Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: fall


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She can’t silence me people!

Katie here.

Well I never. I never! Mama and Daddy left me for almost three weeks! I was at camp and it was noisy and other dogs got all the attention! I swear no one fed me or played with me or took me outside and I was all alone!

Checking out my gardens.

Oh. You don’t believe that?

Well, OK, it wasn’t all that bad and they love me a lot there and I get to go outside a bunch, in fact they say I don’t want to come back inside when they call me. That’s cause I think I should get all the attention wherever I am, and do whatever I want, given I’m a princess. But it turns out all those other doggies are princesses and princes too! Who knew?

Hey mama! You saved me some tomatoes!

ANYWAY…

Mama finally came and got me and I told her off the entire ride home as is my right. And when I got home I told daddy off too. For hours. But then mama asked me if I wanted to go for a walk around the yard. Well yea mama!

I also told mama that none of you wanted to see her old pictures of forts and oceans and old houses and stuff. What you wanted (and I’m sure I’m right) is to see me! The Princess! Of course!! So I told her there better be lots of pictures on this blog (I can type but I don’t get the ‘insert media’ part of it. Plus I can’t decide which of my beautiful portraits should go where.) of me and she better get hopping because it’s been way too long since you’ve had the pleasure of seeing me.

And I told her she’s way behind in the camping quotient and I don’t care if it gets cold at night she better get that tent put up and it better be in an interesting place, not just my old back yard. Though on second thought the backyard might be OK, just don’t tell her that yet, I want to make her work for it.

I got to run in my yard!

I’m not vindictive, no I’m not.

Mama says daddy set the alarm clock each morning for 6:30 or 7 a.m. and she doesn’t know why. She thought she should be able to sleep in more, given it was her vacation. Well. I’m here to tell you mama, that 6:30 was sleeping in. Now that I’m back in town we’ll get right back to our normal schedule. Yep, 4:00 a.m. seems a reasonable time for a sheltie-mom to be up and at ’em.

Yes siree, I’m going to whip her back into shape. No more slacking mama!

My flowers are still pretty.

It is, after all, my responsibility as the Princess in the household to make sure my subjects are in shape.

She’ll thank me later.

Your gal Katie.


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So much to show you, so little time to share

Jefferson’s haven.


As you have probably surmised, we’ve been traveling. If you’re following along on Facebook you might even know where we are today. And of course you know me. There are photos. Lots and lots and lots of photos. Many were intended to be shared with you on this blog, intended to be a day by day account of the wonderful things we’ve seen and done on this extended vacation.

Washington’s haven.

But somehow that didn’t happen, and now I’m days, even weeks behind. We’ve been to Jefferson’s Monticello and Washington’s Mount Vernon. We’ve wandered among Washington DC’s monuments and explored a few forts and climbed a lighthouse and toured a submarine and strolled an Atlantic ocean beach and walked over three miles along the cliffs of Newport. Just yesterday we explored five golden age mansions and ended our day with another lighthouse.

He had a dream.

What should I share with you? I’ve sorted the mansion photos and I could just catch you all up by starting there, but that’s going to be a long blog and I might do better to put it together when I get home, when I have more time, faster internet, when I’m not packing the suitcase to head for the next adventure.

A light in the haze.

So I’ll leave you with just a taste of everything. And even then it was hard to choose which images to share. I picked them randomly from little thumbnails. Nothing is edited, they’re just the way the camera saw things. No time for messing around, we’re headed out this morning for somewhere new.

Stay tuned. I promise to show you a tiny bit of those mansions someday soon. If Katie allows it anyway.

Submarine history tour


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The greening of Eastern Tennessee

Wednesday Katie and I went out exploring early in the day. We knew there was no sense sticking close to the hotel because the car wasn’t going to be ready. So we headed back toward Gatlinburg, hoping to find a trail that would keep Katie happy and some photogenic stuff for me.

