Archive for April, 2010

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My World: Spring Has Arrived

April 6, 2010

Breck's Colossal Daffodil, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. March 31, 2010.

This is my post for the My World meme.  It is hosted by Klaus, Ivar, Sandy, Wren, and Fishing Guy.  To learn more about our world or to join and share your part of the world, click HERE.

First of all, I hope you all had as wonderful an Easter weekend as we did.  Easter services are a joyous celebration and family and beautiful weather just made everything special.

I’m happy to report that Spring has arrived on the Plateau.  In a few short days we’ve gone from practically no signs of Spring to green grass, beautiful white Bradford Pears, yellow forsythia, daffodils and even tulips in bloom.

In addition to working in the yard I’ve been experimenting with my new camera with the macro lens.  It’s certainly different from a point-and-shoot, but I’m enjoying learning how to use my new toy.  I hope you’ll enjoy my experiments.

Our first daffodil to bloom was the big yellow daffodil, Breck’s Colossal, shown in the picture above.    We’ve got them in several places in the yard.

Replete Daffodil, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. April 2, 2010.

This double daffodil, Replete, is another blossom we’ve been enjoying.  I’m sure I’ll have more pictures to share in the future.

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Posted in My World | 15 Comments »

Happy Easter

April 3, 2010

Bob and Kelly on Easter Sunday, 1977. Black Mountain, North Carolina.

The picture above is not very good — it’s a copy of an old photograph that I came across recently.  It shows my son and daughter showing off their Easter eggs behind our home on Easter Sunday in 1977.  Bob was eight years old and Kelly was five.  We had come home from church and they were looking for the eggs the Easter bunny had hidden in the yard.

We were living in Black Mountain, North Carolina, at the time.  I was teaching mathematics at what was then Montreat-Anderson College in Montreat, North Carolina, only a couple of miles up the road.  Our house was small, but it had a big back  yard for the kids to play in.

Betsy and I are taking off a couple of days off to enjoy Easter with family.  I expect us to be out of pocket until Monday evening, so my next post will probably be Tuesday morning.  But I hope all of you have a blessed and joyous Easter.  I hope the weekend will bring all of you many happy memories.

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Posted in Family | 16 Comments »

Skywatch Friday: We Found Spring

April 2, 2010

Blue Sky and Bradford Pears, Hendersonville, Tennessee.

This is my post for Skywatch Friday, a meme for sharing views of the sky from all over the world.  To see more, or to join and share your own photos of the sky, click HERE.

Yesterday Betsy and I went to Hendersonville to see my parents.  They are about as good as can be expected and we had a nice visit with them.

But in addition to seeing my parents, we also found Spring!  We live on the Plateau here in Tennessee while Hendersonville is in the ‘Nashville Bowl’.  What that means is that our house is about 1500 feet higher than my parents house.

When we left yesterday morning there were no Bradford Pears blooming here in the Glade and the Forsythia was just starting to bud out.  By the time we got off the Plateau we were seeing Bradford Pear trees in bloom all over the place.  We were also seeing blue skies, as in the photo above.

Forsythia, Hendersonville, Tennessee.

We also found Forsythia in bloom.  What a difference 1500 feet can make!

Our Prius is not a large car, but we did our best to bring Spring back up the Plateau with us.  I can hardly wait to see what today brings!

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Posted in Uncategorized | 18 Comments »

The Days Are Getting Busier

April 1, 2010

Some of our roses from 2009

Yesterday was a beautiful day here in the Glade — the sky was blue and the temperatures were warm.  It was a great day for working out in the yard, which both Betsy and I did in the afternoon.  I’ve got about half of our roses uncovered and trimmed back and I’m happy to report that they all look pretty good so far.  Since I spent so much time working outside today on the roses, I’m sharing a few more from last year in the collage above.

Today (Thursday) Betsy and I are heading over to Hendersonville to help out my parents.  Although they  seem to be fine when we talk to them on the phone, each time we are with them it becomes more obvious that they are quickly reaching the point where they need more than long-distance help.  But it is one thing for us to see that and a completely different thing for them to agree.

We greatly admire their desire to remain independent, but both my sister and I wish we could get them to accept more help.  Until then we will continue to do the best we can to look after them.

We’ll be gone all day today, so I’m going to be even further behind visiting your sites.  But I promise I will get caught up — one of these days!

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Posted in Glade | 12 Comments »

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