Learning...
12 years ago
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
100-106/365 Days of Photos
Wow, 100 days of photos. Didn't think I would be on my way home from Washington, DC on Day 100 of this photo journey; but then again I wasn't even sure I would make it to day 100. So here's to road trips, spontaneity, and photography. I enjoyed my first trip to Washington even if it was cold, dreary and crowded as heck! I got photos of most of the "important" things. Some day I will go back and actually get inside them maybe! I have to note that other than all the history I was immersed in, the thing that stood out to me the most was the diversity in this town. I couldn't believe how many nationalities were there - living, working and visiting. I have heard that America is a melting pot - Washington, DC, is proof!
100/365 ~ Leaving DC
Wow, 100 days of photos. Didn't think I would be on my way home from Washington, DC on Day 100 of this photo journey; but then again I wasn't even sure I would make it to day 100. So here's to road trips, spontaneity, and photography. I enjoyed my first trip to Washington even if it was cold, dreary and crowded as heck! I got photos of most of the "important" things. Some day I will go back and actually get inside them maybe! I have to note that other than all the history I was immersed in, the thing that stood out to me the most was the diversity in this town. I couldn't believe how many nationalities were there - living, working and visiting. I have heard that America is a melting pot - Washington, DC, is proof!
102/365 ~ Every cloud has a silver lining and sometimes they have navy blue linings
The clouds today were just amazing. They took on so many different forms and colors. This is the scene behind our office just off Dana Road. It's not the most scenic with the power lines and the bright white split level next to the beautiful red barn but I could hardly see that for the beauty of the sky. And check out the bird - it must have been huge to show up in the lens so far away. Thanks, Mike Dirks for letting me grab your camera and snap this shot before the clouds passed.
103/365 ~ "I touch the future. I teach." - Christa McAuliffe
And so does my daughter, Amanda. Today she was rewarded for her hard work in studying to be a teacher. She received two scholarships which will come in handy when she starts her final year in August. Her dad and I are both very proud of all of our kids and we are happy that one of them has finally decided to do what we both thought we wanted to do ... teach! Congrats, Amanda. Keep up the good work!
104/365 ~ "Quiet is peace. Tranquility. Quiet is turning down the volume knob on life. Silence is pushing the off button. Shutting it down. All of it. - Amir" — Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner)
I pass this little pond and cabin weekly on my trek from Coleman Freeman to Joseph Laughter. It's Timber Lake Cabin on Blythe Street - here's what their web site has to say about the cabin:
"Timberlake is your sweet vacation getaway, with private lake and secure, pet friendly site. Embraced by a hundred acre wood, yet just minutes (1.6 miles) to downtown Hendersonville, where you find unique shops, award-winning restaurants and numerous services. No matter what you choose to do on your vacation, Timberlake and the surrounding Blue Ridge mountains will satisfy."
105/365 ~ Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon. - Doug Larson
I love the quote but realize that the green veggies can be pretty good especially when they are fresh off the local farms. Every spring we anxiously await the re-opening of the corner produce market. This year we've already been by twice for green peppers and zucchini. I'll be honest though, one of my favorite things at this PRODUCE market is the BANANA PUDDING ice cream - haha - hey, bananas are produce, too :)
Amy with one of her professors, Sandra Grunwell, after receiving the Outstanding Hospitality and Tourism Major Award today at WCU. So proud of her!!
93-99/265 Days of Photos
99/365 ~ Yogi Bear for President!
Today we went to the National Mall and found everyone preparing for the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade. Yogi was poised to take over the Capitol ... maybe he'll run for President in 2012. He's got my vote!
103/365 ~ "I touch the future. I teach." - Christa McAuliffe
And so does my daughter, Amanda. Today she was rewarded for her hard work in studying to be a teacher. She received two scholarships which will come in handy when she starts her final year in August. Her dad and I are both very proud of all of our kids and we are happy that one of them has finally decided to do what we both thought we wanted to do ... teach! Congrats, Amanda. Keep up the good work!
I said sugar and they said sugar ... I meant kisses and they meant candy ... we have a win-win relationship :)
96/365 ~ Homemade Green Medicine anyone?
