Old Hickory Village is a fantastic place to live and I am blessed to have such wonderful neighbors.  Last Friday was a time for neighborhood wide block parties.  Ours was short lived thanks to the rain but was fun anyway!  

A two year olds life of drawing on the concrete with chalk.

Could it be young love?

Laughter!!

Friendship.

The other day I was looking through some personal projects and came upon these sweet photos of Leon and his siblings.  The little calico looks just like their mom, Mudpie and the black and white kitty looks just like the male cat I saw, I mean heard, howling in the wee hours of the morning in late winter of 2004.  Leon and his brother and sister were born on May 15th.  In these photos they are about 6 weeks old.  

Just love going to the zoo even on scorching days.  I arrived just a little after opening, 9am.  The gibbons were going crazy as usual.  The meerkats stealing the hearts of the little ones.   And forgot those beautiful hyacinth macaws cleaning their feet and eating some sort of nut.  The reason I went was to see the baby white tigers before they left the Nashville Zoo to head to Florida.  They did not disappoint.  

Just love these feathers. Such beautiful birds.

Morning nap. Look at those paws.

For reference from April 09. They doubled in size!

Sisters, resting, watching.

Grooming.

Sure is hot out.

I'm sleepy.

Grabbing a chew toy.

Their fur is so pretty.

I am tiger, hear me roar!!

Another of the girls from april.

She looks so sweet.

Clouded leopard

clouded leopard fur

I have become really fascinated with turtles.

Yesterday morning I was so happy to see a baby morning dove in my backyard.  He was sitting on my fence and I first noticed him as I was investigating a spider web.   Then I realized there was another one on the ground, hiding among the pine straw.   It seems this guy was not a very confident flyer.  He could get on the fence but was a little afraid.   Once they were on the fence I was able to get some beautiful portraits of these sweet (in my mind anyway, a couple times I thought the brave one was going to fly right at my camera) birds.   This morning the brave one came back and perched on the apex of my garage roof watching me water the garden.  I think they are nesting in my neighbors maple tree.  

Here they are together by the back gate.

I love this image.

My absolute favorite image from the session.

I was talking to him... notice how he looks like he's listening.

grooming... I love their yellow underbelly.

Stretching out his wing.

So pretty... I think I kinda fell in love with them. I guess because they let me get so close to them.

The brave one.

Jackson turns two and his mom throws a little party complete with Thomas the train “cupcake” cake.  So much fun on a late spring morning. 

The birthday boy, a little tired from all the celebrations!

Sweet photos for Jackson's mom.

Finally having some fun on the slide.

Peak-a-boo.

Please don't take my photo!

Ms. C.

Sweet M's turn on the slide.

Can't wait for cake!!!

Determination!

Happiness is a swing and someone to push you.

Playground negotiations.

It was a great day for windmills, cake and play. Happy Birthday Jackson!!

Guess how many miles I drove my car in the last 75 minutes?   14.   

I left my house at 4:45 to make it to a meeting with a 5:30 start time.  I was looking forward to hearing how to keep my life’s priorities while pursuing my dream business goals and I was also given the opportunity to talk about how I was reinventing myself through the latest incubator with Ladies Who Launch.  Somehow this was not to be.   

Normally when I go to my LWL meetings I take the north route, head down Ellington Parkway then to James Robertson and around to Charlotte to get to the Point 3 offices at Marathon Village.  When I got in my car and started to proceed with this route dark clouds, I mean really dark blue gray ominous clouds were forming over the village… and then bolts of lightening!! Yikes!  I decide  to  go the other route, through Hermitage and stop for some much needed coffee.  Well those darn storms followed me.  I pulled into Starbucks and the guy at the window says, “Naw those storms are headed East toward Mt. Juliet”…. whatever!!  I was worried that a bolt of lightening would hit the stainless steel to go window counter!  As I drove off and toward the ramp to 40W I could see what looked like gray smoke in my rear view mirror… it was rain.  Pouring rain and then hail and wind, stuff flying in the air!  The temp drops from 96 to 75 in about 10 minutes.  Okay I am thinking I will pull over until the rain subsides.  By the time I start to merge onto the interstate it stops but wait…. the traffic is at a standstill and this is going toward town at 5 o’clock.  Seems that a tractor trailer is stuck under the Elm Hill Pike overpass, lanes are closed and the truck will be there until 8pm.  Nice.  20 minutes to go from one exit to the next.   

