After several days of clouds, rain, ice, snow, more clouds and more snow, the sun came out today and the temperature got above freezing. Much of the snow was gone from the trees when I went out to the mailbox, but the trees still looked beautiful against that brilliant blue sky. January 18, 2022.
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Sometimes I’m in the right place at the right time to get what I think Is a good photograph. One such time occurred when I was in London way back in 1993. I was walking along the river Thames toward the new London Bridge as the sun was beginning to set. This is what I saw.
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Betsy was treated like a queen on Mother’s Day this year.
Her sons Mark (left) and Bert (right) along with Robin, Mark’s significant other, treated us to an adventure along Citiico Creek in the Cherokee National Forest. They provided a delicious picnic lunch, and found a perfect picnic spot along the bank of the creek.
Good food, great company, and a couple of hammocks made for an ideal day. Since Mark has a jeep we were able to go back into the “boonies” and to have the place pretty much to ourselves. It would be an understatement to say that we had a wonderful time.
Of course, when Betsy gets together with her sons, just about anything can happen — and it usually does.
But the creek was absolutely beautiful.
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Twenty years ago tomorrow Betsy and I had our first ‘big’ date. We went to Fall Creek Falls State Park here in Tennessee and had a wonderful time on a beautiful Spring day. We saw all the waterfalls in the park, but the greatest thing about that day was that I got my first kiss while we were there.
That day was so special that we try to make it back to Fall Creek Falls every April 21. (Yes, we plan on being there tomorrow!). We’ve missed a year or two over the past twenty, but I think we’ve done well to keep the tradition alive.
But the best thing about our visits is that I can still get a kiss from MY Beautiful Bride!
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I’ve often talked about how much Betsy and I love watching the sunsets when we visit Mt. Nebo State Park in Arkansas. But we also enjoy catching the sunrises from Sunrise Point in the park.
A few years ago we were greeted by a blanket of fog in the valley below Sunrise Point. As you can see from the photo above, it was almost hard to tell that there was a valley and city below us.
As the sky got lighter we began seeing the trees and the tops of hills in the valley below. In the distance we could make out the mountains on the other side of the valley.
Fields and buildings began coming into view
Finally parts of the Arkansas River came into view, reflecting the red of the sky above it.
What a gorgeous way to begin a day!
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i had forgotten about taking these pictures until I saw them on my phone a couple of days ago. (I’m still getting accustomed to the idea of thinking of my phone as a camera). But since I found them, I thought I would share the story behind them.
January 2, 2021, was the first day people 75 and older were able to get the Covid vaccine in Cumberland County. Since both My Beautiful Bride and I qualified, we decided to try and get the vaccine that day.
The notice said the gate to the fairground would open at 8am. Since there was road work between our house and the fairgrounds we decided to leave early to make sure we got there in time.
We had no problems with road construction, but traffic came to a complete halt when we were little over a mile from the fairgrounds. Evidently many other people had the same idea.
It took a little over an hour to get into the fairgrounds where we directed to a parking lot and told to wait for further instructions. The parking lot is where these pictures were taken. Please remember that most of the people in these cars were 75+ years old. Oh, and another thing — there were no bathroom facilities open in the area where we were waiting.
So we waited … and waited … and WAITED. Finally, about 2 o’clock we were directed to the line leading to the vaccination station. For the most part this line kept moving (slowly), but it still took close to an hour to get to the stations where we received our shots. The shots were given while we were in our car, so that part worked out very well.
After waiting to make sure we didn’t have a bad reaction we were free to leave the fairgrounds and seek out a rest room as quickly as we could.
Clearly the county did not anticipate so many people turning out on that first day. We got shots 631 and 632, so there were a lot of people in front of us. We later learned that 981 doses of the vaccine were given out that day.
I’m happy to say that the county quickly got it’s act together and began scheduling times for shots. When we got our second shot, we were in and out in less than half an hour. The shots were still being given at the fairgrounds, but there were Port-a-Potties located all over the place.
All in all Betsy and I have to give Cumberland County high marks for the way they’ve handled the vaccinations. That being said, we hope we don’t have to go through anything like that again!
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March is a wonderful time to visit waterfalls. The flow of water is usually very good, and the leaves aren’t out enough to block the view. Since my birthday is in March, we have often used the occasion to visit waterfalls.
We celebrated my birthday a few years ago at Cumberland Falls State Park in Kentucky. The waterfall was as gorgeous as ever, but on this visit we got to enjoy a bonus — a moonbow!
Cumberland Falls is one of the few places in the world where a full moon on a clear night can produce a ‘rainbow’ at night. I was fortunate enough to get this shot on our visit. What a neat birthday present!
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Old Man Winter returned to our part of Tennessee last week with more snow than we’ve had in several years. We also had freezing fog and ice which left the trees and bushes with glazed with ice.
We unfortunately did have much sunshine and blue skies during the week. This photo was taken a few years ago when the trees were similarly bejeweled
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One of the main reasons My Beautiful Bride and I like going to Mt. Nebo in February is that the cabin we rent offers some gorgeous views of the setting sun that time of year. Often, when there are relatively few clouds, the sky is streaked with gorgeous color.
But even a very cloudy day can provide dramatic sunsets, as this picture taken a few Februarys ago shows.
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My Beautiful Bride and I love the Smoky Mountains, although we don’t like the busy times (or places) when there are so many tourists around. So we go to the park in the winter or visit some of the places that aren’t on everyone’s list of things to see.
I got this picture of the Middle Prong of Little River on a January visit to the park a few years ago. That’s Lower Spruce Flat Falls coming down the mountain on the other side of the river.
Senior Moments 