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Join out hostess with the mostess, Susan, A Southern Daydreamer, to find many posts filled with outdoor beauty!
My husband and I spent most of the last couple of weeks in east Tennessee after my father had a heart attack. We spent every day for a week at the hospital - and you know how tiring and stressful that can be. When Dad came home we worked around the house for a couple of days and then the two of us spent a day in the mountains. My parents live just outside the Smoky Mountain National Park so it's stunningly beautiful all year round. The mountains in winter look completely different than in warm months. I miss being able to hop in the car and drive a mere minutes to be be in the middle of complete beauty. Michigan has it's own claims to fame, but we don't have mountains! I snapped some pictures as we drove and went to a few of our favorite places in the park.
Tennessee has actually had winter this year and more than the usual few weeks. The water that streams out of the rocks continuously froze, creating strange looking shapes - natural works of art!
The streams ran over the rocks rigorously after months of rain and snow.
One of my favorite views is in Cades Cove. It is the place of the first non Indian settlers in the Smoky Mountains. In fact, the first was my great-great-great-great grandfather, John Oliver. If you visit the Smoky Mountains in east Tennessee be sure to go to Cades Cove and drive "The Loop" to see the original homes of the first settlers. It's interesting to see how incredibly innovative these strong people were and the beauty is incomparable.
The deer are plentiful in the Cove and because hunting is against the law, those gorgeous, graceful creatures come very close.
John Oliver certainly knew how to pick a gorgeous spot to homestead. What a front porch view!
John Oliver II was a minister at the Primitive Baptist Church. The church and graveyard are beautiful.
After several hours of satisfying my "mountain fix" it was time go go back to Mom and Dad's. 
I adore the beach, but these mountains are the place of my childhood and I NEED to be surrounded by them from time to time. Cades Cove in particular, brings a sense of peace and familiarity. When I was a child we spent Sunday afternoons picnicking in the mountains, jumping from rock to rock in the cold streams. On Memorial Day, or Flag Day as we called it, we picnicked on the Primitive Baptist Church grounds, afterward we cleaned the grave sites and placed flowers on the graves of our ancestors. I have wonderful memories of the mountains and they still bring a spirit of peace to my soul like no other place can.
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