Apricot Nectar Rose

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Apricot Nectar is another of our roses. We like the apricot color and the light fragrance. The blossoms last a long time when cut and brought into the house.

Red Sky in the Mountains

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I captured this sunset sky in the mountains of Western North Carolina. The sun had dropped below the mountains, but the color remained in the sky.

Rainbow at Cumberland Falls

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This rainbow was captured at Cumberland Falls State Park in Kentucky this past Saturday. There was enough of a breeze to send the mist quite a way downstream.

Colors on Monday: Black

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Jen at Unglazed is hosting a mini meme, Colors on Monday. This week's color is Black.

I had to do some searching to come up with photos with black in them, but I decided I would post this picture of a black bear that Betsy and I saw as we were stopped at an overlook on Skyline Drive in Virginia. The bear was quite a way below us on the side of the mountain, but I was able to get this picture with my telephoto lens.



About half an hour later traffic on the road came to a halt as a Mama bear with three cubs meandered along the road before crossing it. Betsy was able to snap this picture of the family before they disappeared from view.



But my favorite picture showing the color black is a picture of my Beautiful-Bride-to-Be. This picture was taken about a month before we got married. We had taken my parents to Barren River State Park in Kentucky.

Alec's Red Rose

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Betsy likes red roses -- and just about every other color of rose -- and we have several red ones. Alec's Red is one of the roses growing in a container along our driveway, and is a new rose for this year. Alec's Red has a slight fragrance, but a beautiful form.

In case you're interested (I was), Alec Cocker is the Scottish hybridizer who introduced this rose in 1970.

Blue Sky and Contrails

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I was too late to get the plane that left these contrails over our house, but they looked so nice in the beautiful blue sky that I couldn't resist snapping this picture.

Memories of Spring: Daylilies

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We have a small flower bed next to the garage, and it contains four different varieties of daylilies. When they are all in bloom we get a lot of color in a very small place.

Colors on Monday: Brown

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Jen at Unglazed is hosting a mini meme, Colors on Monday. This week's color is Brown.

I had to do some searching to find pictures with brown in them. It doesn't seem to be a prominent color in our lives. But there is some brown in the firewood that was delivered last week and which I need to stack.



If you use your imagination you can see some brown in the bridge and dam at Cumberland Mountain State Park near Crossville. This picture was taken last March, so some of the bare tree branches are brown as well.



The best brown I could find were these cattails which I photographed along the shore of Abbott Lake at the Peaks of Otter Lodge in Virginia. We celebrated Betsy's birthday there this past August.

Father and Son

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I snapped this picture of a Chinese father with his son in Tiananmen Square in 1990. Judging from the smile on his face, the boy was very happy to be on an outing with his father. And the father was obviously keeping a watchful eye on the enthusiastic boy.

The picture above was scanned from a slide.

Peppermint Splash Rose

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Peppermint Splash is another of our new roses this year. It's definitely the most unique rose we have, with white, red, and peppermint-pink splashes and speckles. No two blossoms are alike.

Bali Sunset

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The South Pacific is supposed to conjure up visions of sunshine, palm trees and water as far as the eye can see. Those visions became reality for me back in 1987, when I captured this sunset on the island of Bali.

The picture above was scanned from a slide.

Looking Forward to Autumn

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The day-time temperatures have finally cooled and the skies have been a glorious blue for the past couple of days. Some of the trees are starting to turn and we're looking forward to scenes like this in the days ahead.

Colors on Monday: Purple

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Jen at Unglazed is hosting a mini meme, Colors on Monday. This week's color is Purple.

We have purple in our yard each Spring when our crocus bloom. The picture above is of Pickwick crocus.



It may be stretching the definition of purple a bit, but our Sweetness Rose looks purple to me. It has a wonderful fragrance as well.



But my favorite picture of purple is this photo of my Beautiful Bride-to-be and me. This picture was taken at my parent's house shortly after we got engaged. We were going out to dinner and the theater.

Lost Creek Falls

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I can't resist posting pictures of Betsy taken on some of our hike -- it's just too bad that some old guy is with her in some of the pictures. This picture was taken back in 2006 at Lost Creek Falls here in Tennessee. Lost Creek gets its name from the fact that it disappears underground about a mile from this waterfall, emerges from a cave at the top of this descent, and then disappears underground again just to the right of the pool shown.

Janice Brown Daylily

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Daylilies usually bloom in June around here, but we have this beauty blooming in our front yard right now.

Janice Brown is a re-blooming daylily, and we are enjoying its autumn show. It is the only daylily we have blooming right now, but we hope it will be joined by a couple more in the days ahead.

Sheer Bliss Rose

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I like the delicate colors of this rose, Sheer Bliss. The raindrops are a nice bonus.

Low Water

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The Tellico River seemed to hold more boulders than water when I took this picture back in July, 2007. But even so we enjoyed the drive along the river and found many spots to pull over and take in the view.

Colors on Monday: Blue

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Jen at Unglazed is hosting a mini meme, Colors on Monday. This week's color is Blue.

The deep blue of periwinkle blossoms (above) tell us that Spring really has arrived. We have periwinkle growing where rock slabs and tree roots make mowing almost impossible.



The sky above Fairfield Glade is often a gorgeous blue, even during the cold days of winter.



But my favorite blue is the blue brought out in my Beautiful Bride's eyes when she's wearing blue.

Sempervivum in Bloom

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We have quite a few varieties of sempervivum (hens and chicks) around our yard. A hen will sometimes bloom before it dies, and although it is sad to lose a hen, the blossoms, though small, are beautiful. This picture was taken last month.

Sedona Rose

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One of the new roses in our yard this year is Sedona, a pretty red-orange blend that brightens our new flower bed.

Phlox in the Rock Garden

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When Betsy and I bought this house in 2002, we inherited a rock garden on a steep slope on one side of the driveway. Because of that slope the garden contained mostly rocks and weeds.

The rocks are still there, but we've added ground cover between them. This mound of pink phlox brightened our yard back in April of this year.