Bele Chere July 29, 2011.

 I am still playing catch up with my posts here.

We went to Asheville, NC for Bele Chere on July 29th.

Bele Chere is a free street festival featuring music, art, crafts, music, dance and lots of great food.

The town of Asheville itself is one of our favorite places to visit, Bele Chere just makes it even more so.

The first picture, above, is inside one of my favorite bookstores, Malaprop's.

 Don't you just love the sign up on the shelf?

I think it is a great idea, bet it works too.

Would you leave a small child unattended here?

 One of our favorite stops!

The Chocolate Fetish Shop.

The truffles are HEAVENLY, and the shop is full of fun things made from chocolate.

The beach scene above is an example, even the sand is edible.

The chocolate fetish blog

 Another favorite stop is Kilwin's.

They make lovely fudge and ice cream.

The waffle bowls are very good and they hold lots of ice cream.

My Sweet Husband went for Triple chocolate and a scoop of cherry, 

I had Triple chocolate and a scoop of Key Lime (great combination).

 We did eat some healthy things while we were there.

My Sweet Husband found us some very good fresh organic tomatoes to go with our lunch

and dinner was from an Indian Food Vendor in the food court (it smelled so good, I forgot to take a picture).

 Daniel C. Williams and Son

Playing their Woodrow Stringed Instruments.

Small, portable, handmade, sounds great and looks easy to play.

The woodrow 

Check them out.

 A selection of their instruments.

 WNCW is our favorite radio station. They play a good variety including everything from Grateful Dead, to Bob Marley with Blue Grass, Jazz, old Rock and Celtic mixed in.

If you are too far away to pick up the station, you can listen to them on line too.

 Lots of people,

Crowds everywhere.

They all seemed to be smiling and laughing.

We were too.

 One of four outdoor stages set up around town for the festival.

There were Buskers of every type too. 

 Found me a new hat!

At the end of the day, even the squirrels looked worn out.

This guy found a cool spot to catch his breath.

We had a lovely day.

Cheers,

Kat

Bele Chere 2009

Have you ever been to Bele Chere? It is a street festival, held every July in Asheville NC. It is a three day celebration of art, artists, music and one of my favorite cities. It is also pure Joy!
Artists and art are everywhere. There are what seems like miles of booths set up alongside the road. In some cases, like in my first three photos, the artist is the art. These living statues were quite wonderful. They would hold various poses, as still as you could wish, until someone spoke to them, or dropped change in their hat. When activated, they would bow gracefully then mime different things. Great fun. Especially since I suspect they felt as if they were

melting. It was quite warm.

We were able to go for all three days a couple of years ago, even that did not seem like it was long enough. This year, we were limited to just one day.

Did I mention the food? Several local businesses were offering tastes of their wares. One of my favorites was

French Broad Chocolates. No it is not run by a lady from France, it is named after a local river. Lovely Fudge. We shared a Felafel from "The Jerusalem Garden Cafe" and Dinner was a vegetarian combo from a street vendor. (Oh my goodness, it was wonderful) Unfortunately I did not write the name of

the vegetarian vendor down. I really don't think
you can go wrong with anything on offer.
The fourth is an example of the art that is all over Asheville on a daily basis. The giant Iron is sitting out on a corner, just waiting to inspire despair. (My sister Paula thinks it is funny that after all those years in the military and ironing uniforms, I chose another career that requires uniforms, and I still feel like I have to iron them). Do you even own an Iron? My iron is not quite this old, but my ironing board is a wooden one that was made many years ago for my Mother in Law. The neat thing is she was about my height (not tall) so it is just right for me.

The odd looking frame contraption is a mister. A great way to cool off. Don't forget to put the camera away first.

A lot of the booths were selling different types of art. One of the many that I particularly liked was, Starships.com I guess the anniversary of the moon landings has me thinking about space ships.

Another good booth was provided by "Malaprop's Bookstore and Cafe". Books, nice atmosphere and coffee. Great combo.

One of the many things I love about Asheville is the blending of the new and the old. They have a lot of

wonderful architecture.

Some of the art is participatory. They have some giant canvas and paints ready for you to add to a mural and we even saw a walking puppet show. Cute.

There are stages set up in several locations. Far enough apart that they don't compete with each other and plenty of street musicians. Our dinner was accompanied by a couple of enterprising young ladies tap dancing.

Last but not least, a lovely bit of sunshine. This fine specimen was looking down on me from the yard next door to where we parked the car.

Have I wet your appetite? Bele Chere 2010 is less than 12 months away. Next years website is not up yet, but if you want a little more of a taste, try this years at MountainX.com
Kat

If you go to Charleston SC...

Hubby and I went to Charleston SC this weekend. As usual it was great. It is hot and humid in August. The temp was 95 F. That with the humidity is a whole lot hotter than 95 F in New Mexico. However; once you get downtown in the historic district, the ocean breeze improves matters considerably. So dress cool and casual. Put on your comfy shoes and lets go.

Parking is free on Sunday, but not Saturday. You can find some free spots on the battery and occasionally near the Aquarium (Just off East Bay). We got one of the rare spots by the Aquarium.

Shortly after we left the car, we saw a pelican soaring over head. WOW! How can something so silly looking on the ground be so graceful in the air? Of course he was way too fast for me. Sorry no photo.

From there we walked down towards the market. I have heard it referred to as the "Slave market" but slaves were never sold there. In the bad old days, slaves would man the booths. If I understand it

correctly, some slaves lived on their own and were allowed to trade or sell their own products in return for a share of the profit.

We stopped at several shops along Market. They were all doing a brisk business and many were particularly generous with their samples. We feasted on bites of spiced pecans and pralines from a number of places. Pralines are a lovely confection made by cooking brown sugar, butter, and milk together and using the result as a candy coating for pecans. My hubby makes the best of course, but of those that are commercially available in Charleston, "River Street Sweets" are unsurpassed. We also tried Gelato for the first time and bought a large Tiramisu flavored gelato to share.

Another unique treat, I tasted "Key Lime Fudge" (River Street Sweets) I know, it just sounds odd. It was really good.

From the market area, we walked along King Street for the antique shops. The fountain picture is a courtyard that is part of one of them. The area around the fountain is as peaceful and cool as it looks. There are not as many antique shops as there used to be, but there are enough to provide a great afternoon or two of happy hunting.

My favorite jewelry store, "Dixie Dunbar's Studio"

(http://www.dixiedunbarstudio.com/jewelry.asp )is also along King Street. Her designs are always unique and and to me, feel like summer. I saw two different turquoise necklaces that I really liked. This perfect piece of coral was the best thing in the store. I always come out of there inspired.

Sunday morning we had a long leisurely breakfast at our hotel. (Not as nice as Sunday morning at home, but then, I am spoiled rotten) After breakfast we attended our old Unitarian Universalist Church. We were not the only ones who felt the need to be with other Unitarians, the seats were full. Summer services are usually not that well attended.

The service was centered on music. (Uh-oh, there she goes again,). One thing that sticks in my mind is the idea of finding, or identifying a theme song for your life. Mine would definitely be "You can't always get what you want" by The Rolling Stones.

After the service,

Hubby and I tool our walk along the battery. Lovely views of the water on one side, amazing mansions on the other. I could not capture the clean, salty smell of the water, or the sound of the sea, but I took lots of photos. What a wonderful
weekend!

On the way back home in the car, we listened to "The Bridge" FM 105.5 as long as we could get a signal then "Infamous Angel" A CD by Iris DeMint.

What is your theme song?

Have a great week, Kat