Leapin' Lizards!

Leaping' Lizards, Lady! What are you doing in that white stuff?

While I was outside shooting snowdust, my two dogs decided to check out why I had disappeared. (If you look at the reflection in the door window, you can see snow on the roof and ground across the street. ) I keep telling them curiosity killed the cat, but they need to know everything!

Decker is wearing the E-collar because the groomer accidentally clipped his skin a few weeks ago, and last week he decided to start clawing at it. I put the collar on him, but since it wasn't getting better, I ended up taking him to the vet the other day. Now he's on antibiotics (oral and cream) and the E-collar for another week or so. It's pretty funny to watch him walk around with it as he lumbers wherever he goes, and the thing just bounces along with him. Kasey has had to wear it at times, and it always freaks her out for the first day or so, and she walks around as though she were embarrassed to death.

Because it's so big, occasionally it will catch on a wall or table leg or something when they walk by. Decker will just plug on, either forcing the collar to move with him, or he turns his head enough so that it unsticks. If Kasey is wearing it and it catches, she stops and stands there as though someone had put up a blockade.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, E-collar is short for Elizabethan collar because it resembles the collars of dresses women wore during the Elizabethan Era. Its size prevents the animal from clawing at a sore on its face, or from chewing on a sore somewhere else on its body.

White Out

We awoke both yesterday and today to another dusting of snow on the ground. Very little snow stayed on the ground, as usual. The flakes would fall. The sun came out. The snow would melt. The snow would fall. The sun came out. The snow would melt. The cycle repeated itself at least seven or eight times yesterday. I took today's photo in the early afternoon during one of the snow storms. You can tell how big the snowflakes were just from how they look in the photo. It was quite amazing.

Early in the day, a thin layer of black ice covered roads in a lot of the Middle Tennessee area, so most area school districts closed. I know that makes a lot of you who live in the snow belt laugh since schools stay open even if the snow is a foot deep, but icy roads are a different matter. While we do have salt trucks and some snow removal equipment, they do not always get to the rural routes. Icy roads, which are hazardous for cars, can be lethal for school buses and trucks.

On I-24 north of Nashville, there were several accidents that caused a backup of over 40 miles. One of my husband's morning anchors lives in Hopkinsville, KY (a little over an hour north of Nashville) and was stuck in that traffic jam for over four hours. She mentioned that it took almost three hours for her to go a mere five miles.

Most of the ice really did affect only really rural (hilly) areas and the counties north of Nashville. I had an 8 AM doctor's appointment at one of the Vanderbilt Medical Clinics and encountered only dry roads all the way from home to the university area. Apparently I was the only one of about 20 patients scheduled for the group's morning appointments to brave the weather, though.

We did have snow on the ground this morning, about the same amount as is visible in the photo above. It's almost all gone now.

Close To Everything

Situated west and north of Nashville and Davidson County, Cheatham County advertises that it is "Close to Everything, but Away From it All." Formally established in 1856 by dividing up several other counties, Cheatham County was home to manufacturing, mills, resorts, and a thriving railroad community. The county purchased 50 acres of land from James Lenox, founded Ashland City and made it the county seat in 1859. The Cheatham County Courthouse (above) replaced the temporary courthouse in 1869 and sits in the middle of Ashland City.

A Little Crema With My Coffee

Rachel Lehman officially opened Crema last month (Jan., 2008). A nice-size, Crema has the bar (above) with a few seats (They're right in front of the guy who's talking with Rachel.), a few comfy chairs (to the left of where I'm standing), and a few tables and chairs (behind me in front of the window). Crema is currently hosting a display of artwork by Aaron Grayum (Click here to see some of his work.), a Nashville artist.

What I found interesting about Crema is that Rachel, who has spent 10 years in the coffee business, is only 25 years old. Her great-grandfather immigrated from Italy and passed his love for wine, good food and coffee down through the generations.

The other thing that I find great is that Rachel and Ben (her husband) tried to use recycled materials in building Crema. The counter shown above is renewable bamboo, and holding it up are recycled doors (right). Whenever possible, they bought stuff from the local Habitat for Humanity store. They're also using green lighting and trying to recycle (not something done by the metro trash pick-up).

While Crema is all about coffee, they do offer a few pastry options - cookies, scones, etc. - although they get them from a local bakery.

Having owned an independent store, I know how much work and love go into a place like this. And, with franchises competing for business, survival can be hard. But, I think that Crema offers great coffee (It was the best latte I've ever had.), good service, and a comfortable place. I think they'll do fine.

Monday Morning Coffee

Monday morning is a great time for coffee. Well, actually, any morning is!

One month ago, Crema, an independent coffee house opened in the Rolling Mill Hill area, an up and coming district of Nashville. The owner (an barista), Rachel Lehman, named her shop for the foam that's produced when making a good espresso. I ordered a non-fat latte (above) and was delighted by both the foam art and the beverage.

