orchid, roses, and locust

this little unit has taken forever to finally blossom --- but it'll probably last forever too

in the meantime, it's high spring, as it were, made extra special by it not being all damn hot already --- and my dilated eye is gonna love the next few cloudy days coming up

fire station #15 down on tenth street is the home of the "night train," the siren of which sets guinness to howling every time --- and they have two rose bushes in their front yard (and purty much nothing else) that are really fine this year

spring fresh

the air at the river was thick with the glorious stench of spring: native azaleas, honeysuckle, and blackberry all in bloom ---

an annual ritual

dog is nothing but a giant hair ball, on him and all over the house

after a couple of hours, with frequent intermissions to let the clippers cool off, he started getting snarly with the clippers --- we'll have to get the several odds and ends let to cut over the next few days

so much for eleventh street

from last fall

 today

keeping a place alive

an inspired theme for an exhibit at andalusia --- flannery would be proud

winding up the week

productive day at the typewriter, trying to wind up a project; then adult beverages with one of my favorite people, along with the best crab cakes for which one could ever ask ---- (henry's on tenth at juniper)

a long-ass meeting

five hours at the a.u.d.c. this evening --- but, due in no small part to my yadda yadda yadda, there is one historic building that won't get demolished, a least not tomorrow

the vanguard

It was so revolutionary. It had never been done before anywhere in the world. We all wore coat and ties and we all had pseudonyms 

oh god what we owe these people for what they did in 1965 ... none of the rest of us yet had the nerve

tax day sundries

having sent in the 1040 a couple of days ago, i spent today on the elkmont project before setting up a new audio system this evening --- sound bar and subwoofer, and whoa howdy they rock --- might not need a hearing aid after all if i don't mind the neighbors beating on the walls 

the dog and i keep up with the few specimen trees left around midtown --- we're gonna lose the giant red oak on eleventh street any day now, but what's left of the equally giant cottonwood in front of the academy of medicine, which has lost half its canopy and is certainly on its last legs, has at least leafed out again this year --- 

meanwhile on eighth and w. p'tree, it's all coming out of the ground ---

gah

i have to keep my left eye dilated for a month, so that blah, blah, blah --- it's a drag, for me and the orchids

demolishing midtown: piedmont & 11th

piedmont avenue just lost a couple of nice buildings

a good day at the office

plowed ahead with the elkmont project in spite of my eye, which i've had to keep dilated until i go back to the eye man on monday --- walked downtown and met a former colleague for lunch as she prepares to move to vermont, severing another of my links to nps --- which is ok ---

dog and i did our usual building inspection: this view northeast from w. peachtree and eighth

a fine thunderstorm rolled through around six, just as i was leaving for dinner at sufi on peachtree with the susans and donald --- doesn't matter where we eat, it's always a great couple of hours

can't be helped: i'm 66 today

when i posted this pic yesterday, i wondered what these poor bears did to deserve chains and police tape ---

me, i just wonder what i did to deserve to still be alive --- too many of my generation didn't make it through vietnam, hiv, and what not ---

old buildings

elkmont is an interesting old resort community on the tennessee side of the smoky mountains, created out of a logging camp after they had stripped the mountains of their forests before world war i --- many of the movers and shakers (a lot of them from knoxville) who pushed for creation of the national park in the 1920s had places at elkmont

i was there to get intimate with these two, c. 1910 ---

high places

 i beat the crowds to laurel falls, on the way to elkmont in the smokies --- it's always been massively crowded when i've been by, but today i got there at 8 am and had it almost all to myself going up --- not so going down

and in the process of getting this sorry shot, i grasped the reality of falling to one's death from a high place

 the last two times i've been over newfound gap and had the chance to go out to clingman's dome, it's been totally fogged in, which is a purty cool experience, but nothing like a semi-sunny day

the pink motel

that's my brother coming out of the snack bar across the street from the pink motel in cherokee, nc, in 1960 ---  and today --- everything else has changed, but the pink motel is still there, along with its neon sign, updated to advertise cable teevee

file under "great places"

cades cove: oh my, i know the first white farmer types that saw it nearly wet themselves --- what a magnificent place --- most of the old homesteads are gone now, but the magnificent agricultural landscape is still there --- plus three little white churches, primitive baptist, missionary baptist, and methodist, all with the same belvedere cum steeple

there is a wonderful loop road around the cove, which must be absolute torture in the summer, since here in early spring, and in spite of the numerous signs about showing courtesy and using the many, many pull-offs, people would rather die than do that and so its 10-15 mph for the last half of the loop --- in spite of that, i do not hate cades covef