Welcome New Season

So.......the storms wreaked their havoc, finally passed through, and now the weather has again settled down, sunnied up and turned cold.

After an uneasy day of tornado watches and warnings on Friday, calls were made and received to friends and family to check on everyone.

Calls from Minnesota and Manitoba to check on us (so..........do you still have a house?), calls from us to children in Nashville and friends in the east.

Eastern Tennessee was hit hard but those we know are OK and their property was not hit.

On Saturday morning I went for a wet and muddy run at the base and the weather was much colder and gradually and thankfully beginning to clear.

I stopped briefly on the way home to take these pictures.

Flowering trees.

I wrote the other day that tornadoes and severe thunderstorms were a sure sign of spring in Tennessee.

These trees are another, more beautiful, sign that spring is indeed if not here, then certainly just right around the corner................

Also on the way home I detoured and stopped briefly at this place.

It is the Tennessee Corrections Academy, located on the outskirts of town on the way to Estill Springs.

Without doing research on the history of the academy I can say a few things.

I have heard many times that before this place was turned into the current corrections academy it used to be a girls reform school.

It is now the training ground for those who will become professionals at corrections facilities throughout the state.

I have been to the academy a number of times over the years for professional reasons but have not been on the grounds since arriving back in Tennessee.

It is a lovely facility during the winter, but during the rest of the year it is absolutely beautiful.

All stone buildings rich in history and architecture.

Inside the facilities are dated, but the rich woods and stone provide warmth and character to buildings that could be stark but are not.

It is set in beautiful and quiet surroundings filled with grass and trees and flowers in spring and summer.

The campus includes administrative buildings, a recreation building with indoor pool, dormitory style housing, eating facilities and more............

The academy buildings form a large U shape, with grassy lawns and paved walkways leading from one building to the next..............

A memorial to those corrections officers who have fallen in the line of duty, located on the main grounds............

While I was wandering the empty grounds I looked over and through the gap between buildings and saw a group of students running.

I was surprised because the last time I spent any time on campus students were walking.

Truthfully back then many looked to be in very bad physical shape, and so they walked.

Possibly physical standards have been raised.

More likely these students were attending specialized training.

Regardless I was still surprised to see them on a Saturday morning when the parking lots in front of the campus were all empty.

They were running along the walkway and in the lots in back of the buildings and I only caught brief glimpses of them.

As I continued to wander slowly on the lawn and along the walkways of the U, I decided I would drive in back of the facility and try to capture these trainees running when I was done.

The outdoor shooting range and obstacle course are also in back of the campus and I wanted to take pictures of them as well...........

After taking many pictures of the quiet and beautiful facilities I climbed back into my truck and slowly drove around the side and towards the back of the campus.

As I pulled into the parking lot adjacent to the obstacle course I saw him sitting in his van marked "Security".

Well...........damn.

I seem to have an unfortunate habit of running into security folks.

I already knew that I probably should not be wandering around campus unannounced, which was why I had chosen the weekend to visit, figuring it would be extremely quiet.

It was extremely quiet, but in hindsight I should have visited during the week when there are many vehicles coming and going on site.

He was pulling out of a parking lot opposite the parking lot I was pulling into, and when he saw me quickly turned his van into my lot.

Well..........damn again.

I knew at that moment that I was done exploring and photographing.

He smiled.  I smiled.

I told this obviously part-time and weekend security dude that I had just wanted to see the campus because I had never seen it before.

He told me "no probs" and that other people did the same thing.

After other small talk I headed back through the campus resigned to the fact that my little jaunt at the corrections academy was done for the day.

I will head back onto the campus another day when spring is really here for good.

And maybe I'll go during the week................

A very beautiful pink and flowering tree close to the academy entrance..............

By this morning the weather was gorgeous.

On a very sunny and very cold morning I again headed for the base to run.

After temperatures in the low 70's late last week this morning the temperature was only slightly above freezing.

