Not So Local Spotlight: Bluegrass Underground

My Dad's birthday is in February.  My Dad is a lover and picker of bluegrass music.  My Dad is also a big fan of caves and underground rooms and passageways.  For my Dad's birthday this year, I though it would be fantastic to combine the two and take my Father to Bluegrass Underground! 

 

Bluegrass Underground is in McMinnville, Tennessee located inside the cave at Cumberland Caverns.  It is 333 feet below ground, a fine 56 degrees year round, and is in what they call a natural amphitheater named the Volcano Room with the most fabulous natural acoustic sound.  They have a stage inside the room along with seating, restrooms and a snack bar.  We got to see two bands.  The first one called Seryn, was a good band and we enjoyed their music although it was not traditional bluegrass style stuff but did give us a mix of music.  The main band there was The Boxcars which was pure, out right bluegrass... like we like!  Fantastic show!  The music lasted from one until four o'clock with a slight intermission with the change of bands.  They have music there once and sometimes twice a month.  I booked our tickets for an April show.  We actually had tickets for the whole shabang which included about an hour cave tour before the show that was pretty awesome in itself.  There are five very large rooms in the cave along with a waterfall, stalactites, stalagmites, natural formations and a few bats flying around.  I really liked that we did both the tour and the music but if you just went to see the music you could possibly have enough of a view of the cave.  There are soot and torch writings from the 1800's from people exploring that I thought was super cool.  We did have enough time to eat some lunch between the tour and the show from the snack bar. 

 

All in all I had a great time and my Dad really enjoyed his birthday present! 

Something much better than a doily or skates!  (little inside joke with my sisters! I gotta tease!)

 

 

The cave entrance.  A small hike from the gift shop where you pick up your tickets.

It was a very rainy Saturday!  Good thing it wasn't raining inside the cave!

 This is the Volcano Room where the show was.  We passed over it on the tour!

My Pa.

Stairway on the tour.

Formations.

We sat right under the 1500 pound chandelier!

Seryn

The Boxcars

 

It was hard for me to get good pictures inside the cave.  I hate using the flash on my camera and it is almost a must for any sort of clarity but is just too bright for my taste.  Oh Well. 

 

You can catch Bluegrass Underground on AM 650 at 5:00P.M. on Saturday nights or watch for it on NPT channel 8.



Pretty Seed Packets

Because I love ya, I made a little present this morning for those of you who collect and save their own garden and flower seeds.  There are many ways to save seeds from your favorite flowers and vegetables and why not be ready in advance? 

 

These seed packets are super easy.  Just right click and print the picture below.  They are best printed on card stock and prettiest with a color printer.  I, for one, think they are just gorgeous!  Make as many as you want. Simply print, cut out, glue stick or tape the edges and corners and you are done!  You can even close the top flap with a pretty sticker.  If you cannot right click and print, you can find the pdf version by clicking HERE.

  

 

Don't you love it when I make presents for you?  I do, I have so much fun making this stuff.  Enjoy!

 

Here are some other posts of mine that have seed packet templates.

 

ONE  and TWO

 



A Little Present for You

As a lover of books (what I NEVER expected to be) I find myself fond of taking notes of cleverly written lines and thoughts that I have never pondered while reading.  In fact, sometimes I will get stuck on a sentence for a few minutes, reading it over and over again.  I always have a page marker although most of the time it is the piece of waxy paper from the library where the book was on hold that you can only write on the back of.  I find myself jotting on this slip late at night often wishing it were something else. 

 

I have made book marks in the past but nothing as pretty as one that I spied the other day on a blog that I frequent called Going Home To Roost.  She showcased her lovely version of a bookmark she made and I had to make my own.  I love them so much I made several different ones and as my present to you I am sharing what I made. 

 

I know I am not the only one that still reads actual books.  I don't have an electronic book and don't want one.  I love hunting for books and my trips to the library and I am sure I would love the smell of the library books if my smeller worked that good.  I do recall what some have smelled like from my past.  Maybe the libraries are newer these days and some of the scent has gone from the books or maybe I just get newer ones. 

 

Nevertheless, I really like sharing my book reading with you and must take notes as I go. After the book is read and the bookmark written on I plan to tape it in my journal for future reference.  I printed my bookmarks on white card stock so they are sturdier.  I hope you like them!

 

 

 

You should just be able to right click and print them or save them to your pc.