Tag: nature

In My Own Back Yard

by Mike

So, now that I have a bit more free time since I’m not taking any classes at Liberty this summer, I decided it is high time that I get back to concentrating on photography.  With the exception of last weekend and a few special events this past year, I’ve really been missing my cameras.  That, and I saw a video that motivated me today.  We’ll see how long that lasts.  🙂 

It all started a few days ago when Karen and I noticed a rabbit in our back yard.  Since we live in town and have a fence that pretty much goes all the way to the ground, it was a bit of a surprise for us.  But we like little creatures, especially furry ones, so we welcomed the bunny into our yard.  There’s always room for a little wildlife at the Hampton home.

As we watched, this little visitor was acting almost like she was looking for something, walking cautiously around the perimeter of the yard.  Then she moved between two trees and squatted.  Well, having two cats, we recognized that position and gave our new friend some space.  But when she was done, she did something strange…she picked up some loose grass with her mouth and covered the hole she had just squatted over.  After she hopped away, I walked over to see what she was hiding, and guess what I found!

 As I peered into the hole, I was astonished to see someone looking back at me!  Yes, this little bunny has made a nest in our yard and their mom had just been nursing them.  I was careful not to disturb them, but I had to see what was going on here.  So as I looked closer, I found that there were three tiny bunnies down this little hole.

Now, here’s the really incredible part.  Judging from the look of these little fellows, and what I’ve read on the Internet, they have to be a couple of weeks old already.  How in the world did they survive the mowers when the yard got mowed these past two weeks?  Luck?  I think not.  I don’t believe in luck. 

Well, taking my new duties as seriously as possible, without interfering with mom’s duties, I soon found myself setting up a make-shift shelter for them the very next night as we here in North Texas were bombarded with large hail, torrential rains, and tornadoes!  The next day, I checked and everyone was still alive and kicking, and sure enough, later that evening, mom showed up to feed her babies.  Not sure how this story will end, but it’s been interesting so far.

Continuing my journey around my back yard, i noticed that the bolt that holds the diving board to the decking is showing its age.  Maybe I should see about replacing these someday soon.  I wonder what the expected lifespan is for a steel bolt…

Over around the other side of the pool, I noticed how the evening sun was really starting to make the engraving on the skimmer cover stand out.  I’ve always had trouble picking out the little things like that, so I figured that this would be a good time for a side-light photo exercise.

Passing by the “rock garden” I noticed that the side lighting is also bringing out the texture of the small pebbles.  Hmm, this might make a decent background for my computer screen.

And what’s a photo-trip to the back yard without a little experimenting.  Slow shutter speedand a swing to the left equals a sideways blur!  Oh well.  I found it interesting.  Maybe another screen background, though looking at it too long may cause nausea.  🙂

I guess that if I’m ever to to get really good, I need to get off my duff and shoot more.  I read a good quote from a famous photographer the other day.  It went something like… You can either be the kind of photographer who sits around all day reading the photo forums on the net and critiquing other people’s shots, or you can get out and actually make some of your own pictures.  I think I’ll be the latter.

Until Next Time…

<Snapping God’s Creation>

The Great Smoky Mountain Adventure – Final Day.

by Mike

Today began the long (14 hours) drive back to Dallas.  We have came, seen, visited, reminisced, and now it’s time to go.  Back to the day-to-day life through which God provides us the means to take these occasional trips.  Perhaps someday in the future we will be called back to these mountains for another purpose.

(Note: these pictures were all shot from the car so forgive any blurriness.)

One last look at the mountains as we leave Chattanooga…

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We drive through Georgia…

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Alabama…

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Mississippi…

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I gotta say a couple of things about Mississippi though.  We were on I20 going through all these states from Alabama to Texas, and the condition of the road in Mississippi was horrible.  It was like riding a bumpy roller coaster.  And on top of that, I think the rudest drivers of the trip seem to hail from Mississippi.  Even in the GSMNP, almost every time someone would cut us off or do some other rude maneuver, their license plate would be from Mississippi.  Now I’m sure that not everyone from there drives like this, but from the sampling that I saw, the ratio is pretty high.  In fact, it was in Mississippi that we saw this…

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Now, we didn’t see it happen so I’m not going to make any assumptions, but this was the only state where we saw anything like this the entire trip.

