This ‘n That!

Every once in a while I scan through our photos to see what I might have missed as I chose photo for specific blog postings… This posting on my blog site is an amalgamation of a number of miscellaneous photos.  

Given our unusually warm and wet spring this year, our azaleas really popped this year!  The little pink azalea bush in the second photo really improved this year after we had a few overhead branches removed…

Although azaleas like shade, apparently too much shade can be a deterrent to growth and blooms.   I didn’t know that azaleas are in the genus Rhododendron family.  Gardeners have selectively bred azaleas for hundreds of years. This human effort has produced over 10,000 different cultivars which are propagated by cuttings.  Azaleas are native to Asia, Europe and North America.

We love our Oak Leaf Hydrangeas.  They reside underneath our giant oak tree amidst some boulders in our back yard.  They had just begun to flower when Laurie took this photo.

Native to continental southeastern North America the oak leaf hydrangea grows in mixed hardwood forests, along streams and on forested hillsides, usually on calcareous (chalk or limestone) soils, and often where limestone is at the ground surface.  They are understory shrubs, often growing in the shade of large oaks, hickories, magnolias, American beech, etc.

We have one small rhododendron bush.  This is only the second time that it’s bloomed for us in 3 years and it had more blooms on it this time than it did the last time.  Unfortunately it had a bad case of black spot and we had to buy some spray to solve the problem.  It may be getting too much water and it would probably do better if it was a little more shaded…but we just aren’t avid gardeners even though we do appreciate our perennial flowers.

Rhododendron is a genus of 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family, either evergreen or deciduous, that are found mainly in Asia.  However it’s also widespread throughout our area in the Southern Highlands of the Appalachian Mountains of North America.  The rhododendron is the national flower of Nepal.

Laurie has a couple of flower pot bases on our deck railing that she keeps filled with fresh water.  The local bird population uses them a lot, maybe even as much as our bird feeder! 

This dove is checking out the human taking its photo but it obviously doesn’t plan on vacating its refreshing bath!

Excuse me, I'm bathing! Really!

I like boats so when I see one, we take photos.  This work size tow boat was spotted while it was moored by the shore of Tellico Lake.  Several of these tow boats spend time on Tellico and Fort Loudoun Lakes installing rip rap and docks for homeowners. 

What is this you might ask…? Well, it’s a photo of our 5.5 year old Samsung refrigerator that recently froze up in the back top of the fridge for the 3^rd time since we bought it!

So…our appliance repair man came by for the 3^rd time, grumbling about the crappy refrigerators that Korea makes.  He took the back cover off the inside of the fridge and used a blow drier and tools to melt and break off the ice so the unit would work again.

Frustrated homeowners… We have since solved the problem by getting rid of this unit and replacing it with a Maytag unit purchased from Plaza Appliances in Athens Tennessee.  They beat everyone else’s price, including the big box retailers and their service is top notch.  Website: http://www.plazaelectronicsandappliance.com/.

It was time for another one of my ‘special’ breakfasts.  This time I had some leftover penne pasta with chicken and peas with extra parmesan that needed to be consumed.  As those who follow me know by now, I don’t like wasting leftovers!

So, after heating the pasta in a frying pan, I added a couple of over-easy eggs and created a smooth and silky breakfast combination!  It was very good…

We had our friend George over for dinner one night.  For an appetizer, we offered some smoked salmon from Costco along with some nice crackers and some whipped Philadelphia cream cheese!  Add tabasco when eating…Yum!

You didn’t really think that that was all there was regarding that salmon and cream cheese did you!?  On a subsequent morning, I decided on salmon for breakfast.  I toasted and applied Amish butter and whipped cream cheese to a couple little pieces of bakery bread.  Then I topped them with a nice portion of that salmon from Costco!

Of course I had to add a couple over-easy fried eggs over the top of my salmon creation!  As usual, I sprinkled on a bit of Tabasco.  I have personally awarded this breakfast creation 5 out of 5 stars!  It was excellent and it may be my all time favorite homemade creation!

Laurie was barely out of our yard one morning on her way to play golf when she encountered this big beautiful male turkey showing off his magnificence right in the middle of our street!  Why was he so puffed up?

Hey…it was all about a young lady he was trying to court!  He didn’t give a damn about the car or the camera.  He was really focused on his goal.  However, Laurie told me that he had a big problem.  The hen didn’t want anything to do with him.  Every time he approached her to get romantic, she just laid down in the street.  There is nothing as sad as unrequited love!

That’s it for now… Just click on any of these photos to enlarge them.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave