Meeting New Old Friends

October 25, 2010

Patti and Neal at Cataloochee Valley, North Carolina. October 20, 2010.

Both Betsy and I have been following Neal’s blog (and he’s been following ours) for nearly two years.  Neal is a retired systems analyst living in Indiana, although he was born in eastern Tennessee.  Neal is a wonderful photographer and features his photos on his blog.  Neal is also my hero — he’s not afraid to tell Betsy exactly what he thinks!

When Neal found out that Betsy and I were going to Maggie Valley to see the autumn colors, he decided that he and Patti would like to do that as well.  The four of us met up Tuesday evening and had a delightful dinner.  It was as if we had known each other for years.

On Wednesday the four of us visited the Cataloochee Valley to see the elk which had been reintroduced there.  We then drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway to Mount Pisgah, stopping at just about every overlook to take in the colors.  I won’t frighten you by telling you how many pictures Betsy and I took over the three days.

Betsy, Patti and Neal at the highest point of the Blue Ridge Parkway. October 20, 2010.

Thursday we drove across the Cherohala Skyway from North Carolina to Tennessee, again enjoying the autumn color.  After visiting Bald River Falls near Tellico Plains, Tennessee, Betsy and I headed home while Neal and Patti headed toward a visit with Neal’s brother.

Patti and Neal taking pictures at Santeelah Overlook, Cherohala Skyway, North Carolina. October 21, 2010.

We enjoyed our time with Patti and Neal, even if this is the view of them we often saw!

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Posted in Travels | 23 Comments »

My World: Is Dry

October 19, 2010

Cane Creek below Cane Creek Falls, Fall Creek Falls State Park, Tennessee. October 17, 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.

Sunday Betsy and I went to Fall Creek Falls State Park to have lunch with two of Betsy’s cousins who are here visiting friends.  We had a wonderful (and delicious) meal at the lodge and enjoyed lots of laughs and conversation.

Of course, Betsy and I couldn’t go to Fall Creek Falls without checking in to see the waterfalls.  We were shocked to see how little water there was.  There was no discernible water going over Cane Creek Falls, and the creek bed below the falls was essentially dry, as you can see from the picture above (those are shadows of trees across the creek bed).

Cane Creek Cascade, Fall Creek Falls, Tennessee. October 17, 2010.

Cane Creek Cascade, which is further upstream, brought even a greater shock.  This is all the water I could see flowing over the ledge.  The picture below shows Cane Creek Cascade as it looked when we were there in April.

Cane Creek Cascade, Fall Creek Falls, Tennessee. April 21, 2010.

We could really use some rain here on the Plateau.  If you have any rain to spare, please send it our way.

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Betsy and I are taking a blog break for a few days.  I’ll visit when I can, but probably won’t post for several days.

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Posted in My World | 21 Comments »

Lake Glastowbury

October 18, 2010

Lake Glastowbury, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. October 14, 2010.

Last Thursday Betsy and I drove to the Foothills Parkway on the edge of the Smokies looking for autumn color.  But we found some pretty autumn color even before leaving the Glade.

We decided to take the back way from home to avoid some of the traffic and crossed the dam forming Lake Glastowbury, which is about two miles from our house.

Lake Glastowbury is one of eleven man-made lakes in Fairfield Glade.  While Glastowbury is not the largest, it is a pretty lake.  Most of the homes along the lake are on wooded lots, so it’s easy to imagine being out in the country.

The view as we crossed the dam was so pretty that we took advantage of a pullout and stopped to get some pictures.

Autumn colors on Lake Glastowbury, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. October 14, 2010.

It’s really nice to have such wonderful autumn color in our ‘hometown’.

 

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Posted in Autumn | 14 Comments »

Skywatch Friday: Autumn Sky, Autumn Color

October 15, 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.

Although we had some clouds and a few drops of rain on Tuesday night and Wednesday, most of the week has given us more brilliant blue skies.  We are also getting some autumn color, so I thought I would share a couple of sky views from our yard with some trees showing their colors.

 

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Yesterday Betsy and I drove along the Foothills Parkway between Knoxville and  the Smokies.  It was a beautiful, clear day, and we took many pictures, as you can imagine.  We’ll be sharing some of those with you in the days ahead.