Louisiana…

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and finally arrive at Texas.

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And we end the trip, safe and sound (and tired) with a sunset through a bug-splattered windshield!

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After we got to our house, I turned on the news to see stories of a tornado and severe thunderstorms that were crossing I20 where we had been just a few hours before.  But once again, God is good and brought us through all the storms to the harbor of our garage.

I hope this sharing has helped show you the beauty of the Smoky Mountains and Chattanooga, but not too much.  There are enough people there already and when it comes time for me to retire I hope there is still room.  🙂  As the great philosopher group “The Eagles” once said… “Call come place paradise, kiss it good bye.”  Here’s hoping that this part of the country has the right guards in place to prevent that from happening.

And now… back to work!

The Great Smoky Mountain Adventure – Days 6 & 7

by Mike

As we say goodbye to Townsend and the little valley that has been our home for the past several days, we take a final parting shot at the beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

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And so we began the drive to Chattanooga, TN.  This place still holds a very special place in our hearts as it is where we spent the first 5 years of our married life together!  Needless to say, these two days brought back a lot of memories as we drove around.

Now, it’s been 13 years since we had been here, but as we start getting closer and seeing the signs leading to our old hang-outs something magical seemed to be happening to our mood.  It was very exhilarating!  Since it was on the way, one of the first places we drove by was our old house.  We sure miss this place, nestled in the woods in a quiet subdivision outside of town.  Of course, it is not as far out of town as it was 13 years ago.  As time has moved on, the city of Chattanooga has began to spread throughout the hills as well.  It still looks pretty peaceful out here though.  (hope the current owners don’t mind their house being on the net)  🙂

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As we begin our descent into town through the “ridge-cut”, our breath is taken away by the beauty of this “little” city that sits in this quiet little valley.  We entered town at about 4:30 on a Friday afternoon, and I have to say that the “rush-hour” traffic here, even after 13 years of growth, is NOTHING compared to the DFW metroplex!  In fact, about the only traffic jam I saw was when three people were at a four-way stop and they were each motioning for the other to go first!  You don’t see that much these days!

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And almost everyone asks, so I’ll just answer, Yes, there is a Chattanooga Choo-Choo and here’s the proof!

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They actually took some of the sleeper cars from the old train and converted them into hotel rooms.  It is now ran by Holiday Inn and if you like you too can see in a part of the past.

We had decided that Friday would be our evening to spend with some old friends, so we met up at the “Cancun” Mexican restaurant.  You may ask, “you go from Dallas to Chattanooga to eat Mexican food?”  Yep!  I’ve been craving the nachos from this restaurant for over 13 years and nothing was going to get in my way of going there!  🙂

We met up with our friends Kay and Tom, and Kim at Cancun and talked and laughed for a few hours.  As the karaoke started cranking up (well, that’s new) we decided to call it a night and had a long good-bye in the parking lot.

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Day 7 found Karen and I driving all over town, just reminiscing.  We enjoyed the view from Lookout Mountain and the history there with the Civil War memorials.

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We watched some hang gliding from the mountain…

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And took our own pictures to remind ourselves later that we were really there!

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Then we (or rather I) just had to drive by to see if the “space-ship” house was still there on Signal Mountain. (it is!)  I still think it would be cool to live here!  But if you look close, you can see that time is starting to take its toll on this place.  Someone should really buy it and bring it up to date.  (hmmmm)

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We drove around so much on these two days that the streets once again became so familiar we felt right at home!  Karen made the comment that when retirement time comes, if we have to live in a city, this one is certainly doable!

We decided to take one last chance and have dinner with our friends again.  We really do miss them and hope that it is not another 11 years before we get to see them again.

Tomorrow begins the drive home back to north Texas.  The land of no color or mountains.  🙁