holston rainbow

The true harvest of my life is intangible - a little star dust caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched. 

--Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American Writer and Philosopher.  

Above: Rainbow over South Holston Lake

glorious green

For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver. 
--Martin Luther (1483-1546) German Theologian.

One of the first comments people visiting this area for the first time invariably make is, "It's so green!" It's green because our average annual precipitation is more than Portland or Seattle. :)  (Above: Buffalo Mountain Trail)

misty morn

I saw old Autumn in the misty morn 

Stand shadowless like Silence, listening
To silence

--Thomas Hood (1799-1845) English Poet--

This morning was anything but silent -- 60 mph winds ripped through the Tri-Cities bringing down many trees, and knocking out power for 20,000 residents. Report here.

be thou the rainbow

Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.
--Lord Byron (1788-1824) British poet

Cold!

Cold! If the thermometer had been an inch longer we'd have frozen to death.
--Mark Twain (1835-1910) American Humorist, Writer and Lecturer

This was actually taken a couple of weeks ago on a very blustery, foggy, cold morning on Grandfather Mountain. While the new visitor's center is being built, the weather station located atop the Mile High Swinging Bridge is off-line. But you can still see what the weather is like at the nature museum a little ways down the mountian. Click here. Right now (Wednesday morning) it's 19 degrees, with a 6 degree wind chill, 16 mph winds and 49 mph wind gusts. Yikes! Way too cold for October!

dry spell

The TVA System usually draws down the lakes at the end of the summer to make room for the hoped-for spring thaw. This year there wasn't much to draw down. Most of the lakes in our area were low all summer following a three year drought. The photo above shows the dried-up swimming area at Shook Branch Recreation Area on Watauga Lake. To the right is a chart from the TVA website comparing this year's rainfall in the TVA valley to a normal year. Click here for an interesting discussion about the drought in the Johnson City Press with a TVA official.

Head on over to Hiking Bill's website to see a photo of the unusually low water flow over Laurel Falls.

Pourin' the rain

According to the weatherman, we've only had 1.55 inches of rain in August and 1.39 inches of that fell yesterday. The 160,000 fans at Bristol Motor Speedway must have been relieved the rain stayed away from Bristol, but I was elated to get our first heavy thunderstorm of the entire summer. As they say around here, it was pourin' the rain. And just in time. My rhododendron had started to shrivel, the lawn was becoming more brown than green, and I was more than just a little tired of pulling the hose around the yard to water plants. (Not to mention how all the best waterfalls in the area were looking rather puny). It was such an unusual event, that I captured it on film, err... pixels.

Autumn in August?

I've begun to see indications of an early autumn slowly falling in my yard. I hope our record dry weather this year won't mean an early and less colorful fall. Anyone know a good rain dance?

Blue Ridge

Yea for the rain clouds that have settled in over our little corner of Appalachia this week. Woo hoo!

I found a helpful online tutorial/video that walks you through the steps to make a signature stamp in Photoshop -- click here if you're interested. [click photo to enlarge]

Click here for a post listing all there is to see and do on Unaka Mountain.

Severe Dought

This is a sad view of the low water level of South Holston Lake taken from atop the dam outside of Bristol, TN. Today's Johnson City Press reports that the lake is 12 feet below its normal level for this time of year. But after the driest Spring on record, what else could we expect? The US Drought Monitor still has us listed as experiencing a "severe drought" -- what's scary is that they have two levels of severity beyond that: "extreme" and "exceptional." Let's hope the scattered thunderstorms forecast for this week will help reduce the 12 inch rain deficit we've got.

Rain, rain, come again!

Following the driest spring on record in east Tennessee (only 5.67" of rain for this spring, including only 0.76" for all of May!), these dry fields near the Tri-Cities Airport in Sullivan County could use a good rain. While much of the area received a soaking yesterday, the airport reported only about a quarter of an inch of rain. So it comes as no surprise that the drought monitor has most of our region listed as being in a "severe drought."

Lost Spring

This photo was taken last week, before we entered the deep freeze and spring made a hasty retreat. While we're slowly getting back to spring-like weather, everything in my yard looks like its been zapped. But it's the local apple farmers in our area who have really suffered a loss (read story here).