Middle Tennessee trip

I just returned to Pensacola Beach from a trip to Middle Tennessee. My mother was having cataract surgery on both eyes last week, so I drove up to be with her, help out, and then bring her back to Florida for a few days to rest up.


Springtime is beautiful, especially in Middle Tennessee. My home town of McMinnville, Tennessee is even more so because nursery stock has been the main industry of the county for as long as I can remember. Growing up, signs leading into McMinnville all proclaimed, "Nursery Capital of the World". It surely seemed accurate.


All the photos I'm posting were taken in my mother's yard. This photo of a white lilac bush is one of her favorites and so fragrant.


There are over 200 nurseries listed in the area Yellow Pages or online, but that doesn't count all the small plots of nursery stock here and there. Even children sometimes tend their own small area of nursery stock and help out by (don't faint) mowing with push or riding lawn mowers, or driving tractors.

Mother is very proud of her bleeding hearts this spring. They are especially beautiful in the morning when dew-covered.

Her nandinas are hanging low with berries, which the birds will enjoy all summer.

It won't be long before the pansies begin to fade as temperatures start to climb...

but she enjoys the splash of color they provide at her doorstep through the winter.

The poor tulips have been battered by some of the fierce spring storms this year.

Patches of Bermuda grass between her yard and the neighbors will begin greening up soon. It's quite appropriate that this subdivision is named "Rolling Hills", as you can see from this photo. If I had stepped even 25 feet to the left you would have been able to see Ben Lomand Mountain in the distance.

Everyone has their paradise and Middle Tennessee is that for many people -- generally not those with allergies like me, however. Still, everyone appreciates the beauty of this area of the south.