My World: Rural Tennessee

June 29, 2010

Northern Cumberland County, Tennessee. June 27, 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 live on the Cumberland Plateau, which is the world’s longest hardwood-forested plateau.  The plateau is primarily rural — Crossville (our post office address) is one of the largest towns on the plateau with nearly 12,000 people.

It’s fairly easy to get away from ‘civilization’ here on the plateau.  Sunday Betsy and I went on a ride away from Crossville and soon found ourselves in the middle of nowhere.  But it was beautiful afternoon with lots of fluffy white clouds in a beautiful blue sky.  We stopped along a farm road to enjoy this view across a field.  The two horses under the tree just completed the picture of ‘our’ Tennessee home.

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Scenic Sunday #102: The Great Wall

June 27, 2010

The Great Wall at Ba Da Ling, China. July, 1987.

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.

The Great Wall is one of the wonders of the world, but the mountains north of Beijing through which the wall passes are very scenic  in their own right.  The picture above, scanned from a slide taken in 1987, shows a part of the wall and the mountains.

Back in 1987 foreign visitors to the wall were still relatively rare.  Almost all of the people shown are Chinese, most of whom were on group tours.  The umbrellas were set up by vendors selling snacks or souvenirs.

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Posted in Scenic Sunday | 15 Comments »

Skywatch Friday: Moon Over the Glade

June 25, 2010

Moon Over Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. June 23, 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.

Wednesday evening was clear here in the Glade, and just after sundown I spotted this nearly full moon up in the sky.  I couldn’t resist the temptation to get my telephoto lens and snap this picture  for Skywatch Friday.

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Posted in SkyWatch Friday | 21 Comments »

Sempervivum

June 24, 2010

As you know, Betsy and I have many flowers in our yard — daffodils, tulips, iris, roses, lilies and daylilies.  But we also have some plants that don’t flower very much (no, I am not talking about the weeds in our flower beds!).

I grew up on a small farm in northern Indiana.  The topsoil was rich and about 18 inches (or more) deep.  Dad used to say that when we planted seed we had to jump back to keep from being knocked over the growing plant.

That certainly is not the situation here in Tennessee.  Don’t get me wrong — I like the mountains and our home.  But in some places there is solid rock about an inch below the surface.  We’ve worked around that by building some raised flower beds, but there are places in the yard where we have rock right under the surface and there’s not much we can do about it.

Except plant sempervivum (hen and chicks).  Sempervivum seem to thrive in the most impossible soil conditions, and they look good all year around.  We have several different varieties and various places around the yard.  Some are bicolor, like the picture above.  Others are a solid color.  The most common are green, but we also have several maroon or deep purple plants, as you can see in the picture below.

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Posted in Glade | 15 Comments »

Watery Wednesday #93: Over the Falls

June 23, 2010

Kayaker at Baby Falls, Tellico River, Tennessee. June 18, 2010.

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.

Last Friday I decided that Betsy needed to get out of the house for a while, so we took a drive to the Tellico River, another of our favorite spots here in Tennessee.  There are some waterfalls that can be seen from the road, so I felt Betsy would not have to do much walking.

One of those roadside waterfalls is Baby Falls, a pretty little 15-foot drop in the Tellico River.  There were swimmers enjoying the plunge pool, but what caught our attention was a group of kayakers shooting the falls.

By the time I got into position to take pictures there was only one person left to shoot the falls.  I got this series of shots as he went over the brink.

I didn’t have time to change the settings on my camera so I didn’t get a shot of the kayak at the base of the falls, but the kayaker was successful in shooting the falls, he landed upright and paddled across the plunge pool before continuing downstream.

I must admit that it looked very exciting, but I think I’ll continue to enjoy waterfalls while standing on solid ground!

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Posted in Watery Wednesday | 21 Comments »

My World: Daylilies

June 22, 2010

Daylilies by our garage, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. June 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.

When Betsy and I purchased this house back in 2002, it came with a patch of bare ground next to the garage along the driveway.  This bare patch was filled with rocks and long-buried construction debris as well as a few scraggly weeds.

For the first year we had the house we used it mostly as a weekend getaway since we were still living in Hendersonville.  But each time we came up we thought we have to do something about that ugly spot.

Daylilies will grow just about anywhere and require little attention, so we got three daylilies and planted them with fingers crossed.  The first couple of years the plants looked somewhat pathetic, but we kept working to enrich the soil with compost and each year the results were a little better.

The picture above was taken last week.  I think those daylilies are starting to look pretty spectacular.

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Down Memory Lane: Mount Nebo (2009)

June 21, 2010

Scenes from our visit to Mount Nebo, Arkansas. March, 2009.

If you have visited here for any length of time (or have visited Betsy’s blog) you have heard us speak of Mount Nebo in Arkansas.  Betsy knew of this place before we met, so she gets all the credit for introducing me to it.

Mount Nebo State Park is atop Mount Nebo, near Dardanelle, Arkansas.  The mountain rises about 1800 feet above the floor of the Arkansas River valley and offers wonderful views in just about every direction.  Sunrises and Sunsets are simply spectacular.

The park has rustic cabins, most built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.  We have our own favorite cabin perched on the edge of the mountaintop with a wonderful view of the valley below.  We can enjoy beautiful sunsets without leaving the deck of the cabin.

The park also has several miles of hiking trails and a couple of nice waterfalls.  So you can understand why we enjoy going there so much.

The picture in the collage above were taken in March, 2009, while visiting Mount Nebo to celebrate my birthday.  We had an ice storm while we were there, so that gave us a great excuse just to relax and enjoy the fireplace in the cabin.  We weren’t going to let a little thing like ice mess up our vacation!

To see these pictures and others, click HERE.

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Posted in Travels | 13 Comments »

Skywatch Friday: Glade Skies

June 18, 2010

Blue skies and clouds in Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. June 13, 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.

For the past week we’ve been ‘enjoying’ hot, humid weather with cloudy skies and showers and thunderstorms.  But after a shower the sky has often cleared and is a beautiful blue for at least a few minutes.  This is what the sky looked like from our front yard a few days ago.

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Posted in SkyWatch Friday | 24 Comments »

Down Memory Lane: Serenity Falls

June 17, 2010

We’ve been having showers and thunderstorms off and on over the past several days.  While that means that the weeds are winning in all of the flower beds, it has given me time to work on some pictures that have never been properly posted.

One folder contained pictures taken at Serenity Falls back in March, 2009.  We discovered Serenity Falls in the autumn of 2008 when we were visiting waterfalls around Cosby, Tennessee, on ‘the quiet side of the Smokies’.

At Serenity Falls we found a beautiful waterfall as well as some rental cabins.  One of the cabins was right at the base of the waterfall.  That, of course, was too big a temptation for Betsy and me, so we just had to book a few nights at Serenity Falls.

These pictures were from our first stay at Serenity Falls.  We enjoyed it so much that we went back in March of this year as well.  It’s hard to imagine a more relaxing place to stay.

To see these pictures and others, click HERE.

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Posted in Waterfalls | 12 Comments »

Watery Wednesday #92: Little Missouri Falls

June 16, 2010

Little Missouri Falls, Langley, Arkansas. February 22, 2010.

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.

In March of this year, during our trip to Arkansas, Betsy and I visited Little Missouri Falls.  The falls is really more of a cascade than a true waterfall, but it is still a pretty sight.

To get to Little Missouri Falls we had to drive through campground at the Albert Pike Recreation Area.  This was this campground that was devastated by the flood last weekend, killing 20 campers.  This is a reminder that our watery world can be dangerous as well as beautiful.

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Posted in Watery Wednesday | 12 Comments »

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