Blue Ridge blog

Howard's Knob

When you come to Boone, there is a mountain on the right. It is called Howard's Knob. Today old Howard was covered in a couple inches of wet snow. The snow won't last long, and neither will this field in the foreground. In about a year, another mega-complex of student housing will fill this void. I keep trying to take photos of spaces before scenes are lost, but it seems that the building boom continues in Boone and new places are sprouting faster than kudzu making it hard for me to keep up.

I have been remiss lately in viewing your sites...It is all I can do just to post my own stuff. I promise to visit soon because I miss ya'll!

On Woodpeckers and Weather

I was on my road thinking about my numerous afternoon assignments when I saw several woodpeckers working up a tree. I stopped my car despite knowing that my odds of getting a shot of one of them was slim to none. However, the photo gods were smiling upon me as this little fellow hung around a few seconds longer than his buddies.

We're in the normal freaky weather season...sunshine and temps in the mid '60's today....rain tomorrow, snow Wednesday--at least that is what our local weatherman/blogger Ray predicts.

We're Melting...

I spent the morning browsing our local seed swap and had a rousing conversation with one of my best buds, a master beekeeper. I just don't have time this year (heavy sigh) to try another hand at beekeeping, but he agreed to let me be his apprentice. Now I need another bee suit, one that zips the coveralls to the hood (Birthday hint for those listening).
For those of you who don't know me...I have always been terrified of bees,wasps, flying critters but two years ago decided to overcome my fears... I took a course in beekeeping. A kinda "Know thy enemy" sort of strategy...and it worked. I now understand the little girls and have a tremendous understanding and respect for the important role of all native and non-native pollinators in our environment. I tried beekeeping two years ago. I nursed the suckers all summer hoping for a fall harvest, but I didn't have much luck. I learned that when you piss bees off they either sting the puddin' out of you or they swarm. Thankfully, my girls decided to swarm one warm autumn day...never to be seen again! I am determined to keep bees again, but need a little more field experience.
My afternoon was spent on the slopes. The temperature is about 55 degrees and the skiiers at Appalachian Ski Mountain were having a regular hoot-a-nanny catching big air and all during their anuual Winter Meltdown Festival.

Country Roads

As much as I detest the spring thaw and ensuing mud jam that happens to our gravel roads, I do enjoy my daily travels on my road and all around Watauga county. The photo above was taken near the base of Rich Mtn in the Zionville community. The road, appropriately named Rich Mtn road is mostly gravel and goes on forever across the county. Talk is of the NCDOT paving the majority of the road, taking right-of-way and jeopardizing the existence of structures such as the one on the left. Now, I often sing the praises of progress, but I weep for the loss of old times as well.

Just Chuggin' along

Can't you just smell the musty odor of freshly tilled soil? This afternoon I found a farmer faithfully working his bottom land close to Hwy 105-- not far from Valle Crucis. I don't know if this family works their land according to the 'signs' or phases of the moon, but many folks around here still do. Many many moons ago, the newspaper that I work for made calendars available to its subscribers. In each square, there was a little part of the body that told the old timers what particular sign each day was in what task would be the best to work on so they would commence working on the necessary task such as planting seeds, killing weeds, canning vegetable...you get the idea. Our readers were hooked on our annual freebie give-a-ways. Anyway, to make a long story short, a brilliant someone in mid-level management decided to save a few bucks and discontinue this little tradition. Well, all hell broke loose with the subscribers...and to this day, we continue to pass out the calendars because we fear for our lives.

Home Sweet Home

This photo was taken at way too early in the morning from the Blue Ridge Parkway near Blowing Rock. Fortunately, it snowed a wee bit last night and school was on a one hour delay affording me the opportunity to trek out. I metered the yellow of the sky and chose that color to be my 'medium' and let all the rest of the colors fall into place.

We returned late Sunday from a weekend of fun in the big city of Charlotte. Anytime I go off the mountain I almost always realize the cloistered world in which I live. Here are my big 5 items that you CANNOT find in Boone:
1) Benefit products. Yep, the make-up counter at Boone Drugs and our local dept. store simply don't carry funky hip cosmetics such as Benefit. I fall for nifty packaging everytime and a porceline cheeked beauty behing the counter promised that I would reap the rewards of using her magic spackle to fill in small lines. The potion is called 'Dr. Feelgood'. I also bought the 'Dandelion Dust' --a brightening face powder.
2) HOT SIGN. Just about everybody has a local Krispy Kreme doughnut store...except for us. I am still in quite a snit over this one.
3) ESCALATOR. Not a single one resides in Boone. If you don't believe me, ask my teenage children who endlessly rode up and down the moving stairs at Carolina Place Mall.
4) CAMERA STORE. Thank goodness for the internet because my photo life is much easier now that I don't have to travel to Charlotte or Winston just to buy items like a circular polarizing filter.
5) WARM WEATHER. Our return to Boone was one filled with brutal realization. Indeed, it can be 60 degrees only an hour away and yet in the 20's here in the mountains.

At least this morning I rationalized that I can take in the view of the world from above.

Focusing

Bare with me folks. I read an article in Nature Photographer magazine and it inspired me to do turn all kinds of goofy in-camera tricks. Nothing Photoshopped about this photo. I was trying to work hard on controlling my selective focus and on lighting.
Now, if I was a really good photographer, I would have found a way to take a photo of me as I was on all fours on the edge of Broadstone Rd in Valle Crucis trying to capture the inner essence of this crocus. My derriere was prominently displayed and at the time I didn't care, butt, now that I think about it, I bet someone passing by wondered if I was a mad woman. Awww...let 'em think what they will. I was otherwise engaged on important matters.

On their way today...

This is a postcard that I've received from my work buddy Rob about a month ago. He is in the 1450th transportation unit and has undergone training at Ft Stewart. I understand that today he and the rest of the guys and gals in his unit are on a plane headed to an undisclosed location. I'm willing to bet that wherever the plane lands, there will be plenty of bubblin' crude topped with a heavy portion of sand. I've tried hard to send him at least a postcard a week to keep him up-to-date on work gossip and happenins and I hope to get a new address for him shortly. Here's wishing godspeed to all the Haughty Haulers.

By the way, I got an interesting comment from Personal Loans on Hope Springs Eternal and from U.S. Grants on Who'd a Thunk it. Is there a book called "Blocking Comment Spam for Dummies?" I need it!

On NASCAR and Creasies

I'm not a huge racing fan but find it warming to see a man tinker with his toys under the cover of a barn. It's tradition up here in the mountains. Afterall, the beginnings of NASCAR was born about 30 miles away in Wilkes County as a result of Jr. Johnson and his ilk trying to outrun the revenuers with their cars loaded down with white lightning. Something I recently learned is that the racing world is anti-green. Being curious and all I did a quick google search and found this article that descibes the history of the superstition.

Hope you enjoyed your racing lesson as it is most likely the only racing post you'll ever get out of me. Now in honor of St. Patty's day, I'm gonna go gather some Creasie greens for dinner tonight.

Puddle Jumpers

I ventured out to Foscoe today for a story and as I was standing outside, a handful of geese flew noisely over head. The gentleman I was with said, " Yep, those fellers never seem to be satisfied with where they're at. All day long they jump from the pond over yonder, to that one over thar...and boy, them critters are loud!"