November Rose

Apricot Nectar Rose, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. November 4, 2009.

Betsy and I spent most of the afternoon trying to get some of the leaves out of our yard.  I like our house in the woods most of the time, but there are disadvantages in the autumn since all of the trees around the house lose their leaves.  Why couldn’t we have found a house surrounded by pine trees?

Actually, I shouldn’t complain.  The back of our house is on the the rough of the golf course and the golf course maintenance crews remove the leaves from the rough.  They will also remove any leaves we get from our back yard onto golf course property.  So we busily raked and blew leaves from our yard to the rough.  Since the houses above us have already done this, I’m sure the maintenance crews will be delighted when they get to this part of the course!

Even though it’s November, we still have roses in bloom.  I brought in two blossoms for Betsy Wednesday and there are a few more out in the yard.  I didn’t bring in Apricot Nectar, the rose in the picture above, although I may do so today.  I’m surprised that we haven’t had a frost yet.  The valleys on both sides of us have had frost, but so far we’ve been lucky.  I’m not sure how much longer that will last.

I Don’t Have Enough To Do

Our front yard. April 2, 2009.

The picture above was obviously taken several months ago — in early April, to be exact.  I’m showing it because I want you to note the drop-off from the road.  I’ve noticed as I’ve gotten older that the slope is getting steeper and more difficult to mow.

Our new retaining wall. August 13, 2009.

This second picture was taken a few days ago.  As you can see I have been building a retaining wall (it’s not yet finished).  I’ll then fill in the area between the wall and the road.  Our first thought was to have a level strip of grass, which would certainly be easier to mow.  But then we realized that we could put a pretty good flower bed up there.  That area of the yard gets more sun than just about any other part.  If you look closely you can see that we’ve already planted some ground cover at the extreme left of this area.

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My parents are experiencing some plumbing problems and Dad won’t call a plumber until I look over the situation.  So Betsy and I will be making a trip to Hendersonville today (Monday).  Unfortunately we have to go to Knoxville (in the opposite direction!) first.  I have no idea how long we will be in Hendersonville or when we will get back home.

If I don’t post tomorrow (Tuesday) that will be the reason why.

Periwinkle in Our Yard

I’ve mentioned a couple of times that our house is on the side of a hill with a lot of trees around.  And although there are lots of advantages to such a location there are also some disadvantages.  Two of the disadvantages are erosion and places where grass won’t grow.  In our case the two places often coincide, especially in the back and on the uphill side of the yard.

But three or four years ago we hit upon a solution to some of our problems.  The lot below ours is vacant and we noticed a lot of periwinkle growing in it.  So we transplanted some into one  of our problem areas.

It’s been slow, but the picture above shows how things looked earlier this week.  The periwinkle has spread to cover the area where the grass wouldn’t grow and to at least cover an area of erosion.

The pretty blue flowers of the periwinkle are a sign that spring has arrived.  And since it’s spreading I have a little less lawn to mow.  And believe me, at my age every little bit of hillside yard that doesn’t need to be mowed is an advantage!

We have several small areas of periwinkle that we are encouraging to spread.  In the meantime we enjoy the beauty they provide.

The picture at the right is a close up of the flowers of our periwinkle.

Whose Golf Course Is It?

Deer behind our house. March 20, 2009.

Betsy and I have become accustomed to seeing deer on the golf course behind our house.  They usually come by in the late afternoon, and although they have enjoyed a few bites while we watched them, they are usually quite skittish and will quickly run off if golfers come by or dogs start barking.

But yesterday we saw six deer who behaved very differently.  They came down the fairway (nothing unusual about that) and started grazing behind the house.  After a few minutes they all looked up and stared at the tees further down the hill.  Two golfers had driven up to the tee in their cart and were preparing to tee off.  We expected the deer to take off, but they just stood there watching .  The golfers teed off (without hitting any of the deer) and slowly drove past them.

The deer went back to grazing and then the smallest deer laid down on the fairway.  That was definitely different from anything we had seen before.  After a few minutes another one laid down.  Now we were really intrigued!

After a while a neighbor’s dog started barking, but instead of running off into the woods the deer moved closer to the tee.  Soon all of them were lying down.  I’m not sure how long they rested, but after a while they got up one by one.  Shortly afterward they disappeared into the woods.

As I said, we’ve never seen deer act like that before.  Maybe they knew the golfers were through for the day.  Or maybe they just thought they owned the golf course.  In either case I’m glad I could get the pictures above.  The collage can be enlarged by clicking on it.

The Glade is Deer to Us

Deer on the golf course behind our house. March 3, 2009.

