Photo Blogging Challenge (April 2016): Vibrant

At the beginning of the month we took a trip down to Tennessee to visit family.  Our timing was perfect.  We left gray, cold, snowy weather and drove into sunshine and landscapes green and lush with spring flowers - just right for this month's Vibrant challenge. 

 

  

 

 

We ended the month by tackling our burn pile.  Finally, the dead River Birch was dry enough to catch.  We also had last year's Christmas tree on the pile, and just two flicks of the lighter, things were crackling. 

 

 

To see more, visit A 'lil Hoohaa

 

AMDG 

A good read: The Chestertons and the Golden Key

Have you ever been asked if you could pick three people, past or present, with whom to have dinner, who would they be?  The first for me is always easy, it would be GK Chesterton.  So, when I started reading The Chestertons and the Golden Key, I found myself getting a little jealous of sisters Clare, Joan and Cece.  After all, what GKC fans wouldn't want to spend time with such a brilliant and genlte man?  Although this story is a work of fiction, it is, in fact, based on the real life friendship formed between the Chestertons and the young girls. 

While in town, Cece and Joan spy visiting author GK Chesterton and his wife, Frances.  Knowing that this is the favorite author of their older sister, Clare, they run home to fetch her.  Thus begins a wonderful adventure full of hijinks, hope and love.   

Nancy Carpentier Brown weaves a delightful tale, that, although geared for young readers, adults will thoroughly enjoy as well.  The book is illustrated with lovely drawings by Anna Engelhart.

AMDG

TToT(15): Catching Up

 

I seem to be better at doing these monthly rather than weekly, so here it goes.  Catching up since last time.

 

one:  At the beginning of the month we drove to Tennessee to visit my aunt and uncle.  As always, it was great to see them.

 

two:  There was something different about this trip.  Usually we are ready to come home, but not this time.  We could have stayed much longer.

 

three:  We had great timing throughout the trip.  We left later than we had wanted, but it ended up working in our favor.  We missed the bulk of a heavy rainstorm and only had to drive in light rain and drizzle.  By the time we arrived, it was clear, sunny and twenty degrees warmer than when we had left.

 

four:  We went back to Cades Cove, but went on a Monday morning rather than Sunday.  Big, BIG difference in the amount of people there.  As in a whole lot less.

 

five:  While at Cades Cove we saw a bobcat, a coyote, and some interesting birds.  When there are a lot of people and traffic there, the critters tend to hide.

 

six:  We missed a snowstorm while we were gone.  From what we gather there was about four to six inches of snow, all which was melted by the time we got home.

 

seven:  Sunsets over the lake are stunning.

 

eight:  I've been seeing more and more critters around here on my morning walks with the hairy beast.  In just the last two weeks I have seen a muskrat in the stream, a large owl fly by and land in a tree, deer cross the road, and a pileated woodpecker pounding  tree looking for bugs.  The owl was a first for me.

 

nine:  I've got to copy off of Christine's post last week.  The asparagus is growing!  I say that excitedly since I hadn't seen any until late this week and had thought it had all died.

 

ten:  I will be heading outside to plant a tree in the front yard.  My aunt had dug up and potted a Japanese Maple for me and I have just the perfect spot for it.  I love getting plants that had their start in the yards of family and friends.

 

bonus:  The Cavs have won their first three playoff games against Detroit.  Dare we hope for a sweep of this series?

 

Check out more goodness at  one of these hosts:

 A Fly on our (Chicken Coop) Wall, Amycake and the Dude, Considerings, Finding Ninee, Getting Literal, I Want Backsies, The Meaning of Me, Thankful Me, Uncharted, The Wakefield Doctrine .

 

AMDG

Just When I Thought I’ve Seen It All

On Tuesday we came home after visiting family in Tennessee.  It was a wonderful trip and we were pleasantly surprised at how well the drive had gone.  We hadn’t run into too many doofuses (or is that doofi?).  That is until we were about an hour or so from home.

Let me set the stage.  It was around 6pm, give or take, and rush hour traffic in this rural area was not very heavy.  The speed limit was 70mph and most people were pushing past that a bit.

We were driving in the middle lane of the three that are there.  We noticed a silver Buick Lucerne hanging out in the left lane up ahead.  Car after car came up behind it, slowed down, waited, and then finally passed on the right.

As we approached the car we were guessing that about who the driver could be.  I figured it was an elderly driver.  Whoever it was didn’t get the concept that the left lane is the high speed, or passing, lane.

The person wasn’t old, not at all.  It was a young woman with apparently better things to do than pay attention to the road.

Her right hand, which held a cell phone, was resting on the top of the steering wheel.  She had her sun visor down and the cover of the vanity mirror on it flipped open.  And, she was leaning up to the mirror putting a contact in!  All at seventy plus miles per hour!

We couldn’t get away from her fast enough.

I’m still shaking my head.

AMDG

First Photo: April 2016

 

What's the saying?  A day late and a dollar short.  That's me recently.  Good intentions but behind as always.  The picture was taken on time, processed on time, just not posted on time. 

 

At least Spring has arrived on time, and in all its glory.  Green is showing up everywhere along pops of color - peach and purple hyacinths and golden yellow daffodils. 

 

Yeah God!

  

AMDG