Dewey Details

I love to inspect the tiny details of things!  I was at the Gnomon the other morning and it was so sparkly with morning sunshine and dew drops I just had to take a closer look.
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Malaprop's Books

 Any morning is a good morning to head over to Malaprop's Books. Cozy, inviting and they have an excellent cafe in the shop!  I could easily lose most of a day wandering among the shelves, exploring and inspecting all of the intersting books and ideas just waiting to be found.  This is our go-to store in town for gifts, second only to the toy store.

N. Market St. - Puck Face Glyph

I was cutting through a parking lot between N. Market and Broadway downtown one evening when this glyph caught my eye, winking back at me out of the darkness and changing its expression with the street lights.   [Click an image to enlarge]

 

Richmond Hill Inn: Goodbyes and Hellos

The Richmond Hill Inn, former personal residence of Ambassador and Congressman Richmond Pearson in 1889, and recently gutted by an arson fire 3 years ago, was opened today to bid a community farewell to the historic home which was once the centerpiece of the property.  The new owners, Oshun Mountain Sanctuary, Inc., plan to save what they can from the house, demolish the remains and re-open the property as a health and wellness retreat.

This is a bittersweet goodbye for the Asheville Preservation Society, who saved the property from demolition in 1989 and restored it to mint condition only to lose it to arson in 2009.  Still, the grounds and newer buildings are beautiful as are the walking trails around the area.  It will be a relief to be able to once again visit the premises.

The official ceremony takes place at 3 but the property will be open until 5 this evening and the bulldozers arrive first thing in the morning to clear away the debris.  Then the real re-building can begin.

I completely enjoyed the music of Mary Sparks and her fantastic dulcimer as she played in the solarium while Larry Camaratta led a group through the Eight Pieces of Brocade using the Qigong method. I am looking forward to wonderful and transformative events to come from this place!

Blind Pig: Washuko

Blind Pig Supper Club brought the Far East to Western North Carolina Sunday evening for their Japanese style Washuko dinner at Gaining Ground Farm, inside a refurbished dairy barn in Leicester.  One of the largest dinners to date with 90+ plates and 12 beautiful and delicious courses, just another opportunity for Blind Pig to show Asheville the "epic" in epicurean.

The kitchen resembled a revolving door for most of the evening with servers whisking plates to diners and then returning to whisk them away when they were finished, only to be followed by another course, the pace steady but relentless.  Proceeds from the dinner were donated to ASAP, the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Program.

The barn was decorated with new paintings on brown butcher paper from Andy Herod.  Throughout the dinner music from DJ Rob Castillo not only kept the mood rolling but had people up on their feet and dancing in the aisles!

Cheers to yet another wonderful supper from the Blind Pig. Check out more of my photos from the Washuko dinner at Blind Pig's Facebook page and website.  Now I'm looking forward to next month's dinner, Women on Top.

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Related Articles:
Fire & Chocolate with the Blind Pig
Blind Pig: An Offal Experience
Blind Pig: Appalachian Avant-Garde

Animal Smush the Home Game

MJ sprained her ankle this week resulting in a pile of couch time while we wait for the healing of those muscles.  To stave off boredom and do something creative together we dusted off a game we used to play when the kids were younger. It's more of an art project directive than a game really as there's no competition and everyone wins but it keeps you occupied and creative for at least a solid hour without any TV.

How to play Animal Smush:

You will need paper, or other flatish drawable surface, and/or pens, pencils, markers, crayons, charcoal, spraypaint, etc.

1. Make a list of all the animals you can think of.
2. Cut up your list into strips of paper and put them into a bowl or jar. (We also use animal flash cards from another game we have.)
3. Reach into the jar and pull out 2 or 3 slips of paper.
4. Create an animal which is a combination of those suggestions with the most colorful and descriptive drawing you can muster.
5. You must also name your new creature and write at least 2 descriptive sentences about it which include information about what kind of an animal it is, or what it likes or does not like, what it eats, etc.

This little art project has resulted in some unexpected hybrids this weekend. Here are a few of mine. . .  I know they're cartoony and goofy but that's the best part!

Hummingbird Jam

Once upon a time a friend gave me a mobile of hummingbirds with little wood bodies and metal appendages. It was something she thought I would like and I did! It served as a mobile in the children's "sky room" when they were babies and hung from the porch we built on to our old garden shed for a while.  We enjoyed it still when we hung it on the porch in Asheville and watched them spin like crazy in the tumultuous winds of Western North Carolina's constantly swirling weather.  But eventually the bits  of string and wire fell apart and the little birds were free of their eccentric circles.  I decided to share a pair of my little birds with a different friend who is always coming up with excellent creative re-uses for things that are diassociated from their original context.  How wonderfully surprised and happy I was to see how he had made hummingbird jam out of one of them!  Thank you Chirstopher it is indeed wonderful jam!

