Blue Ridge blog

An Ooga Booga moment...

This photo cracks me up. If you know anything about me at all from reading my blog, you know that I like creepy crawly gory things . I also love finding visual tricks . So when my co-worker buddy Jeff Eason showed me a photo of his that he said reminds him of a girl's face, I begged him to let me show it on my blog. When I opened it full-size, I didn't see Little Miss Muffet's face on the spider's tuffet at all. Rather, I see the face of the voodoo mask from the sitcom Gilligan's Island with the hair of a rastafarian. Seriously, put this face with this man's hair . Is it a stretch, or do you see what I see?

Tip: If you wear corrective lenses, remove them and look at the photo. Or, stand back from the computer. The image of the 'Ooga Booga' is best scene slightly blurry.

FOG

See down that road somewhere...in the fog. That is my brain. On Saturday and Sunday I shot a bazillion photos, prepped and edited a bazillion photos, wrote 3 stories and completely missed a weekend off. Now it is Monday, and all the folks who did not work over the weekend are disgustingly fresh and perky and ready for me to do more work. Bleh. Mondays.

Turk's Cap Lily

This native flower seems to randomly pop up in woods and along roadsides in our area. It is different from the common lily in that petals do a back-bendy thing all coming together to look like a turk's cap.
The flower was in the full sun and I exposed for it making for the black background (courtesy of the shaded forest). Using a limited depth of field makes another flower further down the slope appear as a sun-like orb.

The pond at Valle Crucis Park

I've been taking walks with my husband each evening at Valle Crucis Park. Save a few other wanderers, we are alone.

I received a package from My Strange Little Frenchman today. It has been awhile since he and I have corresponded. He sent me the cd Blow: An ode on the death of Mr. Henry Purcell. According to the Wiki site on Purcell :

"Purcell is among the Baroque composers who has had a direct influence on modern rock and roll; according to Pete Townshend of The Who, Purcell was among his influences, particularly evident in the opening bars of The Who's "Pinball Wizard." The title song from the sound track of the film "A Clockwork Orange" is from Purcell's "Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary."

Cool!

My beloved Strange Little Frenchman does not have internet access, that I know of, so I thought about sending him a photo or two from my blog especially because his note to me asked:

"Vous faites de tres belles photos. Si jamais vous sortez un livre, avec ces derniers, prevenez moi."

But which ones?

Let's all meet at Boone Drugs downtown...

So last Wednesday I finally met me a blogger--face to face, that is.  Jane of Hillbilly, Please took the bait. I had every intention of creating hillbilly havoc upon her world but my evil ways were curtailed when I saw she brought her lively paw and her twinkling aunt along. It was a good thing too cuz I can be perfectly rotten!

In any case, we had an enjoyable time getting to know one another and I attempted to be more civilized than usual. We talked a smattering of cameras and small town talk. On our next meeting though, I'm gonna break open the moonshine. By the way, Jane is the cute one with the camera in the middle. We did a "I'm gonna shoot you while you shoot me" trick that I'm sure has never been done before. We are real genius :-) And Jane: You better lock up your aunt cuz if she gets loose, I'm gonna claim her as mine! I liked your dad a lot, but I already have one of those...

Hum this!

Whew! All day long my camera has been wrapped around my neck. My buddy is my camera...
I found this hummer at a favorite garden location of mine. In order to capture it, I hunkered down in my Jeep using the vehicle as a comfortable blind. I reckon it worked.

Bambi waits for mother's return....

To get a better shot than this, be sure to take a camera with you everywhere you go. To get a shot like this, requires several self-inflicted swift kicks in the butt for not having a camera earlier, a patient husband, and the foolishness to wade in the Watauga River carrying thousands of dollars worth of photo equipment. Thank god I didn't fall...

Here's the story:
As my husband and I were walking around Valle Crucis Park, we saw my friend Rob. He talked to us about his fear of, well, I probably shouldn't say, but as we clung to his story, a fawn popped out of a thicket and bounced towards the river.

Just like a woman I let out a shrill, "Awwww!"

Valle Crucis, North Carolina

Just a bucolic scene of Valle Crucis for you to enjoy this weekend. I photographed this on my early morning
Friday romp through Foscoe, Clarks Creek and the Valle.

A Gladiolus Duplex

The Glads have been blooming in the Mast Farm Inn garden for a couple weeks now. This morning I dropped by to see what I could see. As I looked through the viewfinder I imagined I saw a little fairy emerge from within...a little Lilliputian perhaps? Or maybe a miniature Anasazi cliff dweller? I don't know. A Gladiolus looks like a mighty fine multi-family dwelling for tiny creatures.

On flying June bugs...

Colie Scoggins was cuter than a June bug as she, well, er, flew a tethered June bug joined to her by a piece of thread around the grounds of the Sugar Grove Music Fest on Saturday. At first the lanky eleven-year old drew stares, then the eyes of the "folks of a certain age" stretched into grins of recognition.
“Her finger is a just a big ‘ol joystick ‘round that bug,” said one onlooker.
Colie learned the trick of tying the beetle’s leg with a string from her dad.
“It didn’t take me long to find a June bug, but it sure did take a while to put the thread on it’s little leg,” said Colie.
Seeing the young girl with her pet named ‘Junie’ provoked memories from just about everyone who saw her.
“We used to catch June bugs all day long. If there were 10 kids in the school yard, there’d be at least 20 June bugs on strings, gettin’ tangled up and all. Much more fun than video games,” one gentleman commented.
This modern-day tom girl holding a bug was no match for one lady vendor who delighted in seeing Colie and her adopted pal.
“I was known around the neighborhood for having a knack at catching the things. You just have to sit, watch, wait and then pounce as they light upon the grass,” she said.
None of these details mattered to Colie. She was mesmerized by the varmint as it circled around her. At one point it landed on me, quickly crawling from my back to my hair.
“Oh, look, she likes you,” giggled Colie .
June bugs are beetles with what could be called hyperactive personalities and really sticky legs. To catch one in the hands is not for the squeamish. To tie the legs of a June bug is mostly for eleven year olds or for perhaps a curious blogger with plenty of time on her hands.
As one elderly gentleman said as he passed by the child and her critter:
“That was the only good thing I knew to do with a June bug.”
Indeed.
(No June bugs were harmed in the making of this story. Perhaps “Junie’s” feelings were hurt by comments directed towards her, but Colie did cut the string loose from ‘Junie’ after 30 minutes of play where she happily flew away to join the rest of her June bug buds along the banks of Cove Creek.)