autumn wisdom

I like spring, but it is too young. I like summer, but it is too proud. So I like best of all autumn, because its tone is mellower, its colours are richer, and it is tinged with a little sorrow. Its golden richness speaks not of the innocence of spring, nor the power of summer, but of the mellowness and kindly wisdom of approaching age. It knows the limitations of life and its content.
-- Lin Yutang (1895-1976) Chinese author.  

Above: Seeger Chapel on the campus of Milligan College.

today is a gift

Yesterday's the past, tomorrow's the future, but today is a gift. That's why it's called the present.
--Bill Keane (1922-2011) American cartoonist.

What a gift! The eight mile long Kingsport Greenbelt offers such beautiful scenery and provides great recreational opportunities for walking, jogging and biking. The path runs from the Exchange Place on the east side of town to Rotherwood Mansion on the west. Visit the website here. To see a detailed map, click here.  See a previous post of mine here.

revive

The beautiful spring came; and when Nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also.
--Harriet Ann Jacobs (1813-1897)

Beautiful bluebell blooms blanket a byway at Winged Deer Park in Johnson City, TN. Click here for a map of the park and its many trails. The scenes above are found on the aptly named Bluebell Loop. The blooms are approaching the end of their spring show, so get out to see them in the next day or so if you're in the area.

Click here for a previous post describing the trails at Winged Deer.

Click here for a link to JC Parks page.

the lingering season

Winter, a lingering season, is a time to gather golden moments, embark upon a sentimental journey, and enjoy every idle hour.
--John Boswell

Above: A snowy pastoral scene found near Unicoi, TN.

Merry Christmas!

Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.
--Laura Ingalls Wilder

Wishing you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!

rhythm in the woods

"There is music in the meadows, in the air --
Autumn is here;
Skies are gray, but hearts are mellow,
Leaves are crimson, brown, and yellow;
Pines are soughing, birches stir,
And the Gipsy trail is fresh beneath the fir.

There is rhythm in the woods, and in the fields,
Nature yields:
And the harvest voices crying,
Blend with Autumn zephyrs sighing;
Tone and color, frost and fire,
Wings the nocturne Nature plays upon her lyre." 
--William Stanley Braithwaite, Lyric of Autumn

illuminated history

At this season of the year, when each leaf acquires its peculiar color, Nature prints this history distinctly, as it were an illuminated edition. Every oak and hickory and birch and aspen sprinkled amid the pines tells its tale a mile off, and you have not to go laboriously through the wood examining the bark and leaves. These facts would be best illustrated by colors, —green, yellow, red etc.  
--Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American Essayist, Poet and Philosopher

autumn's turn

Even if something is left undone, everyone must take time to sit still and watch the leaves turn. 
--Elizabeth Lawrence  

Take time to watch the leaves turn this weekend or next -- they are at peak in many places around Grandfather Mountain in the high country of North Carolina. This is the view of the Linn Cove Viaduct from Rough Ridge Overlook. It's one of the best places in our area to soak in all the autumny goodness.

For directions and description of the hike to Rough Ridge, click here.

autumn jubilee

[T]hat old September feeling... of summer passing, vacation nearly done, obligations gathering, books and football in the air.... Another fall, another turned page: there was something of jubilee in that annual autumnal beginning, as if last year’s mistakes and failures had been wiped clean by summer. 

--Wallace Stegner (1909-1993) American author and historian. 

Above: A misty day on Unaka Mountain in late September. If you enlarge the photo and look closely left of center, you'll see the Appalachian Trail. 

dog days

"The first week of August hangs at the very top of the summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color. Often at night there is lightning, but it quivers all alone. There is no thunder, no relieving rain. These are strange and breathless days, the dog days, when people are led to do things they are sure to be sorry for after.”
― Natalie Babbitt (b.1932) author.

Above: Blue enjoying the dog days of summer at Watauga Lake. 

spring work

Spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm. 
― John Muir (1838-1914) Naturalist and Conservationist.

Above: An early white trillium blooming in Rocky Fork.

spring has returned

Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems. 
--Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist. 

Such a fun, unusual spring wildflower, with such a fun name... Dutchman's Breeches.

spring embrace

Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love! 
--Sitting Bull (1831-1890)

winter cheer

In winter we lead a more inward life. Our hearts are warm and cheery, like cottages under drifts, whose windows and doors are half concealed, but from whose chimneys the smoke cheerfully ascends... 
--Henry David Thoreau, 1842.

Stopped by Wilbur Dam yesterday and found Little Laurel Branch Falls (left) nearly frozen over. The hills and trees are beautiful covered in snow. The road to Watauga Dam is gated in case anybody was wondering.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.
-- Calvin Coolidge

Above: An annual sight in Unicoi, TN - this brightly decorated VW Bug, complete with Santa. :)

time slips away

Time by minutes slips away,
First the hour, then the day,
Small the daily loss appears,
Yet soon it amounts to years. 
--Ronald Tierney (b.1944) author.

Time got away from me and I didn't get these photos posted until now of last week's "sneak peak" at winter.  Glad to have warmer weather this weekend! These scenes are of Unaka Mountain in Unicoi County, TN.

autumn leaves

I miss you most of all my darling, 
When autumn leaves start to fall.  
--Jacques Prévert (1900-1977) French poet and screenwriter. 

Above: Buffalo Mountain as seen from Mountain Home (VA Center) in Johnson City, TN.

rhythms of nature

Summer ends, and Autumn comes, and he who would have it otherwise would have high tide always and a full moon every night; and thus he would never know the rhythms that are at the heart of life.
--Hal Borland (1900-1978) American author and journalist.

Above: The Linn Cove Viaduct as seen from Rt. 221 below. The colors were at peak in the area in and around Grandfather Mountain this week. This weekend the leaves were a little past peak in the highest elevations where many trees had already lost their leaves. But as you can see from the shot above, there are still places that could be described as 'peak color.' I've always loved the winding Rt. 221 connecting Blowing Rock to Linville.  

To the left, leaves swirl at the base of a small waterfall found beside the road.

Happy Easter!

It is the hour to rend thy chains, the blossom time of souls. 
--Katherine Lee Bates

April spirit

April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.
--William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English writer.

Above: Watauga Point Recreation Area awaiting summer picnics.