With a sky this blue and a sun this full, I was happy to run in weather that I love so much.

Once more I stopped on the way home, this time at the golf course just on the outskirts of Tullahoma, at a place that transitions from base property to city property.

The golf course is completely lined on two sides by trees that, until only a week ago, were bare.

They are bare no longer.

These trees have blossomed all over Middle Tennessee seemingly overnight.

And suddenly many of the trees that have been bare and stark skeletons for so many months are suddenly filled with flowers.

Welcome to a new season..............

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade...........Charles Dickens

No Surer Sign Of Spring

On a partly sunny and very warm day yesterday - a day that was sandwiched between rain and thunderstorms the day before and the tornado watches and warnings of today - I spent some time wandering around a wrecking yard with Jamie while LC searched unsuccessfully for a part he was looking for.

Jamie does not care if we wander on beautiful trails in Alaska or Wyoming or Tennesee, or if we wander in and around car parts and vehicles that suffered violent deaths.

And so we wandered.

With little interest in my surroundings my puppy dragged me along one short gravel walkway after another until eventually I began to take in my surroundings.

Once I actually saw where I was I began to see art.

Over the past couple of years I have seen art in wooden bridges.  In old mining equipment.  In barns and abandoned buildings.  In rock faces and tree stumps and long ago forgotten farm equipment.

Yesterday I surprisingly found art in car parts................

The weather is a dangerous mess today.

Tornado warnings this morning in this and all of the counties around us.

Tornado sirens heard this morning here in town.

Severe damage in Huntsville Alabama 90 minutes south.

Deaths from tornadoes here in Tennessee a couple of days ago.

Much damage and carnage in states immediately north of us.

The first wave of storms blew through the area this morning and the second wave is supposed to hit later this afternoon and into the evening.

No surer sign of spring than this................

Naturally Occurring

One day last week I ran on a cool and cloudy afternoon at the base, and when I was done stopped briefly at the beach area behind the UTSI campus and adjacent to student housing.

This place is called Mullican Beach but the actual beach area proper is only a postage stamp size piece of sand.

In all the years I have been coming to this beautiful and quiet place I have never seen anyone else here except for me and two people I used to swim with when I first began my brief stint with triathlons.

Me.  One regular training partner.  And one other who we occasionally ran into briefly in the lake while swimming (usually as he was effortlessly passing us).

That's it.  Only three people.

And for years now, only me.

With a history like that I have come to almost (wrongly of course, but almost) consider this to be my own private place.

The weather on this day was very cool and I had been sweating while running. 

As I climbed out of the truck I was cold, and as I looked up at the sky that was alternating every few minutes between weak sunshine and the threat of rain, I grabbed for my jacket.

I zipped the jacket up high under my chin in my half-hearted and weary battle against the wind, and slowly walked down to the water.

I looked around me to confirm and reassure that this place was still the same.

Looking in front of me I saw the huge Woods Reservoir as far as the eye could see, the Cumberland Plateau off in the far distance, a million bare trees along shore lines and hidden in coves and on every land surface that will soon be filled with green again.

Looking closer to me I saw the boat ramp where I started mile long training swims, a boat house with benches along three sides of its flat roof, the concrete steps and ramp leading from the parking lot down to the water that I sat on a hundred times while regrouping after workouts, the small sandy beach, the leaf covered trail and the sailboats that have been laying dormant in the same spots for months.

After a couple of years of "new" I am finding comfort and security in the "old".

This place had not changed one bit and I was very glad.

Wishing I had brought one more layer of clothing because I was cold, I walked slowly down the steps, down the ramp, stood briefly on the roof of the boat house, then slowly made my way down the grassy hill towards the boats.

After a hard run I was cold but loved being at this place, so the cold was a small price to pay to be able to walk alone and close to the water...............

I stood for a few moments looking closely at this boat

I have looked at it only in passing many times since arriving back in Tennessee but it is lovely and I look forward to seeing it glide on the surface of a blue and glassy-smooth lake sometime very soon..............