Tuesday afternoon Betsy called to me to get my camera and come into the living room.  There were deer on the golf course behind our house.

I know Betsy told you about the deer in her blog of Wednesday morning and she used some of the pictures we took.  But I couldn’t resist playing around with Picasa and making the collage above.  Picasa has been one of the nice bonuses of our new computers.

The weather has finally moderated here and I was able to get some work done in the yard yesterday afternoon.  I got two roses planted — Spellbound and Radiant Perfume.  They’re replacements for two roses that didn’t survive our two-year drought, so they don’t  change the varieties we have.  I have some other roses that need to be planted, so I hope the weather continues to be mild.

Watery Wednesday # 21

Pond along the fourth hole of the Druid Hills Golf Course.

We had some snow here in the Glade on Monday.  It wasn’t a lot, but it was Betsy’s favorite type of snow — wet, big flakes that stick to everything except the roads.  The trees and bushes in our yard and along the street.

The picture above, which can be enlarged by clicking on it, gives a good idea of what things looked like around here.  This is another picture from the Druid Hills golf course, but this is on the front nine, which I don’t visit quite as often.

I don’t appreciate snow as much as Betsy does, but I have to admit that walking in a snow like this is a peaceful experience.  It’s a wonderful way to appreciate the beauty of our world.

To see more of our beautiful watery world, or to post your own pictures, click HERE for Watery Wednesday.

My World # 16

A woodpecker buffet in the Glade. January 31, 2009.

I think there may be woodpeckers in my world — or at least very close to my world.

I took the above picture Saturday (the picture can be enlarged by clicking on it).  I was carrying wood from the woodpile to the garage when I noticed this tree on the property line between our house and the empty lot next door.  I just had to get a picture.  I apologize for the perspective, but I wanted to shoot at such an angle that you could see the hole that went all the way through the tree.

As you can see there has been quite a bit of damage done to this old tree.  I know we have quite a few different types of woodpeckers around the house — red-bellied woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, northern flickers, red-headed woodpeckers and HUGE pileated woodpeckers.

We live in a wood frame house.  This is as close to my world as I want those woodpeckers to get!

To see more of our wonderful world, or to join in the fun and post your own pictures of your world, click HERE.

Skywatch Friday # 29

A Glade Sunset. January 18, 2009.

The picture above, which can be enlarged by clicking on it, was taken from my favorite point  on the Druid Hills golf course for viewing the setting sun.

I got there a little later than I had planned, and the sun had already dropped below the ridge line.  I was a little disappointed, but stayed to get a few shots of the sky.  As it got darker , the light reflecting off the clouds got redder and redder until I got the rose color in the picture above.

I’m sorry that the picture is a little dark, but I didn’t want to try any editing.  What you see is what came out of the camera.

To see more beautiful sky pictures from around the world, or to join in the fun and post your own picture on Skywatch Friday, click HERE.

Watery Wednesday # 19

The 14th fairway of Druid Hills. February, 2006.

We finally got some snow here in the Glade — not much, but enough to give us a white coating.

The picture above (which can be enlarged by clicking on it) was taken in 2006, but it is representative of the way things looked yesterday and today.  The picture was taken on the 14th fairway of the Druid Hills golf course.  (I wonder how many golf balls are at the bottom of that pond?)

I like this picture because of the gray skies, the white coating of snow, the bare trees, the dark waters and the reflection in the water.  All in all it does a pretty good job of showing why we think the Glade is beautiful any time of the year.

To see more of our watery world, check out the Watery Wednesday meme by clicking HERE.

My World 12

Crossville, Tennessee, bills itself as the ‘Golf Capital of Tennessee’.  We live near Crossville in Fairfield Glade, which has five golf courses.  Although I haven’t played golf since I was in college, the last two homes I’ve owned have been on golf courses.  I’m sure there’s a message there someplace, but I’ll save that for another time.

Right now  the golf course in my world is Druid Hills.  It’s a favored walking path when golfers aren’t around.

The picture above was taken in the spring on the 11th fairway.  Since I was walking I could face the mountains in the distance.  If I were playing golf the mountains would be to my back.

This was taken from the same fairway in early winter.  Note the church steeple poking up above the trees.

Unfortunately for Betsy, this picture, taken on the 12th tee, was shot in 2006.  Betsy is still waiting for snow this year.

The summer picture was taken from behind our house on a beautiful clear day.  This is the 18th fairway of the Druid Hills course.

This early morning picture was taken from the 18th green.  Our house (out of sight) is down the hill on the right.  I like the early morning fog in the valleys below the course.

To see more of this fascinating world of ours, click HERE or on the logo below.