Blue Ridge blog

A day nearly complete...

This one among the first batch of photos I took today at approximately 8 a.m. on my way to work. A snow day this perfect comes but once or twice a winter. The only way it might have been better would have been if it was 30 degrees instead of 4 and with much less of a breeze. A testament to my day is seen (and felt) on my blistered red face tonight. No complaints though because my boss and I killed a ton of our winter do-list today. Tomorrow is suppose to be much warmer and with bluer skies and if'n that is the case, you won't hear from me until late again in the evening. My philosophy is to shoot now and blog later. The sweet light suffers no photo fools.

And those tracks in the snow aren't mind or any human's...

On the home front:
I babysat for Pookie tonight! Though it was a long, physical day at work, I managed to care for the delightful 18 month old. She was the one who entertained me...and,  "The wheels on the bus," still go round and round, ad infinitum. I couldn't find her parent's cd music in the nursery so I sat in the rocker and sung her to sleep with the off-key version of "All the Fishies are swimming in the water." She didn't quite like the position I initially had her in, but after a few grunts, we adjusted to the way her mom holds her and within a minute or two, she was fast asleep.

And, I love the Pooks, even if she spread banana slime all over my iPhone...

BTW, I think I am already asleep as I post this...

A quick snow photo. More later...

I've been out all morning shooting snow, but I wanted to put up at least one image. One of my haunts today was on the Watauga River Rd. and areas west of Valle Crucis. I will post more later...

Welcome to my snow globe...

Big whoop. It snowed again for the 5th time this winter in the HIgh Country. I'm actually delighted because the snowfall de-sensitizes folks to the winter conditions forcing them to manage their milk and bread supplies thus unclogging the grocery chain. And by now, the travelers with rear-wheel drives have learned to wait for the plow. All becomes right within the my snow globe. I left work about 10 minutes early and snuck some images from Baird's Creek and the horse farm to share with you. It was getting darking way too fast.

I do have a few things to share:

My buddy Frank is currently on a Rotary trip to India. He flew into Mumbia/Bombay but was out of the city during the terrorist attacks. Still, from what I can gather, the attacks have affected their country in the same way the 911 attacks affected ours. The gang has a travel blog, and here's Franks and his mama before he left. Frank is quite a storyteller and I will gladly purchase a beer for him just to hear him tell me more..

Ever heard of the Valle Crucis falls? Well, my friend Kenneth has photos of both the falls behind the Mission School and of the falls at Dutch Creek. These are rare glimpses of our own natural wonders.

Of places I know...

OMGosh. I'm actually posting an image today. It has been awhile. And I have tried to take photos, oh how I've tried, but I've been in a horrible rut of late. The photo mojo just ain't clickin'. But I know that this too will pass...

What have I been doing?
For one, I haven't been working as I've taken a couple days of vacation. I'm in play mode.  I've been Twittering and Skyping my brother and nephew, securing our electronic connection thing.
Then,  Annie and I have taken several walks in the winter woods. She's finally discovered her nose leads her to exciting wildlife rewards such as turkey poop.
And my girls both returned home to make withdrawals from the Bank of Parent's ATM. While they were here, gracing us with their presence, Milton Bradley entertained us. Joined by my folks, we played Monopoly and Rummikub.
And yes, I would be remiss in mentioning The Food. Like many of you, I ate and will continue to eat.

And I read. Here's a discovery. Appalachian son Jim Wayne Miller  speaks of places I know.

WINTER DAYS

He loved warm winter days when woodlands opened
their summer secrets to a passerby.
Treeshadows lay crisscrossed, low creeks deepened,
borrowing their cold blue from the sky.

Icicles glistened on the rock-backed ridges,
a field of broomsage hissed in the wind.
Frost and fencepost shadows melted by edges
of pasture-fields where coal-black cattle stood.

Sunlight ricocheted from tin-topped barns,
streaking the chalk walls of the limestone quarry.
Between white sycamores the river turned,
sure of where it was going, in no hurry.

from The Mountains Have Come Closer

Now if you will excuse me, I'm going to hop into the shower and then go to The Rock to watch my beloved Appalachian State football team play S.C. State in the first round of FCS playoffs.

Them Apples...

