A wonderful day for some time away

Yesterday was such a nice day to get outside for a little while and do some wintertime exploring. We've gotten lucky and have been blessed with some warmer weather (40 degrees!) and have been thawing out from our recent snow event in West Tennessee. I've gotten bored with checking out locations on my side of the Tennessee River and decided I need a change of scenery. I took a short journey of a few miles to the other side of the river to Mousetail Landing State Park, located on the banks of the Tennessee River.

As soon as we hopped out of the car we were treated to a wonderful natural phenomena. This is sun dog, formed by ice crystals that act like prisms and bend the light rays of the sun. It remained visible for quite some time, finally disappearing--time to start looking at other things.

We are gifted with so many different kinds of trees in this area. Above is a sweet gum tree with its seed pods hanging like holiday ornaments. The name for this tree originates from the resin like substance found under its bark which is scraped and gathered and in older times was used for its medicinal value as well as for a type of chewing gum.

A closer view of the sweet gum seed pods. Pretty little prickly things they are.

Another abundant tree found in this area is the sycamore. Its smooth light colored trunk makes it stand out among the hardwoods.

The fruit, or seed pod of the sycamore tree, another lovely ornament from nature.

Although quite and peaceful now, come summertime and this area will be bustling with activity. There's rustic campsites available here and these waters will be filled with all kind of watercraft from bass boats to floating party barge pontoons. Jet skiers can have fun out in the main channel of the Tennessee River, this area is a no wake zone.

The sky kept giving us wonderful clouds and the angle of the sun made the shore glow with color as well.

Like lightning bolts coming from above, these Hackberry branches still held some of their tasty berries. Also known as Sugarberry, I don't know how tasty they are...but they are a favorite of wintering birds. Mother Nature provides for its creatures.

Falling over due to shoreline erosion, come soon this tree will be in the water where it will provide cover for small fish and other aquatic creatures.

Here's a tree that if you bumped into it accidentally you would surely remember it. Its the thorny Honey Locust. I don't know if the thorns fall of the truck come spring but I know I've walked through this area a number of times in the summer and don't remember these being here. I'll have to check back in a few months and find out.

Looking like a squished black banana, this is the seed pod from the Honey Locust tree.

Standing out of the crowd with its wonderful green leaves is this American Holly. Providing winged creatures with cover during the cold months of winter makes this tree valuable in the natural landscape.

Lovely red berries from the holly had all fallen to the ground where they will still be consumed by wildlife.

We were just about ready to leave when I spotted this barge heading downriver in the main channel of the Tennessee. All of these sites made for a wonderful day out.

A little bit of riverside exploration

Today was just the perfect day to get out of the house for a little while and do some riverside exploration. I haven't been out and about since the beginning of November, so when the husband suggested it~I was all for it. There's a county park about a mile from my house that's right on the banks of the Tennessee River. All of the following photos were taken in an area about 40 feet square. My goal was to find many interesting things in a relatively small area.

As soon as we got to the park, I headed to my favorite place to explore-right along the shores of the river and the adjacent woodland. The level of the river today was low, some days this area is flooded. This shell caught my eye, its delicate blue color nestled among roots, grasses and fallen leaves.

Just a few feet from the shell, these little prints dotted the beach~river otter or beaver, I'm not quite sure.

Bits and pieces of natures handiwork, delicate designs that are easily overlooked

Natures carvers have been busy in the area. I found lots of beaver gnawings throughout the woodland area just a few feet from the river.

The river workers were out today, too. This is called a barge. The compartments (in red) are loaded with all sorts of commodities: coal, grain, gravel, sand and other stuff for transport up and down the river. This barge is heading upriver, probably to ports down in Alabama or beyond. He could get all the way to Knoxville on the Tennessee River on the other side of the state if he wanted to.

The boat that pushes the load is called a tow. I've never been on one of these, but I've heard that the accommodations are quite nice.

Enough of the man made stuff, we're here to check out mother nature.

Little pockets of ice remain near the backwaters, remnants of last week's cold, cold temperatures. In other years, the water back here would not freeze.

Twists and turns from vines that have intermingled. We find a lot of this kind of stuff around this area.

Fungus covers a fallen tree, delicate little wings full of detail and interesting color.

While I was looking down and taking pics, I almost missed this rainbow cloud up in the sky. I'd never seen anything like it! Bummer about the power lines being in this shot, but as soon as this cloud moved enough so the lines weren't visible, the rainbow wasn't either.

Hanging like an ornament, this is the seed pod from a Sweet Gum tree.

Even though things have not started to bloom yet, there's always plenty of interesting things to see in the natural world.

I hope you enjoyed this little bit of river exploration.

Have a safe and happy week.