Just wondering who all at there recognizes this run down doorway as the entrance to what used be a haven for the sick and weary? It's Ole Doc Norton's place of course. Did you know that the green medicine he gave us all is now patented and sold commercially? It's called Donatal and it's now purple and tastes better from what I've been told.
95/365 ~ Wow, You Should Really Do Something About That Slice!
When the golf ball is slicing to the right, that means it's curving in a left-right motion across the sky. For the ball to do this, it must be spinning in a clockwise direction. A tornado, or twister, is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. One of these wicked rotations obviously hit the Etowah Valley Golf Course overnight, leaving in its wake a path of twisted and uprooted trees.
EVCC holds a dear place in my heart. It was one of the first jobs I took after the kids started to school and Hayes and Rick and Frank and John have remained some of my closest buddies. I love them and I love being on this course. It's where I got caught in a lightening storm and got absolutely drenched. It's also where I left a permanent scar on my bosses' forehead while he tried to teach me how to chip. It's just one of those places I always go back to when I need an old friend (kind of like my Charleston in the mountains.) Needless to say, I had a few tears today while snapping these photos.
I love having breakfast for dinner; especially when it means having some of these delicious rich egg yolk green and brown eggs! The eggs are the product of Araucana chickens raised in Tennessee. Toby at Mattress Outlet told me about them and we had the farmer bring us ten dozen to split. They are delicious. Below is a little bit more about these cool blue, green and brown egg laying chickens:
The Araucana, also known in the USA as a South American Rumpless,[1] is a breed of chicken originating in Chile. The Araucana is often confused with other fowl, especially the Ameraucana and Easter Egger chickens, but has several unusual characteristics which distinguish it. They lay blue eggs, have feather tufts near their ears, and a tail. To comply with the north American standard they must have no tail and are rumpless.
The ancestors of the modern Araucana chicken were purportedly first bred by the Araucanian Indians of Chile — hence the name "Araucana." The Araucana is a hybrid of two South American breeds: the Collonca (a naturally blue-egg laying, rumpless, clean-faced chicken) and the Quetro (a pinkish-brown egg layer that is tailed and has ear-tufts). The Collonca male and female are very similar, with very few secondary sexual characteristics like comb, wattles or tail coverts to distinguish them.
Amongst all the beauty I saw today with my three photo shoots was this huge elk. It was my first trip to Cataloochee and I was so excited to see how close these elk are. They just walk right up to you.
The experimental release of elk into Great Smoky Mountains National Park began in February, 2001 with the importation of 25 elk from the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area along the Tennessee-Kentucky border. In 2002, the park imported another 27 animals. All elk were radio collared and were monitored during the eight-year experimental phase of the project. In 2009-2010, the park began developing an environmental assessment of the program and a long-term management plan for elk. Project partners include the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Parks Canada, Great Smoky Mountains Natural History Association, Friends of the Smokies, the U.S.G.S. Biological Resources Division, and the University of Tennessee.
86-92/365 Days of Photos
86/365 ~ Grasping at Straws ... err, I mean Spoons
Yes, it's 11:00 on a rainy Sunday that found me inside all day and looking around the house for something of meaning to shoot at this late hour. I pass by a wall of spoons from the living room to the kitchen a million times a year. Many who visit remark on the collection and ask how long I've been collecting. I started in 2nd grade when we joined the Little River Cloggers. Mama suggested we find something to collect in our travels with the team as well as the vacations they would be taking us on. So how old are you in the 2nd grade? Seven? Then I've been collecting these things for about 37 years? Wow! I have one rack that holds 99 spoons a gift requested by someone special and made by my dad; and several racks that hold 10 or more each. I've got spoons I collected on our trip out across the country when I was 17. I've got a wooden spoon from Russia brought to me by a co-worker at EVCC back in 1996. I have a Scarlet O'Hara spoon sandwiched between Rhett Butler and Elvis spoons. I even have all of my baby spoons lined up with all three of my childrens' baby spoons. The spoons pictured in today's photo of the day are the first ones I collected - they are from our clogging trip to Cherokee, NC and family vacations to Grandfather mountain and Gatlinburg, TN. They need to be dusted and some need to be polished but they're all there and accounted for and most every single one has a memory to be shared. - Taken with Retro Camera App for Android Phones
87/365 ~ Chimney Rock Park in the fog
It was really foggy today down through the gorge. By the time I took this photo and got back down to the road I looked back up and it was completely engulfed in the fog. I was impressed with the fact that I got this close of a shot - thanks to the 70-200 lens I borrowed. Too bad I had the ISO turned up to 6400 - and forgot to reset it - everything is very noisy today!
