A Killdeer Nest

One of God's precious creations - the amazing Killdeer.  Came across this cute little nest.

Momma bird was VERY upset at us

And no wonder - she's protecting her amazingly cute and sweet but extremely vulnerable, babies.

So camouflaged!

 

More Rhododendron photos

Must include some more photos....

At over 6 000 feet elevation

In full glory

The winding path through the woods

Looking toward North Carolina from the Carver's Gap bald

Looking back toward Tennessee from the bald

Some yellow breaks the mold

The Carter Mansion - oldest frame house in Tennessee - c 1775

In Elizabethton we came across the Carter mansion totally by accident, but here it is.

We were actually just turning around after a missed turn and found this little museum.

A little cottage in front of the "mansion".

Side view

The Mansion

Kitchen garden at the back

Bee-balm

A desperate attempt to keep the weeds down in the mansion garden - don't worry, I completely identify and sympathize!

Rhododendrons in Tennessee

Took a trip to Roan Mountain today and these are just a few of the many photos from that lovely trip.

Beginning of the Cloudland Trail

Fir trees with new green

Heading to the Rhododendron garden

Peak season

These are all wild and natural

These are Catawba Rhododendrons

Gorgeous blossoms

Experimenting with editing

A mist blew in and clothed everything with a mysterious aura

Layer upon layer of blooms

Some just about to open

A picnic hideaway

On the pathway back

On the bald at Carver's Gap

We crossed the Appalachian Trail several times;  saw some hikers.

The view down to Roan Mountain village

Layers of mountains and cloud

On the way back we drove through a storm.

Sushi making

Got a bee in my bonnet recently.  Saw a recipe for making vegetarian sushi, went looking for a sushi mat, and voila, tried it out!  Here are the results:

Used brown rice, red pepper, cucumber, spinach, carrots and a vegetarian pattie.

Close-up

Hubby's rolls.  Here we're using a white rice

My second batch

A few pretty things

This and that from the last week:

Some time ago I took a picture of a whole row of silver cars.  Last week I saw this random row of white ones.

An alien visited us....

The blooming herb garden

Asparagus doing well.

Cucumber.  The garden is about a month behind what it was last year...sadly.

In a garden down the road.....I have flower envy!

Keeping cool

Love the color!

Our hydrangeas again have multiple colors.  Beautiful pink.

Beautiful blue

Beautiful mauve/lavender

All on one bush.

Hey! Someone's photo bombing again!  At least he's posing nicely.  His name is Douglas at our house, but down the hill where he lives, who knows what his name is!  You can see an earlier picture of him a couple months back.  Every afternoon he comes to visit....By the way, we saw a large black snake crawl into this bush, so I'm not investigating it too closely.  I like it though - eats pests.

As I said, the garden is a little behind but I hope it catches up.  We've started picking tomatoes and green beans, garlic and onion.  The snow peas are done now and pulled up.

We found 3 of these tiny frogs all together.  Must have just hatched - they're about as big as a nickel, or even a dime.