Old Barn, Spring Creek Ranch Golf Club...and a favor...

Thanks to those of you who wrote me for such a warm welcome back! I have a new job which takes a bit of time each week, but I hope to be blogging as regularly as possible. I enjoy sharing the Memphis area with you, and I'm glad that you enjoy seeing it, too!

Spring Creek Ranch Golf Club, which was designed by Jack Nicklaus, was formerly a cattle ranch by the same name. Some of the recently-developed residential streets surrounding the club are named after the bulls that resided here when it was ranch land. This is one of the old barns remaining on the Spring Creek Ranch property, and I'm not sure that preserving the barn structures is on their long-term plan. I wanted to have a photo to serve as a record of this property's history, and I thought that the barn looked especially pretty with the goldenrod (and ragweed...achoo!) in full bloom.

And now for the favor! Do any of you have any photos of the artists' life-size horses that have been around the Germantown area since the Germantown Charity Horse Show? We came back from the MS State/Vanderbilt football game tonight and passed through Germantown, and they're gone! We were going to take photos of them on Sunday and Tuesday this week, when we had some extra time to visit each site, and share them here. SO disappointing! If any of you have photos (of the horses, of anything else in the Memphis area) that you'd like to share here, I'd be glad to post them and credit you for the photo. If you do, please leave a message here. Thanks!

Goldenrod, Spring Creek Ranch

Goldenrod found blooming this past week on the naturalized property of Spring Creek Ranch Golf Club on Collierville-Arlington Road. Yes, I know that some consider it to be a weed, at best a wildflower...but no matter its classification, it's an awfully pretty one!

Spring Creek, Spring Creek Ranch Golf Club

This is Spring Creek, for which Spring Creek Ranch Golf Club is named. This Jack Nicklaus-designed course opened in 1999, and is rumored to be the possible future home course for the annual Stanford-St Jude golf tournament.

This course is also a member of the Aububon Conservation Reserve with 330 acres used for wetlands and a natural habitat and ecosystem for wildlife.

Spring Creek Ranch was once a very large cattle farm, and the course design (by Jack Nicklaus) has made wonderful use of the natural beauty of this land.

Photo of the Year, 2007...and a Happy 2008 to You!!

I have been blogging with this community for only the past 10 days or so, so I chose my favorite personal photo from the past year.

It is my favorite because of the way it came about. I would admire some of the photos my online friends in Europe would post on their blogs, including the lovely sunflower fields that are found there. I sometimes would show my husband the photos, and we would discuss how we one day look forward to visiting abroad, perhaps after we've gotten our sons through college.

One day in late August, my husband picked me up from work, my camera in his hand. He said that he "had someplace great to show" me, and drove about 15 minutes outside of Memphis (quite a distance from work, and home). There we found huge sunflower fields, beautiful ones...breathtaking. He had brought me to this special place, just so that I could see the beauty of them, and take photos. It was spontaneous, and wonderful.

Now, I am new to photography, with no training and a fairly run-of-the-mill digital camera. The photos I took that day came out better than I ever could have hoped, making the day even more memorable.

There are 118 wonderful blogs participating in this Photo of the Year Theme Day...how fun, being able to visit places all over the world and see the best of their best, for free! Please visit each of these wonderful sites, and Happy New Year to you!!:

Paris, France - London, England - Hyde, UK - West Sacramento (CA), USA - Grenoble, France - Stockholm, Sweden - Riga, Latvia - Saint Paul (MN), USA - Manila, Philippines - Silver Spring (MD), USA - Weston (FL), USA - Prague, Czech Republic - New Orleans (LA), USA - Wichita (KS), USA - Cleveland (OH), USA - San Francisco (CA), USA - Hobart (Tasmania), Australia - Greenville (SC), USA - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Menton, France - Monte Carlo, Monaco - Mainz, Germany - Melbourne, Australia - Portland (OR), USA - Albuquerque (NM), USA - Wassenaar (ZH), Netherlands - Kyoto, Japan - Tokyo, Japan - Toulouse, France - Naples (FL), USA - Jakarta, Indonesia - Brussels, Belgium - Stayton (OR), USA - Selma (AL), USA - Mexico City, Mexico - Ocean Township (NJ), USA - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Port Angeles (WA), USA - Toruń, Poland - Fort Lauderdale (FL), USA - Budapest, Hungary - Baziège, France - Nashville (TN), USA - Saint Louis (MO), USA - Cottage Grove (MN), USA - Chicago (IL), USA - Prescott (AZ), USA - Bellefonte (PA), USA - Nottingham, UK - Moscow, Russia - Philadelphia (PA), USA - Evry, France - Trujillo, Peru - Arlington (VA), USA - Denpasar, Indonesia - American Fork (UT), USA - Seattle (WA), USA - Chandler (AZ), USA - Coral Gables (FL), USA - Montpellier, France - Joplin (MO), USA - Pilisvörösvár, Hungary - Crystal Lake (IL), USA - Bucaramanga (Santander), Colombia - Boston (MA), USA - Torun, Poland - New York City (NY), USA - Dunedin (FL), USA - Quincy (MA), USA - Stavanger, Norway - Chateaubriant, France - Maple Ridge (BC), Canada - Jackson (MS), USA - Wailea (HI), USA - Port Elizabeth, South Africa - Budapest, Hungary - Austin (TX), USA - Montréal (QC), Canada - Cypress (TX), USA - Bicheno, Australia - Wrocław, Poland - Brookville (OH), USA - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Nelson, New Zealand - Cheltenham, UK - Wellington, New Zealand - Rabaul, Papua New Guinea - Mumbai (Maharashtra), India - London, UK - Haninge, Sweden - Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation - Arradon, France - Jefferson City (MO), USA - Orlando (FL), USA - Mumbai, India - Terrell (TX), USA - Bogor, Indonesia - Delta (CO), USA - Radonvilliers, France - Saigon, Vietnam - San Diego (CA), USA - Adelaide (SA), Australia - Belgrade, Serbia - Auckland, New Zealand - Seguin (TX), USA - Inverness (IL), USA - Oslo, Norway - Singapore, Singapore - Las Vegas (NV), USA - New York City (NY), USA - Anderson (SC), USA - Torino, Italy - Susanville (CA), USA - San Diego (CA), USA - Sharon (CT), USA - Melbourne, Australia - Port Vila, Vanuatu - Memphis (Tennessee), USA