Experience

The suburbs got to me one day a couple of weeks ago. I had to be at the lake, craved being at the lake, all by myself, alone, me and the winds and waves and birds. Clean air, light, breezes playing with my hair, the smell alone is worth the drive. There's nothing like the scent of the wind off the lake. It's cooler there, cleaner there, magical there. Driving from the east it was clear a storm was percolating on the western horizon. Watching it build was exhilarating even as I hoped to beat it there. Storms on the lake are a favorite event. Dark grey clouds billowed higher and higher as I approached but were still a distance away when I pulled into the driveway. The photo above is taken as I got out of the car, looking nearly straight up. It was coming - not much time.


I poured a glass of wine and headed to the deck quickly. Feeling that pre-storm jolt of air was critical to my being. The flag was whipping and snapping in salute, and there was a respectable chop on the lake's surface.

Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....................................

I am happiest here. This is where I find my bliss, my peace, my soul.

The newly-cleared bank looks good. The buckeyes already dropping leaves for autumn. By now they're simply sticks laden with pods which will soon pop open, dropping their nutmeg colored buckeye seeds onto the ground.

Looking up - the storm is approaching. Please, please, please just a few more minutes.

So much humidity building; condensation beads form despite the wind.

How rude. I really should share with my blogging friends.

Cheers!!!

Here it comes. A sheet of misty gray rolls across the lake, bringing with it torrential rains and beautiful winds and whipping tree branches. Besides the Giraffe Head Tree this dead tree has to be a favorite. Ospreys dine there, Great Horned Owls linger there, Bald Eagles perch there, as do all manner of woodpeckers and songbirds. And squirrels and raccoons. Easy to spot.

I hope you enjoyed this little moment in time with me.

Byer's Gold Possumhaw Holly

I chose a Byer's Gold Possumhaw Holly as my "signature tree" when we first moved to the lake. I have 4 possumhaw hollies in my yard - Ilex Decidua, Winterberry, the Byer's Gold and a very happy male who pollinates them all. The hollies this winter were outstanding. The gold berried is still laden with berries even as the spring green shoots emerge. The Mockingbirds are in heaven.


One mockingbird keeps trying to nest in this tree but the continual flow of people too and from is too frustrating to him. Still, I always find him perching in the gold berried holly, laying his claim to it.

Everyone loves to shoot spiderwebs drenched in dew, and I'm no exception. One foggy morning last week the fog and dew were extraordinary. Naturally, I have to share since my blog is so random.


I love the quiet stillness of a damp, foggy morning. Providing I do not need to drive in it, that is.

You can see the gold berried possumhaw in front of the window. In hindsight, I wish I'd planted it about a foot further into the yard as I have to continually clip branches that threaten our eyesight. But this tree is a show-stopper. The winds that whip through the narrow opening between the houses have twisted the tree and made it lean. I'd no idea the winds would be that strong on the lake - lesson learned. See the little fence to the right? It's always all bent up as well after winter and has to be adjusted. There are two of them hiding an ugly utility box where I planted two Knockout Roses, one on each side. That'll be my next task - weeding and mulching. Spring is here!

Golden Tree Hour

The change of light that comes with autumn and early winter turns our naked trees into spires of gold. Beginning around 4pm we all gather at our windows, on our decks or on the lake to watch the spectacle. As the sun sinks lower on the horizon the trees start to glow like luminaries and remain this rich hue until the sun sets below the treeline. We have come to celebrate the hour by popping a cork. "Come on over for the Golden Tree Hour!" "Is it the Golden Tree Hour yet?" You get the idea. Yet one more thing to love about this place. Toasting the tree's beauty and the stillness of late autumn is, as Diane at Alberta Photography calls it, "Life's Sweet Ordinary."

Cheers.

January 19, 2006

Orange seeped through my lids;

I woke as the sky blazed with fire

before coffee.

The Lake

"A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature. The fluviatile trees next the shore are the slender eyelashes which fringe it, and the wooded hills and cliffs around are its overhanging brows." Henry David Thoreau

I love living on water. The sights and smells and noises have become part of me. This place has given me inspiration, unleashed creativity and catapulted me out of myself, revealing the spiritual well within my soul. I cannot imagine another place that fits me better than here, on the water, surrounded by nature.

Introducing the New Spring Line...

aesculus pavia

The sloping bank of our lot that leads from the house to a 30' cliff to Wheeler Lake, part of the Tennessee River system, is called a riparian zone. That is the official term for the margin of land that lies between a flowing surface of water and the upper grounds. Plant communities along these river margins are called riparian vegetation. These plants are critical for maintaining the health of our river system and influence aquatic ecosystems.