I saw this loaded apple tree on the side of Hwy. 421 a couple of days ago while heading down the mountain. Truly, the scene was gray and wet, as in the frog soaker variety, making the apples even that much more contrasting. An industrial size 'keep Marie from trespassing' fence blocked me from getting closer. Naturally, I hoped on top of my Jeep's roof to get the only other possible angle. Soaked, yet feeling fruitful, I uploaded the image only to find a garish digital file. The photo was nothing like what I saw and had hoped to capture in pixels. Enter Gnumoon, the empress of Photoshop. After describing the scene to her, she stole the image from my Desktop and within minutes, effortlessly transformed it into the above image.

"How do you like them apples?" she asked.

very much

And yes indeed I am going to the Appalachian State vs Elon game. Forecast? Looks like snow.

Hillbilly Baroque

Ya know, if one could compare nature to a particular artistic style, this morning, she was opulent and waving around with dramatic flair.
Annie was with me as we made a tour of the Valle Crucis loop from Dewitt Barnett Rd, passed the Danner Cemetery then connected with Baird's Creek and back onto Broadstone. Sadly, Annie didn't have as much fun as I did. As soon as we drove up our gravel road my little pup tossed her cookies inside my camera bag.

On the home front: Two months ago my eldest daughter scoffed at the idea of using our extra stored furniture inside her apartment. Yesterday, she returned home to comb through the barn where she found many wonderful treasures hidden within. Amazing how poverty silenced her sense of entitlement yet heightened her appreciation for ordinary.

But, do you want to see a fantastic autumn portrait? Look Here. Kathleen Connally has reached rock star status in the Photo Blogging world. I am Little Cricket and have much to learn....

Everybody wants to know about the leaves....

Score! A barn, a mower, an outhouse and autumn leaves all in the same photo. It's this hillbilly photographer's dream come true. All are found on the Dutch Creek Trails property, formerly known as the Baird homeplace, in Valle Crucis. As you can clearly see, the autumn color is forming, but peak is at least another week or two away at the 3,000 feet mark. Gnumoon told me her visit to Beech Mountain over the weekend was looking mighty fine, yet still at nearly 6,000 ft above sea level, the leaves had not reached their finest. Here is the official fall foliage report from VisitNC website. The Fall Color Guy is ASU professor of plant physiology Howard Neufeld. He knows his leaves.
My advise: Come up the mountain sooner rather than later. And don't worry so much about gas availability. From what I can tell, the fuel crunch, though still an issue, is diminishing.
Remember the Valle Country Fair and Wooly Worm festival happen on Oct. 18th.
And here's a tip: If you can possibly arrange to visit the area during the weekdays instead of over the weekend, you will avoid the worse traffic. But do come to the Valle Country Fair and say hello to me.

These photos were lost, but then found....

These are two images of nearby barns taken only a few moments apart. In the mountains, a minute difference in elevation often makes a drastic change in the mood of a photograph. The second photo is of the barn near the Mast General Store in Valle Crucis. A couple of miles away as I rode up the foot of Rock Crusher Hill, the clouds began to lift as the sun made its way above the ridges. A gorgeous scene unfolded and of course I stopped. It turned out to be a stellar morning for making photos.

Too bad I lost them all. Really, I did. My camera started acting wonky. I took out the battery and rebooted it in the field. I confirmed that the images were on the card. They were. Then, when I got to the office and tried to upload the images, they had disappeared. There were no images on the card the computer could read. After numerous attempts I resigned to failure and I wept for my loss. Sadly I reformatted the card in the camera. That's when a friend told me to try to find a free card recovery program on the web. I did. I found the Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery program which searched my compact flash card and found both my jpeg and raw images. How? I do not know. But for $39 bucks it promised it would retrieve them from the grave. I gladly paid the money and now own my personal version of the software just in case this happens again.

For those of you following ASU football, I added more images of yesterday's game against the Citadel to the photo album on the sidebar. Just scroll down and you will see the newer images. And, I think my new favorite SoCon team to play is the Citadel. It is a class program with great fans who leave the battle on the field. Even then, I witnessed several acts of kindness towards opponents by both teams' athletes. I admire and respect good sportsmanship.

And look what else I found:  an awesome blog called Cloody and Frank . If ever there was an argument for age being no excuse for not embracing the new, then this blog is it. 81 year old Frank and his beloved wife live in a retirement village in Arkansas. Check out his sidebar, not only has Frank had fun with Photobooth, but he also reveals the secret of Copiah soup. Cloody and Frank is a feel good blog. Go visit and smile, y'all.