Blue Ridge blog

A wild day...

...I was cooking the spaghetti and meatballs for a crew of 25 wet, hungry cross country runners when the skies darkened and the winds raged. Most of the leaves on this maple tree (above) are now in Wilkes county. I even heard tale of a twister sighting in Boone at the Mack Brown parking lot.
Regardless, yesterday was a day in which both my husband and I earned the 'good parenst' award. He spents several hours helping youngest suffer the rigors of studying for her AP history exam . I spent many hours cleaning the house and slaving over a hot stove to feed the swarm of noisy locust. And, for anyone who has to cook spaghetti for 25 teenage girls--note: it took 5 pounds of meat, 6 cans of sauce, 5 pounds of dried noodles, 4 loaves of garlic bread and 4 heads of lettuce. And there was hardly any leftover.

Scarecrow!

The first thing that came to my mind when I saw this dead bird hanging from the pole was that there must be some bizarre Appalachian/Mafia connection happening 'round here. The very next thing that came to my mind was to get the heck out of that spooky garden. Seriously, I was minding someone else's business and snapping photos of a pumpkin patch, when the wind blew the carcass and it caught my attention. But I was mesmerized and stared at it for too long. If I had been a silly teenager in a horror flick, I'd be dead already.

I returned to work and showed my find. No one had ever encountered such a thing. I went to the trusty internet and found out that here in the Appalachians, it is believed that dead crows scare live crows and Marie, too!

Crows can be a problem in Spring gardens. They can work down a row pulling up recently sprouted corn to eat the remaining seed/seedlings. In the southern Appalachians another common method of scaring off crows was use of a dead crow hung upside down from a pole.

The logic just doesn't work for me...

On a lighter note:

A favorite work buddy of mine passed this little nugget along to me. I'm sure he'll hear me humming down the hallways...

Download A_Song_For_Employees_Suffering_Mistreatment.wma

This web's address is: [email protected]

Heh. I stopped to get my mail at the Valle Crucis PO today and noticed the poison ivy wrapped around a tree next to the store has turn a right pretty shade of crimson. I then noticed the spider web and I thought to myself, "Poor tree."

On my day off

At 5 a.m. this morning I was stranded with my motorcycle on the side of a desolate country road. The vaguest sound of a distant rooster reinforced my solitude. I didn't count on running out of gas when I planned my escape from the snoring man and the growling rottweiler. Yet despite a pouring rain, I delighted to at last be in control of my destiny and safety. After all, for the first time in 24 hours I had cell phone service and knew my husband would return shortly with a tank full of gas to rescue me.
I had just completed my first day off in forever. Whew! I don't believe going back to work ever felt so good.

And I am so sorry I missed the drunken fight between a man and his woman at 5:30 a.m. at the campground ;-)

My husband summed up our misadventure by saying,
"Well, just look at it as a mess of blog fodder."
The photo is of a tame moment before we witness the melting of wires above a bonfire.

Wires and Horses

I've always loved this view from near the Watauga River bridge on Broadstone Rd, but those dang telephone lines have prevented me from taking a photo before. Today, I said to myself, "What the hell, maybe folks can see past the wires which is something I simply can. not. do.

Yawn. I'm even boring myself to death here....

***UPDATE****
Vicki from  I Need Orange took the time to rid the Valle of troublesome wires via the magic of Photoshop. Thank you, Vicki!

 

The Fall

So with the rush of a persistant cool evening wind, fall happened. All beings felt the change happening and decided react in atypical manners---especially everyone I came in contact with, it seems...

So without getting into drawn out tales late in the evening, here is a pretty before the fall photo I took yesterday. Tomorrow is another day, hopefully :-)

First Autumn-ish Photo

The autumn leaf season isn't really here yet, but the looks of nature getting ready are starting to change are beginning to show. A sure sign is when the Burley tobacco starts praying in the fields. Another clue is anything colored red or yellow.

On Depth of Field...

I gave eldest the use of my Nikon N90 for her photography class that she 'must' take this semester. She kinda sorta likes the class, but doesn't.  She loves the teacher (who isn't her mother) but the whole class is too close to home for her. For a child raised in a darkroom, she is attempting to find her own light.
I'm giving her a whole lot of room, but it is killing me.
Today she asked me to help her load the camera with film. She mentioned, or rather insisted, that the only thing she needed help with was knowing how the camera worked.
Huh?
In her speak, this means she will only listen to nothing I say to her.
Tough audience.
So, I barely showed her how this old, but cool camera could show her the selected depth of field, and I pissed her off.
"Too much info, Mom," she said.
So just to piss her off even further I told her that I was going to focus on her and try to be as shallow with my depth of field in her background as she was being listening to me. So there.
Her response:
"You're gonna blog this, aren't you?"

"You betcha," I said.

And, on the lack of posts this week...I've been really busy at the day, night, weekend job. Even my Mom noticed. So did Rob and Gnumoon . I'm gonna try to take some time off this week and not only take photos, but try to catch up on some blog reading. I have no clue what all of you are up to and this bothers me.

Varmints Wanted

Perks of my job include poking fun at the newspaper for which I work and the often silly and crazy ideas that are often found on our pages. Here is my all time favorite goof.  This one reminds me of the first date I ever had with my husband--and I ain't gonna elaborate! And this is something that simultaneously intrigues me and grosses me out at the same time. 

Down By the River...

Five years ago this morning I was on the bank of the Watauga in the Valle Crucis park taking photographs of pretty yellow flowers on the river's edge (amazing, huh?). I had my little time of peace for the day. I came back to the office to watch the terrorist attacks unfold. In a moment of worry I called my husband and asked him if he had heard the news. He had. I'll never forget his resolute words that followed:
"Marie, if we stop what we are doing and panic, then They win. Keep doing what you're supposed to be doing."
It was in that spirit I began my day today. With reverence to those whose lives were lost or directly affected by the tragedy, I went down to the river this morning and took photos of the sun breaking through the fog.

And here is that photo I took on the morning of September 11, 2001. My own little tribute, I think.