Tuesday was the first day of full sunshine after days and days and days of dreary depressing thick grey clouds hiding any chance of blue sky.  We left the house early Tuesday morning and headed toward Clayton, GA to get out of the house and enjoy the sun.  With farms and open pastures in our view, we meandered over rolling hills to Clayton, then drove over the Little Tennessee River toward Dillard.  In the spring we'll return to visit the Foxfire Museum and Black Rock Mountain State Park.  We had a wonderful lunch at a Thai restaurant in Franklin before heading back home.   I had a lemongrass soup and a chicken dish prepared in coconut milk.  Cliff tried the Thai chicken stir-fry.  We agreed that this restaurant is a keeper.  The temperature reached 66 degrees and the much welcomed sun picked up our spirits again. 

Last night Cliff and I met Pat at the John Campbell Folk School for a concert with hammered dulcimer and fiddle virtuoso Ken Kolodner. 



He is quite the musical artist having taught at countless festivals and music camps and was the first American featured in the International Hackbrett Festival in Germany.  Besides playing the fiddle and hammered dulcimer for us, he played the exotic hammered mbira, which I had never heard of.  The hammered dulcimer, as shown in his picture above, has 90 strings and is played with what looks like wooden spoons with large holes.  He flows with his music and you can see him feel what he plays with his foot tapping rhythm and expressions on his face.  He's mastered 90 strings and I'm still trying to play Mary Had A Little Lamb on three strings!