Butterflies

We've had a lot of butterflies this summer. Today, there were several clustered together on the Cone Flowers.

More Bugs

And more bugs on a hot, steamy night. If I went outside to photograph him, my camera lens would fog up!

Bugs

It's so hot outside that I have resorted to photographing things through my front door, lol.

Her Last Evening at Home...

Parrish is leaving tomorrow to go back to school in Hawaii, so we had to have another portrait session tonight. We started in Kingston Springs, in an empty field...

I'll share the ones from downtown in a few days.

The Aftermath

One thing I can say about Tennessee--we are the VOLUNTEER STATE! In the wake of catastrophic flooding, volunteers have literally flooded the neighborhoods to help others. The Red Tree Coffee House has been the command center for Kingston Springs and Pegram, and owners/sisters Amy Bruce and Katie Conley spearheaded the organization of volunteers and dispatched them to those in need. (See local news story.) The Methodist church across the street was command center for food, with volunteers making sack lunches for both those who lost their homes, and the volunteers helping with the clean up.

Kelly volunteered to help clear debris and rip out ruined drywall from homes in the Shacklett area, which was particularly hard hit. And is a rather poor area to begin with. I volunteered to help make lunches and deliver them to workers in the Harpeth Meadows and Tanglewood subdivisions. I also spent some time at the Middle School, which has been turned into a Red Cross Relief Center, helping them organize donations of food, water, clothing, tools, and cleaning supplies.

I didn't take any photographs today. There was something about it that would have felt like I was intruding on people's pain and suffering, since I was seeing first hand the damage to people's homes, not just public areas and streets.

There was a big BBQ for all the victims and volunteers at Red Tree tonight, but I had already committed to photographing a graduation party for some young men at Brentwood Academy.

The Thousand Year Flood, Day 4

It's Tuesday, and we are finally able to get out of our neighborhood, and even into Nashville. Highway 70 is still closed, but I-40 is open. I didn't attempt to go into Nashville because many secondary roads are still closed, and I didn't have a real need. I did drive around Kingston Springs and see the damages here.

I was amazed to find road crews from a private contractor already trying to make Kingston Springs Rd passable in front of the high school.

This is where several homes were completely destroyed after being swept off their foundations by raging flood waters. You can see the huge sheets of asphalt that were torn off the road surface.

There was little left of these train tracks over the Harpeth River. Normally, the river is way below the tracks, and only a few feet deep at this point.

Back in my neighborhood...

This is the bottom of the hill in our neighborhood, which was impassable yesterday.

The Thousand Year Flood, Day 2

It's Sunday, and the rain is still coming down.

I started watching the weather/news on TV, and checking Facebook updates. The flooding was all over middle Tennessee, and it was serious. Our elementary school was under 5 feet of water, and a teacher who had gone to retrieve things from her classroom had to be rescued from the roof by boat. I-25 southeast of downtown had become a raging river itself. A portable classroom from Lighthouse Christian academy was floating down the interstate until it hit a stranded semi and fell to pieces. The beautiful Opryland Hotel and Convention Center was under 10 feet of water. Interstate 40 both east and west of Kingston Springs was closed because it was under water. Highway 70 was also closed. Kingston Springs was now an island, with no way in or out. We were no longer able to get out of our neighborhood. I see on Facebook that several homes across the street from our Middle School and High School have been swept away, in a river that never existed before. Videos of the homes being forced off their foundations and floating away to later be broken apart into kindling. Families losing everything they own. I read posts on Facebook about people being trapped in their homes waiting for rescue. Or a family that escaped their flooded home but spent days waiting for rescue from their van parked on the ridge above their home. Its all surreal.

A little while later, we lost our internet and cable connections, and cell service became too weak to get a call in or out. Text messages were still going through.