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Posted in SkyWatch Friday | 25 Comments »

Down Memory Lane: Tallulah Gorge

October 14, 2010

One of our favorite places to visit is Tallulah Gorge State Park in Georgia.  It’s a spectacular river gorge with five major waterfalls.  A dam just above the gorge controls the flow of water throughout much of the year, but the river and waterfalls are still beautiful.

There are trails along both the north and south rim of the gorge.  The Interpretive Center is on the north side of the gorge, but in our opinion the best views of the falls are on the south side.

Most of the waterfalls can only be viewed from the rim trails, but one, Hurricane Falls, can be seen from near the base, if you’re brave enough to tackle 600 steps down into the gorge (and 600 back up).

These pictures were taken during our first visit to Tallulah Gorge in June, 2009.  At that time we weren’t aware of the South Rim Trail, but we did hike the North Rim and take those steps down into the gorge and back up.

To see these pictures and others, click HERE.

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Posted in Travels | 9 Comments »

Watery Wednesday # 107: Letchworth State Park

October 13, 2010

Middle Falls, Letchworth State Park, New York. August 31, 2002.

This is my post for Watery Wednesday.  To see more of our beautiful watery world, or to join and post your own pictures to share, click HERE.

Letchworth State Park in New York is sometimes referred to as the “Grand Canyon of the East”  The Genesee River flows through a gorge and over three waterfalls between cliffs as high as 600 feet in some places.

The waterfall pictured above is Middle Falls.  It is in the middle both in terms of height and in terms of distance down the river.

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Posted in Watery Wednesday | 19 Comments »

My World: Deer at Noon

October 12, 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.

We often see deer on the golf course behind our house in the late afternoon, but on Sunday we saw a mother and three fawns out at noon, which is very unusual.
Both Betsy and I went out to the deck to take some pictures.  Mama Deer kept an eye on us, as you can see from the picture above.

The two largest fawns were enjoying the grass not too far away.


The smallest fawn stayed close to Mama.  All we could see of it here was its legs and ears.


All three fawns decided they needed some liquid refreshment after their grass lunch.  Mama doesn’t look too thrilled at the prospect.


I got a final family portrait before all of the deer disappeared between two houses further up the course.

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Posted in My World | 23 Comments »

Scenic Sunday #117: Paradise Point

October 10, 2010

The harbor at Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, from Paradise Point. September 10, 2001.

This is my post for the Scenic Sunday meme, which shares beautiful scenes from around the world.  To see more Scenic Sunday posts, or to join and show your own pictures, click HERE.

When we took our Caribbean cruise, we had a port of call at Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands.  While there we took a tram up to Paradise Point above the town.

Paradise Point has an observation deck and walking paths that give wonderful views of the harbor and out to sea.  This picture was taken looking down on the cruise ship dock.  Our ship is the one on the extreme right.

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Posted in Scenic Sunday | 12 Comments »

Skywatch Friday: Autumn Skies

October 8, 2010

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.

Tuesday, while getting the pictures I used in yesterday’s post, I also experimented with using manual settings on the camera to get pictures of the white clouds in our beautiful blue sky.

We need rain, so I would have been delighted to see some dark rain clouds up there in the sky.  But since we had a bright beautiful day, I was happy with the way these pictures turned out.

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Posted in SkyWatch Friday | 22 Comments »

Signs of Autumn

October 7, 2010

 

Dogwood berries, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. October 5, 2010.

 

I’ve been trying to learn more about my camera, and how to use the manual settings rather than using the automatic functions most of the time.  I would like to learn more about photographic techniques, although I’m not sure that it will help me get better pictures.

I did some reading on the relationship between shutter speed and aperture and, since Tuesday was a gorgeous day, went outside to do some experimenting.  I was trying to see if I could find manually settings that would produce a pleasing photo.

I first experimented with trying to capture the berries on the dogwood tree in our front yard.  The results of that experiment is the picture above.

 

Sumac leaves, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. October 5, 2010.

 

I then walked down the street to some sumac trees in the vacant lot below our house.  The leaves of the tree were a beautiful red, and the sun was shining directly on them.  Those conditions resulted in this picture.

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Posted in Glade | 19 Comments »

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