Archive for poetry events

Lovers’ Loop Retreat May ’09 muse-letter

May 1, 2009 at 7:05 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville B&B, Asheville activites, Asheville adventures, Asheville art, Asheville seasons, B&B alternative, NC, free things in Asheville, nature, poetry events, vacation rental ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

It’s a colorful spring here at Lovers’ Loop Retreat, our Asheville, N.C., vacation rental: azaleas in white and several shades of red, pink and pinker rhododendrons, lacy white dogwoods. The backyard is filling in with foliage. Our tomato and pea plants are humming along, and little basil plants are starting to grow. A thrill of our spring so far was seeing five finches, including a goldfinch, on the feeder at once, afeat unrepeated since, alas (but we keep looking).

            All of this is yours to behold when you stay at our Asheville bed and breakfast alternative. Many guests enjoy sitting on the porch to commune with the squirrels and birds that own the trees and air space here. As usual, there’s a range of activities happening in the area in May, too. Visit our Web site at www.loversloopretreat.com to see a list of events we update regularly. We have events posted all the way to December, so you can see what’s going on whenever you plan your trip to Asheville. You can link directly to our blog at http://loversloopretreat.wordpress.com, or from the home page. There is also a link to another Asheville blog on the home page with YouTube links to videos about Asheville.

            This spring, we’ve done some of our favorite activities — hiking at Mount Mitchell, the tallest peak in the U.S. east of the Mississippi River, just 30 miles from Lovers’ Loop Retreat — and some things we haven’t done before — taking a women’s history (herstory) tour of downtown Asheville and taking a wild ride on a zany, purple bus called LaZoom, a comedy tour of downtown Asheville. All of this is good stuff, and you may want to explore these activities when you visit.          

            The banquet of events in May includes rhododendron (May 2-3) and rose (May 30-31) shows at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville, always a pretty place to visit. For more flowers, the Biltmore estate’s annual Festival of Flowers lasts through May 17. More rooms at the estate, the home originally of George Vanderbilt, have been opened to the public this year. 

            The annual Asheville Wordfest, April 30-May 3, is a poetry festival that includes internationally known and regional poets. Another literary event is the Blue Ridge Book and Author Showcase May 8-9 in nearby Hendersonville with workshops and talks by authors, sales and book signings.     

            One of the area’s biggest events is the Lake Eden Arts Festival (LEAF), held twice a year in Black Mountain, just east of Asheville. LEAF, May 7-10, features a slate of international dancers, musicians and visual artists.

             For sports enthusiasts, a popular annual event in Asheville is the Mountain Sports Festival May 29-31. The festival has demonstrations, clinics and competitive events in rock climbing, kayaking, running, cycling, disc golf and backpacking.                   

            A two-for-one comedy show May 30 in Asheville features Vickie Shaw and Jennie McNulty. And for a different type of comedy, not to mention lots of bravery and just sheer strength and stamina, there’s the Blue Ridge Roller Girls, Asheville’s roller derby team that has a bout May 30 at the civic center downtown.

            Early June brings the second art gallery walk of the season June 5, a glimpse into the many art galleries in downtown Asheville. And June 5 is the season debut for the Montford Park Players, North Carolina’s oldest Shakespeare company. These are both free things to do in Asheville! The Montford Players appreciate donations, though, of course.

            All of these events and more are listed on our Web site. And for Indigo Girls fans, the duo has rescheduled its April concert in Asheville to Sept. 17 at the Orange Peel downtown. We hope to be there. 

            Please pass along our muse-letter to your friends. And join us at Lovers’ Loop Retreat! See you in Asheville!

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Book a visit to Asheville

April 20, 2009 at 5:32 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville B&B, Asheville activites, free things in Asheville, poetry events, vacation rental

One of downtown Asheville’s icon’s is Malaprop’s bookstore on Haywood Street. It’s an independent bookseller with many books by local and regional authors and poets, and the store hosts frequent poetry readings, book signings and other events. Our poetry group has read at Malaprop’s, and we’ve attended some of their events, which usually draw a crowd.  

Most people who visit Asheville—and most guests at our Lovers’ Loop Retreat Asheville bed and breakfast alternative—find their way to Malaprop’s. Some people are drawn by the Internet café, which is a cozy place to socialize, check e-mail or just perch and people-watch. It’s in a good location downtown, a few doors away from the civic center and down the street from Pritchard Park. The store has been around for about 25 years, no small feat for an independent bookseller, and the place is a real hub of activity, conversation and creativity. You’ll get a flavor of Asheville if you hang out there for awhile. 

Malaprop’s is so popular that it’s a favorite hangout for Asheville’s many and various street musicians, too. They sing, play guitar, accordion, banjo, cello, saxophone outside the store off and on for much of the day to serenade visitors as they enter and leave.    

Malaprop’s has a sister store, Downtown Books & News on Lexington Avenue, with a big selection of newspapers and used and rare books. And there’s another independent bookstore downtown, The Captain’s Bookshelf, which sells used and rare books, on Page Avenue.