I learned about riparian zones at a TVA seminar last year, and consider myself a fledgling student of the subject. Check out wikipedia if you're interested to learn more. However, I find that plants along these strips are usually vastly different from plants on higher ground. Although I'm a native North Alabamian, Red Buckeyes weren't known to me until I moved onto the river system. They are here in abundance along the river banks alongside various native hydrangeas and laurels that also bloom in spring. Red Buckeyes can be found alongside wooded roadways and within our woods, but they tend to be found near streams or a water source.

These small native trees start out as a rich, mahogany-colored seed wrapped up in a luscious textured seedpod. These seeds are supposedly bitter and poisonous, but of late I've had a hard time finding any to photograph. This, above, was taken several years ago.

The bare winter branches are very straight and a pale gray. In early spring they are dotted with fat, light green buds which open up into the most alien-looking formations. From the center a long, multi-faceted flower bud emerges from which come the eventual red blooms.

The blooms last a long time, and attract the spring migration hummingbirds, offering them immediate food after their long journey.

As mentioned before, most folks here are not as enamoured with the Red Buckeyes. They are deciduous, and by mid-summer their leaves begin to dim and yellow, some dropping. Japanese Beetles like to eat the leaves as well, turning them into skeletons. However, I have a soft spot for these trees.

Imagine my delight our first spring here, waking to a riot of red blooms cascading down our bank. And they were free. Planted by God. Hummingbirds love them. They wave in the wind and hold my soil on these sharp slopes. We've been through hurricanes and tornadoes, torrential downpours and even an earthquake since we've been here and we've not lost an inch of real estate while those who have stripped their land have to purchase more rip rap in hopes of not losing any more.

Garden Bloggers Geography Project

I said I would do this thing, but then I realized that I no longer live in a city, or town, or even at a crossroads. We literally live in the middle of nowhere, Alabama, USA. First I’ll tell you where I came from. My home town is an hour west of us – Huntsville, Alabama. I grew up announcing with pride that I lived in “Rocket City USA!” Huntsville is high-tech and defense oriented, with NASA and Redstone Arsenal at its center. Werner von Braun started the rocket program here. My father worked at Redstone Arsenal in one of their missile programs. I can still remember the china-rattling propulsion testing, watching huge flames rise from the tester far away while sitting atop the hill above our house. Huntsville is a little melting pot filled with people and cultures from all over the world. It’s one of those places I couldn’t wait to leave, until while traveling I realized everything and everyone in the world I loved was there. It’s my home.

Rocket City USA! Photos courtesy Huntsville Convention & Visitors Bureau

(Space & Rocket Center; Museum of Art, Von Braun Center, Burritt Museum)

When we approached retirement age (my husband – not me! LOL), we decided to find a place on the water. By a miracle, we discovered Bay Hill Village in northwestern Alabama directly on Wheeler Lake, which is part of the Tennessee River system. Our home is right on the river. We wake to the sound of loons and are lulled to sleep by the thrumming of barges. Wildlife abounds. It’s close enough to Huntsville to drive in and enjoy the culture yet far enough away to be able to see the stars at night. Thirty minutes north is the Tennessee border, and due south is, well, the river.

Since I live on a river without a township, I’ll just talk about this river system that continually fascinates me, and my community of friends.

A Sense of Place

Our shorelines are owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority which has strict policies about waterfront development. Recently, TVA announced they would no longer sell any more waterfront to developers. We are relieved. I admit that’s selfish of me but when you experience this sort of beauty you really hate to see surrounding areas gobbled up, leveled and built upon, which would change the very reason we moved here in the first place.

Our home and various boats - as you can see, our bank needs work and is my next project.

This river system is an important watershed as well as being a primary transport system for all manner of commerce. Wheeler Lake is 2 miles wide, and the river channel is on the other side of the lake from our house. Barges lumber through the channel daily, the rhythm of their engines is a constant companion. Occasionally unmarked container ships slip by, their cargo and destinations a mystery. The usual suspects dot the lake in abundance – cruisers, sailboats, fishing boats and those annoying jet skis. Every spring and fall we watch “The Loopers” travel by in their yachts and trawlers, moving their large boats south for the winter or north for the summer. Occasionally, the unusual will happen by like the Mississippi and Delta Queen paddleboats, and the replica of The Nina has sailed by twice. Those are sights that stay with you forever and add to the magic of this place.

