posts from the past, color, and politics

post #214
       I have said that this month I would do a kind of review of this blog, now that I am starting a fifth year of weekly posts.  I began this blog thinking I would do just a few photos every week, with some commentary, focusing on Appalachia and photography.  However, I have found that by now I usually incorporate a dozen or more photos, and I have covered quite a few topics.  
       For the first year (October 2010 - October 2011), here are the posts that garned the most attention:

• the most viewed was "Tobacco as art, part 1," followed by "Tobacco as art, part 2,"  in September 2011.  I think they must come up when someone researches tobacco.   I explain in them -- and again now -- that I am totally appalled at the terrible health damage tobacco does, yet it has long been an honorable way of earning a living where I live.  Need I add that it is also very compelling as art.
• I mostly do Appalachian moments, but I also have reasons to travel.  For example, in July 2011 I went to visit my British stepmother. The resulting two posts from England were the second most viewed posts of my first year: here is the first one and the second one.  Not everyone has the chance to travel, so it's a pleasure for me to  provide a mini-look at other countries and other places in the USA.
• On 4/28/11 I did an extra, mid-week post which generated a lot of interest, about an effort and exhibit encouraging photos that are re-imaging Appalachia.
• Then there are the two posts showing some neighbors making sorghum molasses.  How cool is that!  Here are both links:  here and here. 

     
      Currently, this is what shows up here this past week.  I have often photographed this field, but this time I was struck by the fact it looks to me as if the colors from the trees have spilled over to the field and washed down the hillside.  I made photos from several vantage points, and I am sharing three of them today.

SO, now, one last extra that might not be of interest to everyone, but it is something I care about:

          For the true democracy obsessed readers of this blog, I am including my humble effort to speak out during this election season -- a letter to the editor.  It will be appearing in two local newspapers this Tuesday, a week before our national midterm elections.  Kentucky has a US Senate contest.  As usual, a lot rests on elections, and I continue to believe we all need to vote.  Also, I have many readers/viewers in other countries besides my own, and I thought this particular effort of a concerned citizen might be of interest.  

 To the editor:

         I’m a Kentucky voter Senator Mitch McConnell claims to speak for, but he doesn’t listen to a word I have to say.  Instead he acts like his mind is made up and he just wants us – all of us in Kentucky – to be happy if he can replace Harry Reid [US Senate Majority Leader.]  Harry Reid may or may not need replacing, but the real issue is why hasn’t there been some actual legislation, say, to help coal miners who face an increasing rise in black lung disease?  (Folks, this is 2014.  Why aren’t we moving forward on this situation instead of backwards?) 

        In fact, why is the loss of coal jobs being blamed on Obama since it started over 30 years ago?  And Mitch has been in the US Senate all that time!

       When we’ve needed action on these and many other important issues, we only got gridlock.  Then, if you remember, there was the incredibly wasteful and inexcusable shutting down of the US government. For weeks. I hold the Republicans responsible for that.  In ignoring or forgetting about such facts by the next election, we put our nation’s health in jeopardy.

        As a woman and a citizen who always votes, I am proud that this year Alison Grimes is running such a strong campaign for the US Senate seat.  She is working hard, speaking powerfully, and raising lots of money.  Yes, she is young (35), but that is the idea – it‘s called new blood, new energy!  There’s no question about her passion for Kentucky and her future capacity for leadership.  Alison  has earned my vote.

        Democracy is the gift we live with, but it requires an informed and participating citizenry.  This means thinking for ourselves – and voting.  Please join me in ignoring all the big money efforts to make us act on our fears instead of on our hopes.     Ann

last day of September, 2012

post #105, some mish mash amid the variety of daily life:

        First I want to add a thought to my mild but sincere plea last week for all of us citizens to use our treasured brains and not be bought by advertisements.  Besides the obvious crie de coeur for everyone to vote this year, I also hope it was clearly implied that we need a lot more women in the US Senate.  As for that big leadership job up for grabs, give me someone who THINKS, who is well informed (like in "reads a lot" and "enjoys complex ideas"), and who is willing to take sensible risks on our behalf.  I am not talking perfection here, but I am really curious what President Obama could do in a second term now that he has learned the ropes!!  What an unnecessary shame that many Americans haven't yet gotten past the color of his skin.

White is hard to get right in a photo, so I am happy here.  

But when it comes to skin, color is just a random cover for our amazing human bodies.

         This weekend I have been a small part of the 42nd annual SORGHUM FESTIVAL in West Liberty. The making of sorghum molasses is demonstrated in the city park.  The town still shows the ravages of the tornado I wrote about in the spring, here.  But the festival is a tradition and, this year, an affirmation of community spirit.   Here are several photos I took -- using my Panasonic Lumix during Friday's rain, my iPhone and my Canon on Saturday afternoon and this Sunday evening, during the closing up.  I wasn't able to be there during the parade yesterday.  The dexterity that went into the planning to fit everything in  -- between construction and rubble -- is truly amazing.  Bravo, West Liberty!!

From behind, on the left, the never unfinished and now condemned new justice center, the old courthouse and the bank.

The bank on the back left, the food vendors and stage area, and the tent cover for Main Street, with booths for artists and crafters.

The stage, in use, and, again, the totally destroyed bank, even though it is not yet demolished.

the other side of Main Street, new buildings in progress, holes still remaining in the block.

