That's My World Tuesday: Falls Lake State Recreation Area

Sunday, Bill and I went for a walk at Falls Lake State Recreation Area. The Lake is 12,000 acres and there are 26,000 acres of woodland.

Falls Lake is a man made reservoir located in the upper part of the neuse river basin. The Dam is just outside of Raleigh, NC and the lake extends 22 miles upstream to the confluence of the Eno, Flat and Little Rivers near Durham, NC.

Congressional authorization for the Lake includes: Water Supply, Water Quality, Flood Damage Reduction, Fish and Wildlife Enhancement, and Recreation. Hydropower was not one of the original intended purposes of the Falls Lake project. However, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) action has been initiated at Falls Lake.

At the Falls Lake project FERC is currently entertaining two separate requests for a preliminary permit to perform investigations and review the feasibility of adding hydropower. We were on the other side of the lake from the Dam but you should be able to make it out in the two shots above.

In looking online for information to add to this post, I found out something I didn't know. Recently, Falls Dam was determined to be at a Level 3, 'Conditionally Unsafe'. While structurally sound, Falls Dam received this rating because of downstream development and the catastrophic consequences should a dam break occur. Even though though the dam is sound, engineers have to look at the "what if" scenario of a potential dam break. There is so much development (housing and commercial) in the flood plain of the Neuse River that if the dam were to break, loss of life and negative economic impacts may occur. This gives the dam its Level 3, 'Conditionally Unsafe' rating.

There are some interim risk reduction measures which the U. S. Army Corp of Engineers has recommended. To visit other part of the world, please go to the home of That's My World Tuesday.

Monochrome Weekly: Flocking to the tree

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Skywatch Friday: Crane against sky

This is from April but I'm relatively certain I haven't used it on my blog before.

Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate it. Hope everyone has a great weekend! For other participants, please visit the home of SkyWatch Friday.

Wordless Wednesday: I rang the doorbell and look who answered it

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That's My World Tuesday: Late November Trees

These photographs were all taken in my yard and neighborhood over the past 5 days. Some of the trees which were filled with leaves earlier in the week have already dropped most of them.

I have three oak trees in front of my house. The shot above is of a portion of two of the oaks on the side of my house which is the farthest away from my driveway. The shot below is of the oak which is in front of my house and also canopies my driveway.

The shot below shows part of the yellow leaves oak canopy which goes from my front yard to back yard and the bottom part of the shot shows my pecan tree which is in my back yard.

Below is my pecan tree just a few days ago but it has already dropped almost all of its leaves now.

The shot below is my pecan tree at sunset with the light from my deck shining on it.

Although I will miss the privacy my trees provide, particularly in the front, it's nice to have the additional sun light in the winter. My back yard is fairly private year round because I have bushes that keep their screening leaves.

The shot below is from my bedroom window with the oak on the left and pecan on the right. More and more light is coming into my window as less leaves remain. I do like that. The oaks with red leaves provide shade in the summer but I get extra living room and kitchen light in the winter when their leaves drop.

I took the shot below standing under my oak trees so they canopy the top of the picture and my neighbor's Japanese maple is glowing redish orange. Most of the leaves on that maple dropped over the past few days.

Below is a shot of the main street in my subdivision. I live on a small side street. Most of the streets in my subdivision have a canopy of leaves which I miss in the winter, but it's also nice to be able to get clearer shots at the birds once the leaves drop.

We have a fair amount of evergreens so there is always some color in the winter.

I've been posting so many tree shots lately that my blog could almost be called Carver's Trees. Trees have been dominant in my posts on my other blog too. I guess it's pretty obvious that I LOVE trees. I love them year round. Bare branches are very beautiful to me too.

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Monochrome Weekly: Tangled up in each others arms

Is it just me or do you see the hearts in this tangled mass of branches.

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SkyWatch Friday: Gray days and wispy branches

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Wordless Wednesday: Bird Jam

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That's My World Tuesday: Loving leaf laden lanes

It rained pretty much all of last week but the sun came out Sunday morning which was a nice change. After all that rain, the trails I walk on are covered with leaves which I love.

