Just another sunset. 

One of the pleasures of walking around our place, especially in late summer, is the profusion of strange delicate little flowers I've never seen anywhere before. 

Don't ask me to identify any of these, though.... 

Here's another. 

Oh, and one last peach picture. I'll be cutting up and freezing/preserving the last of them today...hope to make a few last in the fridge for eating, though....  

On Hiwassee Lake

Starting out from near downtown.The day was a bit too cloudy to get good on-the-water photos. 

The railroad used to cross the Hiwassee River in downtown Murphy. No more. No trains to the other side of the river in several years, either, but there are signs.... 

The section near Murphy is high with some cliffs. 

Looks like a good place to fish.... 

The perfect campsite, no access except by water, far as I know. We swam here once on a camping trip many years ago when we brought a Zodiac and puttered around the lake. 

The 'swimming hole' at Hanging Dog campground. (The cemetary pictured a few weeks ago is to the right of this.) 

Always fun. 

Side of the road. 

Get us out of here! 

Close up. 

Brasstown Bald after rain. 

Hydrangeas. 

Just another road... 

Starting to look like late summer around here, and rain last night has finally cooled it off. Joe Pye Weed. 

Crepe myrtle. 

Just had to show one more peach picture. And I think I finally figured out the macro setting on the new camera. 

Something to do this weekend

Ducktown Mainstreet has information about Saturday's Postelle Day. Among the attractions there, Ducktown Station bluegrass band. Looks like the band plays starting at 6, and a fun evening all around. Directions to Postelle on the Ducktown site.

More Civil War maps

I know I posted a link to another site with Civil War maps last year, but now here's another: a site with historical maps of the South, done by a Confederate Army engineer: Gilmer Civil War Maps Collection at UNC.

I found one map of the local area by searching North Carolina (didn't check Tennessee) and found this one, showing the entire NC-SC-GA mountain area....this is a small section of the map, enlarged....

Interesting things to be found in old maps. The area just northwest of us is identified as Laurel Valley, a name I've not seen anywhere in modern maps.
But then, I guess it was a valley before it became a lake.

Just up the road aways, the woods get dark and deep. Good place to walk on a hot afternoon. The hemlock in foreground is massive. 

Cherokee County in the news

Nice feature in the Asheville Citizen-Times on Fields of the Woods, the unusual 'amusement park' just down the road from us, where you can see the world's biggest 10 Commandments....

Just had to show you the peaches now. I'm tossing a couple buckets with brown rot daily, but most are still hanging in. I have lots of falls that I'm thinking about cutting up, but why not wait for the good ones? Will they last? 

So close to ripe but just a bit hard. Only a few days. Then I'll be frantic cutting and freezing for this winter's cobblers and pies. 


Last year I got none. I trimmed the trees as recommended in late winter but just succeeded in cutting off most of the new bud growth. The ones that did come in all succumbed to brown rot, except for one large beauty which disappeared the day I planned to pick it...the day after the bear. Did he come back at night for it?

This photo is, of course, a total mistake, but I like it anyway. Man, dog and beast, light and color.