Today's Flowers #38 & Lack Spring Almanac

A little dogwood at University of Tennessee Gardens.

We've had days of rain and the promise of more days of rain. My outside-loving dog, Dink, is relaxing in the yard in a respite (it's still really wet out there) from it, listening to the birds singing. When it lets up a bit I hope to go for a walk and catch some of the beautiful Tennessee Spring flowers. The neighbor across the road has some gorgeous purple and yellow orchids. And the maples in the front yard are fully leaved. How is it that they're barren, you notice one day that they've got little baby leaves on them, and it seems like the next day they're fully dressed?

I adore spring. Dink does too. Need to get my herbs planted this week too.

Scenic Sunday

To me, this looks like somewhere tropical with the deep blue-green color of the lake and the treed mountains on the other side. Nope. It's right here in Tennessee. Watauga Lake is reported to be one of the cleanest lakes in the nation, and based on the gorgeous color, I believe it. I'm not a big fan of lake swimming, but I'd jump in here. This North Coast (Cleveland) girl misses the water.

Dragon Days Renaissance Festival

Russ borrowed the nice camera from my father-in-law and took almost no pictures with it! So I have no chess match pictures, one not very good pic of my booth... blah. I think I made him take this one, and most of the others he took! Not a single one of any of the three of us.

These are friends of ours who are also involved in Renaissance club. Kris suggested the entire family enter the pageant for king, queen, prince and princess of the festival. Her hubby, son and daughter won king, prince and princess, and she didn't get to be queen! I think they're never going to hear the end of it :) (Love the hmphh! look on her face in this pic). She made these costumes, by the way.

We're doing Robin Hood for the Human Chess Match this year. For those who aren't geeks like we are, a HCM is like a regular chess match with human players, but like Battle Chess too. When a piece would take another, the players have a "battle" for the space (staged, obviously). In our case, the players range from age 10 to... not telling. I'm calling the moves for the Nottingham side and Brandon's the Sheriff. Robin shoots him with an arrow at the end. Someone (obviously not MY husband) got a GREAT picture of his look of disbelief at the arrow sticking out of him, which I will definitely attempt to get my hands on, and share later. For the record, we're using wooden weapons, not live steel with little kids, and we tested the arrow thing thoruoughly so he wouldn't get injured. The kids are amazing, they really get into the choreography. I will definitely do better this coming Friday when we have our middle school faire, and make sure someone takes some great pics.

In Russ's defense, he was hanging out at the booth in which I sell chainmaille and wire jewelry, and selling things for me. Considering the poor attendance this week, I did well. I suggested that Bran make chainmaille hackey sacks. Even though he only had time to make two, he got custom orders all day and made as much money as I did!

Skywatching

I had the impression people posted pictures from today on Skywatch, but reading the instructions, I'm not sure. What's the general policy on that?

Today's pretty gray and boring, but a few weeks ago the sky was BRILLIANT against the plum tree blossoms. Since I wasn't happy with this photo of the flowers and it looks like I MEANT to take a picture of the sky... I'll pretend I did. The color was just amazing.

Maybe I'll get a good sunset tonight and do a today photo.

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.