Flip Flops & Dragonflies

The Fishtale Lodge recently turned their swimming pool into a garden area with a waterfall.

Love the dragonfly and flip flops ... and the bike ... and the water fall.

Wish you could hear this waterfall.  It took me a few trips over there to realize the fresh, tropical feeling I was getting everytime I came to visit ~ was coming from the sound of this waterfall.

Remember this?

A Boat Full of Tulips

Well!  You should see it now.

The front.

All decked out in summer flowers. 

Photographed at the Carpenter house on Lakehill Beach Estates Road.

The back.

Bill Carpenter gives Freida all the credit for their gorgeous flowers.

Love this yard ornament.

Bank Fishing

Look like fun?

It is!

This is such a typical scene around here.  Fishing from the bank doesn't require any fancy equipment.  And there are miles and miles of beach to fish from. 

Photographed at Paris Landing State Park

What I Like

Sometimes I find it necessary to explain why I like Paris Landing so much.  It's not just the lake, the landscape, the wildlife, the weather.  A lot of it has to do with the people.  And on Saturday at the Wounded Warrior Bass Tournament .... the folks of Paris Landing made me proud.  Here are a few of the things I like. 

Sharon Seaton found a boat for this last minute soldier.

People who are really, really happy to be so helpful.

Cindy Rice of T.F. Rice & Co. gets the award for bringing the biggest flag.

When you tell folks "Y'all come and bring a flag."  .... they bring the biggest one they can find,

Ryan Caldwell isn't too young to wave a flag.

or .... they bring their kids too and make them wave a flag,

or, just in case you forgot to bring a flag -

Anne, Justin and Caleb Cullen

They bring a flag just for you!

Love this Eagle provided by the State Park! 

Everyone finds a way to be helpful.

The guys from the U.S. Coast Guard Cimmarron unhooked 
snags for kids at the Junior Fishing Rodeo.

I love it when I get a cool shot like this one!  (And no - I don't know who's head that is.)

Or this one.  Look at the girl on the right dodging a hook.

Or this one.

Or when everyone lines up just right, almost as if they were waiting on a camera,
so I can get a shot like this.

And of course, if I weren't at Paris Landing I wouldn't have the opportunity for all these photos.

I just like Paris Landing.

Nice Catch!

I've posted so many photos of pretty posies lately ... I just wanted to remind folks that one of the main reasons folks move here is because of the fishing.  Fishing is one of the main things that makes Paris Landing so wonderful.

This is my cousin Andy "Butch"  Bolding of Paris Landing

Nice Catch!

Wisteria & Kittys

If you aren't into flowers or the wonders of Spring, you may need to take a detour for a few weeks from this blog. Here at Paris Landing we are having one of the most beautiful Springs!  All the flowers and blooming trees are perfect this year and I just can't help my self.  It's just too pretty to ignore.

So any way, I was visiting my friend Cindy Rice the other day and she mentioned she had a pretty Wisteria bush and didn't I need a photo of some Wisteria.  Well, I'm always game for a neat photograph and I had seen some Wisteria around here, a small bush here and there, but nothing that just begged to be photographed.  She kept telling me what a pretty Wisteria bush it was so I thought, why not?

Well .......

My goodness! 

I love it!!!  And then - along came this sweet little creature!

Hello kitty, kitty!

And of course while I was there I had to look around for other neat things.

Like this lizard attached to a Kentucky Lake rock with their house number, and ..

... these pretty little stepping stones.

Well ... hello again!  Apparently the Wisteria also makes a great jungle gym for the kitty.

Back to interesting things.

A bird house in a bird bath.  How convenient!

One of the most interesting potting/storage??? sheds I've ever seen.

There may be a painting here.

Let's see now, why was I here?

Oh yes.

The Wisteria!

Bye, bye!  Hope you enjoyed your visit.

A Boat Full of Tulips

This landscape has to be a Paris Landing original.  A real boat full of Tulips!

