Betsy and I think Fairfield Glade is a pretty special place. We enjoy the beauty of the community as well as that of our own house and yard. This collage is made up of pictures taken around Fairfield Glade during the latter part of 2008.
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Our deck and back yard, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. December 25, 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.
White Christmases are rare here in Tennessee, but this is what our deck and back yard looked like on Christmas Day. We actually got much more snow Christmas Night and Sunday morning, but we were glad to see white on the ground Christmas Day.
Our Christmas Tree and Fireplace. December 25, 2010.
We were cozy and warm in the house, with a fire in the fireplace to take out the chill. Of course, those goodies under the tree helped us feel good as well.
The front of our house in the early evening. December 10, 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.
Our house is now decked out for Christmas. Not only on the inside but on the outside. As night falls the lights come on. The picture above is taken from the road in front of the house just after the sun went down.
Our house after dark, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. December 10, 2010.
Betsy is the designer of our decorations. My job is to carry things and put them where she tells me to, and to reach the high places she can’t reach. She’s added the wreaths in the front over the past three years.
Our Christmas tree from the back yard. December 9, 2010.
Our house opens to the back, where we have three sliding glass doors opening to a large deck. Betsy has decorated the deck with lighted garlands (you can see some of them in the picture above). We put the tree in front of one of the doors and keep the curtains open so that the tree can be seen from the back yard.
Pictures don’t do justice to the way the house looks. You’ll just have to stop by to see how it looks in person.
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.
Winter has come to the Cumberland Plateau. It’s cold and it snowed most of Sunday. It was light flurries most of the day, but the driveway became snow-covered after dark. I don’t want to mention any names, but one member of the family was very happy that day.
Since it’s turned cold, the roses in containers have been moved to the garage where they will hopefully survive the winter. The roses in the beds have been pruned back and covered, so they, too, are ready for their winter nap.
The yard looks somewhat drab now — at least when it’s not covered by snow. But that doesn’t mean that everything is drab. Our Great Room looks bright and colorful now that the Christmas tree is up. And with a fire in the fireplace it feels as warm as it looks.
Wood delivered to our house. September 15, 2010.
In her blog Wednesday, Betsy told about the chimney sweep who came to give our chimney its annual cleaning.
Yesterday the reason for needing our chimney cleaned was delivered. A dump truck dumped a load of firewood in our side yard. It seems strange that firewood was delivered on the hottest day we’ve had all week, but that’s the way it worked out. Now I’ll get to keep warm by stacking it.
This is actually wood that we will burn next year. We purchase our wood a year in an advance so that we can season it and it will burn well. We do go through quite a bit of firewood each year. Our fireplace is in the Great Room and puts out enough heat to keep that room nice and toasty even on the coldest nights.
Wood that has been stacked and ready for use this year. September 15, 2010.
The picture above shows our wood pile with the wood we will burn this year. I’ll have to split some of the thicker pieces so they will burn to the satisfaction of my Beautiful Bride, so this wood will warm me twice — once when I split it and once when I burn it.
Oh, well, Betsy is happy that this wood will keep me out of trouble for a few days at least.
Our new house in Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. September, 2002.
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.
The picture above was taken on the day we closed on our house back in 2002. We fell in love with the house the first time we saw it. We still love it.
The front of our house. August 23, 2010.
But we’ve made some changes in the yard, as you may be able to see from this second picture. We’ve added the flag pole (at the extreme right of the picture), the flower beds around the lamp post and the dogwood tree (there’s one more around a redbud tree to the right of the picture), and the three rose beds — two on each side of the driveway and one near the road. We’ve also added the roses in the containers along the driveway.
This time of the year you are more likely to find us out in the yard or on the deck in back, than in the house itself. But that’s the way it is in our world.
'X' marks the spot over our house in Fairfield Glade, 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.
Betsy and I have always felt that we were led to this house here in the Glade. We fell in love with it from the moment the realtor showed it to us for the first time. The house had everything we had talked about and we made an offer that first day.
Some people have a problem understanding just how special we think this house actually is. But now I have proof. I was in the front yard a couple of weeks ago and saw this celestial ‘X marks the spot’ overhead. I would say that this proves that we do in fact live in a special place.
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I had a good visit with my parents yesterday and found them to be about as good as can be expected. They were in good spirits, but it is still sad to see how much they have aged since before Betsy had her knee surgery.
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.
Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. February 18, 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.
We had blue skies and sunshine on Thursday — we hardly knew what to do. Even more amazing was the fact that the temperature got above freezing for the first time in about 10 days.
The result of all that warmth and sunshine was this giant icicle engulfing a wind chime on the south-east corner of our house. I don’t know which impressed more — the blue sky or the icicle. By the end of the day the snow on the roof of our neighbor’s house was gone, but much of the icicle was still there.
Ice build-up behind our house, Fairfield Glade. January 15, 2010.
The picture above was taken behind our house yesterday and does a pretty good job of describing Tennessee weather over the past week or so.
First the good news — the sky is blue and the shadows in foreground mean that the sun is shining. Both of those things have been in short supply this year.
The bad news is the ice build-up on the rocks. This is a ‘natural area’ on the edge of the fairway. It is normally bare rock, although there is often moisture on the rock from run-off further up the hill. The ice is a reminder of how cold it has been so far this year. We have never seen ice this thick on these rocks.
I can hardly wait to find what the coming week will bring.
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I’m grateful for all the seasons we enjoy here on the Cumberland Plateau.
Senior Moments 