This river system is on a migratory path for birds and butterflies. This is where I gained my passion for photographing them as it is very challenging. Bear with me – here I go again but I can’t resist my butterflies and birds.

(Clockwise, from top left: Spicebush, Tiger Swallowtail, Tiger Swallowtail (dark form), Gulf Fritillary, Red Admiral, Zebra Swallowtail, Black Swallowtail, Giant Swallowtail, Monarch, Buckeye - all copyrighted by moi)

(Clockwise from left: Red Breasted Mergansers, House Finch, Mourning Dove, Bluebird, Nuthatch, Chickadee, Red Tailed Hawk, Bald Eagle, Pine Warbler, Great Blue Heron, Cowbird, Cardinal, Downey Woodpecker, Common Loon, Mockingbird - all copyright by me except the Bald Eagle, copyright by Carroll Adams)

Gardening here is a challenge because the earth is mostly red clay and a crumby rock called “chert.” This sticky red soil is high in nutrients and herbs and native plants love it. The challenge is to convince people to garden with what WORKS in this riverside environment and leave the exotic cultivars for the botanical gardens and those who don’t mind working twice as hard to keep the cultivars going in this hot and incredibly windy environment. The winds can be fierce coming off the lake, making it look like the ocean with 4-5 foot swells.

(Clockwise from left: Virginia Sweetspires/Spring, Native Azalea, Pitcher Plant, Pinxterbloom Azalea, Red Buckeye, Shooting Stars, Virginia Sweetspire/Autumn, Crepe Myrtle, Flame Azalea, Doublefile Viburnum, Sweetshrub)

My friend Carroll and I, both Master Gardeners, have started a neighborhood volunteer organization called the Bay Hill Conservancy. Our focus is to educate our neighbors about this unique environment as well as sharing conservation tutorials which including speakers from various fields, because we all do live on an important watershed. We encourage using native plants and xeriscaping to preserve water. Most people snicker at us, but we’re beginning to gain attention! (I hope it's all good attention...)

So that’s it. No town per se, but a dynamic waterside community filled with great people, boats, wildlife, birds, butterflies, plants and all manner of nature. That all folks….

It's a Brand New Day

This morning I was greeted via e-mail by an old friend far away who I've never met. Strange isn't it, how in this day of blogging and websites and chat rooms we can make friends and receive joy from them daily, talk of achingly familiar subjects, and share photos of family and friends and over time true friendships form? Not strange at all in my personal experience. Conversely, I think it a marvelous way to expand my horizons and experience the world, learn about new cultures, marvel at different insights and enjoy new lands.

I belong to several fan club websites, but one in particular talks to my soul and is where I have cultivated deep friendships. Sting's music is my passion, and as all of us say in the Stingdom, Sting's music has been the soundtrack of my life. Sting himself is an interesting person, and his life has shaped his thoughts and energies into some of the most complex and beautiful music I've ever heard.

Well, one of my Stingdom pals has created a blogspot here and I couldn't be more thrilled! Please visit Inside Island of Souls and say HELLO! (There's a link to the right) Her blog's name is the leading song's title from Sting's incredible CD, "Soul Cages."

Okay, hang in here with my odd early morning epiphany: Where I live on this beautiful lake I can watch the sunrises, but sunsets evade my sight due to the house that juts out to our west. I see the top and northern side occasionally and know when it's glorious, but all I get to see from my window are the sunset's effects on the lake. My neighbors get The Grand Show, but I get to see the ripple effect. At first this annoyed me. However, take a look at the photo above. The sunset was a riot of colors thanks to storm clouds. While neighbors were enjoying the show my house became filled with a vivid, soft (yes, there is such a thing) pinkish golden light that washed everything in an ethereal glow. Watching my own show gave rise to the epiphany - and that is simply that true artists who seem larger than life, like Sting (sunset), creates through their art a unique and beautiful blend of elements that include people with like minds from different cultures -the eastern view. Hm, I'm not getting my entire point across but I'm running out of time being here. It's almost time to drive the daughter to school so please meditate if you so choose, come to your own conclusion and perhaps you can come up with a better way to say what I'm struggling to this morning.

That's awfully deep this early since I haven't yet finished my second cup of coffee. However, I welcome my friend to this blogging world and am overjoyed to be able to communicate with her in yet one more way. Welcome Patti!

Mists of Avalon

The Skirts of Angels