I used to photograph the light at the end of the tunnel a lot but this shot I took Sunday was the first I've done of that subject this fall.

When we walked Sunday, we picked a path with high banks along the creek because I'm sure some of the lake trails are flooded.

I was entranced by this little tree someone had carved out into a fallen tree. I wonder if it was carved by fairies or elves.

Before long all the leaves will have fallen and then the trails will be completely new again. I surely do love the natural changes which each new season and year bring.

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Monochrome Weekly: Armed (Colonial Williamsburg Governor's palace)

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Skywatch Friday: Blues

It's pouring rain as I write this but earlier in the week it was blues for miles.



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Wordless Wednesday: Malcah Zeldis portrait of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr.

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That's My World Tuesday: Looking up and looking down as I go a wandering

At the risk of being repetitiouis, I thought I'd take you along on another walk with me this week.

This time I thought I would post shots of what I saw when I looked up and then when I looked down, all along my walk.

It is interesting to me how different the view is depending on which way I look.

I think the contrast between up and down can be the greatest, although the difference between left and right or front and back can be pretty intense depending on the sun.

Contrasting looking into and away from the sun could be a bit too intense for me.

The photographs in this post are from a walk a few days ago around Shelley Lake, the same lake I showed photos from for my prior That's My World post. This time of year there are daily changes in the sky and ground.

There are daily changes all times of the year but they are very noticeable at the moment.

In some ways the changes are more noticeable looking up at the moment, but then again there are a lot of changes going on at ground level.

These photographs didn't show the changes that are so noticeable at my house like piles of leaves, but even on the walk around the lake there were some changes at ground level. The fields of dead grasses and flowers were more sideways looks so they aren't included here.

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Monochrome Weekly: Garden Shed at the Colonial Garden in Williamsburg, VA

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Dona Nobis Pacem (Blog Blast for Peace) and Peaceful skies for SkyWatch Friday

My main post for the 2009 Blogblast for Peace is on my other blog, Carver's Sight or is that Site. However I wanted both of my blogs to fly my peace globe so I'm also posting my globe here along with peaceful skies for SkyWatch Friday. I discuss this more on my other blog, but I also want to mention here that the reason I include Playing For Change - Peace through music on my peace globe is I want to highlight a specific foundation that gives me hope. There are so many reasons for despair that I have to remind myself sometimes of collaborations between people across the world for peace and change.

Mimi Writes is the creator of Blogblast for Peace and you can find more participants at her site on November 5. I thought that the shot below worked for a peaceful skywatch. I'm betting the person sitting on that bench has her head in a peaceful cloud.

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Wordless Wednesday: Dear Diary . . .

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That's My World Tuesday: An autumn walk

At the end of last week, I went on a walk around Shelley Lake which is near my house. I'm glad I did because we had a lot of rain this weekend, and I have a feeling many trees have lost their leaves after the deluge. I love the bare trees of winter but didn't want to miss walking while the autumn show is still going on at the lake.

I love to walk this time of the year because each day brings more changes and I'm a creature of change (at least in terms of what I enjoy in the natural world).

I can walk around this same lake at different times of the year and each month has it's own look.

Years ago I used to jog from my house to this lake and around it and walk the last bit back home. For that matter, before I started jogging I would walk from my house to the lake, walk around the lake and walk back home.

These days I either walk on the trail to the lake and turn around and walk home without circling the lake, or I drive to the lake if I want to walk around it.

I need to try to walk every day it's not raining. We are having so many rainy days that it motivates me to take advantage of the clear ones we do have.

I remember when we had a lengthy drought which makes me appreciate rain. However, for well over a year we have been having more than enough rain.

Last winter we even had some pretty snow. We had gone years without hardly any snowfall to speak of so I enjoyed having enough to give us some winter wonderland days. It didn't last long enough to be inconvenient. I hope we have that same amount of snow this winter. Just enough to be pretty without making it hard to get out.

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Monochrome Weekly: A house and its fence

I like the detail on the fence in front of the house above, although I'm not satisfied with the photograph I took below.

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