Springing To Life

I found myself running an unexpected errand today, to the big city of Nashville.
It's a bustling, noisy city, full of all that cities have to offer, and has the ever present influence of the Country Music industry.
The antebellum-style mansion of President Andrew Jackson lies within view along my route, the fields are green with new growth, and the surrounding farms are home to flocks of new Spring lambs.
Is there anything sweeter, than a field full of Spring lambs prancing about their mothers.

 

Young Lambs

The spring is coming by a many signs;
The trays are up, the hedges broken down
That fenced the haystack, and the remnant shines
Like some old antique fragment weathered brown.
And where suns peep, in every sheltered place,
The little early buttercups unfold
A glittering star or two - till many trace
The edges of the blackthorn clumps in gold.
And then a little lamb bolts up behind
The hill, and wags his tail to meet the yoe;
And then another, sheltered from the wind,
Lies all his length as dead - and lets me go
Close by, and never stirs, but basking lies,
With legs stretched out as though he could not rise.

~John Clare
 

"He Stopped Loving Her Today"

 

I have just spent the last two hours sitting in the dentist chair, with tears running down my face.

They have televisions in their dental rooms, and airing on all of the local stations, was the funeral service of one of the most revered country music singers, George Jones who passed away last Friday at the age of 81.

Live from the Grand Ole Opry stage in Nashville, close friends, and fellow country music performers, shared their admiration, love, and respect for their friend, who was lovingly nicknamed  "The Possum". 

Stories were told, songs were sung, performers wept.
 I wept.
Saying goodbye to a legend is never easy.

The Gentle Giant

"The tree which moves some to tears of joy, Is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all ridicule and deformity, and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself."

~ William Blake, 1799, The Letters

Photo taken at The Hermitage: Home of President Andrew Jackson, Nashville, Tennessee.
Click image to see the pheasant in the wood.

Govenor Declares a State of Emergency

The Governor has a declared a state of emergency for Tennessee.

Floodwater continued to rise in downtown Nashville, shutting down most of lower Broadway including First and Second avenues.

The Schermerhorn Symphony Center and numerous buildings downtown near the Cumberland River had lower-level flooding.

More than 7 inches of rain fell on Saturday and 13.53 inches had fallen by 8:30 p.m.

Sunday, a new two-day record.

Just two days into the month, this is already the wettest May in Nashville's recorded history and fifth wettest month in city history. Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen called it an "unprecedented rain event."

The guests at Opryland Hotel Sunday were moved to McGavock High School and other hotels. Gaylord Entertainment, the owners of the hotel, confirmed that there was 6 feet of standing water inside the hotel.
All rivers are at least 4 to 10 feet about flood stages.

Officials in Tennessee were preparing for more deaths and for the Cumberland River, which winds through the Music City, to crest more than 11 feet Monday afternoon, putting portions of downtown in danger of the kind of damage experienced by thousands of residents whose homes were swamped by flash floods.

Many residents are in the process of cleaning up, flood water and mud covering everything it came in contact with.

Other residents sadly no longer have homes to return to, since neighborhoods are still under fifteen and twenty feet of flood water.

Please keep these people in your thoughts and prayers.

The Corp of Engineers are planning to release flood gates on nearby dams, at midnight tonight, in an effort to lower the water levels.

Rockin and Rollin Nashville Style......

After spending several days rockin down the highway, our drive home through downtown Nashville was somewhat of an adventure. It seems the Country Music Awards were scheduled to take place that evening, and the streets of Nashville were bustling with country-music fans, partygoers, tourists, and altogether general merriment.


Passing the AT &T Building (formerly the Bellsouth Building, fondly known as the "Batman Building" )


Broadway Avenue Downtown


The "world renown" Tootsies Orchid Lounge

Summer storm brewing : Angry Skies

Possible straight-line winds, toppled an old HackBerry Tree in the woods.

Welcome Home......Guess who's going to be busy ?