I've been trying to get this photograph for about four Springs now.  I was always too early, too late, or the weather wouldn't cooperate.  Here's another view.

Bill Carpenter on Lakehill Beach Estates Road deserves a Green Thumb Award for these perfect tulips and for the idea of using an old boat for a raised flower bed.

Thank you Bill for brightening up our neigborhood and for putting up with that crazy photographer you keep seeing in your front yard.

Sweetvalley In the Spring

My little brother John owns a cabin in the prettiest little valley.

It's rightly named - Sweetvalley.

He rents it out to fishermen, hunters, nature lovers, honey mooners and all sorts of folks looking for a quiet, private little place to spend a weekend on Kentucky Lake.  You can check it out here.

His gardner, my sister Anne, has a green thumb and .... a thing for pansies,

and more pansies,

and more pansies,

and even pansies in a tree stump.  Actually, I really think this is a pretty creative way to cover up a stump.  What do you think?

Sitting Rocks

Way down there at the bottom of the hill are some sandstone rocks.

They've been there as long as I can remember, but perhaps they used to be a little larger.  We always called them the "Sitting Rocks" for obvious reasons.  They were a perfect place to sit.

This is my Grandma Ruby Hailey Heavrin sitting on one of the rocks

around 1965. I took this photo of her and then she took one of me.

Here's another one she took of me standing on more of the rocks closer to the bank.

Everytime I see these rocks I think of my Grandma and the beautiful fall day we took these photos.  The rocks have become a sort of special place for my family.  

A place we continue to sit at and ponder and take photos.

Who would have thought a few Kentucky Lake rocks could evoke such nostalgia.

The Big Fish

 Mr. Cook at Sinclair's Fishmarket, holds a 60lb blue cat he caught today.

Rice's Store

When I was a little girl and we started coming to “The Lake” - Rice’s Store was sort of the end of civilization as we knew it. It was the last place to stop and get groceries. And to a little kid from the big city of Memphis it really was a fascinating place. It wasn’t like the Big Star Store or Kroger’s. In addition to the few staple type groceries they sold, they also had some fishing paraphernalia, straw hats (the original sun screen) and I think they even sold minnows.

But I think the thing I found most fascinating was that they would actually make you a sandwich right there on the spot from groceries they had in the store. Bologna with lots of mayo was my favorite. 

Rice's Store - a Paris Landing Landmark

The store has been closed for quite a while now but if you’ve been down the Lake Highway lately you are bound to have noticed some interesting activity. Rumors are rampant all over Paris Landing.

Yes! Rice’s Store is going to re-open under the management of the Rice family. It will have a new name and a different type of merchandise. Watch for a grand opening in April. More info later.

Welcome to the Lake

Folks who live at the lake are always on the look out for just about anything that says, "Welcome To The Lake."  Emily Bolding of Russwood decided to create her own welcome sign when she bought this set of plain - unpainted lawn furniture.  That's right she did all this painting herself.

I love the way she decided to highlight the skeletal look and the little air bubbles on all the legs.

Love the details.

Wonder Woman Spotted At Paris Landing

Is Elise Bridgewater Wonder Woman or “a modern day miracle” as her daughter, Sharon Seaton of the Fishtale Lodge  proclaims? You decide. 

If you know Sharon, you know how “unique” she is. But you might not know that her Mom, Elise, has Alzheimer’s. And in her usual, unique way of tackling life, Sharon has taken an unusual, very Sharon-like approach to dealing with Alzheimer‘s. She started a blog. A blog titled “Detours From Sanity.”  You can read about the story that started it all here.

Sharon said, “I decided to look at this disease as my Mom always looked at everything in life …with a song in my heart and a smile on my face.” “Smile” seems to be a key word in Sharon’s stories about her life with Elise.

If I ever get Alzheimer’s, I want to be Sharon’s Mom. You will feel the same if you visit her blog at http://detoursfromsanity.blogspot.com/