The Garden, Inn at Cedar Falls, Hocking Hills

I'm taking you to Hocking Hills, Ohio, to the garden at the Inn at Cedar Falls. The flowers were so beautiful in the garden area behind the restaurant on a warm July afternoon several summers ago. You can sit outside if you like and have lunch or dinner. It's a beautiful, peaceful place to spend some time and get away from it all. I look forward to planning a trip again soon. We have major flooding in Louisville and the surrounding area today. It's rained about 3 inches which is about 2 1/2 inches more than I wanted. I was down by the Ohio River this morning and it was way out of its banks and all over the place along River Road. Amazing sight to see. Hope you're staying warm and dry. I'm really looking forward to blue skies and sunshine. I posted a new header for all of my friends and followers to see. The fireworks image you see is from several images I had scanned recently from Thunder Over Louisville, one of America's largest fireworks shows which is a prelude to The Kentucky Derby Festival here in Louisville in late April. I'll post more fireworks images soon. ENJOY!

Giving Thanks . . .

As if you haven't noticed by now, I get bored with header images often. I have no image to post today just a thought about my new header image I felt compelled to share. I felt a collage of images was in order. So I sat down at my computer and I thumbed through the "thumbnails" and I picked the images I wanted to show in the collage. I wanted some red, some yellow, obviously blues and greens, and I wanted to show summer and fall and winter and spring.

When I was finished choosing images, I pressed the button and wa la, a new header image, accompanied by this ornate font I've been into lately. And then it happened, I got to looking at the images and noticed that all but one image was taken from my 35mm camera and not my digital. I surmise my eye can still see the beauty and quality of the 35mm film that I used to call every photograph I took. And then something else happened. I got to looking more closely at all of the images, and wa la, there are seven different states represented in my collage.

Manchester Farms in Lexington, Kentucky right, next door to Keeneland Race Course
The Barn at Myer's Cabin, Mustatatuck National Wildlife Refuge, Seymour, Indiana
Miner's Castle, along Lake Superior's National Seashore, Upper Peninsula, Michigan
Sunset, Morton's Overlook, and a beautiful Fall tree along the forest drive, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee
Looking out toward Eggmoggin Reach and a look back at the village of Stonington, Deer Isle, Maine
The Beach, Chatham, Massachusetts
A very frozen Cedar Falls, Hocking Hills State Park, Ohio

And then I got to thinking, hmmm!!! I've been busy traveling the Midwest, the Mid Atlantic and the Northeast these past ten years. How lucky am I? So I give Thanks to God for all of these fabulous opportunities. ENJOY!

Icicles, Hocking Hills, Ohio

I wanted to repost one of my top ten favorite images. These are icicles at the Upper Falls of Old Man's Cave in Hocking Hills, Ohio. It seemed appropriate what with so many folks in the central plains, midwest and eastern seaboard experiencing such harsh winter weather right now. Stay warm and safe America, it has to end sometime. Enjoy!

Cedar Falls, Hocking Hills, Ohio

This image which is in an older post always intrigued me. I dropped it into Lightroom 3 and was able to bring out the beautiful rock formations around the falls which is one of the things I love most about this waterfall. It's truly a wonderful walk down to the falls. A little slippery when I was there to take this image, but a beautiful place and a great waterfall that you can practically walk right up to. I must say I'm very tempted to head back to Ohio this winter to check out some of the falls. Also I wanted to note I spent nearly a month watching the Ohio weather maps so I could find just the right time to travel up there to shoot this waterfall. I hit just on the perfect couple of days. Enjoy!

Upper Falls, Old Mans Cave, Hocking Hills, Ohio

While I was out earlier today, I went to get into my car, looked up and saw the temperature reading which was at 98 degrees and said . . . hot! Tonight while going through some old thumbnails I have on my desktop I discovered this image of frozen Old Man's Cave, Upper Falls, in Hocking Hills, Ohio. I remember when I took this image. I remember it well. I had to go to Walmart and buy a thicker pair of gloves. I had to slide around on slick icy paths to get to this falls. And yes, I fell a time or two. Ouch!! But I got this along with the icicles hanging nearby which is in an earlier post. Now here is why I'm telling you all of this. You see, I tried and I tried, and I tried again, to get down the steps at the "Lower Falls" of Old Man's Cave which were covered in a thick sheet of ice. And nature just wasn't going to have it. And I didn't get that image. But I did get this one. Perhaps it will cool you off too. Enjoy!

Postscript: This is a low res image from my slide taken with my Pentax.

Cedar Falls, January, Hocking Hills State Park, Ohio

I took this photo the morning after I photographed the icicles at the Upper Falls of Old Man's Cave. This is Cedar Falls, all frozen over and barely a drip!

Cedar Falls, Summer, Hocking Hills State Park, Ohio