Monday, February 26, 2007

Tennessee River: Loudon

Kids on the riverbank.

More Cherokee history.

This inn is a restaurant/coffee bar near the river, brand new, but using old buildings.



The log building has been there for awhile: Carmichael Inn. This article about the renovation says it was moved there 20 years ago. The renovation links it to a separate brick building that seems to have been there forever, where the coffee shop (above) is located...

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Along the Tennessee

Little harbor on an inlet off the Tennesee River.

This almost looks like a Maine scene.

Bird blogging: Blue Heron on watch.

Old Louisville, an early riverside settlement near Maryville.

Lovely old buildings, being preserved.

There's new development, too, across the river. More like sprawl.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Warmer weather

Enjoying the late afternoon sun at Cherokee Lake

..and the cloud show.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Sunday cat and snow blogging

Kitty is a bit depressed today because all she can do is look outside:
Since it looked like this this morning,

And she just can't put those little feet in the snow.

At least we have an antidote to the cold:

I'd go out and get better snow pictures for you but although the sun is nice the wind is just too much.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Asheville blogger and mountain photos

Here's a blog from Asheville that might be worth spending more time at: Where's the Outrage? Errington Thompson is a trauma surgeon at Mission Hospitals but also hosts a radio talk show and this blog, which contains podcasts from the show and links to news clips as well as textual postings. He was profiled in the Asheville Citizen Times the other day. Interesting commentary about current events and politics. Not particularly local, but there's a good Asheville-area blogroll.

For some more snow photos from Western NC, see this post on Hillbilly Savants, of mountain scenes around Hot Springs, NC, including Max Patch, and Paint Creek, TN.

...and some nice photos after the ice storm from Doug Thompson in Floyd County, Va.

Mountaintop dustings

Snow expected this weekend, but yesterday there was snow (and/or rime) on the mountains around Blairsville Ga:



Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Sunday, February 11, 2007

More spectacular blue sky and lake

Carters Lake is in the southwesternmost Georgia mountains. It's a Army Corps of Engineers lake, built in the 1960s and 1970s.
We'd seen signs to the lake on the way to and from Atlanta, and wanted to see what it looked like.

The lake is gorgeous, especially on this bright sunny winter day, especially since it's protected from development. But even more spectacular:

The dam is a huge fill dam with one channel cut through the mountain to generate electricity.

Below the lake, a second lake was created to hold water to pump back up into the high lake for more generation power.



This is the very edge of the last of the Blue Ridge. Down there in the valley, Sherman's army marched and now I-75 from Atlanta to Chattanooga.

About 15 miles to the west, the Cherokee town of New Echota was built as the last capital of the Cherokee. It made it easy, I guess, to move them out through Chattanooga's Ross's Landing along the Trail of Tears. I'd read about New Echota and never saw a good explanation before of where it was. Turns out there is a state historical site there.

New Echota was at the end of the Coosawattee River, which formed this lake. A historic marker here says there was a Cherokee town called 'Coosa' near here, too, where DeSoto and his men camped on their trip north and west. (Historical signs marking DeSoto's path are along the highway near where we live in western Cherokee County, NC. Did they follow this river up the mountains and then the Nottley to the Hiwassee?)

Friday, February 09, 2007

A spectacular tree

Somewhere in north Georgia: this oak must be a couple hundred years old, so old the trunk has grown twisted.



This nearby farm has the best collection of red barns I've seen in a long time.

It's hard to believe, even looking at the photos, that it could have been that gloriously bright yesterday. Bluer than blue...but still pretty cold.

(And, OK, just had to pose by the tree...)

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Floyd Jamboree

Those drawn to the area around Floyd, Virginia, will want to see Doug Thompson's photos of the Friday Night Jamboree, here and here. The Floyd Country Store was closed for remodeling for a month or so, so last Friday was the first in awhile. Might be worth a trip to Floyd to see the new, enlarged store, with music shop and soda fountain coming soon.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Sad news

The whooping cranes that stopped at Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge have been killed in the Florida storms, 18 of the eastern flock that migrates from Wisconsin each year. Seems they were confined to an area that flooded.

Super Bowl sunset, and cat blogging


Keeping warm.....

Thursday, February 01, 2007

A brief change

Here's what we woke up to this morning. It was pretty thick about 5:30 or so but by 10, snow had turned to drizzle, so this probably won't last very long....