a half-day shopping the Pigeon Forge outlets, this is the event for you. For the eleventh year, Friends of the Mary E. Tippitt Memorial Library are hosting their Golf Tournament [...]
Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail in early spring
Pieces of the Puzzle
New Years Day 2010. Looking far too cheery for the morning after! Allen, Jodi, Ashley, and Craig
While the Cades Cove loop road or Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail are big draws for our guests at this East Tennessee Bed and Breakfast, the Great Smoky Mountain [...]
Keri and Tim Meeker on an ATV break at the top of Bluff Mountain in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee
Keri and Tim Meeker, here at Gracehill Bed and Breakfast for four days on their 1st anniversary, ran the gamut of what Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Townsend, TN have to offer with one new activity, to me at [...]
Fall Display 2009
Sunday October 25th is the last day of Gatlinburg’s Craftsmen Fair at the Convention Center. One guest said it was a step above most fairs of its kind; she is in retail and should know! What is even more important, they made a lot of purchases for the holidays…
How do you go from [...]
Blueberry Almond Pound Cake
A year ago we won Best Pie in the Cove at the Great Smoky Mountain Heritage Center’s Blue Ribbon County Fair, so, I was a little excited about entering the fair this fall. Two of our recipes won ribbons, a third place finish in the pound cake division and surprisingly, a second [...]
Lemon, Goat Cheese, Blueberry Pancakes
Maxine and Robert Falls Blueberry Farm is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday 6:30am to 8:30pm at 111 Harmon Road, Maryville, TN (865) 982-3457. Directions: Proceed two miles past Blount Memorial Hospital on Hwy 321 going towards Townsend, turn right onto Harmon Road just before the second BP Station you come [...]
A portion of the silent auction presented by the Great Smoky Mountain Heritage Center Guild
2009 A Heritage Happening: Landmarks of our Heritage
The Great Smoky Mountain Heritage Center
The Great Smoky Mountain Heritage Center Guild presented the 6th annual Heritage Happening: Landmarks of our Heritage, on Saturday May 30th, 2009, at the Heritage Center in Townsend, Tennessee. This annual [...]
Smoky Mountain Kayaking on Abrams Creek
Tony Barbarette, the owner/operator, of Smoky Mountain Kayaking and I met today. He is a retired Army Intelligence Officer. He recently took a hobby he was passionate about, and turned it into what is becoming a full-time business. There are a handful of white water kayaking/tubing businesses within a two-hour [...]
Kousa Dogwood and the reddish foliage in the background is a Flowering Plum Tree
Mom and I drove to Buckhorn Inn today located in the Arts and Crafts Community of Gatlinburg for our monthly B&B association meeting. Lee provided a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach! Main topic of conversation was: link policies [...]
Drive along Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, near Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Drove to Gatlinburg’s Arts and Craft Community today to pick up some of the mugs I have made for Gracehill at Buie Pottery. This started a few years ago when my cousin came to visit with his significant other, [...]
Hinoki Cypress, (Obtusa gracilis)
I drove from Gracehill about two hours north for our monthly B&B meeting today in Newport at Christopher Place. There are about 20 inns in the Smoky Mountain Bed and Breakfast Association and the 10 to 12 faithful that attend regularly have all become pretty close friends.
Since assuming the presidency in January, [...]
Hi, I’m Kathy the innkeeper and owner of Gracehill, a bed and breakfast in Townsend, Tennessee, adjacent to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. I’ve just returned from a four-day convention in Atlanta, GA, presented by PAII, the Professional Association of Innkeepers International. Lucky me, it was only a four-hour drive; the furthest commute was [...]
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Gracehill Bed and Breakfast, 1169 Little Round Top Way, Townsend, TN 37882 (865)448-3070