Battery Park Book Exchange and Champagne Bar downtown is a new business that sells used books and offers champagne and wine to patrons.  

When you visit Lovers’ Loop Retreat, our Asheville vacation rental, bookmark some of these bookstores.

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Asheville Coffee Houses

January 21, 2009 at 5:43 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville B&B, Asheville activites, NC, accommodations, poetry events

If you enjoy coffee – and the coffeehouse scene – downtown Asheville has a varied bunch to choose from. Some visitors to Lovers’ Loop Retreat have enjoyed checking out the coffeehouses.

            We met friends this month at Green Sage, which may be the newest one downtown. Green Sage has solar panels on the roof that heat its water, which means that the sun is the coffeehouse’s hot water heater. Green Sage is a nice space, a good place to talk, with a good tea selection as well as coffee. The food and baked goods look really yummy!

            Two places that usually are lively are Greenlife, a grocery store with a café and organic coffees, and Malaprops, the popular bookstore and café. Greenlife may have the best deal on coffee. Plus they have great hot chocolate and yerba mate, my favorites. They also have every kind of smoothie and a great selection of baked goods, wraps, soups, sushi and more – all made on the premises. Malaprops always has an interesting crowd, book browsers and people on computers, a good place to hang out and people-watch; it hosts many book signings and readings.

            City Bakery and the Dripolator are two more coffeehouses downtown. Both sell baked goods. And there’s the Firestorm Café & Books, fairly new, which hosts a book club, poetry readings, sewing circle, craft workshops and other community events.

            When you visit Lovers’ Loop Retreat, you might want to explore some of these coffeehouses. You’ll get a fun flavor of the local scene.

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North Carolina poet laureate to read in Asheville this Sunday

March 25, 2008 at 5:16 am · Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, NC, poetry events ·Tagged ,

Being writers and poets ourselves, we’re excited about the upcoming reading this Sunday at 2 p.m. by North Carolina poet laureate Kathryn Stripling Byer at the Asheville Art Museum downtown. It’s free, and we’ve never heard her read, so we plan to check it out. She lives in Western North Carolina, just down the road from Asheville.  

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Our Asheville Poetry Group

March 3, 2008 at 6:14 pm · Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, poetry events

Yesterday our poetry group met. We’ve been hosting poetry groups for years – in Massachusets, Virginia, and now here in Asheville. We meet the first Sunday of the month at our home. We’re actually planning to start a second time eacn month, meeting on a week night to accommodate those who can’t make it on a weekend day.

Yesterday there were six of us – a great group. We sat in a circle in our living room with a cozy fire in the fireplace. Not all of us had a poem so share – it’s not required – but most did, invarious stages of completion. Everyone has a very unique style. It’s alwasy fun to hear what gets shared.

There are quite a few women who’ve come and the number varies from month to month. There are some who come quite regularly and we often have new women join us. It’s becoming a wonderful community of grassroots Asheville poets.

After our poetry, we had a potluck yesterday. We do that occasionally and it’s always fun. People bring great stuff. We enjoyed sitting and visiting together and getting to know each other better.

Maybe next month you can join us! Bring your poetry.

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Saturday Night Poetry in Asheville!

March 2, 2008 at 9:04 am · Filed under Asheville, poetry events ·Tagged , ,

We just got home from downtown Asheville. We have a poetry group that meets at our house once a month and three of us were participating in a reading. Asheville is full of creative opportunities like this. It’s great!

Well, you’d think on a cold winter night there wouldn’t be very many people out, but not so in Asheville. Downtown was really buzzing with activity. There were lots of people walking around and the restaurants and clubs were packed – before and after the poetry reading.

It was held at the Art Council’s gallery on Biltmore Avenue. It’s a small space, but there must have been about 50 people crowded in.  We’re hoping to have more readings there in the future. Maybe you’ll be able to join us!

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Lovers’ Loop Retreat’s first blog!

March 1, 2008 at 10:49 pm · Filed under Asheville, Asheville activites, NC, accommodations, nature, poetry events, the weather ·Tagged , , ,

Lovers’ Loop Retreat, a guest suite in Asheville, NC, has had an active website for several years where we try to keep people aware of various places to go and things to do in the Asheville area. But, it’s time we got going with a blog!

We used to come to Asheville for vacations and always wished there was an affordable, private, homey-kind-of-place where we could stay that had what we needed to cook for ourselves if we didn’t want to eat in restaurants all the time – or eat more than granola bars and rice cakes and peanut butter!

So, when we moved here and realized we had a bit more room in our house then we needed, we decided to make it available to visitors. It’s been a great way to meet people from all over the world!

We just have the one guest suite, so it’s very private and very spacious. You have your own entrance with off-street parking. Besides the bedroom with one double bed, there’s a single bed in the large living room. The cooking area includes a fridge, microwave, hot plate and coffee maker. There’s a spacious, full private bath. If you like, you can set up the Ping Pong table.

We’re just 10 minutes from downtown, a mile from I-240, I-40 and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Visit our site or email us for more information.

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