*Quick update - a friend suggested I try this in sepia.

Steep Canyon Rangers Pack the Peel

Local bluegrass favorites, the Steep Canyon Rangers, played to a full house at the Orange Peel for the Evergreen Community Charter School annual fundraiser.  They even had a cool on-line auction that will be going on through January 22nd so if you missed the show you still have a chance to help out the school.  The auction has a spectrum of neat stuff and experiences available to bid on from art to travel opportunities and you get the big excuse of "it's for a good cause" to spend the money.  More pictures from the show will be up soon on the Orange Peel's Facebook Page.  I'll post a link as soon as it's available.

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The Critters EP Release at AHA AVL

Local, acid-rock group The Critters held their EP release show for "Visions of Light" at AHA AVL on Wednesday night, presented by the Moog Sound Lab.  AHA AVL is a monthly, invitation only concert series that showcases Asheville's local bands who are given access to top of the line Moog equipment for the show.

The Critters poured it on to a packed house for over an hour with several encores - although that may have been because it was so crowded they couldn't get off the stage.  Moog does A/V recordings of these shows and posts them on their website and you tube so keep an eye out for updated videos to be up soon or catch them live this Friday (1//20/12) at the Bobo Gallery.

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Related Links: AHA AVL: Kovacs and the Polar Bear

I Brake for Chocolate. . .

. . .as long as it's in front of the French Broad Chocolate Lounge!  

I took the girls out for an afternoon cuppa of real hot chocolate this week and it certainly did the trick of turning a nasty rainy day into something to smile about!  They each had a plain hot chocolate but I had the Cayenne & Cinnamon which is sweet, spicy and completely delicious! It was a small, yet excellent, luxury to sit with my daughters in this cozy space, listen to them talk about their day, drink the most magical of concoctions and dream about what we will order the next time we return.

  

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It's a Secret! Super Chip Mix

So here we are on the first of many fun Saturday mornings to come.   I'm all fired up and ready to go with lots of neat things to share.

MJ has just finished reading the Secret series by Pseudonymous Bosch; a really fun mystery, spy, adventure, fantasy book series aimed at the 4-8th grade set.  I've read them all too and I think they're well written, definitely an interesting read.  And that's about all I can tell you, because the rest you see, is a Secret.

I will risk telling you that the heroine of the story, a girl named Cass (not her real name), is a teenage survivalist who sees impending disasters everywhere (maybe) and one of her many odd proclivities is always having easily storable dry food around that she can munch on - Super Chip Mix (although I won't swear to this) in case of an emergency. The recipe is included in the book and of course we had to make some.  Now we're hooked on it (although we did some improvising as well).  Everyone who's tried it agrees, that's tasty!


Super Chip Mix
Chocolate Chips
Peanut Butter Chips
Banana Chips
Potato Chips

We adapted ours to include also:

Sub the chololate chips for chocoloate covered pretzels
Sub the potato chips for Sweet Potato chips. (Less greasy, better flavor.)
Butterscotch chips
Sometimes nuts like almond, cashew or peanut

Completing My Circle

So here I am.  Back at the beginning - January 11 - completeing the second full year of this "little" project.

Looking back on 2011 one month at a time was an excellent opportunity for me to put the year into scope.  I truly appreciated the break from the daily creation for a minute while getting a chance to review what I've accomplished.  Perspective is everything and those daily little steps sure can add up to some long miles.  2011 was a fabulous year of making friends, exploring places and trying new things.  This project continues to be a great outlet as well as a challenge for me; a daily motivator to get up and look for something new and think a little more thoroughly about what I see.

Real and wonderful changes are happening in our lives right now and I am deeply grateful for all the blessings we are experiencing.  My schedule, however, is becoming increasingly more demanding with work and family life; the upcoming move (which was also the most popular post of Dec.) is about to put a real hitch in my giddy-up.  So I'm shifting the focus of the project a bit to give myself some air.  For 2012 Asheville CLicKs will be a 52 week project. This will keep me regularly updated and still curious, without the daily deadline pressure, as well as allowing for some more flexibility with the layout and focus on the places and events of the most interest.  I'll post a new set of shots along with some notes for the week every Saturday.  As always, if there's a place you think I should go see, or an event you'd like me to attend or mention just drop me a note here.  I'm always looking for new suggestions!

And while I'm thinking about new things, 2012 will definitely be a growing year as I work to build my own studio space and take aim at the next set of goals to become more self sustainable and  successful here in Asheville.  I'm looking forward to documenting this next rotation of the sun over these mountains with a skip in my step and a gleam in my eye.  Honestly, I can't wait to find out where I end up next.  Look for me, I'll see you Saturday!