Tennessee Aquarium and Chickamauga

I got to sleep in! Bob got up and ran for an hour. He didn't realize there was a half-marathon in Chattanooga this morning or he would have signed up for it. He was bummed he missed it.



At 10:00 am, we were at the Tennessee Aquarium to learn about aquatic life from the Appalachians down the creeks, streams and rivers to the Mississippi River Delta. What a fascinating place. AAA calls it a "Gem" in their TourBook, we agree.





The River Journey building had a special exhibit on sea horses, pipefishand sea dragons. I am so interested in those creatures and the exhibit did not disappoint. We saw different-colored seahorses, weedy sea dragons and leafy sea dragons--so unusual-looking. I can't wait to get home and post pictures.

Weedy seadragon.

Potbelly seahorse.

Leafy seadragon.

From the special exhibit, we took a longescalator
ride to the fourth floor where we started our river journey in the
forest aviary. All kinds of birds flitted above us, not many at our
level. We also saw two otters in their den--it was their bedtime as
they're more active at night.



The
tour through the building took us down ramps past three- and four-story
aquariums showcasing fish from the local rivers, lakes,
reservoirsandmangrove swamps. Off to the sides of the ramps, each
floor had exhibits which chronicled the life cycles of alligators,
crocodiles, frogs, salamanders, turtles, fish (from piranha to koi to
giant catfish to trout to shiners to minnows to gars to beluga sturgeon
to bass, etc.), snakes and more. Bob was most impressed with the
international river displays. The diversity and variety was amazing!
Wemeandered and wandered to wonder.



Follow the Tennessee River fauna from the mountains to the ocean.

Ducks and turtles.

After we finished the River Journey in two hours, we walked next door to the Ocean Journey building. Our first "room" in this building was the tropics. Our journey started with the sting rays...the first two were unique--one black with white polka dots and the other was a copper/brown pattern--from tropical rivers in South America, Asia and Africa. In the center of the tropics display area was a touch tank where we could "pet" a sting ray.

Bob at the touch tank.

A side area housed butterflies of all colors and types. Very pretty.



The Ocean Journey building had a special display on jellyfish. Even though we had seen a display on jellyfish years ago at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, we spent some time checking out this exhibit. Jellyfish are so weird, but almost hypnotic to watch as they pulse in the water. Large aquariums housed sharks, rays, penguins, lookdowns, sea turtles and giant Japanese spider crabs. To tour this building took an hour.

Giant Japanese spider crabs.

Bob appearing ghostly in the jellyfish tank.

From the aquarium, we drove up the hill to the Hunter Art District on the bluffs. We found a bakery (!) and went in. The proprietress started explaining all the kinds of bread she had. As soon as she got to the cinnamon rolls, which looked divine, we stopped her, bought our cinnamon rolls, and ate them as we walked aroundthe small art gallery parkoverlooking the Tennessee River. Grades: art: B; cinnamon rolls: A+, view overlooking the river: A+; weather: A (sunny, not a cloud in the sky and about 68 degrees).

Good bakery in Hunter Arts District.

There is so much to do in Chattanooga!



But wait, there's more; although this next attraction takes us into northern Georgia. For the rest of the day, we explored Civil War history at Chickamauga-Chattanooga National Military Park.

Cravens House.

View from Lookout Mountain--Point Park.

Chickamauga and Chattanoga National Military Park, Lookout Mountain.

Starting at Cravens House and Point Park atop Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, we ended up at the Chickamauga Battlefield in Georgia.



At the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center, we read history, watched a 25-minute movie, then drove a 7-mile cell phone audio tour around the battlefield. At each of eight battlefield sites, we called a phone number, then entered the number for each part of the tour we were on. Bob turned on his cell phone speaker and we had an audio tour the new high-tech way. Civil War history comes alive when you're on the battlefield and can see the forests and fields where the fighting and strategies took place.

Civil War Re-enactment Encampment

As we drive to the last audio tour marker, I commented that it was getting to be deer time of day ("deer o'clock" as we call early morning and late-afternoon- into-dusk). Not less than two minutes after I said it, there were four deer in the woods next to us. At our last stop, we saw about 14 deer across a field from us. "Deer o'clock" indeed.



