New Beginnings

As these last few days of 2014 slip away, I hope they find you in good spirits and looking forward to new beginnings in the coming year. May the New Year bring you Contentment, Good Health, and the best Life has to offer, wherever you may be.

Merry Christmas!

Look for Him

If You Look for Me at Christmas — You won't need a special star.   I'm no longer just in Bethlehem, I'm right there where you are. You may not be aware of Me Amid the celebrations — You'll have to look beyond the stores, And all the decorations. But if you take a moment, From your list of things to do ... And listen to your heart, you'll find ... I'm waiting there for you. You're the one I want to be with, You're the reason that I came ... And you'll find Me in the stillness, As I'm whispering your name.                                                                      Love,                                                                      Jesus [Author unknown] Photos borrowed from the Internet

A Place Called Grassy Cove

Tennessee is a photographer’s treasure trove of pictures just waiting to be taken, and during our recent trip to the Nashville area to visit our son, I captured over a thousand of those pictures.

And no matter how well my pictures turn out, I always wish I could go back and walk a little further down the highway, or across a ditch, or up a hill, and take more pictures, from different angles and distances and times of day.   

One of the most picturesque places we visited is a breathtakingly beautiful pastoral valley called Grassy Cove.

 

The valley is notable for its karst formations, which have been designated a National Natural Landmark. [Karst topography is a landscape formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes, dolines, and caves.]  Be that as it may, all I could see were its grassy meadows, rustic red barns, and SHEEP grazing in the distance.

  

 

Grassy Cove is also home to a small unincorporated community consisting of a few houses, the Grassy Cove United Methodist Church, and John Kemmer’s general store, circa 1886. There are a lot of Kemmers in Cumberland County today, and their presence there goes back hundreds of years to when the area was first settled. 

Although no extensive archaeological work has been conducted in Grassy Cove, early farmers found projectile points and other prehistoric artifacts when plowing fields, suggesting that Native Americans were living in the cove during prehistoric times. Also, early 19th-century settlers reportedly found the cove bottom cleared and containing only high grass upon their arrival. 

The first Euro-American settlers arrived in Grassy Cove in 1801. This early caravan consisted primarily of families from Fluvanna County, Virginia. In 1803, they completed a log church and formed the Grassy Cove United Methodist Church, one of the first congregations in the Cumberland Plateau region. 



Prominent early settlers included John Ford, the community's founder, and Weatherston Greer, who arrived circa 1830. Greer set up the first post office in the cove, operated a sawmill and gristmill, and owned large tracts of land in the cove until the Civil War. 

During the Civil War, Grassy Cove's caves were an invaluable source of saltpeter, which was used in the manufacture of gunpowder. According to a local legend, the body of a Confederate soldier (in full uniform) was found in a petrified state in one of the caves shortly after the war. When no one claimed the body, it was buried in the Grassy Cove Methodist Cemetery. Several residents claimed to have seen the soldier's ghost in the church, however, and when church attendance began to drop as a result, the soldier's body was disinterred and reburied in an undisclosed location.

But enough about the history of Grassy Cove … here are a few more pictures I made while we were there.

Grassy Cove United Methodist Church and Cemetery

This little fellow stopped long enough for me to snap his picture.  I guess he was curious about the strange lady standing on the other side of the fence yelling, "Baaaaaaa .... baaaaaaa."

A drive through a place like Grassy Cove wouldn't be complete without an old Chevy truck peeking out of a barn.

I wish my camera could have captured my sense of wonder and awe as I glimpsed God’s glory in that peaceful little valley lying in the shadows of the Cumberland Mountains … a place called Grassy Cove, Tennessee.

Glory Along The Natchez Trace Parkway

On a recent trip to the Nashville area to visit our son, we traveled up the Natchez Trace from Clinton, Mississippi, to the Terminus near Franklin, Tennessee.  The Trace is such a beautiful and peaceful way to travel, and I highly recommend it if you are not in a hurry. The speed limit is 50 miles an hour and is strictly enforced by Park Rangers, but there are so many interesting and scenic places to stop along the way, that you probably won't mind driving a little slower.  We passed several deer and turkeys along the roadsides and stopped at several of the mile marker posts which feature historic sites, beautiful pastoral scenes, and serene creeks and waterfalls.

One of our favorite stops on this trip was at Milepost Marker 404.7, a place called Jackson Falls, named after, who else, but Andrew Jackson.  [You can click on the map to enlarge it]

Although viewing the waterfalls requires a 900-foot walk down a paved, stepped down path, I think it was well worth the effort (even the return trip UP the path) ... as you can see in the pictures below.  At the bottom a bench welcomes you, as does a cooler atmosphere, and many flat rocks to jump across to get a close up view of the falls.  

We were the only ones there at the time, and I spent a pleasant 40 or so minutes enjoying the serenity and mesmerizing sound of the water cascading over the falls and gurgling over the rocky creek bed.  I did my best to capture a little of the beauty of the moment with my camera, but it is something you have to experience for yourself to really appreciate it.  

I hope you enjoy my pictures and, if you are ever traveling close by, I encourage you to take the time to visit Jackson Falls.  I think you will agree that it is well worth the detour ... and the climb back up the path.

  

A "cave" and small waterfall "terrarium" along the pathway ...

God's glory never fails to inspire me.

 

This old gnarled cedar tree stands next to the path, its twisted limbs worn smooth by weather and time, a sculpture created by God Himself ... greeting visitors to the falls.
  

 

 

I invite you to join me next time to read about another one of my favorite stops ... a picturesque place called Grassy Cove, Tennessee.

Heralding Fall

Although the foliage here in Mississippi hasn't started turning yet, there are a few signs along the roadsides heralding the arrival of Fall.  I recently ventured off the beaten path in hopes of capturing some of those signs with my camera, and wasn't disappointed. My first stop was at a beautiful cotton patch not far from Vicksburg.  It was a perfect day, and puffy white clouds against the brilliant blue September sky looked as if they were reflecting the tufts of white cotton from the fields below.   Here are a few more pictures I captured of the fields and fence rows of the countryside around Vicksburg. I hope you're enjoying the arrival of Fall wherever you are, and can take the time to really appreciate God's glory up close and personal.