Snappy Leaves!

Hey, I found this: Leaf Snap.
I decided to try it out. So I took a picture of a leaf.

It did not work! An improper id! Why? Because I did not follow the instructions. Ah ha. The instructions inform you to take your leaf snap on a white background. So...

Voila. And it worked. A sassafras.

So now I have been trying this one. Still no id. May be because of the shadows or the plant simply is not yet in the database. I understand that not all southeastern flora have been included at this point in time. This is some sort of yew and may be a torreya. Not sure and that information was from a conversation several hours into our last summer solstice party .

Eat a Peach!

Grabbed from a couple of our trees this weekend.

Inside a Cloud, in a Boat, on the Water, Rambling

So that morning, father's day, I lit out on this road for a ramble...

passed by these wonderful fungi ...

grabbed my canoe and went a-paddlin'

crossed this bridge...

passed these sentinels and took a moment to sit and think, alone in the woods, in a cloud.

Summer solstice today. I think 1:16 pm is the closest point to the sun our hemisphere will lean on this journey around the sun. We'll be in the garden with our friends and family beating the heat, one cool beverage at a time. Cheers.

Trotters

Hmm hmm. This little piggy was good eating this weekend. Courtesy of these fellows. This was just about all that was left when the crowd tore into the splayed, smoked beast. Not too long after a massive thunderstorm rolled in, striking the ground and toppling trees and hailing and blowing rain. Almost biblical when one thinks about: blood letting, slitting a beast's throat, congregating, music, chanting and general caring on. The power went off too. The caring on continued.

Tis the Season

For weddings that is. Have spent every weekend for the past month or so at bachelor parties, setting up for weddings, rehearsal dinners and weddings. I know the Epting's tent like the back of my hand. And so when the temps are furnace like and the weddings are outdoors how does one remain sartorially compliant and reasonably unencumbered? Why with seersucker and linen of course! Well, Maker's and ginger ale helps too. In any event, a seersucker suit with a linen shirt and a cotton bow tie is the absolute minimum amount of clothing one can wear and still satisfy the "coat and tie" requirement. And if I might dare say, I think seersucker suits look cool too. So, off to the Hill and then on to Tate and a dip in the cool mountain waters to beat these infernal temps.

100 degrees

Boy it seems a little early for this silliness. 100 degree weather that is and still three weeks to go until it is officially summer! What is a brother to do? Well my brood saddled up the minivan and drove to the piney wilds of Oglethorpe county and down a dirt road and under a cable gate and over a red clay track to get here-an abandoned granite quarry. I know around here these are prime swimming holes with deep, cool, spring fed water. But who knows what secrets those green depths hold? These are better than a river and shoals I say. Look at those broad long shallow steps to lounge on and then the green ledge to drop off. A cool soothing plunge.

Theses huge jumbles of granite slabs abound all over this property. It is hard to believe that something that seems to have so much value would be left in piles deep in the woods. This pile was easily 15 feet tall and certainly was not the largest but it was close and meant I spent the minimum time out of the water.
Not sure if I could capture or describe the shimmer the heat put up yesterday. The granite deck around this quarry seemed to cast up reflected sun rays so as brighten everything from below.
Have been fortunate to go to a couple of quarries and a pond this year already - have yet to brave the chlorinated cement ponds in town. In fact I spent a good Saturday bobbing in Lake Mawaje in a life jacket, aimlessly drifting around the dock, kicking just enough to get out of the occasional upswell of cold bottom water. That was a day. Don't look for Mawaje on a map. It exist somewhere between Sparta, Jewell, Warrenton, Mayfield and my imagination. It can't be found. Hope to make it to Lake Sequoyah this weekend. Cool mountain water, rope swings and a diving tower. May fish a little too if it isn't too much work.