By the way, I had no idea that coffee art existed as that isn't a specialty in Starbucks. Apparently, though, there are a lot of independent coffee houses that take pride in the designs they make with frothed milk. If you're interested in seeing more, click here .

Tomorrow, I'll show you the inside and tell you what makes Crema unique (besides the great coffee).

A Little More of the Snow Dust

While on our quest to find some good snow shots yesterday, we drove on some roads that are not too far from our house but on which we had never been. Actually, we didn't even know some of them, including the one in today's photo, existed. This road runs along the ridge of a small hill, and it ends very close to where I shot the photo of the barn that I posted yesterday. All of this may look very rural, but there are thousands of suburban homes within a mile radius of where I shot both photos.

Regarding what I found odd when I looked at both yesterday's photo and the one I posted in August: The horses are in the exact same positions, leading me to believe they are huge, wooden cutouts. I'm going to have to drive by there, again, to check it out.

Snow is a 4-Letter Word

It was supposed to warm up in the Nashville area today, but we awoke this morning to find a dusting of snow on the ground. Knowing that it wouldn't remain too long, we went out so I could shoot some photos. By lunchtime, all the snow was gone, although it's still pretty chilly.

Those of you in the north, midwest and/or east are probably laughing at what we call snow. Admittedly, our snow is nothing compared to what falls other places. Having grown up in the snow belt in NE Ohio, I had enough of the white stuff to last me forever. ;-)

By the way, you might recognize this farm as I posted a photo of it in August when we were suffering from the drought. You see what it looked like then by clicking here. Note the water levels in the pond, and there's something else a little odd. Do you notice what it is?

NDP Celebrates #200

We are all travelers
in the wilderness of the world,
and the best that we can
find in our travels
is an honest friend.
~ Robert Lewis Stevenson

As Nashville Daily Photo celebrates its 200th post today, I thought it appropriate to post a photo of the marble globe floating in a fountain in Bicentennial Park. All of us who post photos of our cities or who visit the blogs of posters from around the world are reaching out and introducing others to our daily lives. We are teaching each other a little bit about our cities, our countries, our cultures and ourselves. In doing so, we are hopefully doing something that our governments sometimes cannot do . . . We are becoming friends.

I'll point out that Tennessee is the white spot on the globe, and the lines emanate from Nashville.

If you missed my first post about the globe and want to learn a little more about it, click here.

The Birdhouse Thing III

Decorated by Taylor Swift, the birdhouse above is shaped a little differently than most of the others. Artists have the perogative to change the birdhouses however they like by pulling them apart, adding bases or legs or knobs, changing shapes and putting them back together. Both of the other two birdhouses retained their original shape while adding a bit to the base.

The birdhouse to the right, donated by Brad Paisley, sits on a post and resembles a rural mailbox. The red birdhouse (below left), donated by the country duo Sugarland, sports red feathers and glitz.

As I wrote in my two previous posts, the W.O. Smith School offers private and group music lessons to children of low-income families. The classes, taught entirely by a volunteer faculty, cost 50 cents per child per lesson. The school, through donations from the public and other means, is able to loan over 150 instruments annually to children who cannot otherwise afford them. The students do not pay extra for the instruments, music or instructional materials. NBC weatherman Al Roker, donated a truckload of instruments to the school last year through his "Al Lends a Hand" segment of the Today Show.

Over 350 children attend the more than 500 classes at the school. Unfortunately, the school has to turn away students due to space limitations. For years, two old houses have served as the school, and they offer only a total of about 2000 square feet of space. Fortunately, they have been able to start construction on a larger site. School administrators expect to be in the building later this year.
If you would like to watch a brief video on the school, click here to go to the school's website. At the bottom of the home page, click on the television.

Tomorrow is a special day for Nashville Daily Photo. Stay tuned!

The BirdHouse Thing II

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, Nashville-area artists, celebrities and musicians decorate birdhouses which the W.O. Smith School auctions the birdhouses to raise funding for the school. The birdhouses I'm showing you today were all decorated and donated by Country Music stars. Some of the birdhouses will be on the Country Music Television Auction website from March 7-21. Kenny Chesney's birdhouse has a pirate theme going, while Rascal Flatts (right) is a little more into Las Vegas with the card/dice decorations. One of the other artists told me that Wynona (left) and her two children decorate a birdhouse every year.

William Oscar Smith, from whom the school gets its name, graduated from NYU in the early 40s, but continued his education at University of Texas and University of Iowa, where he received his PhD. After serving as a band director in the US Army during WWII, he was a back-up musician to Max Roach and Dizzy Gillespie and played at the Cotton Club and Savoy Room. However, once his children were born, he moved his family to Nashville so that he could teach at Tennessee State University. In addition to his work at TSU, Smith was also the second African-American to play with the Nashville Symphony, playing viola and bass. During his 30 years at the university, Smith saw the need for music education for children who couldn't afford it, and two years after his retirement from the university, the W.O. Smith School opened. Smith passed away in 1991.

Tomorrow, I'll show you a couple more celebrity birdhouses and tell you a little more about the school.