mannequins

Click here to see more images from this wooden art mannequin series.

twin hills ranch

The Battle of Collierville Civil War Re-enactment took place on the grounds of Twin Hills Ranch. That's the first time I had ever been there. A few days after the re-enactment I drove over to the ranch to see if I could take pictures of the trees but the gate was posted with a no trespassing sign. I stopped at a house nearby and a gentleman there told me who owned the property and where the office was located. I drove over to the office and there only one person there [not the owner]. He told me he thought it would be okay if I drove onto the property to take pictures. It was raining that day so I decided to come back the next morning, which I did. I had a great time hiking on the property and taking pictures of all the huge, old trees, hay fields and the fishing lake [pictured here].

Click here to see more pictures from my Twin Hills Ranch adventure.

riverwoods

On this day the Riverwoods Nature Preserve was full of mosquitoes. I had been intent on hiking this trail out and back to Chick-fil-A [about 2 miles round trip], but the mosquitoes were so intense that I changed my mind about ten minutes into the hike and turned around. That's the first time this year that I have had to abort a hike because of mosquitoes.

yellow

The yellow trail has a nice, soft, sandy surface. I love hiking this trail year round. It follows the bluff of the Wolf River through the Lucius Burch Natural Area of Shelby Farms. That's the Wolf River on the right in this picture. It's always muddy. I have never seen it when it wasn't. From this point the Wolf River winds its way to the mighty Mississippi River, about 12 miles west of here.

wetlands nature walk

So.... I thought it would be fun to host a photography nature walk at the William B Clark Nature Preserve in Rossville. The walk was listed in the "things to do" section of the Memphis newspaper and people from all over the metropolitan area gathered at the trailhead on Saturday morning. After a brief introduction we hiked along the Wolf River to the boardwalk and for the next two hours we walked along the boardwalk, stopping to discuss digital photography, camera settings and taking pictures of the wetlands. The morning was a complete success. Everyone who participated seemed to have a good times taking pictures and learning new techniques and strategies with their cameras. I plan to host another nature walk in the near future.

Click here to see more pictures from the wetlands nature walk.

blue trail puddles

I totally enjoy hiking in the rain. I took this picture on the blue trail, which is part of the Wolf River Trail System at Shelby Farms. We've had more than our share of rain since spring. I think this has been the wettest year I can remember. It rained 28 days straight in July and August. That's a lot of rain. With that kind of weather, I suppose it's a good thing I enjoy hiking in it. Otherwise, this would have been an almost hike-free summer and fall.

the hunt for blue crinoids

All the life-saver-looking things in this picture are crinoids, which my wife and I found at Dale Hollow Lake in middle Tennessee. Crinoids were sea animals that looked a lot like plants, and lived about 400 million years ago. They appear blue because the original organism has been replaced [fossilized] with chalcedony [a form of quartz] over millions of years.

Visit my photostream to see a few more pictures from Dale Hollow.

looking skyward

There are a number of parks with boardwalks near my home: Clark Preserve in Rossville, the Preserve in LaGrange, Wolf River boardwalk in Moscow, and Petterson Lake boardwalk in Collierville. I took this picture from the boardwalk in Collierville. The walk is about 1.75 miles round-trip with a stop at the Wolf River.

To see more pictures from Johnson Park, visit my photostream.

hooked...

on Nameless, Tennessee. That's right... Nameless. About four years ago my wife and I drove to Nameless to collect geodes. We're members of a geology club and we go on a field trip about once a month. On this particular trip, we took our youngest daughter with us. She was 15 at the time. She didn't want to go with us but we convinced her to go. She had a miserable time. There was no cell phone coverage in the Nameless area. There was no internet connection at the old hotel where we spend the night. There's not a hotel in Nameless so we stayed several miles away in less-than-nice accommodations. It was cold and windy and muddy, so searching for geodes was not a great deal of fun.

When I got an email this past summer from someone in Nameless asking if our club would like to come check out a new collecting site, I said yes. What was I thinking! But things sounded different this time. Mr. Watts told us about his property in Nameless and it sounded great. He also told us about the J. T. Watts General Merchandise Store that used to be owned by his father and now he owns it and has transformed it into a museum. I told our club about it and we made our plans to visit. We did visit about two weeks ago and it was fantastic. We found so many geodes we don't know what to do with them. We also found the museum to be a treat. It was like stepping back in time to the 1950's with wood-burning stove, Cokes in 6-ounce glass bottles, Prince Albert in-a-can, Gulf Oil, Moon Pies, and checker playing around the wood heater. I can't wait to visit again. I'm hooked on Nameless. Our daughter didn't go this time, but I honestly think she would have loved it as much as we did.

To find out about geodes, the museum and why Nameless is called Nameless, visit my Photostream.
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Song 606: Just The Way You Are
Artist: Billy Joel
Album: The Stranger
Year: 1978
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