Blue Ridge blog

Bee Glad

I found this bee enjoying the shade on the backside of a gladiola in the gardens of the Mast Farm Inn. I have a weekend packed with interesting photo assignments. Stay tuned.

A good day

A good day starts with photos of good light in front of the mean people's house without getting buckshot in the arse and ends with a gentle breeze, summer veggies via Scott , and pleasant conversations with happy teenagers.

It is grand to have eldest back home. The cello sings to me again while I make dinner. Alas, the car keys are gripped in her hands and she must, must, must burn dust down our gravel drive.

Youngest still awaits the fruits of her summer labor.

Sandwiched in between my good day was a pleasant assignment to the opening of Elk Knob State Natural Area . I wanted to hike to the top immediately, but Scott was wearing flip flops and was not nearly as anxious as I. That's ok. He promised he'd go on another field trip with me.

Elk Knob is near the southern tip of the region's amphibolite rock formations.  My father is a well-known geologist and could probably explain what the amphibolites are in layman's terms in the comments. Please daddy?  If he chooses to remain silent then you can try to decipher this senseless abstract (warning-chemistry and math involved) .

I took Harley for a walk with Wanda's dogs. She is out of the country for a few more days and I'm paying her back in kindness for taking care of Harley while I was on vacation. As you can tell in the photo above, Harley loves Wanda's pond.

It was a good day and I think I'm gonna end it now by sitting in a chair beside my husband and conversing about nothing important for a while.

Crap! I just swallowed a drunken fruit fly that was in my wine. I hate it when that happens...

Light Show

This morning I was at the foot of rock crusher hill, right in front of the mean people's house, when I saw light spilling through the lifting fog. I hate it for me when I have to park in front of their house because they aren't friendly towards me. At all. It just seems that this spot always has the most magical light and the mean people are put there to make my photography more of a sport. Fortunately, no one saw me. This time.

Dreams

I stood out in the middle of the Valle this morning taking photos of a gentleman mow hay. When I turned around I saw the clouds lifting. Dreamy.

Dear husband scrounged around in the uppermost loft of the barn yesterday to retrieve a couple of fans. It is hot up here in the mountains, but not in a bad way. In the middle of winter I have hot dreams about the summer sun. So in a sense, I reckon I'm living out my dreams.

I told you that I needed a good reason...

...and I couldn't think of a better reason to leave the mountain than than to see mon petit monsieur JAKE. OK. So the other really good reason to visit Raleigh was to take my children to see my parents and let them completely and absolutely spoil them with clothes, music and ballet slippers. Of course heavy duty helpings of ice cream were involved as well.
In any case--meet Jake. He is the offspring of my beloved high school buddy. After spending just a few minutes with the little guy I have decided that all of the world's problems can be fixed by just canning this toddler's giggle. 'CAN 'O JAKE'. That's what I'll call the product. Sprinkle just a little bit over congress. Shake a bunch over the middle east, asia and europe. Throw a whole lot over the punks driving around malls of Raleigh and then pinch some over top White House. This is a recipe of World Peace. His infectious giggle and sense of humor could lighten (if only momentarily) even the meanest S.O.B. Really. Cain't nobody not love the Jake. He's better than puppy kisses.

Down

It is only for a good reason that I would ever leave the cool air of my mountain perch and descend into the suburban brawl of hell, er I mean Raleigh, this weekend. Leave I must. I'll bring my camera in case I see the world's largest mosquito or mall rat, you will be able to  vicariously live through my adventures.

In the meantime, please visit Gnumoon  and see if you can i.d. the mysterious brundleblobs that we saw yesterday on our walk.

Boone, North Carolina

This is old town Boone. King Street. On the right is the Mast General Store and on the left is the Boone Drug Store. Our post office is hidden in that clump of trees beyond Mast. The clouds are trying to lift above Rich Mtn in the background.

Random fact about me: I am eating gorp for breakfast.

Foxy

Yesterday I was in Blowing Rock near the golf course and saw two red foxes taking naps. Apparently these foxes are quite used to humans and allowed me to get close enough to get many, many shots. It seems to me that a fox is almost a perfect combination of a dog and cat. Several years ago I took photos of a litter of fox in the den of a field while the mother was off hunting food. I returned the next day to find that a farmer had spread lime in and around the den. I don't know the fate of the litter--but they were not there any more. I wish this pair much more luck.

On Shooting the bird in my underwear

I think this is an Indigo Bunting. But I could be wrong. In any case, this is THE BIRD that wakes me up every morning. I swear this bird is neurotic. For the last month it has not shut up. It has about 6 perches surrounding my house that it flits upon which it sings the same song...over and over and over. I've not seen another of its kind anywhere nearby so to whom it is singing...I'm not sure. If he is screaming for a mate then I say:

"Dude, you need to go look elsewhere. If a female hasn't answered your call it means one of two things. Either there is not a female of your kind around, or, maybe you need to take up some singing lessons. You are quite handsome, but you yak way too much."

Anyone out there that can fill me in on this creature's bizarre behavior?

Note: This photo was taken early yesterday morning from my bedroom window. The bird is perched on top of the dead Maple tree that adorns our front lawn. I used a 300 mm lens w/1.5 teleconverter. I was getting dressed and heard the all too familiar bird. So, clad only in my underwear I took this photo. Thankfully, we don't have many neighbors.

My Bubba Dawg

Sometimes it is the oddest things that command my attention. For example a friend of mine told me about a vending  machine in the New China Buffet Restaurant that sells Hillbilly Teeth for Kids. I just couldn't imagine what such an contraption would look like so I gathered up some pocket change and went for a look see. Sure 'nuff, right inside the door of the Asian restaurant there one sits in all its glory--right next to the bouncy ball machine. Did ya ever figure that there are many styles of Hillbilly Teeth? Well there are.  There are Hillbilly Teeth with glow-in-the-dark green worms (my personal favorite) . There are Hillbilly Teeth with what appears to be flecks of chocolate shavings and there are even Hillbilly Teeth that look like candy corn.
I proudly brought my treasure home to show my family. But lo and behold, I couldn't convince my 15 year old daughter to test 'em out! But, ya know Harley raised her paw and volunteered to model for my bloggin' cause.

Naw, just kiddin'. Even dabbed with peanut butter, the teeth didn't appeal to Harley one lil bit so the photo is actually a photo-illustration.

(You should see my out takes from trying to fit Harley with Hillbilly dentures)

While googling Hillbilly Teeth, I found this guy's post about Hillbilly Teeth. After reading more current posts by Hi. I'm  Black  I hope he posts more soon. I nearly busted my gut reading his translation for white people of 50 Cent's Just a Lil Bit .
He's not all that politically correct, but heck, I reckon I'm not either.

**Edit Time** I am horrible at Blog Maintenance Duties. I think that I have all my blog buddies/links cleaned up. Finally. I think. But if'n ya'll are in the mood to check out some new Sunday morning finds, I direct ya to the bottom part of my Blog Buddy list. The last several are from my neck of the woods. But they aren't Boonies--they hail from the much cooler/hipper mountains--near Asheville. But be sure to visit Susan@EasyBakeCoven because I would not be blogging if it wasn't for her. In fact, I beg to ask ya'll who introduced you to the art? Spread the love why don't ya.  Above that are links to some folks that deserve attention as well. I always enjoy meeting new friends. I treat 'em like mixers. Indulge me...

P.S. Goodness Ladies & Gents, I need to update not only my hairdo, but my blog as well. Anyone got some simple ideas? I know nothing about html and it is just about everything I can do to provide a photo of the day on my blog...