Happy New Year's to all my blog buddies

I went this week to visit my Uncle Johnny and Aunt Perry Nell in Ellijay, Georgia. I went to teach Aunt Perry Nell to knit. She did very well, which shows you that you are never too old to learn new things (don't tell anybody, but she is 75 years young). We had a very good visit. This was the view Thursday morning from their front porch. The frost was so heavy that it looked like snow.

Hope everybody has a very good 2012!!

Old Car and barn

The family went for a 'fall color' ride this past Sunday afternoon.
Thought this was neat.
Wish they had a hole cut out so we could stand behind
the door like we were actually in the car.

Scenery from the Smokies

Jimmy and I have very limited time together anymore. I arrived home late Saturday evening from the festival, and Sunday we had a chance to spend the day together without other family members. Jimmy and I just got in the car and drove, when we first met we did this every weekend. We talked about some of the times we got lost and of things we just came across by being lost. We did leave the house with an idea in mind of where were going this time, but still went down some memory lanes together along the way.This is the nicest scarecrow I have ever seen. Look at the way the blue has faded in the front. When printed that blue is vibrant.

There is a loop road (for some reason I think 8 miles, but that might not even be close) of Arts and Crafts that turns off the highway between Gatlinburg and Cosby. There are shops all along the road, some shops are close to each other, so some of time when you park you get to go through 5 to 10 shops before getting back in your vehicle. Some of the time, just one shop before you are driving again. I am including this information because I had a couple of questions since my earlier post this week.

All of the photographs in this post are taken at one stop along the road. These were all in the yard of an old house. The old house was the home of the Paul Murray Gallery , but when we first pulled up I had to grab my camera. It was the neatest little place. A man came out while we were in the yard and as he was leaving told us the artist was great. Seemed kind of odd, most people don't give out that kind of praise. Check out the link, this artist is awesome.

By the way, the photograph above and below are the same photograph,
the one below has been cropped. I like both.

This is just the barn door to a barn in the front/side yard.

If you follow my Photography By Leedra blog , the peony bloom was posted there earlier this week, just in case you are thinking you have already seen this photograph.

All but the barn door have been made into greeting cards already (including both the cropped and the non cropped version of the birdhouse),
with some of them already selling.

Snow in East Tennessee

Some of what we saw around East Tennessee this morning.Our house as we returned from driving around.

Some color in the snow.

My daylilies still trying to bloom. Several buds left, they probably won't bloom now.

Encore azalea, this is a repeat bloomer.

And my crazy iris.

There have been alot of predictions about our winter having more snow this year. If this morning is any sign I may get some good snow photos this year.

The Barn at Settlers Museum of Southwest Virginia

I visited the Settlers Museum of Southwest Virginia in June while Jimmy was working in Marion, Virginia. These are 2 different photographs of one of the barns at the museum. I have turned each photograph sepia and then black and white.
The only changes I ever make to any of my photographs are to change them to sepia or black and white. I do not use Photoshop.