Winter Snowfall

Mother Nature has not been kind to the lower Midwest, the south and most of the eastern United States this week. Wednesday came with a sheet of ice to all of middle Tennessee. The temperatures climbed above freezing very very early Thursday so the ice melted quickly. Late Thursday evening rain began followed by snow in the wee hours of Friday morning. I awoke to find four inches of snow. As the day wore on, Winter Storm Jonas dumped nine inches of snow in northeast Nashville, specifically Hendersonville, and almost as much south of the city. Southern Kentucky received a foot of snow in some parts.

Stepping out on the patio to capture this image, reminded me of just how cold it is. While I have to dig out my car today or tomorrow, I am not looking forward to it. The temperatures are in the twenties with wind chill in the upper teens. Notice the pine cones hanging from the tree? All of the fir trees have tons of pine trees hanging down from them around my place. So beautiful. Take care if you are in the path of Jonas. Stay warm, stay safe. ENJOY!

Photographer's Note: My blog was remodeled earlier in the week. One wrong key stroke and my layout and template was gone forever. I thought I had a backup copy, but I could not find it. Things are more or less back to normal, give or take. Back up your template by saving the HTML code under Template. All you need do is go inside the template HTML and copy and paste it to a word file. Since I know some CSS code I was able to recreate the template for the most part. Back soon.

Holiday Quote

On a recent visit to Bernheim, while strolling along the Sun and Shade Trail in the Arboretum, I captured this image of the tiniest of pine cones growing on a Canadian Hemlock tree. The smell was nothing less than heavenly. Especially at this time of year, many of us are known to wax nostalgic at the fantastic and wonderful aspects that the holiday season brings to mind. This quotes touches on many of those aspects that are near and dear to my heart. ENJOY!

This & That!

A little bit of nature at Bernheim. I love the Japanese Painted Fern growing along the Sun and Shade Trail in the Arboretum. I hadn't noticed it before.

While walking the trail I happened upon a pine tree and took a few photos of the pine cones. My question is this, is this a male pine cone and a female pine cone? The male being the orange part and the female being the pine cone part. That's the impression I got when I Googled it. Anyone know?

I noticed along the trail this tree with these small round seed pods. Google gave me no help on this one. So I'm asking, does anyone know what this tree is?
I wished all of you could spend an afternoon walking around Bernheim with me. It's such a pleasant place to walk while you enjoy the wildlife and check out all of the different varieties of trees, bushes, flowers and other plants that grow there. Hope you're having a good week. Oh yes, it's still raining here. ENJOY!

Nature's Postcard

While on my trek this weekend at Bernheim Forest, I photographed many of the patterns I found in the branches and leaves, and well, everywhere I looked and put a little postcard together to show you what I discovered along my walk. Visiting an arboretum in the wintertime is truly a treat. Enjoy!