Look up the next time you are at Kern's. The tower on the old bakery now carries "Shiny Objects," a mural of fishing lures blown up to the size of the building, painted with hard cast shadows so they appear to dangle off the brick. The artist is Naomi Haverland, who works out of Florida and painted one of the KnoxWalls murals at Emory Place in 2024. She has said she picked lures because they are built to catch the eye and because fishing is part of life in East Tennessee.

★What it belongs to

The mural is one of four planned for the SoKno Rail Trail & Art Walk, a 3.8-mile trail on the old rail line from Chapman Highway to Ijams Park. The first mile and a half, from Chapman Highway to Island Home, is the art walk, and it opens with four murals and four sculptures chosen with Dogwood Arts and paid for by a million-dollar gift from the Lawson Family Foundation. Legacy Parks Foundation told its annual luncheon on September 25 that the mural at Kern's is finished, that another was days from starting, and that more pieces go in over the next few weeks. The trail is scheduled to open this fall.

★What comes next

Two more pieces have been announced: a historic train engine that will be set on the trail and painted, and a set of ten-foot metal letters spelling SOKNO, each one a mural. Legacy Parks is raising $25,000 for the letters, and a single letter can be sponsored for $5,000. The lures, meanwhile, cost nothing to look at. Kern's is open seven in the morning to ten at night Thursday, to eleven Friday, eight to eleven Saturday and nine to nine Sunday.

Puckers keeps weekend brunch on the menu from nine to two on Saturday and Sunday, and this Saturday the schedule is kind to it. Tennessee hosts Auburn at 3:30, so the kitchen's brunch service ends an hour and a half before kickoff instead of colliding with it the way last week's noon game did. The room bills itself as a game-day headquarters, with the screens on for Vols Saturdays and NFL Sundays alike.

★How the day works

A mid-afternoon kickoff fills a sports bar across the river from the stadium well before the game, so a late brunch is the way to already have a seat when it starts. Parking is the garage behind the building, and the room takes reservations. Sunday runs the same brunch hours, with the Titans away at Baltimore at one.

The trails at Baker Creek do not maintain themselves. The Appalachian Mountain Bike Club holds a work party on the first Saturday morning of most months, and October's is at Baker Creek Preserve, where the job is getting the trails in shape for the club's Fall Fest on November 6 and 7. Trees Knoxville is joining to lead the removal of invasive plants alongside the trail work.

★Who can come

Anyone. You do not need to ride a bike, belong to the club or sign up ahead; the club calls these the best chance for trail users of every kind to give a morning back. It supplies the tools. You bring sturdy shoes, gloves, safety glasses and water, and you sign the club's 2026 waiver if you haven't. Families with kids are welcome.

★The practical part

Work runs nine to noon, and at noon Bear Paw Bikes and 71 South provide lunch, with cold drinks from Creature Comforts. Saturday has showers likely through the morning and an 80 percent chance of rain, so dress for mud and check the club's event page before you head over. The preserve is at 1516 Taylor Road.

The park's own description of the Moss Meander starts with fairies, which is where most of us left the subject. The walk picks it back up. An Ijams Park naturalist leads two hours at Mead's Quarry on how to identify different species of moss and on what moss is doing for the forest it grows in, which is more than its size suggests.

Saturday's forecast has showers likely and thunderstorms after two o'clock, an 80 percent chance of rain. Damp is the better condition for this one program, since moss is at its greenest wet, but lightning is another matter, so check the event page before you drive over. Fifteen dollars, ages sixteen and up, registration required. Park in the quarry lot and meet staff near the picnic tables. The event page marks Saturday as the last available date.

Bird banding is the rare science you can watch from three feet away. On Sunday morning the Ijams Park community science team works its banding station near Mead's Quarry, where migratory and resident songbirds are safely caught, measured, fitted with a numbered leg band and let go. The numbers feed a long record of how the birds around the park are doing. The event page lists Sunday as the last available date.

It costs five dollars, and the ticket includes parking, so skip the pay station. Meet at the Mead's Quarry gravel lot, where a staff member walks the group to the station. Sunday has showers through the morning and an 80 percent chance of rain, so check the event page before you drive over.

Every Saturday from ten to noon, volunteer storytellers read out loud in the woods at the Nature Playscape by Mead's Quarry, and it costs nothing. This week's theme is frogs and toads. The reading list starts with a book called "Frogs and Toads" and goes on from there, and the Playscape has enough damp corners that a child who listens closely has a fair chance of meeting the subject afterward.

The format is loose. Some weeks there is a hands-on activity, and some weeks the reading is the activity and the rest is roaming. Bring a blanket or a chair and a snack. Parking at the quarry lot is $5 a car unless you are a member. Saturday has showers likely and an 80 percent chance of rain, so check the event page before you go. Next Saturday's theme is flowers and plants.

The park's Ecosystem Explorers series is a run of short outdoor programs for children, and Saturday's is about fall wildflowers. Ijams Park naturalists take the group through flower anatomy and the pollination process, teach how to identify the native wildflowers they come across, and explain the historical, medicinal and cultural uses of each one. It ends with every child making a flower-inspired art piece.

It is designed for ages six to twelve, the child's ticket is ten dollars, and the adult who comes along gets in free. There is no commitment to the rest of the series. The park notes it suits Junior Girl Scouts working on the Flowers badge. For a household with older kids, the adult Fall Wildflower Walk goes out at the same hour, 9:30, for fifteen dollars.

A sound bath asks nothing of you but lying down. For an hour on Sunday morning, KB Sound Healing fills the large room at the Ijams Park Visitor Center with Tibetan singing bowls, crystal singing bowls and a gong, and the people on the floor let it go past. The park describes the point as quieting the mind and letting go of the week.

Bring whatever makes a floor comfortable: a mat, a blanket, a pillow or a bolster. Twenty-five dollars, ten to eleven. Sunday's forecast has showers and an 80 percent chance of rain, and this is the one program on the park's Sunday that was always going to be under a roof.

Self Care Sunday is a weekly yoga class at Ijams Park taught by Hope Irwin, an hour on the back patio of the Visitor Center that mixes Vinyasa, Hatha and Power flows to work flexibility, strength and balance. All ages and all levels are welcome, and the pricing says so: ten dollars for adults, five for kids five to twelve.

Bring your own mat. Sunday's forecast has showers likely, and the park's plan for that is simple: the class moves inside. It starts at 11:30, half an hour after the sound bath in the same building lets out, for anyone who wants to make a morning of it.

Dizzy teaches hooping every Thursday at six in the Miller Education Building at Ijams Park. The class takes a trick, breaks it into its base parts, drills the parts and builds up to the harder variations, at the pace of whoever is in the room. It is an adult class, no background required, and there are a few hoops to share if you don't own one.

Twenty-five dollars a workshop, six to seven. Thursday is sunny with a high near 89, and this is the one thing on the park's Thursday with a roof over it. The event page has directions to the Miller Building. The class runs again October 8 and 15.

Earl's, down on Waterfront Drive by Suttree Landing, runs a different deal every day of the week from open to close, and the week's board is above. Saturday is a home game, Auburn at 3:30, so the game-day column is on too: two dollars off drafts and pizza, a six-dollar Orange Bliss, and beer buckets at six for the price of five. It runs eleven to ten, which covers lunch before the game, the game, and dinner after it.

Thursday and Friday are the days for the river-facing tables, sunny and 89 with the rain holding off until Friday night. Saturday and Sunday each have an 80 percent chance of rain, so the inside tables for the game and for Sunday's mimosas and Bloody Marys.