A little bit of time on the river

In the middle of last week, to celebrate our anniversary, my husband and I paid a visit to the Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge-Busseltown Unit~just a couple of miles away from where we live. The river is pretty peaceful and quiet during the week, I'm sure it was pretty packed for Labor Day weekend-boats of all kinds, jet skis and people enjoying the last holiday of summer. Sometimes, we get lucky enough to see a big barge moving product up and down the river.
Looking south and looking upriver. Sounds funny, doesn't it? Rivers in North America are supposed to flow south-this one doesn't. The Tennessee River flows southwest out of the Knoxville area, west across northern Alabama, then takes a turn north and flows through West Tennessee until it dumps into the Ohio which eventually empties into the Mississippi. We've spent some time swimming in this river, but its not all that clean. You come out of the water feeling that you need a shower.

Lovely golden yellow wildflowers are in bloom all over this area.

Across the river are some nice looking bluffs. The water reaches pretty good depths near these bluffs, usually 50-60 feet deep. The Tennessee River splits the state of Tennessee into three sections- East, Middle and West. We're on the West Tennessee side looking east at Middle Tennessee.

A good find for the day included this White Tail Dragonfly. It was patrolling a small area looking for prey. I got to watch this one as it munched down whatever it had caught. After its meal it was off again looking for another victim.

The purples of autumn are starting to bloom. I'm not sure of what these are but they are very pretty. I was kind of bummed out--when we visited about a month ago there was lots more interesting things in bloom. A lot of it got mowed down, probably in anticipation of all the weekend visitors that were going to use this area for their good times.

Here's an interesting wildflower~Heart's-a-bustin, or Strawberry Bush. These haven't busted yet, but when they do the seed head opens to reveal purple insides and bright orange seeds. I'll have to remember to come back and get a shot of these once they pop.

Day of the Dragonfly and other curiosities

Thursday afternoon, I decided to get out of the house for a few and take a short ride down to the Tennessee River to see if there was anything interesting going on. After about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, my workshop just gets a bit too warm and uncomfortable to work in. The first stop was a local boat launch area with lots of native vegetation. This big beautiful dragonfly caught my eye and I headed on over to see if I couldn't get a shot of it.

This dragonfly turned out to be the most cooperative dragonfly I've ever come across. It must have been in need of a rest since it let me photograph it from all angles while fumbling with the settings on my camera. I'm not sure what kind it is~my field guide lists a few that are similar to this one but the descriptions don't match 100%.

The closeup of the wings shows a little bit of wear and tear around the edges.

I like this shot from the back end~it reminds me of an airplane ready to take off into the wild blue yonder.

After about 5 minutes it was tired of me bothering it and it took off to find some peace and quiet.

The second stop along the Tennessee River was a local county park. This passionflower and many more like it was found in an area allowed to grow wild~my favorite kind of place to explore because you never know what kind of interesting flora or fauna will be found. According to the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers, "The name relates to the resemblance of the floral parts to aspects of the crucifixion story. The 10 petal-like parts represent the disciples, excluding Peter and Judas, the 5 stamens the wounds Jesus received, the knob-like stigmas the nails, the fringe the crown of thorns." A very interesting bloom, indeed. Another interesting fact about this vine is that its a host plant for fritillary butterfly caterpillars.

This is the fruit of the passionflower, a passion fruit. Its an edible fruit, this one needs to ripen a bit more. I can't recall if I've ever tried one--there were plenty of these fruits hanging around, hopefully this year I'll get my hands on one and give it a try.

Tennessee River Flood 2009

Today, the sun finally come out and we've gotten a break from the daily rains we've been receiving for the past week although more rain is forecast for the next few days. I decided to take a look around and see how high the water has risen. All of these pictures of the Tennessee River were taken locally, just around the corner from my home near Perryville, Tennessee. Since the Tennessee River is managed by a system of dams, water levels at the Perryville gauging station is usually maintained to around 359 feet above sea level during summer pool. The last time I checked we were at 367 feet above sea level and expected to rise in the next day to 368 feet. Flood stage is 370 feet, so everyone is crossing their fingers that we won't get much more rain. The next dam further downriver is releasing water to lower the river level, but this needs to be done slowly as to not inundate the lands on the other side. The party cabana above sits on a low lying area, most likely it'll start floating downstream. There's a ton of debris both natural and man made that is currently loose on the river, creating a hazard for navigation.


This gangway leads to one of the floating houses I wrote about in my post dated April 7. The house itself has risen with the river's level as it was constructed to do but now it takes a boat to get to it.

Another of the floating houses.
The houses on this side of the floating house colony appear to be suffering some damage.

Under normal conditions, there is some water between the bank at the bottom left corner and the house. Since the river has risen 8 feet the gangways are underwater with the only access being by boat.

The cluster of trees in the center are found on a little island, now underwater.

There's usually a walking path in this area.

And normally, water does not cover the road.

The planks in the center of the photo are actually picnic tables.

Appears to be a strange place for a bridge.

Before the river started rising, there was a camper under this roof over. They have left their front deck and barbque grill behind for now and have moved the camper to higher ground.

The sign on the right marks the entrance to Perryville Marina. Under normal conditions, the water's level would be 8 feet lower.

It might not be a bad idea to move these campers out now. The ground is pretty saturated already and if the river rises higher they might have trouble getting these out. Most of these are summer/weekend getaway places.

This is usually a parking area with the river normally being on the other side of the stand of trees.