From Georgia, we headed north to Dayton, Tennessee, home of the famous Scopes Trials (deciding whether schools could teach evolution instead of creationism). We are spending the night in the Best Western in anticipation of an early morning visit to Fall Creek Falls State Park,thenon to Mammoth Cave National Park, which we'd like to tour tomorrow afternoon.



I better get some sleep! Travel Bug out.

My Knights Valley Day

Knights Valley is the most remote area of Sonoma County's wine appellations. It snuggles up against the northwestern flanks of 4342 foot Mount St. Helena - this part of the county's most notable feature. Ideal mountain growing conditions have resulted in Cabernets of regal quality that are sought after for their rarity - there are only two vineyards in Knights Valley!

I was very excited to go on a road trip again. I didn't mind that it was raining "cats and dogs" ho ho ho!!! (Note from Mom: at times, we had to pull off the road because wipers just couldn't keep the rain off the windshield fast enough to see!) It took two hours to get there, so I just snoozed.


We eventually got into the real country. This cool red barn is just north of Calistoga.

Finally we turned into a woodsy place and parked. I began investigating immediately and found lots of things I liked, such as trees, good scents, humans, and ... FOOD!!!
Dad grabbed a long tool and a big sled and I led the way up a steep hill, where I veered off the path to check out these trees! Since it was so wet, the smells were just heavenly. I know there were lots of squirrels right above me!
After tromping around and galloping through a ton of trees, I sat by this one and gave it my smile of approval.
Then Dad got out that weird tool and went to work on it. I tried to help, but Dad said I could assist later. So I supervised.
What'ch'all think? It looks a little lopsided, but I made sure there were no critters in it.
This is the view across Knights Valley from the top of the hill where we found our tree. It was trying to clear up, but failed miserably.
I needed some exercise and time to investigate the woods up here.
Then I became GPS dog and guided Dad back down to the car.
We passed some of these views and places on the way down. Mom and Dad would love to live in that cute woodsy house down there, with smoke curling from its chimney. Mom loved the smell of those cedars.
Cute, huh?
This nice kid gave me lots of pats - I encourage and really dig all the scritches I can get.
Okay: this was something I'd never seen before. Here's a movie about what it does heheheh!

And here's another of me visiting:
On the trip home, we passed some other trees with some odd things hanging from them. Nature's X-mas trees? Anybody know what those clumps are in this old live oak tree?
This looks like a witch's tree to me! Any guesses on this one? Will let you know on my next post! Hope you're all having a great weekend!

Atrial Fibrillation

This morning, I was going to take a bike ride on the Wabash Trace. As I prepared, I checked my heart monitor. Problems getting a reading. When I could get a reading, it was high and erratic.
This has happened before on a ride. I have been just chalking it up to monitor battery, bad connection to the skin, and others. But the batteries have been replaced and reset the chest strap.
Recently, I started checking my heart rate before heading to the trail. Today, with the high, erratic heart rate, I decided to go the the ER. That would show if I have a physical problem or malfunctioning monitor.
The diagnosis - Atrial Fibrillation - Irregular Heart Beat.
According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (part of the NIH)... "AF occurs when rapid, disorganized electrical signals in the heart’s two upper chambers, called the atria (AY-tree-uh), cause them to contract very fast and irregularly (this is called fibrillation). As a result, blood pools in the atria and isn’t pumped completely into the heart’s two lower chambers, called the ventricles (VEN-trih-kuls). When this happens, the heart’s upper and lower chambers don’t work together as they should." The heart diagram is from the NHLBI web site.
I am off the bicycle until I can see my cardiologist. :-(
Now - here is the important part. Had I not been using a heart monitor I would not know I have Atrial Fibrillation!. My problem is asymptomatic - I have no symptoms. No dizziness, short of breath, fainting, weakness, or chest pains.
Sure, a couple times I felt a little "out of sorts" riding up to Dumfries on the Trace when the monitor was not reading right. I thought it was because I did not eat right that evening. Most times all I did was take it easy a little when riding.
Now I know what caused the erratic readings - and a strong proponent of heart monitors. Trust your instruments - that's what they are there for. My monitor may have saved my life!