This time I was more observant, and as I drove into Gatlinburg I noticed the blackened hills above the commercial strip, the hulks of huge burned out homes stark against the sky. The firefighters saved the blocks of restaurants and bars, pancake houses and fudge shops, wax museums and curio shops. But all around town, at the fringes of prosperity, was evidence of the fire that roared through last October.

It is heartbreaking. Especially when you realize that some of the fires were set by humans. And that so many people died. These were people’s homes, their possessions that lay among the blackened rubble.

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And yet. It’s trying to be spring in Tennessee. Up through the blackened brush, the toppled trees, the crumbled walls bits of green are pushing through. Spring doesn’t recognize the devastation of fall. It just does spring.

After I wandered among some of the wreckage a bit I took Katie to a cool green path along the Little Pigeon River. I let her walk as long as she wanted, sniffing the fresh green. She loved it. I did too.

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We’re ready to move on, that’s for certain. But I’m glad I had this day to see up close how nature heals. We have good news too. We got the car back from the dealership yesterday late afternoon. So today, as you’re reading this Katie and I are on the road again.

Soothing.

Soothing.

We’re excited.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Katie here. I’d like to take this opportunity while my mama is away to thank all of you for reading my blog. Well, it’s actually her blog, but I know for sure that your favorite posts are mine!

She and I have loved meeting so many of you in person, and we hope to meet even more of you someday soon! In the meantime I hope you have a wonderful day and a fantastic weekend with family and friends.

Thank you everybody!!

Thank you everybody!!

Mama will be home soon. I’m pretty sure she won’t be mad that I hijacked her blog cause I did it just to say thank you to all our readers!

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!


And how can she ever be mad at me? I’m just so darn cute!

Anyway…Mama and I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

Hope she brings me some turkey!

Hope she brings me some turkey!


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3 Quote Challenge: Day 2

“In every change, in every falling leaf there is some pain, some beauty. And that’s the way new leaves grow. – – Amit Ray

My favorite tree.

My favorite tree.

I was challenged by Carol over at Wanderings of an Elusive Mind to post quotes for three days. If you’d like to play along we’d love to have you!

I have a young ginko tree in my backyard. Every year the leaves turn a wonderful yellow color and hang on long after most of the maple trees have released their leaves to the wind.

Golden ginko

Golden ginko

And every fall I wake up one morning and find all the leaves huddled like a life ring of gold around the base of the tree. After a hard frost all the leaves drop at once.

It must be an amazing site, to see all that gold come fluttering down at once. It would be magical.

This year I kept track of the weather, determined to see my tree shed it’s summer clothes.

Darn!

Darn!

But I missed it again. I guess it’s shy and only disrobes in the dark. Next year I’m going to have to camp out and keep watch all night, become a tree paparazzi.

If I capture the image I’ll share it with you. Next year for sure.

Mama makes me sit in these leaves every year.

Mama makes me sit in these leaves every year.


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Holding time still

Used to be full. Will be again.

Used to be full. Will be again.


This morning I walked out of the gym wearing shorts, probably the last time I’ll be able to do that for awhile. After all, it’s mid-November. And though today we hit a record high of 72 degrees (22.22 Celsius) I know this weekend we’ll get cold rain, maybe even a bit of snow.

After the frost.

After the frost.

As I left the gym, moving out into the warm sunshine, I wished that it could stay this warm and sunny until next spring. Then I noticed the business next door was playing the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s Carol of the Bells. Loudly. The music was rolling out the open door and I was reminded that Christmas is right around the corner.

End of season colors.

End of season colors.

Time is marching on whether I like it or not.

I remember my mom wanting to stop time when we were growing up. She was already mourning our youth before we moved away. Sometimes I do the same, and I certainly hear other parents voice that sentiment.

Autumn morning light.

Autumn morning light.

But time slides away and before you know it the holidays are here, and then the next year, and the one after that. Years fly by, seasons even faster. The sun sets on today before I realize it’s potential. I want it all to slow down.

Unless it’s snowing. If it’s snowing then time needs to scream forward into spring.

Seriously.

Hanging onto fall.

Hanging onto fall.