Quirky (Theme 146)

An art creation that represents what? It's at a marble quarry at the local Nature Center. The quarry is no longer in use other than a pond for the local wild life. It flooded after the miners hit a natural stream. It is one of the deepest quarry's in Tennessee. Not sure what the depth is but I do know that if you have to dive this you will need Nitox and not air. Too deep for me.

Wheel (Theme 323)

Just an old wheel at Norris Dam. It's amazing how now you have to bolt things down in order for them to say. You can see the chain at the top of the wheel.

Zig Zag (Theme 364)

Again, walking thru Ijams and this was part of the walking route, a zig zag trail above the water and around the rock face. It was really a fun day.

Green (Theme 331)

Walking thru Ijams Nature Center it seems that everything is green. All of the trees have moss on them and every rock face you come across, it's a very nice walk and you can tell everything is undistrubed.......still going to be looking for that Red Tailed Hawk I missed this last time. I took a few pictures of him sitting on a tree limb and then walked around to get a better shot and he flew away.....story of my life these days.

Fish (Theme 207)

We went to Ijams Nature Center this past weekend and Ryan spotted some fish or soon to be fish and here are 2.

Flag (Theme 115)

City of Alcoa has these flags flying in front of the Police/Fire Department building. As you can see the wind was rather strong that day and it sure was cold. I believe that we were having wind chills down in the teens.

Power (Theme 278)

This is one of the towers at the Norris Dam. I don't know why I took the picture other than I thought it was interesting and then I came home and looked at it for quite some time before I decided I wanted a change so I gave it a new sky. The other sky was gray and dismal.....this is so much better.

Underground (Theme 10)

The view from underground at the Knoxville Zoo Black Bear exhibit. When you are inside of this tunnel it is made to look like a tree. You can see some of the texture at the opening of the tunnel. This is the first animal habitat that you see when you enter the zoo and in my opinion one of the best.

Torn (Theme 76)

Torn flags at the Marina at Norris Dam. The day we went, it was extremely windy and what is left of the nautical flags blew in the wind. It's sad to see something like this knowing what it used to look like. I'm sure they got a constant beating with the weather but I hope that the Marina residence replace these soon. The only photoshop technique that I applied was a gradient to the sky and I think this look is a fun one.

Transport (Theme 230)

I did this layout for my Mother-in-law. She has worked for Comair for over 25 years and I thought she would like a custom photo of her airport and plane. I had this blown up to a 12x18 and it's crystal clear. I couldn't be more happy with it. The only photoshop I did to this is a gradient in on the sky and added the text. Now my son wants one.........I guess the nut doesn't fall far from the tree on what they like.

Bench (Theme 40)

Walking thru the Knoxville Zoo this past January I spotted this bench. Thinking it's a beauitful piece of art work I took the picture and it just now realized that it was a theme. It hold 2 good traits........one, it's a bench which is great to get a load off, especially in my case. Two, it's cool in the summer being that it's stone. So much better than the metal benches. Besides, who wouldn't want a cool bottom???

Shiny (Theme 142)

Who doesn't think of a Fire Truck and think it's Shiny? They wash these vehicles every day or almost every day and if needed more than that. I wish I could sneak my car in there on the daily wash detail.....think they would notice? I'm sure if I asked they would wash my car too, my Fire Fighter does!!!

Snowflake (Theme 110)

We live in the Smoky Mountains and you would think that we get more snow than we do, but we are in the Valley and it seems that only the top of the Mountain get the snow. Too bad for use but every once in a while we get lucky and the snow falls on our side of the Mtn. range. This day was not our day........we saw flakes and here are a few. It was cold and the sky looked like snow but it wasn't even a dusting......you see what we got.

Tall (Theme 164)

Ok these boys have grown up together and are all in the same school system. Tall is the one of the left, he is mine. He is the youngest and tallest of all his friends. Ryan just turned 10 and the shortest one just turned 11. They are 1 year apart, given a few days. I keep taking pictures as they grow and he is always the tallest. Can't wait to see where they end up on the height scale in High School.

Ladder (Theme 293)

E-One came over to the department to let AFD test this Ariel Ladder Truck. This particular ladder only extend 114 feet where the truck they last looked at extended 135 feet. It's amazing how far off the ground the truck is while the bucket is in operation. It can extend a full 90 degrees out with over 1000 lbs in the bucket. This is one piece of equipment I think every Fire Department needs. There isn't much you can't do with this Ladder. Very impressive to see it in action.

Vintage (Theme 103)

This is close as I get to vintage in my house. It's hard to believe that my foot once fit in this shoe. My mother had it silvered and now it's tarnished and I can't seem to make it shiny again. I will eventually take it to the jeweler to have it buffed out. I wish I had done this with my kids shoes but now it's too expensive to silver a size 9 womens for her or or a 9 mens for him....besides, it would look funny having them next to mine.

Red (Theme 47)

How about a new duley that just came from the shop where it was outfitted with light and Alcoa Fire Department decals. This truck is now known as Support 1 and will help AFD in a great many ways from transporting the trailers for Haz-Mat, Safety Trailer and the Trench Rescue Trailer along with numerous other tasks. When this truck runs, you would never really know it and it's a diesel, it is so quiet.

