Blue Ridge blog

A Rainbow Fallout

The High Country experienced a significant 'ice event' yesterday morning. Schools were closed, powers went out and for awhile, nobody did much of anything except hope and pray that big old tree too close to the house would'nt yield to the pressure of the coat of 1/4 quarter inch or more of ice. Around 11:30 a.m. I stepped out on my deck and heard the snap, crackle, pop cacophony of brittle branches as they succombed under the weight of ice.
All the sudden I noticed THE RAINBOW. Holy Moly, I ran down to the car to retrieve my camera. Rainbows are fleeting and I thought I might lose it. Yet the rainbow remained. As I fiddled with the polarizing filter, it tumbled over the deck. Shit. I ran downstairs and outside in my jammies and slippers, knowing full well the rainbow might be gone, again. I tripped up the stairs in my slippers and my jammie bottoms were at my knees. I walked out of my jammies and back into my slippers. I was now a comedy in action. Yet, the rainbow stayed and became even more intense. It spanned over Valle Crucis, from say Daisy Ridge plum over the horse farm, the river and the pot of gold was on Old Hartley Rd. The rainbow visted for more than 10 minutes--a record in my books. I scored lots of shots.
These photos are fairly straight forward though I did have to work with level adjustments in Photoshop in order to get the ice covered trees to show up. I also used a touch of Photomatix in the middle image. The last image is a close up of the rainbow against Matney mountain.

I woke up grumpy this morning. Not sure why but when I stopped at the Mast Store to pick up my mail, I noticed shoes on sale. Retail shoe therapy is oh so much better than a massage.

In between the clouds and a hard place...

Today's photo is brought to you because I needed high elevation and fresh air to free my mind of some egregious bureaucratic blunders. Both of my children have been seriously affected by said blunders and I will leave it at that...
I relieved much of my stress as I trudged through crunchy snow on Howards Knob this afternoon. Rime ice covers the tip top trees on most of the high ridges. The contrast between blue skies and white snow made me feel quite alone--and trust me, in the mood I was in at the time, that was probably a good thing.

(Howards Knob is closed during the winter months because it is turns into a solid sheet of ice. Don't trespass. It is not wise nor safe and it is against the law. With that said, I hope the town of Boone forgives me for my trespassing while I attempt to forgive those who have trespassed against my youngins.)

It is official. Snow falls in Boone, sort of.

It isn't accumulating much and vicious winds are blowing the fine granules towards Lenoir. It is wicked cold. And as usual, if you drive down Rivers Street, you will see at least one ASU student wearing Crocs and Bermuda shorts...

It may rain on the homecoming parade...

It is currently raining in the High Country and while I would rather be out shooting, I am forced to remain indoors while I wait for Mr. Telephone Man to come fix my little internet issues. I took this photo of golden rod a couple of days ago while traveling the Blue Ridge Parkway.
On a family note: It is a big weekend for my youngest daughter who is a senior in high school. It is homecoming and SAT weekend. A tradition at the high school is for seniors to prance around in togos to school the day of the homecoming parade. Not sure how the administration is going to take this, ya know with the new dress code and all, but she and her friend left this morning, wearing their tie-dyed and polka dotted togos, ready at least for this particular test.
She seemed irritated this morning and would not let me take a photo of her this morning. The stress of tying a togo and make it look cute like you aren't wearing a togo was apparently too much for her.
"I'm just not in the mood for the camera," she said.
Instead, I found this shot a friend took of her a couple of days ago as they were playing around on a trampoline. It seems to capture her essence...

Hay!

We deposited eldest in Columbia, SC Saturday morning. The move in was neither as complicated nor as hot as everyone had warned us about. I'm beginning to believe that Columbians wear a 'hot' badge of honor the same way Boonies talk about surviving winter up here...
Regardless, eldest did jump from the freezer into the frying pan, and I am mildly amused by that...

I wandered around Valle Crucis yesterday and found someone had baled hay in the land behind the Mast Store.

A much needed cleansing....

After four days of no working out I took an evil spin class this evening. Every pore in my body released what amounted to a salty puddle I dubbed 'Lake Marie' underneath my bike. Ahhh. I'm renewed even though my legs ache.
We finally got rain yesterday. Quite a bit, actually. The rain helped clear the smoke lingering in the humid air cause by the Linville Gorge fires.
Currently blooming on the mountain our the wild rhododendron which range in color from pure white to light to mild pink. I muted the colors in this photo because I felt like it...