Privately owned by the Morse family for more than 100 years, Chimney Rock was acquired by the state of North Carolina in 2007 to become part of a larger state park dubbed Chimney Rock State Park. Currently, the 1,000-acre Chimney Rock is one of only two areas of the state park open to the public.
Chimney Rock, the 535-million-year-old monolith for which the Park is named, is considered one of the most iconic sites in North Carolina. From its top, you’ll soak in the 75-mile panoramic views of Hickory Nut Gorge and Lake Lure.
88/365 ~ Little details of our daily life.
Today I've had a monster headache all day. One that some might call a migraine but since I've only had three before this one, I'm not sure I'm qualified to diagnose it. All I know is, after sleeping all day, I woke up craving chocolate. I found a bag of Valentine candy and it was filled with hearts. I'm not a fan of them but when I dumped them out they were so full of love and even though they weren't chocolate they were very sweet! I don't think I've ever taken the time to read them, at least not since I understood the true meaning of soul mate :)!
89/365 ~ There are three easy ways of losing money - racing is the quickest, women the most pleasant, and farming the most certain - Lord Amhearst
For all my elementary school friends - a trip through Little River today found me this barn on 75 acres at the corner of Everett Farm Road and Crab Creek. This is the Shuford's old place and it's now for sale. 75 acres totaling 2.25 million dollars! Wow - Little River is kind of expensive now!
90/365 ~ Saluda Cottages, Flat Rock, NC
Again, I couldn't decide on which view I liked best today so I went with a collage. I would love a chance to visit the inside of this home.
This stately home and estate carries with it a heritage of distinction. Originally constructed in 1836, Saluda Cottage is listed on the National Register Of Historic Places and lies within the heart of the Historic Village Of Flat Rock. It is located next to the Carl Sandburg Estate and National Park, as well as the Flat Rock Theater, the State Theater of North Carolina.
Coastal South Carolinians continued to come to Flat Rock, calling it their "little Charleston of the mountains." They hired local men to build their houses, make furniture, and tend their gardens and livestock. Women and children came the end of May and remained all summer, while men, some of whose names are recorded in the annals of South Carolina’s history, went to and from Charleston as responsibilities allowed. Among them was Count Marie Joseph deChoiseul, the French consul to Charleston. He built Saluda Cottages (panel 21), a small two-story house with two houses for employees just south of it. The deChoiseuls remained at Saluda Cottages until 1841, when "The Castle," where the Countess and her son and daughters would remain year-round, was ready for occupancy. The original house was the center portion of today’s Chanteloup (panel 15). The additions, and the gardens designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, were added by the Norton sisters of Kentucky near the turn of the century.
Saluda Cottages had been so called because it lay near the Saluda Path, the first road to open Saluda Gap to wagons traveling from South Carolina. John Earle, living just across the state line, had been granted land near the "great flat rock" and had built a mill that would play an important part in Flat Rock’s history. Information courtesy of Louise Bailey (http://www.villageofflatrock.org/quiltinfo.htm)
91/365 ~ Biker's Hangout
Spent the day in Saluda and loved this shot of all the bikes lined up outside The Purple Onion while the bikers enjoyed lunch inside. Visit saluda.com for more information about this wonderful restaurant and more in such a wonderful little town.
Ditto but with my camera :) View of Roan Mountain or Mount Mitchell, maybe, from Double Island Road, Bakersfield, NC
Went loafin' as my dad would call it and wound up following the quilt trails through Burnsville, Spruce Pine and Bakersfield. Isn't this a magnificent view?
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
Washington, DC
down around the Tidal Basin. The whole day was long and cloudy and cold ... and we had packed for Charleston! The first order of the day was to find some sweat pants or jeans for me and a sweatshirt for Frank. Next time - better planning.
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