A column by Eleanor Scott about Knoxville’s untidy corners.

• One of a Kind: Knoxville's Last Rare-Books Store Prepares to Close Published 1/9/2013 at 9:19 a.m. 1 comment

  In December, John Coleman announced on Facebook that his used/rare/antiquarian bookstore, Central Street Books, will close in March. For the first time in 22 years, Coleman will take a “sabbatical” from bricks-and-mortar retail.

• Shopping at Knoxville’s Intriguing Salvage Yards Published 12/26/2012 at 5:00 p.m. 0 comments

  For some time I’ve been meaning to write about three especially thrilling salvage yards in town, their rickety outbuildings and crowded aisles full of history, whimsy, and intrigue. These salvage yards are all are second- and third-generation locally-owned businesses, and ...

• “Shroomer” Bledsoe Shows Off New Digs and Old Stomping Grounds Published 12/12/2012 at 8:49 a.m. 3 comments

  Many readers have asked after the well-being and whereabouts of Charles “Shroomer” Bledsoe, unofficial caretaker and resident of Fort Dickerson Quarry Park, evicted from his hand-built stone cabin in the woods by the city in November. People who know him ...

• Foraging for Edible Weeds Published 11/28/2012 at 10:18 a.m. 0 comments

  My Beardsley Farm benefit calendar says it’s time to harvest fall greens. I only planted a few mustard greens in my garden this year, and they are still too young to eat. That’s all right though, because I can still ...

• Quarry Man: Fort Dickerson Quarry Park's Unofficial Caretaker Gets Evicted Published 11/7/2012 at 11:37 a.m. 2 comments

  Charles “Shroomer” Bledsoe, known as Fort Dickerson Park’s unofficial ranger, groundskeeper, lifeguard, historian, and artist-in-residence, received an eviction notice around 7 a.m. last Friday morning. Knoxville police told him he has until Wednesday to remove his books and things, then ...

• Knoxville's Artful Arch: Artist Kelly Brown's New Sculpture Gives "Props" to the Bicycling Community Published 10/24/2012 at 10:11 a.m. 0 comments

  Kelly Brown has nearly completed his as-yet-untitled sculpture—a “controlled chaos,” as he says, of donated bicycles, tricycles, and bike parts tumbling over the back entrance of the new Outdoor Knoxville Adventure Center.

• Broadway Viaduct Construction Project Displaces Local Businesses Published 10/10/2012 at 1:48 p.m. 3 comments

  Beginning in 2013, the Broadway Viaduct, which spans the Norfolk-Southern railroad tracks between Jackson Avenue and Depot Avenue, will be completely demolished along with the odd little buildings perched on it, and replaced with a new structure.

• Community Gardening: What is the Definition of Success? Published 9/12/2012 at 10:31 a.m. 0 comments

  After talking to community gardeners and visiting community gardens all summer, I noticed a few assets and conditions that proved essential to a garden, and, in some cases, spelled its success or failure for the season.

• Roof Cresting: Architectural Ornaments Connecting Earth and Sky Published 8/29/2012 at 10:20 a.m. 1 comment

  The roof was so seriously dilapidated that there wasn’t much of it left, except for a long decorative piece of metal that ran from gable to gable, capping a swaybacked roofline.

• Meadow Gone Wild: Habitat Restoration Creates a Wildlife Oasis at Botanical Garden Published 8/15/2012 at 10:14 a.m. 2 comments

  With a razor-thin budget and just two employees, Brian Campbell, director of horticulture, was struggling to mow and maintain the 50 acres that comprise the Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum.

• An Urban Meadow: Wildflowers and Graffiti Under the Interstate Published 8/1/2012 at 9:52 a.m. 0 comments

  The meadow of the old Standard Knitting Mill, created in the 1990s when the oldest and most beautiful part of the mill was torn down—to make way for a school, never built—stands at a crossroads.

• Playground Fossils: Texture, Imagination, and Safety in Surfacing Materials Published 7/18/2012 at 12:07 p.m. 1 comment

  Have you ever found, while sifting through the pea gravel on the playground, a perfectly cylindrical pebble with ridges like a screw, and a hole through the center? If you have, it was probably a fossilized crinoid stem, part of ...

• Building with Southern Yellow Pine Published 7/3/2012 at 5:00 p.m. 0 comments

  Michael Pollan describes yellow pine as a “harder, less desirable Southern species.” He continues, “Knotty and prone to twisting, yellow pine is difficult to work and notoriously hard on tools. Is Pollan just talking about wood here, or is he ...

• A Few Stately Flowers Published 6/20/2012 at 5:57 p.m. 0 comments

  In 1919, the Tennessee Senate adopted Joint Resolution 13 allowing Tennessee schoolchildren, true experts in the field, to select the state flower. The children chose, apparently by write-in vote, a flower native to Tennessee: passiflora incarnata, the passionflower.

• An Anonymous Cyclist Blazes a Bike-Stencil Trail Published 5/30/2012 at 1:54 p.m. 1 comment

  Earlier this spring a small stenciled image of a bike appeared on the pavement at the intersection of Glenwood Avenue and Luttrell Street. An arrow painted beside the bike pointed to the right. What’s this? I thought.

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