this week's concerns, along with streaming the natural way

post #374
       The following paragraph is all about what I often try to make sense of but don't usually put on my blog. Feel free to skip over it if you have had enough of your own concerns about the world! I'm simply not willing this week to be silent after so many travesties, piled up on one another, during a single week:

        Some week. A crusading, progressive Pulitzer winning (in 2017) newspaper in West Virginia -- The Charlston Gazette-Mail -- has had to declare bankruptcy, and a very pro-coal impersonal newspaper chain is preparing to take it over. There was the shootings in a Florida High School where 17 died, and where, since then, the students have spoken out forcefully about the travesty of their state's complete disregard to basic gun registration and background checks. We will hear more from them. (Why do we not treat guns as carefully as we do cars?)  Thirteen Russians were indited for trying to mess with American elections, sowing discord, and yet this is not evidence enough for our elected president to show any concern about their activities the last few years -- and what might be in store in the future. (What is he trying to ignore and hide?)  The DACA young people are now left completely hanging because a bunch of grown-ups can't think big enough to overcome a few people's fixation on an ineffectual wall. (I'm old enough to remember the Berlin Wall and its ultimate defeat. Can't we learn anything from history?) Also I can't forget that there's talk about a one day military parade where the cost of putting it on would be over 3 million dollars. And it would not improve our nation's problem solving capabilities one bit. Or our image to the world. We can be proud of our military without resorting to propaganda. What about 3 million to spend on community colleges scholarships. Or what about helping our citizens in Puerto Rico rebuild a working electrical grid after a devestating natural disaster.  What about setting up a sane system to provide oversight for who buys what gun and not selling assault rifles in the first place. Just saying. How much backbone and resolve do we have as a nation?
           note: here is the link to the WV newspaper article.

        Following what I shared last week about coal, I had originally planned to share today about the process of getting the stream saver rule established -- years and years of work -- and then it became one of the first attempts to negate an Obama legacy by being closed down. I intended to share some of my stream photos over the years, since clear water is so important to life on earth -- and so beautiful.  But now, today, a compromise -- just the photos without the full story, since I have already spent my allotted time on this post for today... Here they are:

A shadow in the rain, of a bridge being torn down, making way for a new bridge: 

spring on Carter Ford in Elliott County, Kentucky:

 Elliott County, Kentucky, creek, one during a dry spell and the other looking more like usual:

Two from Harlan County, Kentucky, creek, at Pine Mountain Settlement School: 

other times of the year: 

 

 

  

spring showers bring rushing water, with a joining:

 This last photo is a version of one of my better known images, of our creek in springtime:

         OK, this is my idea of streaming, and I do it as often as I can... let it go, let it flow, honor the place these streams play in the daily well-being of humans, animals and plants.  Take care for them. As I have written other times, we all live down stream. 
        It makes me happy to be able to share these photos today. Thanks.

water, flowing and clear and needing protection

post #241
         Try to imagine owning a piece of property where a creek starts, emerges, one that joins up with three other creeks along its way before going over several water falls and only then leaving the spot on this earth which we've "owned" for over 45 years.  The hills on this place are like a protective circle around us, with the creek located through the middle of it all and nourished by run-off through healthy trees whose roots hold the hillsides.  We are cradled by this hollow, as it is called in Appalachia.  We are rich in our connection to the earth even if, ironically, our property's "value" is not that much.
         I have written in other places about the privilege of living on these 90 acres.  And about the job of stewardship. In this day and age even our small bit of the earth requires care as well as good fortune so that the woods don't burn down, that the Ashland Oil pipeline doesn't leak -- it is on our property but runs along the edge by the road -- and that invasive plants don't choke out the native ones that work more in harmony with the whole.  
       There is also the huge problem of it all being taken for granted. During a recent conversation in a car with three very smart local teens, it turned out that none of them knew the name of the dogwood tree then in bloom throughout the woods and along the road we were driving on!  Now they know the name.
        This is my photography blog, however, so it's time for one of the things I can do: share the love in a visual way. I decided to try to give a brief sense of the creek on its journey.  Several of the photos have already been on my blog over the last five years, but, hey, what is life anyway except seeing things with new eyes as we go along!!
        

a joining on our place

another joining, heading downstream

farther along

THE ROCK IN THE CENTER IS WHERE I WAS SITTING SO I COULD USE MY BODY TO MAKE LIKE A TRIPOD. It always amuses me that viewers are rarely curious about where I was when I made the photo.

the creek in full force from spring rains

the same creek, later in the spring, during another year

the creek during a dry spell, so strange to hear no noise from running water

same view, a bit closer to the tree, summertime

the second waterfall

   I also made a brief video, just with my iPhone, that goes for 30 seconds.  Water flowing, giving life.  The still shots from this same location are shown above. It had been raining a lot, so the creek edges are more washed over than usual.  I hope you have time to take a look.  (Note: I finally figured out how to embed a vimeo video! I am thankful to be on good terms with my close companion "trial and error.")


clear Kentucky creek from Ann W. Olson on Vimeo.
 
