Hot and dry

No rain in well over a week, so at least we're spared some of the normal smoke from brush burnings this time of year. Not as bad as Chattanooga, which is 9 inches below normal rainfall and smoky from lots of wildfires.
Despite the 80 degree weather the last few days, though, things seem to be blooming on a normal schedule, at least according to what I posted this time last year.

Trailing Arbutus (never saw one so pink!)

Lots of violets:


First butterfly:


Pretty green for so little rain:

Hot spring weekend

Happy honeybee on peach blossoms.
Flowering cherry in McCaysville.
Ocoee River, McCaysville Ga/Copperhill TN.


Dusk, Cherokee Hills golf course (Murphy).

(Added later:) Not quite so hot in Boone area, check out the view from Marie's deck.

Mountain towns make the 'great cities' list

Fred First posts a link to an image of a Salon list of the best Southern cities. Among them, Fred's home, Floyd, Va. The photo is by longtime blogger (Fragments from Floyd) First. Fred comments on what affect this attention might have on Floyd here and here.

The list also includes our nearest cities, Asheville NC and Chattanooga, TN. Both well-deserving.

Pink and blue

It's that time of year when the landscape hasn't changed yet, there are just a few flowers, and, even though the desire to stay outside is compelling, there're not many photo opportunities. Or, maybe it's just me and I've been doing boring things: working on the computer, house cleaning, and drives to town and back. I hope the photos get more interesting soon. Meanwhile, I liked the colors after sunset last night, so here's a study in pink and blue (and white):

Peach blossoms and smiling crescent moon.
Ghostly flowering pear tree.

(Added later:) I didn't plant this Bradford pear, and wouldn't plant any others. What good is a pear tree with no pears? Check out this 'mountaintop' poem about the Bradford Pear, which calls it 'the Paris Hilton of trees'.

Before it's too late

In Buncombe County, they're getting serious about the problem of large developments on mountainsides and ridgetops. Seems the whole of Western NC could use this campaign: SaveOurSlopes.org.

More color

Starting to feel like spring....


... hope....

It will be cooler this weekend. But no sign of any more cold down the road yet.

Friday sunset

Over Parksville Lake, Sugar Loaf in distance:

Over Friendship Church.

Pileated

Not the best photo since I hit the shutter too quickly as I tried to move into place without disturbing him:

Cold barn eclipse

The night was cold and the eclipse was later than expected, but at least the barn had a bit of warmth:

A little color

Not spring yet but a few days of warm weather have things popping out. Daffodils are everywhere but not up here yet.

Waiting for the storm

It's already rained much of the night and all morning, and this junco doesn't look happy about it:

Much nicer day before yesterday, at Cherokee Lake:



The dogs liked it too.

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...

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.

Warmer weather

Enjoying the late afternoon sun at Cherokee Lake

..and the cloud show.

Yet another sunset

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.

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:

After the rain