Calfkiller

It's Watery Wednesday again!

This time, I give you local color. This is taken from an old railroad bridge that is now a walking bridge (and in some disrepair, sadly) at the little town park in Sparta. I'm just so wowed by the gorgeous blue-green color of this little river!

The name of this little gem is the Calfkiller River, just another colorful Tennessee name. Apparently a Cherokee tribe that once lived here had a chief whose name translated "Calf Killer" (what an odd Indian name). The river bisects Sparta before it meets with the much more impressive Caney Fork.

UT Gardens

While Brandon was interviewing for Tennessee Governor's Academy I spent a few hours browsing University of Tennessee Gardens in Knoxville. The tulips in particular were glorious. It made me long for a better camera, and a little patch of bliss at home. I particularly adored the trellised flowers, although I didn't get a picture that did the wisteria justice. The weather was glorious.

Tennessee Governor's Academy

The smirk that says "I think I did okay."

This weekend my son Brandon and I went to Knoxville, where he interviewed for Tennessee Governor's Academy of Math and Science. From the entire state only 24 students get to attend each year. The program is amazing; a student-led learning environment. They go to University of Tennessee for physics lab and work with scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on a mentoring basis.

More on the trip in future posts.

Skywatch Friday

It's been a bad tornado season here in Tennessee; two were killed in not so far Murfreesboro yesterday and a whole lot more injured.

It wasn't bad here, really. Russ, Bran and I went to have sushi when the angry gloom was starting, then ran for the car pelted by rain and got ourselves good and soaked. Wish I'd taken pictures of the flood swirling into the storm drain in Cookeville. We took refuge in Books a Million till the tornado warning passed. When I got home I took this picture of a still-angry sky.

Watery Wednesday

What's a meme? Well, it's a blog theme. Watery Wednesday is meant to gather pictures of water. Since I went to Burgess Falls this weekend I thought I'd participate. Here's your water picture of the week. Go HERE to see other people's prettiful water pictures of the week.

You see what I mean about the water level being really high this week. Imagine the rushing noise. Gotta pee yet?

Burgess Falls

The first falls... they get progressively bigger

Workers at the electric plant had to cross this bridge on foot daily to get to work! I assume it had planks then :)

There are little waterfalls with foot bridges over them all along the walk. You can tell I made Bran & Russ pose.

This is the falls behind them. The water was really high this weekend - usually this is barely a trickle.

My favorite color - baby leaf green. The color of new life.

I'd have to say the most frequent park we visit is Burgess Falls State Park. It's a gorgeous walk along a wild river with three big drops in it. This area of Tennessee is well known for its numerous waterfalls (and caves). The falls once housed a power plant, the remnants of which are obvious all over the walk.

Saturday Russ, Brandon and I ventured there for a short walk (we didn't do the full loop because we had a hypoglycemic friend with us). I was surprised more wasn't blooming so I'll have to come back to take more pictures -- although the snow that's on the ground this morning may have killed off everything in bloom!

There were intermittent clouds so the pictures aren't the best. I was happiest with the baby leaf picture :) I'm a macro person.