I never made it to the meeting.  Instead I am having a glass of wine!   So I wonder if I had taken the Ellington Parkway route if I would have made it?  Somehow it is an appropriate way to wind down this first Monday of Summer 2009.  It has been a day with some movement toward my reinvention, maybe those storms symbolize all the negative, self doubt, leaving my brain. 

I am leaving with a photo of the white tiger cubs from the Nashville Zoo.   I have a big post in my mind about my latest zoo visit. 

It's so hard to say goodbye to these girls! Today was their last day at the Nashville Zoo.

Last Saturday was Community Garden awareness day.  There were about 10 gardens on the tour, Old Hickory Community Garden being one of them.   It was a slow day for us and while I was there we had a great visit from a master gardner.   Joy shared some great information about thinning out the leaves on our tomato plants.   Jane Fleishman from Food Security Partners was also on hand to answer questions.   Below are a few photos from our garden and then after from the Nashville Urban Harvest. 

my little garden 6-12-09

Old Hickory Community Garden 6-12-09

Sue giving us tips on thinning out the tomato plants to prevent fungus.

James telling Sue about how this garden was born.

It is always fun while working in the garden.

Identifying suckers and pulling them out.

Now on to the photos from NUH.   

Tucked behind this building on 57th in the nations area....

natural beauty, organic, unspoiled

turning over the soil, preparing for the next crop

I love how they use tree trucks to create raised beds.

Beehives.

Look at this... just like being in a forest.

Lots of reusing, recycling... this bus serves as storage.

A section of the garden with climbing things.

I like how they use cardboard as pathways.

Taking a break. In the background are hobbs hanging. The wind blew them like a curtain.

Entrance to the garden.

It had been a year since I had been to Cumberland Caverns with my friend and neighbor, Todd.  Todd having just visited the area with his family came up with a novel idea of music in a cave.  It was pretty easy to get to, 333 feet below ground, the acoustics were great and it was a constant 55 degrees year round!   He chose bluegrass as the music because of the music’s roots in the mountains and it was his favorite genre.  He would call it Bluegrass Underground. So here we were getting the tour, me taking photos for the initial website design.  Since then every, and I mean every BGU fell on a Saturday when I had a wedding and I was not doing that many weddings.  

Cherryholmes was the headliner this past week… now I had never heard of them until BGU but apparently they have a huge fan base and so me and 349 other people packed the cave and OMG!!!  This had to be fate and this could not have been a more perfect first BGU for me and I got a new favorite band in the process!

If you ever get the chance to go to BGU you must go!  It is only under 2 hours from Nashviile and makes a perfect day trip.  The concerts are always held in the early to afternoon and last about 2-3 hours.  So far some big ole names in Bluegrass have preformed:  the Steeldrivers, the Grasscals and the Steep Canyon Rangers just to name a few.  They have a big July 4th celebration coming up featuring many acts including one of my faves, John Cowan.  Don’t worry if you can’t get there anytime soon because these sessions are broadcast on WSM online.  

I arrived a little early on Saturday to shoot images for one of my many ongoing photo projects. 

Check out this beautiful images that revealed themselves to me just off of Dark Hollow Rd. 

tree and red barn

I just loved the daintiness of the wildflowers with the wire and the color.

I have taken a recent liking to thistle.

I would grow thistle in my yard if I could figure out a way to control it!

These trees looked like they were shaking hands.

The next set of images are of Cherryholmes.  You can check out more images by Colin Peterson of the concert by going to the Bluegrass Underground website.

Directly across the street from the Sulligent Cotton Oil Company is the old Sulligent Train Depot.  

It looks like at one time the building housed small businesses.  So sad, buildings abandoned. 

The side of the building just across the street from the employee entrance of the Cotton Oil Company.

Beautiful textures.

Weeds and wildflowers take over the sidewalks.

Broken windows.

Falling awning perhaps from strong storms.

Reflection of businesses across from the depot.

This is the Sulligent Cotton Oil Company.  So deserted and ghost like.  Where is everyone?  I know it is Saturday, but I don’t think anyone has been here in quite awhile…. like the 1960’s.  Such a cool building.  

The employee entrance.

Lots of padlocks.

I believe this is the employee entrance to the mill.

The suggestion box.

Front of an old bus on the property.

This building has a warning sign not to enter as pesticides are kept there.