Art is an essential part of the recovery.  This banner shows that same side of Main Street above as it used to look or could look after additional rebuilding? 

       Oh, and I had a routine colonoscopy last week.  As I waited in the OR to receive my napping meds, I was totally aware of how expensive this procedure would be without insurance.  There were those monitoring machines, and two nurses and a doctor and the support staff that prepared me and asked questions about my health history and took my vital signs, etc.  (And I didn't even get to see that little camera the doctor uses -- which would put my gear to shame, I am sure.)  I was distinctly aware how privileged I was not to have to go through this while also worrying about how to pay for it.  It's truly distressing that not everyone has insurance yet to undergo this checkup that is so widely recommended to be done every ten years.  All went well for me, by the way, though that news is not why I have chosen to share that particular day's main event.  


     So, as October begins, and the leaves here begin to turn, we found something unusual last week -- unexpected redbuds.  Usually they show their pink early in the spring.  Go figure.  The branch had been trimmed, and then photographed.  More on fall next week!

  

 

Q, R, S -- for the alphabet book draft

post #89

      I started these alphabet book posts on April 22, and today is the fifth part of the book's draft. I'm making slow but steady progress. I am also getting a better idea of how I would want the book to be.

      There are not that many particularly Appalachian Qs, or at least I haven't uncovered them yet...  But I haven't quit looking yet either.... As always, more photos will eventually be added to each post.

Q  q  --    quilt square on a barn      quilts        Quaker ladies (flowers)     Quakers

      

two views, quilt square painted on plywood and then hung on the Binion barn

Quaker Ladies, also known as bluets

hiding under a favorite family quilt

   

R    r --      redbud tree        rainstorm       rooster        roots on rocks  

redbud trees

3 roosters

roots on rocks

S  s  --     spider       spider web        snow        sycamore        squirrel          
                               sorghum        sandbox

sorghum molasses - stalks being cut and gathered

sorghum -- being reduced by steaming

sycamore tree

a writing spider!

a very big spider (a wolf spider) -- carrying her egg sac

 

sun on a spider web

squirrel, with an apple!

squirrel about to   j  u  m      p!

spring snow

sandbox

      This is an update, being written in mid July -- I just added the sandbox, being enjoyed by our grandson, with thanks to his mother for taking the photo.  I still need to add the rainstorm, to the letter R.  I may never stop finding things to include even though I am mostly just staying near home for this project.

Sorghum molasses, the sticky part

post #55

       Yes, I have been looking forward to sharing the photos from last Sunday's "cook down" which was done at the old home place.  And good fortune provided morning fog!  Therefore, instead of sun creating shadows and too much contrast, for several hours there was interesting light.

      Today's post is mostly just photos with captions, because I've tried to fit in the entire "rest of the story."  I didn't get to use all the images I have, but surely a dozen of them give the flavor of things, so to speak.

overview: stalks from the trailer to the boil table by way of being "squeezed"

hound help!

squeezing the juice from the sorghum stalks  -- David, the mill's owner, has altered his 100 year old sorghum mill this year to slow down the force of the tractor which is now being used instead of horses or mules.

filtering the juice before it passes into the black hose and down the hill to be boiled

the beginning of a day of keeping the fire going and the juice moving

later in the day, thicker sorghum, closer to being skimmed enough to fill a jar

keeping the fire box filled and burning, all day

sun's coming out, it is hot, sorghum winding down

tools for skimming and for bringing the molasses through the sections, ready for the jars

one last filter, then into the jar while still hot so the canning top will seal

 

      My thanks to everyone for tolerating my camera while you worked!!  These photos are more of a record of how things are done than they are art, but it is hard to do even this much without the generosity of the people being photographed.  If there are inaccuracies in my descriptions, I hope someone will let me know.  I enjoyed being with you all very much.  And the fog sure helped the photos, and my stamina, believe me.

now for some sorghum photos!

post #54

     Last time I took photos of sorghum making was 35 years ago, with a simple film camera that let in light!  This weekend, when the call came, I took my digital self to the sorghum field, yesterday.  Then, this morning, with the fog still on, to the farm near my home where they are spending the day boiling down the juice squeezed out of the stems to make sorghum molasses.  I plan to return there later this afternoon to take some more photos, including ones of jars being filled.  I use every such opportunity to learn something about this witness photography I do.  Yesterday it was that my 70-300 mm lens, which can make things look closer together, did exactly that when four guys were cutting the stalks.  The result was that they appeared to be working too closely to each other, and with big tobacco cutting knives!  It looked unsafe -- when in reality all was fine.

    Here are some photos so far, from yesterday, and I will do a part 2 next week:

sorghum patch being cut, stalks put on a trailer for transporting to the farm

more cut stalks

the pile on the trailer gets higher!

asking me, do I want to help!!??

the tops (mostly seeds) cut off, some to be used next year, the rest left for the turkeys

     
      This week's sadness includes the death of two fine friends, both from cancers they tried their very best to tame: Jo Carson, a remarkable and visionary writer living in Johnson City, TN, and John Kelley, married to my close college friend, Liz, living in the San Francisco area.  I don't usually share any personal stuff on this blog but I can't help today wanting to acknowledge their passing, and the fact the world has been much enriched by the grace of their presence and by their courage.  
      May I suggest, please take a photo today of someone you love.  Do it every few years. 

thinking of Jo and John last night, on the lake, and of the ripples of our lives