Usually I walk on the wide open trail when heading into the woods close to the beach, which I do often.

On this cool and windy day I instead bushwhacked through the woods, listening to the sound of rustling leaves shifting with each footstep.

I had seen this small flock of birds on the lake, but with all the trees I struggled to get an unobscured shot of them.

Finally I caught a space in the trees and took this quick picture before spooking them all and sending them flying...............

A few years ago me, LC and someone I worked with at the time, all went for a hike at Short Springs.

My colleague was more familiar with the natural area than I was and so he led the way, taking us on a long and scenic hike through the woods and to Machine Falls.

This outgoing and talkative guy seemed to take great pleasure in pointing out interesting trees, flowers, ferns, caves, falls etc. that we came across as we traveled the trail, and he drew our attention to things often.

One of his favorite phrases while we walked was "naturally occurring". 

In fact he said it often enough that we all began to laugh about it.

At one point during our hike he good-naturedly pointed to a beer can laying among the leaves and in an over-the-top Announcer Voice announced his newest find along the trail - a naturally occurring beer can.

Ever since that day LC and I, whenever we find trash on trail, point to it and say things like "Look!  A naturally occurring Wendy's Frosty cup!"

We did it in Alaska.  We did it in Wyoming.  And we do it in Tennessee.

That was years ago and while writing about it now it sounds so lame.

But it has been a running joke between me and LC ever since that walk at Short Springs.

A naturally occurring glass bottle seen in the woods at Mullican Beach..................

After walking and picture taking for a long time through the woods and along the shore, I worked my way through the trees and further into the woods looking for a trail that I knew was in the area.

I was initially surprised that I could not find it until I did indeed walk up to it and realized that it was completely covered in leaves.

The trail was indistinguishable from the ground of the woods around it.............

Circling back to the beach along trail that cleared out as I got closer..............

Twice over the past couple of months I have been outside in either the front or back yard and suddenly heard noise in the sky.

The first time it happened was late in the afternoon and I was picking branches up that had fallen onto the ground during the previous nights' rain.

When I first heard the noise I looked up and saw one, then another, then another, and pretty soon the sky was completely filled with crows flying high in the air and all traveling in the same direction.

Stunned, I stood looking up at them as they just kept coming, tens and hundreds at a time.

Briefly I thought about running back into the house to grab my camera but quickly discounted the idea, thinking that the birds would soon end.

But they didn't - they kept coming for much longer than I ever would have expected.

I had my chance to take pictures of them but who would have guessed that there would ever be so many?

I had never seen anything like it before and it was stunning.

A mystery with no answers, but stunning................

On a very gloomy and quiet morning early last week I was outside in the back yard with Jamie and suddenly heard the sound of birds.

Looking into the trees to my right I could see hundreds of small black birds screeching, flying, circling, landing in the trees, taking flight again in one large unexpected and chaotic frenzy.

They were everywhere and had seemingly come out of nowhere.

This time I ran into the house to grab my camera, certain that by the time I got back outside they would be gone....................

I was initially disappointed when I first ran back outside because the frenzy seemed to have died down and I thought that I had totally missed out on the bird-adventure.

I quickly snapped this picture before they all disappeared..............

And then unexpectedly, and seemingly as one, a whole lot of birds took flight from the trees at the same time and there was another brief period of mad frenzy.

There was not as many birds as before but there were still many, and I snapped pictures blindly and as quickly as I could because I could see very little in the camera view finder, hoping that I had successfully captured some of the action.

Completely unexpected commotion on a very cloudy and ominous looking early morning..............

The very idea of a bird is a symbol and a suggestion to the poet. A bird seems to be at the top of the scale, so vehement and intense his life. . . . The beautiful vagabonds, endowed with every grace, masters of all climes, and knowing no bounds -- how many human aspirations are realised in their free, holiday-lives -- and how many suggestions to the poet in their flight and song!.............John Burroughs