Second Nature by Michael Pollen, GBBClub

This post, " Second Nature by Michael Pollan, GBBClub ", was written for my blogspot blog called The Transplantable Rose by Annie in Austin.
The writer studies literature, not the world. He is careful of what he reads, for that is what he will write. Annie Dillard
Annie Dillard’s quote appeared in the bridge column of today’s newspaper – guess she’s relevant everywhere! Those words remind me of my own history with Second Nature. I first read the book when it was new, partly because of an April 4, 1991 review in the New York Times. The yellowed newspaper article paper was still clipped between the end sheets of our copy.I remember enjoying the book tremendously but didn’t feel the earth move – by that time Philo and I had owned 3 different houses with landscapes and gardens to tend. We’d already had our own battles with groundhogs, squirrels, raccoons, invasive plants and the tyranny of lawn as we tried to figure out what to keep and what to get rid of in each successive, pre-owned suburban yard.
I can’t imagine what it would be like to find this book as a beginning gardener looking for a guidebook. Reading Michael Pollen felt less like life lessons and more like the tales of a companion in the garden – a very well-educated, extremely articulate, confident, slightly bratty companion who was a few years younger, and who grew up on the East Coast, with different weather and plants, a lot more land, from a family with a great deal more money. It was fun to hang around with him, even when he did things that made me shake my head in disbelief – planting a Norway Maple? On purpose?
But I liked many of his ideas and his book influenced me to try a few things. At that third Illinois yard I mowed a path from the gated square garden behind the house out to the vegetable garden, past the fruit trees, leaving the grass to grow on the sides of the path all summer as a symbolic meadow. Few meadow flowers appeared but I noticed that the groundhog was so happy with the green and juicy clover growing along the path that he seldom bothered to go all the way back to the vegetable patch.
I loved the way Mr Pollan pondered the many possible consequences of actions in the garden – trying to guess what could happen. We bonded over the idea that Nature has no set plan for an area, that randomness was more true than Disney tales, that there is no way to be a gardener without making decisions, taking sides, choosing favorites and sometimes destroying trees and plants in order to make things better.
In the real world, all the trees may want to be the only tree and some plants will kill to be the main plant, but we don’t see the strife and battle because it all happens in slow motion. That Coral honeysuckle and Lady Banks rose make a lovely blend of color and leaf on the arch but they are engaged in deadly combat and only I with my garden shears enforce the peace.
After 17 years in publication, Second Nature is still lively, funny, thoughtful and worth reading – not as a road map for gardening but as a very personal account of one young man’s journey in the garden. As Annie Dillard warned, reading this book has influenced my own writing, and maybe some of my thinking.
One chapter in the book tells of a wild forested area destroyed by a monster storm and what could happen if it were left untouched, or was partly repaired, or bulldozed or treated like a garden. That led me to consider my own yard. Left to itself what would my own garden become? I’ve heard that the land around here was graded and filled many decades ago and that not much remains of the original landscape. Whenever I weed the borders it appears that my garden wants to be a pecan grove choked with understory invasives like Nandina, Waxleaf Ligustrum and Asiatic jasmine. If any open spots are left after those plants take over there may still be room for the native Ten-petalled anemone, Cooper’s Lily and Copper Lily, all of which popped up here on their own.
But most of what seeds or spreads here didn’t start out in Texas but in Asia.
Most of the native flowers in my borders are here because I, the gardener, planted them and because as a gardener I prune back trees to give the native plants sun and keep aggressive plants from overwhelming them.
This new front bed has tough garden plants like the ‘Mutabilis’ rose, cannas, Verbena bonariensis and larkspur , It also has Texas plants like salvias, bluebonnets, lantana, Gaura lindheimerii, Gregg’s mistflower and Anisacanthus wrightii. My managed landscape may not be “Nature”, but there will be something here for birds, butterflies, insects, lizards and humans.
Although the land in my neighborhood was probably changed a lot, I think Central Texas author Susan Albert’s land was altered less and it didn’t lose its wild plants and wildflowers. Susan’s Nightshade Blog Tour will stop here in a couple of weeks to talk about “Unbecoming A Gardener”, about her relationship with wild plants. The first stop in this Blog tour was today’s post at Carol/May Dreams Garden.
Carol is also the founder of the Garden Bloggers Book Club. For the February/March meeting Carol wrote about the Rabbit War Rules – these musings on Michael Pollan’s book will be my contribution to the book club.

This post, " Second Nature by Michael Pollen, GBBClub ", was written for my blogspot blog called The Transplantable Rose by Annie in Austin.