A Hint of Home

Friday, September 17, 2010

Cabin in the Woods

CAUTION: You are about to enter the PICTURE zone!
I have a lot of pics in this post. You may want to grab a cup of Joe. lol

We arrived in Gatlinburgh to stay a couple of nights in this cabin in the woods.

My brother rented it from the Internet..site unseen. My sis-in-law told me not to fear if it wasn't clean they would not be staying. They arrived a few days before us.

There are references to foxes or bears everywhere. Oh MY!

Beautiful streams and scenery!

Plenty of little critters as well as big critters. This is a friendly one.

This one not so much! lol

We enjoyed the relaxed pace and sat on the porch for hours.

This is the road that led to the cabin.

It was very nice and well stocked with dishes and utensils.

Notice the french doors in this next pic. It made my hubby nervous at night because the bears were right outside at times in our garbage. Notice the grill right outside the doors. We used it one night. Talk about luring the bears right to you. Yikes! lol

The cabin had two bathrooms, two bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, wrap around porch and a jacuzzi outside. I passed on that one! I didn't want to be out there where I couldn't escape a bear approaching.

We drove through Cade's Cove one day. It's very scenic. You'll see horses roaming, deer walking around, people hiking and yes, bears!

This is an old church at the Cove.

A park ranger riding her bike. I wouldn't be able to handle that job because the BEARS are walking around. It doesn't bother her--she's a happy camper.

Speaking of......we spotted a bear way up in the tree eating berries of some sort. Enlarge pic and right in the center you will see a black blob. lol

We watched" her", it- for a while. I guess she was full and decided to take a nap because she just flopped on the branch and let her arms and legs hang down. I felt the same way after a big meal. lol She was drawing a crowd and everyone was snapping pics.

We were driving down this road and hubs spotted a bear leisurely walking in the woods.

Hubs jumps out, against my advice of course, camera aiming for the next two pics.

I yelled, "I'm glad the life insurance is paid up!" lol

He got pretty close.

One night we went to Dixie Stampede! Have you ever been there? It has an amazing show, fantastic food, and great servers.

Here's a pic of the arena. We could only take pics before the show.

They use beautiful horses, cattle and covered wagons for part of the show. It's unique for sure.

You face the arena with a ledge in front of you for your food. You eat while enjoying the show. They serve a large Cornish hen, barbecue pork, corn, homemade rolls, soup, baked potato and apple turnover. I had to bring half home with me. lol

Oh, I forgot, they serve plenty of iced tea in mason jars, of course.

They have rodeo relays and many other events in the show.

If you survived to the end, I want to thank you for staying and for each comment you leave.

I hope you all have a safe & great weekend! Till next time!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

I'm Back

I'm back! did anyone miss me? It's been a hectic few weeks! I've had unexpected house guests--the good kind! Not bugs or insects of any kind. lol
Our daughter's air conditioning went on the fritz and it was way too hot to stay at their house.
We've had record breaking temps all summer. It stopped working on a Thurs. night and, of course, the AC companies were too swamped to get to it Fri. and they don't work on the weekends unless you pay a hefty fee.
Who could let these cuties suffer in that heat! They stayed till Tues.
What fun to have the babies around 24/7.

We let these cuties come too.

On Wed. morning we left to go to Gatlinburg for a couple of days. My brother rented a log home for a week and asked us to join him and my sis-in-law for a couple of nights. It was so much fun!

We were way up in them there hills. No one around except the bears. Literally! I'm not kidding. We put in a call to have a maintenance man bring a wire cage for our garbage cans because the bear or bears kept getting in them. A little scary just going to the car. Yikes!

I'll do another post and show you the pictures where we captured a bear in a tree and one along side the road.

We got home late Fri. and Sat. company arrived from CA for a week.

During that week I had a check-up at Emory University in Atlanta for my kidney condition.

Thanks to all of you that knew and said a prayer for me. The results were better than expected.

You guys are the best!

We got home and moved the two girls from CA into an apt. and it hasn't slowed down since.

On another note:

When we returned from our long trip to MI in July some of my plants didn't look so healthy from the extreme heat.

Hubby wanted to get some new urns and plant new flowers. I was so tired of the pinching off of the dead-head syndrome, I decided to plant Coleus and potato vines. They grow so fast, I thought I would show the progression.

Here's the start of them in late July.

It didn't take but a couple of weeks and they looked mature.

Now they are almost as tall as hubs. Which is 6 ft. We trim the vines every couple of days. I think they grow 3 " a day. lol

Well, that's a little bit of what's going on. I'm sorry you haven't heard from me in awhile.

What's been going on with all of you?

Monday, September 13, 2010

Fall Tablescape

It's been hetic around here the last three weeks and I'm reposting some Fall decor. I'll be back soon. It's beginning to look a lot like Fall at our house. Not the weather but the decor. We have been busy getting our Fall decorations out. Just in time for Tabletop Tuesday & Tablescape Thursday.

These are fingertip towels that I'm using as napkins. They have a cute leaf on them.

The dishes are my summer dishes that I use for outside eating on the patio. They were a pretty fall color so I decided to use them.

My hubby got in on the act, again, (lol) and did the centerpiece. He used pumpkins, gourds, acorns and pine cones.

I've had the pumpkin place mats for a few years.

The chargers are Better Homes & Gardens . They have a pretty leaf pattern around the edges. I found them at Walmart for $3.00.

The leaf tea light holders came from Old Time Pottery.

A cute leaf serving dish.

I found these cute leaf coasters at Dollar Tree.

Amber stemware glasses.

Pumpkin salt and pepper shakers.

I found little pumpkin place card holders at Pier One, on clearance, a couple of years ago.

Thanks so much for taking time to visit. Be sure to check out all the other tabletops @ http://astrollthrulife.blogspot.com/& tablescapes at
http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

New Bird House

A friend of ours gave my hubby this bird house recently for his birthday. Since he has retired he enjoys watching the birds that come to our other feeders.

I wasn't sure where I wanted to place it in our yard until I saw a little picked fence at The Christmas Shop.

Here's how the project started.... 1 bird house.....