                                           


       I am not the only one grateful to feel the life force a particular piece of land provides.  It makes me ache for the families whose long held pieces of land are being abused by the extraction economy that prevails in so many places in the mountains.  The most recent outcries against more stingent regulations for keeping streams clear simply frost me.  As KFTC (Kentuckians for the Commonwealth) and other groups have been saying all along, we ALL live downstream and we SHOULD care deeply about how our water starts out. 
        With that work in mind, I am ending with a video of the song "Black Water", written by Jean Ritchie.  Jean died recently at age 92, but she spoke up and sang out in her chrystal clear voice for many years, a Kentucky treasure. I copied this video from a piece by writer Silas House that he posted on his FB page.    JEAN RITCHIE SONG: BLACK WATER

waterfalls, icicles, and a photographer friend

post #225
     At the end of last week's post, I said I was off to the waterfalls, before they began to melt.  I did go there that day, but it wasn't the right waterfall!  So, Friday morning, before yesterday's sun, a friend and I set out to check out what is called the first waterfall.  I have shown several photos of this area over the years, including the elegant black and whites by John Flavell. But this was my first time to make photos of it with my new camera, and I am devoted to color, so today I'm sharing some of my tries.  We had sun here yesterday and rain here this morning, so I am glad I hadn't needed to postpone the outing.  

the creek, last Sunday, and the waterfall at the end, where it looks as if the ice stops

the bottom, melting and changing shapes before our eyes and lenses

Debbie is watching the ice in motion. I happen to like the way her hair continues the line of the falls. Since this time was also a "lesson", we had spent some time talking about what interested each one of us the most, and what we wanted to show in a photo. I feel a photo is vastly improved if the photographer actually cares about what is in the image. By cultivating an awareness of our personal vision, we bring something vital to what we are looking at and noticing.

These icicles hang from the ledge, to the left of where Debbie was sitting. The freedom of the branch fascinated me.

even farther to the left on the overhang -- good time for color in the photo

The creek continues to a second waterfall. This is looking back toward #1.

This view shows the creek going over the second waterfall, which, actually, has several sections, one after another.  We decided not to risk our lives just then to get what might have been the most dramatic photo possible. Sorry!

This is from the side of the second waterfall, and that is an overhang just in front of me!

     For those of you who have made it so far, here is a video (I hope) that might be of interest, since you can hear the water... I would wish for clear water for all the world.  (That phrasing echoes the title of George Ella Lyon's recent picture book called All the Water in the World.  Look for it in your library or indie bookstore. It is beautifully illustrated by Katherine Tillotson.)

the wonder of water in the wild, flowing or frozen or foggy

post #172
       The threat of impending rain got me down to our waterfalls Friday morning. My friend, also an Ann, was able to come with me.  I wanted to be sure we saw the ice before it all melted.  In addition, there could be that wonderful early morning foggy light.  That is exactly what we had, and it makes for some magical moments.  It is always beautiful down there, but also unpredictable, changing, and unusual.

          First, on the way to the big waterfall, icicles on the creek bank, followed by a detail of this photo:

   The following photo is of the first waterfalls, taken by my husband, Frank, on Wednesday:

      I made the two following photos there on Friday, from the path, still headed toward the big waterfall:

This is farther along the path, in the area of what we call the second waterfall.

Now: the top of the big waterfall, showing the ice funnel made from the water going over the cliff.  I am standing on the forested hillside before going down to the bottom of the "big waterfall".

Ann up close and personal with the ice pile

      Along our way to this place, we had been startled by the loudness of a big crash.  We figured it was ice falling from somewhere.  Had we arrived here 10 minutes earlier, we might have seen it as well as hear it.  In other years the ice from the top of the falls has occasionally met the sculpture of ice piled up at the bottom.  Stunning.

      Oh, that foggy mist I mentioned earlier:  this is what I saw when I turned around from looking at the ice pile, the cliffs, and Ann:
       

      It is hard not to end by showing this late winter plant that Ann identified, one of the earliest wildflowers to bloom in the forest: a round-lobed hepatica.  To me it is full of beauty and hope.  However, I also hope we have more ice; I'd like to try for some more photos....

     

What, there is life after the election??

post #111
      It hasn't even been six days since the election, yet it feels like an extremely long week.  First was the task of breathing again, after imagining all the ways Americans could have been derailed.  Then there was regular life and a workshop and worrying about family and friends impacted by Hurricane Sandy.  I confess to being shocked by how many sheltered Republican big-wigs thought they had the race sewn up.  Do we all see only what we want to see?

      I am delighted that there are now 20 women in the US Senate.  But we need more.  Twenty is only 20% of the Senate; our nation is of course closer to 50/50 in numbers of males and females.  Thank you, Emily's List!

      I am amazed how dedicated some people had to be to vote.  Hours in line.  Voting by lantern.  Worrying about photo i.d.'s.  Thanks to each of you for your commitment to democracy.

      Closer to home, here is a photo of our voting place -- with an unexpected addition.  I had no idea such a rig was on the ridge.  The owners were inside waiting in line, as we had just done, to vote.

   During election day, I took a walk in the woods, wanting to see the world clearly before the start of the next four years -- a remembrance, of sorts, of why we care about who are our leaders.

 

a scar, on a beech tree.

an experiment with the iPhone....of our creek

the season for seeds -- our future

 
      I have to mention that although Kentucky was a guarantee for Romney, there were four counties (out of 120) who went to Obama.  Ours was the only one to do so in the eastern part of the state.  A proud tradition.
      I did hear that at 11:15 pm Tuesday evening, at Morehead State University, there was an eruption across the campus of cheers and hoorays.  Go students!! 
       So, until next week.  I'd hope that everyone was happy about something on election day, despite all the compromises that are part of the process.