Hanging in there....

A good day begins with a roof over your head, as opposed to the unfortunate day when a roof is on top of your head. Our house quivered with every little 65 mph wind gust. I did not sleep well mainly because the wind blowing through the trees was plain noisy. I discovered a couple of trees fallen across our drive this morning. My husband had a delightful early morning date with the chainsaw. Anyway, above is a tranquil scene taken this morning on Frank Mast Road in Valle Crucis. I enjoyed believing this may be the last day Hanging Rock is frosted with snow this season**fingers crossed**. Note: I did tone map this photo. The contrast was too much to deal with on a deadline morning amidst gale force winds.
Below is my Jeep and one fallen poplar on our road.

On Snow and Junk...

This photo, taken at 3:30 pm today, is no longer accurate. Instead, the ground is now white. So it is snowing in Boone. Yawn. I'm bit weary of snow these days....
I would rather talk trash. Yes, trash. Because early this morning my youngest and I picked up several bagfuls at Watauga High School. Oh please. Don't applaud us for our dogooder-ness because frankly our hearts were not filled with joy and fuzziness as we anticipated the work. Youngest volunteered only because she needed to fill in one more blank in the whole college application circus. I did it because Youngest couldn't sell any other teenagers on the idea of helping her pick of their own litter on a Sunday morning. The town of Boone's 'Big Sweep' began today and it is the only day she has free all week. The nice lady with the town of Boone gave her bright orange trash bags, gloves and an orange safety vest. The bags and gloves were helpful. The orange vest is most definitely on Youngest's list of fashion 'don'ts.'
Our mission began in the flower beds near the entrance of the school. There weren't many flowers blooming, but man there sure was a proliferation of gum wads. I was concerned Youngest might not hang through the tedium of fingering 'abc' gum. Her sense of humor was clearly absent and was mixed with the abject horror someone might witness her being good.  The vision of a Bud Light can stuck in a bush right next to the 'Visitors' parking area did lightened her mood somewhat.
She held it up in triumph and said in a voice dripping with sarcasm,  "Go Watauga."
As the Sacred Heart Ministries church service let out, she started to panic. She gathered her orange sack and ran towards the upper parking lot.
"I don't want anyone to see me doing this," she said.
I followed her.
It was there we discovered the mother-load of all high school sins/trash over in a ravine between the lot and the school's main drive.

Onion Snow

So if you happen to find a frozen butt in this field off of Deerfield Rd., it is mine. I left it there, right after I got tangled in a mess of barbed wire and landed my arse smack down in the snow. Dang, I tore my favorite blue jeans, too. So glad you didn't see me and take my photo. Of course, if'n I had seen you do the same thing, I not only would have snapped the photo, but I would have also posted it on my blog...
I was attracted to this scene because of the green onions poking out of the snow. Here's a definition of an'onion snow' straight from the mouth of dude living in Plummer's Hollow, Pa. I reckon he ought to know...

Going above and beyond...

It was a relatively calm day on Grandfather Mountain. Wind gusts were only 35-45 mph. It was spitting snow. A group of Grandfather Mountain employees decided the time was just right to install a new anemometer atop the Mile High Swinging Bridge. In a couple of days, everybody in the whole wide world will be able to see what the weather is like on Grandfather Mountain's Mile High Bridge. Hopefully. The technology in such extreme conditions is a work in progress--so check back often.
Me?
I was happily planted terra firma hoping I would not be forced to document a bizarre tragedy--especially because these guys were not only particularly nice but it was righteously cold up there despite the temperate February weather. These guys are rock stars! There is no possible way I would climb that ladder. Ok, I might, but not without every single one of those dudes at the base holding on. Even then, I would be nervous and someone would need to dangle a cold beer, like a carrot, nearby. Truly, the only way it would work for me is to guarantee an excellent shot (of the photographic variety) could be taken from that vantage point...

Notes: To even out the highlights and shadows of this photo, I took liberal advantage of the 'curves' in Photoshop. Additionally, I did use a high-powered flash to better capture the humans against the sun and clouds....