Changes in the weather

This morning, settling in for a couple days of rainy, foggy mornings. 

Yesterday, second day of beautiful spring weather... 

Yesterday afternoon a steady stream of fire vehicles winded up our remote road. Later we saw this fire (probably on National Forest land -- managed fire?) from the high ridge near the house. But we but also found remnants of a 'clearing incident' in one of the developments up there. Must have been what all the fuss was about. 

It's violet time! 

...lots and lots of violets. There are a few purple ones coming out, too. The field is full of violets. 

A couple of these by the driveway. Planted? They seem to be from bulbs. No idea what they are.... 

More signs of spring:

Grape hyacinths. 

The evening light is different, trees showing a bit of color. 

At the country store, Hayesville NC. 

Smokies blogs

Fletch points out a new blog about the Great Smokey Mountains, on the Knoxville News Sentinel's Go Smokies site: Notes by Ol' Slew Foot. The blog doesn't require registration like other Knox News pages. Same for the No Silence blog, which covers East Tennessee news and politics.

(Note to Fletch: thanks for the comments, I'm glad to have shown you something you hadn't photographed yet: Apalachia Dam. I've yet to find the Powerhouse but that will be one of our next excursions... P.S. I like 'Fragments from Fletch'.....)

Note I have changed the comment format so you should be able to comment anonymously. Thought I'd done that already but with 3 Blogger blogs, hard to keep track....

NatGeo Spread

National Geographic has put their Discover Appalachia report online. Included are links to info about some of the most important cultural centers in the mountains. I'm thrilled to see that this report covers all of Appalachia, including among the attractions Watkins Glen and the Seneca-Iroquois Museum in New York state, near my original home, and the C&O Canal park in Maryland, near where I lived (DC) for many years. In this part of the woods, they highlight the John C. Campbell Folk School, Nantahala River, Tellico Plains and lots more. Fred at Fragments from Floyd pointed this out, and says he prefers the paper version. The interactive map on the Website seems to be a useful way to find out what's out there, though.

Finally!

These photos would have been posted earlier but I had a heck of a time yesterday trying to get Hello! to find my Blogger blog. Everything has names these days. I think Blogger! should have an exclamation point, too, like Yahoo!

It's getting to be flower time.... 

Along the NC/TN border

On top of Buck Bald, Tennessee. 

Lots of water coming through the TVA Apalachia Dam. 

Water from the lake flows through the dam and several miles away to the powerhouse in Tennessee. 

Apalachia Lake above the dam. 

And, near the Georgia border:

Old farm. Note the tree is changing color with buds.... 

Locals enjoying the refreshments. 

A warm weekend

Things are starting to bloom. 

Motorcyclists were out enjoying the weather Sunday... 

In the north Georgia mountains. 

Downtown Asheville, Saturday. Cold in the morning but warmed up considerably. 

Beaver Lake, north Asheville 

Mountain gold

The Digital Library of Georgia, along with some regional libraries, has a new exhibit called Thar's Gold in Them Thar Hills, about the 19th century gold rush in the hills around Dahlonega, Ga. There are photos and correspondence about he mines as recent as 1940. Some files discuss the U.S. Mint offices in Dahlonega and Charlotte NC.
The story of gold has been big around here. There was so much gold in the Dahlonega area that there was enough to gild the Georgia Capitol dome. Down the Hiwassee River, around Coker Creek, TN, there was a gold rush in the early 1800s.

Another winter day

This morning was snowy but despite low temps, it disappeared fast. Lots left on the Snowbird Mountains in the distance, though.... 

A purple finch on the feeder this morning, first I've seen here. And just the one. Interesting, since I just read a posting on The Spruce Pine Cottage blog about a similar visitor, all alone. And this blog is many miles away, in north Florida.
(My old barn feeder suffers from recent squirrel attacks.) 

Folkcatcher

Asheville's Mountain XPress tells the story of The John C. Campbell Folk School.

'Visitor' identified?

On the strange fish pictured this past week, a tip from Gary Roberts: looks like it's a Sculpin.

Weekend drives

Some scenery from a couple drives, to Blue Ridge Ga on Saturday and down the Hiwassee River nearly to the Tennessee River on Sunday.
Near the NC/Ga/Tn borders: 

Near the Ocoee River, Tn.