Test post to see if pictures show up

This is a test to see if the images upload and display

Biltmore---

Finally!! Biltmore House---just inside the gate of the Mansion--last chance for a photo, since no photos are allowed inside the house itself. Don't they look happy??















Now for the whole collage----




















But I really like this shot---Madi cuddling the Lion---with a happy "Madi smile" on her face---

Madi and Doug visit Biltmore Mansion

Madi with one of the Biltmore lions--













--now, Madi and Doug are inside the visitor center--with Madi being her 'silly' self--













Now--outside the visitor center---glad to have Madi's first visit beginning, at last!!

Discovery Day---last skill event--

--chop the log---into 2 pieces--while standing on it!! Looks kinda simple, doesn't it? Trust me, it wasn't simple at all---these students were very serious---

Cold day @ Pisgah--

Madi wraps up in the army blanket while waiting for us to break for lunch!!
Competition still going on, while she takes a short break---Doug and I are watching the students compete---'cause it lasts all day!!

Lumberjack competition continues---

Look at these gals & guys go!!

Object is to climb--fastest, of course--up the pole, ring the bell and drop back down--
---just look at all the different techniques--and total focused concentration--very tricky!! Looks a lot simpler than it is---really it does---
--here's the swinging/dropping back down, after ringing the bell [at the top]--

Forest Discovery Day, Oct 2006

Look at those chips fly!!

Get a clean cut for the next competition cut, now!!

Spray [look at the left-hand side of the photo] that W-40 on very generously so the saw blade will really fly---

5 teams compete at once--hard to keep track of everyone--but what fun is being had by all of us---contestants and spectators alike---very focused-type competition, is this lumberjack stuff!!

Looking Glass Falls

Doug and Madi hike back up from Looking Glass Falls---quite a lot of steps too!! But don't they look happy? All this, after the day spent at the Lumberjack Competition @ The Discovery Center in Pisgah National Forest.

My elves---some of them anyway, making their own cheery Xmas Greetings. The ones on the mantal are the Annalee Collection--11 in all--that my daughter Sue began with the snowflake elf [upper, center, white--seems to be dancing!- figure] and my other dtr, Jane, found several on E-Bay, and I have found, even more in various locations, to add to these numbers---all enjoyed by me every year I'm home and able to get them all out of hiding---to dance their cheery faces around my home for the holidays. Happy, Happy Greetings of the Season to All!! 

...here, above the Pisgah Inn, several hundred feet in elevation, spectacular early color!! Including the native rhododrendron with its RED leaves---never seen this before but cousin Mimi says--"oh yes, quite usual at this elevation for the rhodos to have such brilliant fall color!" News to me and such a treat!! 

Mountain Ash---Oct. 1,2006--taken at the Pisgah Inn on the Parkway above Brevard. Most color seen by many of us--this early in the fall-color season here. My cousin Mimi and I got lucky!! And.... 

My winter landscape---and my friends [on the wall--squirrels and Koala Bears--] that greet every visitor to my condo @ Deerlake. Welcome All--come visit--- just make sure I'm really home and not off on a trip!! 

End of season color--still pretty intense. The central tree is a Bradford Pear, planted for its shape and spring flowering beauty, as well as its fall splendor. It's a late-turning variety, so its color lingers after most of the others have finished. 

Greetings of the Season, 2006, from my 'natural' arrangement of greens and berries found here in my 'yard' at Deerlake. Colorful yes?? The base is a swan, if you can't quite tell---altho, now that we no longer have any swans, maybe it should be a goose--because we definitely have lots of the Canadian Geese that now have decided to make our lake their year-round home---whether we like it or not!! 

Xmas 2006--presents go to family but the lit tree remains on top of the 'chess table' that Charles Arthur Forster, my maternal grandfather, made out of scraps of various woods in the 1940's---neat huh?? 

---#54--Forster Ray McAlexander, Cardinal-- 'offense, defense and special teams' position player---helped make many of those 'scored' points against the Panthers, [even the announcer pronounced his name correctly] that resulted in that 32-6 final score!! Way-to-go-Forster!!! Proud Grandma and Mom saw it all---

Football!!---JV game, Sept. 15, 2006--Farmington/ Clarksville---away game that Grandma and Sue{mom] cheered from the sidelines--incidently catching some of the action with these shots--but the star, for us, was--- 

and the final shot----just look at those colors!!--desert painting by nature, very hard to capture by man--with a camera or any artists' medium--and one of the most memorable natural wonders of the Southwestern desert scene----no city lights to dim the splendor. Similar to those sunsets over the Pacific Ocean that Tim excells in capturing--- 

--then come the sunsets---maybe more intense, but just as spectacular, yes?? 

--a collage of the sunrise---clouds constantly changing the color effects--beautiful--- 

Sunrise over Santa Fe---actually over the parking lot adjacent to the Sleep Inn Motel, where I stayed--much better morning and night skies for viewing the stars---[eat your heart out Ned]-- and risings and settings of the sun!! 

Sculptures in Santa Fe---very emotion-filled pieces--full, life-sized--dominating a corner gallery's outdoor space. 

My last day in Santa Fe, I drove up to the Espanola Valley, North of Santa Fe about 50 miles and stopped by the Historic Chimaya Trading Post. It's also an Historic Place because it was one of the earliest Trading Posts in the Valley---circa1650's-- It didn't open as scheduled--too much Fiesta!! I guess--anyway, I came back to finish posting my pics on my Blog before leaving in the A M for my 2 day drive to Fayetteville, AR. 

---this group--especially the youngest ones--dancing in the sun with such continuous energy--they were fantastic!!