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Wordless Wednesday: On Clingman’s Dome
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Smoky Mountains Wildflowers: Bee Balm
Bee Balm (Monarda didyma) is a member of the mint family, and as the name implies, holds lots of attraction for bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. There is also a purple bee-balm found in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The examples above and below were...
Newfound Gap Loop
Philosophical Friday again. This time it's the classic situation that sometimes to go forward you've got to go backwards. The road up to Newfound Gap offers just such a case in point. The road climbs until it reaches a place on the mountain that is too steep for a...
Bear Essentials
I take a lot of photographs log cabins for resort rental companies. And I've seen every cute little thing related to bears in these cabins. Many of them are a tacky dis on the proud and mighty black bear. But I like the one pictured above. The cheerful bear holding...
Smoky Mountains Wildflowers: Turks Cap Lily
Turk's Cap Lily (Lilium superbum) is a large wildflower that grows to 3 to 8 feet tall. It blooms July to September, and loves the roadside at higher elevations. Look for it along the Clingman's Dome Road in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Please stop in and...
The Woods are Lovely, Dark and Deep
Celebrating a fine Smoky Mountain day with a few thoughts gleaned from poet Wendell Berry: I come into the peace of wild things … for a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. We pray, not for new earth or heaven, but to be quiet in heart, and in eye,...
Miles Away on Monday: Clouds Floating By
It's a blue-sky morning, clouds floating by. The Smoky Mountains are shimmering in the distance. Two cheerful rockers wait for you on the deck. Take a few moments, sit down, take it all in. It's a good day for a hike or a good day to wander the shops on Glades Rd....
Artfair Time: Gatlinburg Craftsmen’s Fair!
Set-up today for the July 2017 version of the Gatlinburg Craftsmen's Fair at the Gatlinburg Convention Center. Running from July 14th through the 23rd, look for me at the bottom of the escalator just as you enter. We start setting up for the fair with a blank slate...
Mysterious Mountain Memories
In the middle of a hot summer, I can get restless, and feeling a bit confined within the boundaries of "normal" images. I start to think "outside the camera." For example, a few weeks ago I wrote a post about camera movement during long exposures to create...
Along the Roaring Fork: Bud Ogle Farm
The Ogle family goes way back in the Gatlinburg area. In fact, Noah Ogle's great-grandparents, William (1756–1803) and his wife Martha Huskey (1756–1826), made a life here in the early 1800s. Noah (aka Bud) and Cindy Ogle settled on this 400 acre homestead in 1879...