Posts Tagged ‘Tennessee’

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

My World: Consider the Lilies

June 15, 2010

Lilies in our yard, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. June 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.

Most of you know that Betsy and I love roses and have quite a few in our yard.  Roses are  definitely our favorite flowers, but lilies are a close second.  We have lilies in three beds; the picture above is of part of the bed along the side of our deck.  When the doors leading to the deck are open, the fragrance is heavenly.

Lilies and Roses

June 10, 2010

Lilies and roses in our new flower bed, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. May 30, 2010.

If you’ve been visiting this blog for any length of time, you’ve heard about the wall and new flower bed that we built along the road in front of the house.  Building the wall and filling in the bed took several weeks, and during the winter after a severe thunderstorm, part of it had to be rebuilt.

But this time of the year all the aggravations were worth it, as you can see from the picture above.  Most of the iris planted in the bed bloomed and hopefully they will do so again in the autumn.  We are now enjoying the lilies and roses and the daylilies (which are hard to spot in this picture) are starting to bloom.

Betsy and I definitely think the work was worth it.  We are definitely enjoying the new view in front of our house.  And we’ve noticed an added bonus to having that new flower bed out there.  Most of the cars going up or down the road in front of the house are going a little slower this year!

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I’m happy to report that Betsy is continue to mend.  She can now stand with out pain, although that knee still complains if she walks too much at one time.  But she is making progress and is able to sleep at night without pain.

My World: Cosby

June 8, 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.

The Smoky Mountains are an important part of live here in eastern Tennessee.  The national park brings in lots of tourists and is important to the economy.

But Betsy and I tend to avoid tourists whenever possible.  We often go to the eastern side of the Smokies.  One of our favorite areas is around Cosby, Tennessee.  We’ve been there several times.  The pictures in the collage above were taken on a visit to Cosby in March of last year.

To see these pictures and others, click HERE.

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I’m happy to report that Betsy is getting along pretty well after her knee surgery.  She had some problems with her pain medicine over the weekend, but she’s doing better now.  She’s able to walk short distances without any pain, which we consider progress.

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.

Skywatch Friday: A New Beginning

June 4, 2010

Sunrise on the Plateau. June 6, 2006.

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.

This week has been rather hectic, so I had to go to the archives to find a picture to post.  I chose this picture of a sunrise here in the Glade taken from one of our golf courses.

I felt a sunrise is appropriate to post today because Betsy’s surgery went well yesterday afternoon.  The surgeon was pleased with the procedure and felt that it would give Betsy relief from her pain.  Betsy was able to move around last night without pain, so we hope that is a good sign.  She has a pain prescription to help her over the next couple of days.  Although Betsy should move around, she’s under doctor’s orders to take it easy, so I guess I’ll have to mow the lawn this weekend!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

National Rose Month

June 3, 2010

Our front yard, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. May 26, 2010.

I found out yesterday (Wednesday) that June is National Rose Month.  So I decided I would mark the occasion by sharing this picture of our front yard.  I have to admit that this picture was taken last week when it was still May, but you can see our three rose beds as well as the containers along the driveway that contain roses.  You can’t see all of them, but we have 55 varieties of roses.  Betsy says that taking care of those roses helps keep me out of trouble.

Speaking of Betsy, please keep her in your thoughts and prayers again today.  She will be having orthoscopic surgery on her knee this afternoon.  Her doctor thinks that a frayed Medial Miniscus in her knee is causing her problems and this surgery should fix everything.  We certainly hope the doctor is right.