2017 Labor Day Muscadine Wine & Balloon Festival at beautiful Tsali Vineyard in Sweetwater, Tennessee (Saturday & Sunday).  Admission $10 to benefit CASA Charity.  $10 for a lovely souvenir wine glass, and unlimited wine tasting from 21 participating wineries.  Live music, delicious food, children's inflatables, sand art, pony rides, and more.  The night ends with a spectacular balloon light show to the beat of fabulous musical playlist (not featured in the video, for obvious copyright reasons).  This is a great Labor-Day Weekend event to attend!

38-Second time lapse, from light to darkness, and back to light, from Athens, Tennessee:  TOTAL ECLIPSE AT THE PARK 2017.  The photo of totality was taken by my son-in-law (all photos copyrighted 8-21-17...posted with permission). It was a spectacular event!  The skies slowly started darkening, with a somewhat bluish haze, and it became considerably cooler.  The crickets started singing (loudly), street and security lights came on.  There was a lovely 360-degree sunset all around, then the moment of totality!  It was amazing and beautiful!  There was white light pouring out of the black disc of the moon, and multi-colored lights dancing inside the white light.  It was almost indescribable... very strange; almost as if time stood still and we were in another dimension - very Twilight.  Then, when the sun first emerged from the black circle, the "Diamond Ring" appeared, and it was truly awesome!  The event was amazing, and I am so thankful to have been able to witness such a beautiful event.  And this was just a small taste of what's to come.  I believe that when we die, we will see EVERYTHING in space... all the beauty and strangeness - things we cannot even imagine!

APPALACHIAN HARP MUSIC / OLD-TIME, SHAPED-NOTE SINGING SCHOOLS IN THE MOUNTAINS OF EAST TENNESSEE:

Some of my fondest childhood memories included the old-time "Singing Schools" that our community mountain churches held.  Many of the churches could not afford instruments, and some did not allow musical instruments (according to their interpretation of the New Testament Gospel).  In order to be able to learn new songs, the church would bring in a local Singing School "Teacher" to teach the congregation how to learn to "sing" Harp Music... or "shaped notes" as we called it.  Learning the shaped notes was much easier (and faster) than learning the lines and spaces.  This made it easier for the congregation, and their song leader, to learn new songs when they purchased new hymnals.  These hymnals were purchased every year, or two years, and they were almost always paperback, as the hardback hymnals were considerably more expensive.  With every singing school that the church held, the congregation got better and better at reading and "singing" the notes.  This simple, yet very effective techinique, allowed many people (including myself) to learn how to play instruments using this mountain music theory.  It was easier to transpose/change keys, and easier to learn the harmony (although most of my relatives had a natural "ear" for harmony).  Many of my relatives could not afford instruments, so they made their own:  banjos, dobos, fiddles, mandolins, guitars... and my grandmother and aunt could "play" the spoons, which was a thrill to watch!  As a very small child, I remember how easy it was to associate the sound with the shape.  It was a big thrill for a poor mountain girl, like me, to get to attend these singing schools.  My parents tried to take me to all of the surrounding churches when they held these events.  The church would "pass the hat" and take up a love offering for the teacher, on the last day of the school, and the singing teacher usually took turns spending the night with church members, as it was expensive to travel back then, and some of them actually did not own vehicles, and still rode horses to church.  We learned this theory from the "Rudiments of Music" booklet (I still have my grandfather's copy), and every night we began by reciting the definition of music (from this book).  We children especially loved learning this, because at the end of the week, if we could stand up in front of the congregation and recite this definition, the old singing school teacher would give us each a piece of hard candy, and that was the highlight of my week!  There are still Harp Music Conventions held, today. One such convention is held at Cade's Cove, near Townsend, Tennessee - just outside of Pigeon Forge.  This harp singing was featured in the movie, "Cold Mountain", and is one of the many rich elements of our Appalachian way of life.  Mountain life was hard, and our families were somewhat isolated from the rest of the world (some parts still are, today), so music was a favorite pastime for us, all. I can still hear the whole congregation joining in to sing the shaped notes, each person singing the notes for their particular part of music:  Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass.  It almost sounded like we were singing in a different language, and well... I suppose we were!  DO-RE-MI-FA-SO-LA-TI-DO

MUSIC IS THE SCIENCE OF SOUND, OR A RHYTHMICAL SUCCESSION, OR A COMBINATION OF PLEASING TONES.

FAMILY & FRIENDS TRIP TO THE MAYAN RUINS - CHICHEN ITZA, YUCATAN, MEXICO... I WANT TO GO BACK!  AN AMAZING SIGHT!

5 DAYS OF DISNEY FOOD REVIEWS: Orlando - December, 2015

Disney World food is expensive.  In fact, the whole experience of Disney World is expensive!  But, if you can manage to take your family, even once, it is worth the magic of seeing your children's eyes light up, while taking in the whole artistry and beauty of Disney.  My son and daughter-in-law love to visit Disney.  They have been 16 times in 7 years, and have become quite the experts on the in's and out's of Disney navigation and ways to save money.  Just a few years ago, your food choices were limited to hamburgers, hot dogs, turkey legs, and chicken sandwiches, and could only get a wide variety of food at the pricey restaurants inside the parks and at the resorts; and those generic food choices were much higher than fast food.  Well, Disney must have realized that people resented paying higher prices for generic foods.  The good news, now, is that you have a WIDE VARIETY of pretty good food... the bad news, is that it's still overpriced.  But, getting delicious food at a higher price, is better than getting so-so food at a higher price.  If you ever plan to visit Disney World in Orlando, Florida, here are some of the best places to get really delicious food.  5 DAYS OF DISNEY FOOD REVIEWS - December, 2015:

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=NYmsV1rnwsY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-BWi3ah-eg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RxrmnDy340
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwHSpWWjybY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oruOIU3BU-c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcWtrFIXTOE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW7vOE-MwBc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OSmUNGyrp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcHP8qcniqY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odIxGV3VGiU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmGviD_diKI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysCuPa786Xg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=834V1U_5QwA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x6tmATXp2Y

Had a great time at Disney World in Orlando!   Saw these 2 cute baby gorillas at Animal Kingdom.  They played while Daddy Gorilla munched on bamboo!

THE AMAZING MAYAN RUINS! - CHICHEN ITZA / YUCATAN PENISULA, MEXICO

THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST AMAZING PLACES I HAVE EVER BEEN!  WE WENT ON A CRUISE AND THIS WAS ONE OF THE EXCURSIONS WE CHOSE.  THE MAYAN RUINS.... CHICHEN ITZA.  I HOPE THAT I CAN RETURN, ONE DAY!

FINALLY GOT TO VISIT NEW YORK CITY!

BRIGHT LIGHTS , BIG CITY...THE BIG APPLE WAS ALL IT WAS HYPED UP TO BE, AND MORE!  I DO BELIEVE THIS WAS ONE OF THE BEST VACATIONS I'VE EVER TAKEN.  SO MUCH TO SEE...SO MUCH TO DO...SO MANY INTERESTING PEOPLE...SO MUCH HISTORY...AND AMAZING FOOD!  I JUST HAVE TO GO BACK, ONE DAY!