Smokey Mountain Wild Flowers

BY SKEETER

 The Saint and I left our GEORGIA GARDENS for a little get-away in the Tennessee mountains. While there, I spotted lots of wild flowers along the roadside. This Sweet pea was so vibrant in color.

 While nearby this Golden Rod was just starting to show its color.  

Joe Pye Weed below a waterfall in the Great Smokey Mountain National Park.

 Joe was mighty happy along the water side.

 Cardinal Flower (Lobelia) was spotted in the middle of the water surrounded by large rocks.

 Asters maybe?

 Orange Jewel Weed and purple Asters mingling along with an orange colored leaf giving us a sign of Fall.

Orange Jewel Weed. 

 Wingstem (verbesina alternifolia) along the roadside.

 Zooming inward, we see an Ant.

 I believe this to be Coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata var. humilis)

 This one really caught our eye! I have researched to find this beauty identified as Hearts-a-Bustin' (euonymus americanus) also known as Strawberry Bush, Swamp Dogwood and Spindle Bush. The Saint and I found this to be a really cool Bloom or Pod. 

 No Wild Flower here in this picture but found it captivating. A high foot traffic area in the woods above a nice roaring water way. Over time, ground erosion has exposed the root system of this tree. At some point the roots will no longer keep ahold of this tree and it shall be laying in the water below. Sigh...

Not another wild flower but rather a Wild Snake spotted along a sunny walkway. I was happy to say I knew this was a Garter Snake the minute I spotted it. A beautiful creature along with SMOKEY MOUNTAIN WILD FLOWERS, In the Garden...

 

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Christmas in the Smokies

From In the Garden

Christmas in the Smokies, ahh, just the very words evoke visions of beautiful pristine streams, snow covered evergreens, and warm fires in a log cabin. Snow?? Do you see any snow? This was our view outside of our cabin in the Smokies during the Christmas break. Not a speck of snow in sight despite us wanting a white Christmas.

From In the Garden

Ah, here is the snow! During the week we spent in the Smokies (including Christmas Day) we did not see one single flake of snow falling from the sky, but! We did find some snow at Ober Gatlinburg. Lots of snow too.

From In the Garden

We also saw some evergreens, though these ones were not covered with snow-they were covered with loads of jewel colored lights. It was a magical Christmas tree forest at Dollywood. I am very partial to the brightly colored Christmas lights and was delighted to see all the color here instead of plain old white (can you see I am biased?:)

From In the Garden

The Jimster and Mr. Fix-it had a great time snow tubing at Ober Gatlinburg. Ober Gatlinburg also offers ice skating (the Jimster participated in this too), skiing, and snow boarding. Who knew we could find this in Tennessee? I had no idea. We might need to dust off our skis hanging in the garage.

As a person who has spent many vacations in the Alps at resorts like Garmisch and Berchtesgadens in Germany I was pleasantly surprised to feel almost transported back to the wonderful Alps while staying right here in Tennessee. The effect was complete right down to the hour long wait in line for a ticket to snow tube, and hearing foreign languages here in the United States surely made me feel like I was overseas. I struck up a conversation with a few of the families around me also waiting in line and asked where they were from. The families both in front of us and behind us replied they were from Miami. Florida that is. Ha! That was not expected at all. A little girl about 9 years old told me she came from Miami and said, "You know that place where it never snows? We had to come here to see the snow." Ha again! It seems the majority of the many vacationers (nearly 100,000) in the Smokies were from Florida and other southern states. So for all of you northerners getting sick of the snow and freezing in it, I think you can appreciate our fellow citizens in the deep south coming up north (Tennessee is north to someone in Florida for sure, but to me it is the south!) to vacation-just to see the snow. I got a kick out of it. This same little girl asked me if the summer was full of snow too and thought that would be lovely if it were. No thanks, snow in the mountains and occasionally in Middle Tennessee is nice, but not in the summer!

