Sunsets

The unsettled, rainy weather has made for some fine sky shows the last few days.....

Flora and fauna

Lilies.


Five-lined (Blue-tailed) skink. Lots of them around here but hard to photograph:

Photos from Wolf Laurel

Check out Jack Lail's photos taken at Wolf Laurel this weekend. Several are in HDR format so are spectacular, especially the dawn over the clouds shots.....via Jack Lail's blog. (The Pot Man reminds me of one I photographed at Fairchild Tropical Garden several years ago.

Fires Creek

Fires Creek road follows the creek up into the Tusquitee Mountains.
Black-eyed Susans.
Nice little waterfall.
Horse camp.

Saturday fun in the mountains

Tennessee Valley Railroad (Hiwassee branch) excursion train leaving Copperhill, TN for the trip back to Etowah. First time we've seen the train on these tracks...it hasn't gone as far as Copperhill before this summer.

Tubing on the Toccoa River.

Blue Ridge Grass playing at the Brasstown, NC community center. Fine concert.

Along the Parkway

After the rain Wednesday, heading back from Asheville.
Mt. Pisgah:
Looking Glass Rock:
Near Devil's Courthouse:
Turk's Cap lilies:
Scarlet bee balm:

Smoky mts:
Foggy Nantahala River:

A little bit of downtown Asheville

Battery Park Hotel and Grove Arcade
Inside the Arcade.
Nearby antique shop.


The Griffons have names. This one is 'Roger'.

Summer scenes

Rhododendron.
Just over the Tennessee line, near Turtletown.
Apalachia Dam,
and the tube carrying the Hiwassee River from the dam to the powerhouse a few miles below.
Violet, NC.
Honeysuckle
It's blackberry time.

Forest roads

Along North Shoal Creek.


Along Shulers Creek.


New ride.

Rain!

You may wonder why I've been posting rain photos recently, but we've had so little that a day like today, with hours of rain, is a real blessing.

Bee balm and the first lily.
Sunset the other night when it didn't rain, just threatened for awhile.

Road race

Did you see this car, yesterday, passing Murphy? I did, or at least one that looked like this, driving west on highway 64/74 yesterday afternoon. In the short time we waited to cross the highway near Ranger we saw three unique old roadsters, heading west.

Turns out it was the Great Race, which covered roads between Spartanburg and Chattanooga yesterday, with a lunch stop at Maggie Valley. Wish I'd known about this event sooner...might have been worth a drive to Chattanooga to watch all the cars arrive. Schedule here. More pictures and video. And here, from the Times Free Press.
(Photo from the Great Race Flickr gallery)