Shadow (Theme 234)

We went to the park so Ryan could run his remote control motorboat and I saw my shadow so here I am in all my large glory. So, does this shadow make my butt look big????

Jump (Theme 306)

Here I am wondering about Copper (the dog) and how slow he is getting and that he is starting to lose his balance and look at him. I was just talking to my Mother-in-law about his health and that he will be 11 this summer but you would never know it. Tom and Ryan were playing frisbee in the front yard and Copper won a great deal of the time. He would catch it and run away. If Ryan tried to pick it up off the ground Copper would be on top of it and fight for it. If Ryan went after it after Copper won, he would growl and go to bite. Tom would engage him so it's funny to see teeth then. We finally had to give him his own ball so he would leave the boys alone so they could play. I didn't mention that it's about 40 degrees out with a strong breeze putting the wind chill in the lower 30's and look at how Ryan is dressed? To beat all.........he's sweating.

Water (Theme 23)

Rain flooded the streets and yards of many in East Tennessee on this day in early February 2008. We didn't complain because we are still down 14 inches from last years drought. As you can tell the gutters couldn't even keep up so it looked like a waterfall. Sorry, no rainbow because it was like this for a while that day. It did clear up in the afternoon and you would have never know we were flooded that morning. The ground is like a sponge so the trees and plans were happy. Not to mention the Ducks at the pond had new places to paddle around.

Rain (Theme 32)

Tennessee has some bad storms that you would think our State/Area is protected being so close to the mountians. Well, that just isn't the case. We may not get a great deal of snow in the Valley but we get Tornados & Wind Burst that resemble tornados and they seem to come out of no where. Our area circled did ok this time but there are other sad stories from this same storm farther to the west that didn't fair so well and my heart goes out to those effected. My rain photo just shows you the beginning of the storm and the amount of rain. At times it was blowing sideways and the thunder sounded like it was right on top of us.

Glass (Theme 284)

This sits in my neighbor's garden. She has so many beautiful yard pieces but I chose this one for glass. It's simple and unique and to beat all, you can't see me taking the picture in the reflection of the glass. It was a nice day when I took this picture you can see the sky.....it's actually blue. A much better stretch of weather than we are currently having now.

Chalk (Theme 15)

When I was about 3 my Mother had this portrait made of me and as you can guess, it's in chalk. When she moved we found it and she never had it framed. It was in the plastic that it came it. I don't know how it survived over 20+ years of moving around the country and living in plastic. There isn't one part of the drawing that is smudged or damaged. Amazing if you ask me. I took it and had it framed by a friend of mine. It is now hanging on my wall surrounded by a photo of each of us in my immediate family. If you hold your hands over my pony tails and look at it you will see my son. We didn't notice this until I hung all the pictures around it. I'm just glad to show it off.......because there isn't another photo of me in the house where I will display and show off.....so this is it!!!

Sundial (Theme 26)

Regan's sundial sits in my front garden where it may see sunlight and it may not. In the summber the spring/summer the flocks are trying to cover all of the ground and in the winter, well.........you know it's not snow covered. Just cloudy here in the Valley. Regan did this many years ago and and it's a valued keepsake for me since she made it. The one's the kids have made have stayed in tact and the one compass piece I bought is crumbling. I will have the kids make mine from now on. Maybe this summer, I want another one.

Reflections (Theme 223)

Whenever we are in this gym we always sit on the side with the Tornadoes sign. For some reason we sat on the opposite side and I finally noticed this bright box with the school plastered all over it. This is where the people sit that run the clock and scoreboard. The floor is so shiny that you see a reflection even though the room is well lit. I guess it is good to know your surroundings, you never know what you will see.

Clouds (Theme 36)

This was taken on January 31st from my front yard at around 7am. I was getting the kids ready for school and looked out the window to see pink........I grabbed my camera and ran out of the house in bare feet. Yes, it was cold, very cold in fact but hey, after seeing what photos I had, it' worth the cold tootsies. The colors in the sky don't last but a very few minutes so I consider myself luck to have taken this shot.

Dog (Theme 236)

Let me introduce Sadie, she is a 6 month old Labordoodle and she runs my sisters house. She is a ball of energy and doesn't do things in a slow, easy going manner. For Sadie, it's full speed ahead, jump on the couch, knock the kids over, happy go lucky kind of dog. She even helped my niece, Avery, spill syrup all over the kitchen........it's so nice of her to lend a helping paw!!!

Technology (Theme 22)

I have to fess up........non of this is mine. The Mac is my brother-in-laws, Iphone is my sisters, silver ipod is my nieces and the black ipod is my daughters. I have an old hand me down ipod........for now!!! I would say that this is technology at it's finest for the consumer. Where would we be today if not for these gadgets? I know, still on the dirt road with my Mother-in-law.

Ice (Theme 48)

Since I live in the South finding ice outside is somewhat difficult unless I go up to the mountains. Given my daily schedule, that is not possible so here is my version of ice. I look at this at least 8 times a day trying to stay hydrated. If I happen upon a better photo of ice on my travels this year I will post it.