From In the Garden

And finally, I would like to send good wishes from our family to yours for the year 2010. May it be your best ever....

in the garden....

Things To Do In the Smokies

From In the Garden

What do you do once you head to the Smokies? Well, for us the vacation was planned as more of a relaxing vacation with lots of in between things added in so as to keep things interesting. We really did not have a big plan for what we were going to do in the Smokies but had some general ideas.

The biggest and best part of the vacation for Mr. Fix-it besides spending time with each other was taking the Jimster on a helicopter ride. Mr. Fix-it is a helicopter mechanic in the Army and has flown many times. He wanted the Jimster to share in that unique experience. As an Army air traffic controller I also had the opportunity to fly in my Army days so I chose to sit out the helicopter flight. Those days of flying in helicopters are over for me. The Jimster enjoyed his one of a kind flight though and has a greater appreciation for what his father does in the Army. He got to sit in the co-pilots seat and had a blast seeing Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Sevierville from the air was a great experience for both the Jimster and Mr. Fix-it.

From In the Garden

The one thing I had preplanned prior to our trip was a visit to Wonderworks. Most attractions in the United States offer military discounts so I took advantage of this and purchased tickets online. Dollywood also offers a military discount but you have to pay at the park so we saved that for later and only preplanned Wonderworks. We immensely enjoyed this children's museum/ride amusement park/dinner theater very much. The building itself is a Greek styled building that is built upside down. It was an architectural wonder indeed. The museum and interactive exhibits were not so overwhelming that we were stressed to get through them all during our visit. You know what I mean-those parks you rush through in order to see it all? Wonderworks is not like this and a family can take their time visiting all of its exhibits and interactive activities. Rides were an extra special treat.

Part of our day at Wonderworks was spent at their in house dinner and show called 'Hoot n Holler' I highly recommend this show if you wish to stay out of the hustle and bustle and frenetic activity some of the other more well known shows in town have a reputation of providing. This show was wonderful and the food very good.

From In the Garden

We had never visited Dollywood before so figured this would be a great time to go. We were right! Some of the rides were shut down due to it being the dead of winter. These rides included mostly water rides. Many concession stands were not open either but the caveat was that the crowds were smaller and waiting to ride the roller coasters was-well-there really was no wait. We were fortunate that during the day the sun shined brightly, but I must say it got quite cold at night. Visitors need to check the hours of the park carefully if they plan to visit during the holidays. Fortunately their website has all show schedules online so be sure to do your homework before you go. We stayed at Dollywood a full eight hours on a cold December day, but found that while it was cold, there were many places to warm up, great food, and tons of stuff to not only do but to see. The bald eagles were a favored exhibit of mine. I could not believe there were so many in this aviary! (They are the little white dots, you can see them all if you look closely). I have never seen this many bald eagles in one place before. Their cries resonated throughout the immediate area and I believe I could almost sit down and just listen to them all day. For me that would beat the rides any day. Of course, when and IF I go on rides I ride with my eyes closed so the whole experience is not too fun for me anyhow. The Jimster and Mr. Fix-it enjoyed the rides though.

As expected Dollywood was all dolled up in expectation for the holiday. The Christmas trees, friendly folks thinking only of Christmas, and super good shows made the experience of Dollywood pleasurable even in the dead of winter. I took tons of pictures and a few movies that will help us enjoy this vacation again and again. One of the trees in the park so stood out that it deserved its very own video. I call this tree the "Shooting Star" Christmas tree because the 'ornaments' hanging on it truly look like shooting stars. Take a look at the very short video below to see the most unique Christmas decorations I think you'll ever see. To see the tree in person was simply fabulous....

in the garden....visiting the Smokies for Christmas.

We are no longer in the Smokies but spent part of last month there. One more post will come about the trip.

One of the three reasons I blog is to make an archive or family album of our lives in order to share with family and friends that live far away, and also so I can refer back the memories anytime I wish. Hence the family post this morning. Thanks for reading along kind visitors.