Have A Cow, Man!

Posted by AR on February 7th, 2010 filed in Chip-ster the Cocker Spaniel
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Chipley has this thing about cows: he loathes them!

And I’m not sure where this feeling came from. But if I had not stopped him, he would have gone through the window and told these poor cows exactly what he thought of them.

Love . . . .

Posted by AR on February 6th, 2010 filed in Memories
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“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.” — C.S. Lewis

Friends

Posted by AR on February 3rd, 2010 filed in The Company of Friends
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Friends are friends forever, if the Lord is the Lord of them. And a friend will not say never ’cause the welcome will not end.

Though it is hard to let you go, in the Father’s hands we know that a lifetime’s not too long to live as friends.

Jeweled in Ice!

Posted by AR on February 1st, 2010 filed in Fall and Winter in the Mountains, Hiking Through Northeast Georgia
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Sunday, we drove up to the mountains along the way we passed this little valley with cattle in the distance. The sun had just come out for the first time since the storm and the trees were adorned with ice.

A Chilling But Wonderful Memory

Posted by AR on February 1st, 2010 filed in Fall and Winter in the Mountains, Hiking Through Northeast Georgia, Memories
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Here are a couple of icy views taken in North Georgia this past weekend. When I was in college, I would often drive up to Tallulah Gorge in the summer with friends and float lazily on a raft on this lake. Even in August the water always was icy, and I never understood why. I just reasoned that since we were in the mountains, it was probably “spring fed.” Then one summer, Georgia Power, who controls the dam at the end of the lake, decided to renovate it. The lake was drained revealing a very, very deep gorge with a river running through the middle! This is the same river that rushes through Tallulah Gorge. After seeing the rocky depth of the lake,  I never floated back out on it again. Actually, we never saw the bottom of the lake because it was much deeper. Just standing on the old concrete bridge so I could take this photo was enough to send shivers down my spine.

In 1882, the Tallulah Falls Railway crossed the lake at this point. These concrete stacks—once the foundational anchors for the train’s tracks—are all that is left of an era gone by. Before 1900, thousands of tourists flocked to the gorge. One of the main attractions was the train that traveled from Cornelia to Franklin including the outside rim of Tallulah Gorge. Historical information I read on the Web said that at certain points the track narrowed down to 25 feet in width! This has to be about that size and not much wider. Sending even more chills down my spine at this thought.

Not the best photo, but I posted it anyway. This view just makes my heart race! The top of the column is really leaning. It is not a wide-angle problem. I read online that at the end of the train’s years there were a couple of serious accidents and even fatalities! Ok . . . enough of that sort of thing. Click the link to view the history of the Tallulah Falls Railway.