SPRING!

      All of a sudden, DAFFODILS!  Finally, this year, I actually went to my three favorite nearby sites to see how each one was faring -- during a single evening.  I felt I was visiting reliable old friends, and now I can introduce them to each other. 

     First were the scattered ones in an overgrown field along my dead end road.  I've always  assumed there once had been a house close by:  

 

 

    Next, the daffodils on the hillside, by the next bigger road we take to town.  I stopped my car in the road, put on my blinkers, since more than one car came through. Despite my camera in plain view, I know they all thought I was having car trouble, and they wanted to offer help. I figured I was safer with the car in view than if it were just my body, with no protection:

The title of this next view is Legacy. The house is long gone, but every year..... the daffodils.

 

        That same afternoon I went to visit with a neighbor and friend who's quite ill. I often have made photos back in where she lives, especially her flowers. I took just a few photos this time.  Her tobacco barn is old, and the front has been removed, but it's so interesting (to me) to see the innards that have been holding the place together for a long time.  As for the driveway, I say thanks, every time, that it's not mine.

 

     To end this post, a sunset photo, which I would not have seen were I not out and about visiting my favorite daffodils:

 

            

 Everyone, stay safe. It's not over yet. We each need to continue to do our part.

bird break, time for spring flowers

post #482
          More visiting birds next week, but today spring is wanting a turn.  I have some photos from this week, and several friends and family have sent me photos as well. So here are some of these. In a truly difficult time of "never before" we can be warmed by the always happening, this year, next year and again.

in my yard

in Tom and Molly's yard

I remember the house that 40 years ago was at the top of these steps. Now, every year,  these beauties are what happens.  My name for this photo, with George Ella Lyon's help, is LEGACY.  It's located on the way to town; it's a tradition.

             Three photos from my daughter, Rebecca:

peonies rushing to push back out of the earth

Maybe every dogwood tree deserves an actual companion dog....

        Friends Leatha and Will took a drive today to go see the blooms in the Lexington Cemetery, and they were kind to share some of its loveliness.

      Now a spring photo from England, by Sarah Fletcher, who shared this photo on Instagram today. I love the front sheep, posing, and the back steeple, with all that munching going on in between!  Always good to see so much blue sky over there,....

Saintbury Church in Willersey

Though these also aren't flowers, this photo continues to intrigue me. It's a drive-by on my way home from the grocery store. I call this the neighborhood deli, with four smart ass diners....

     
          To end today's hiatus, I'd like to give a shout-out to our wet-behind-the-ears governor who has been so impressive as he manages to set a tone of compassion and caring and perseverance to all Kentuckians, regardless of their politics. He is truthful, reliable, sensible, and direct about why he has made decisions that might at first seem daunting to his constituents.  Every day at 5 pm he has been showing what real leadership can be. It has been awhile since we've experienced that, so many of us are particularly grateful for his presence.  Thank you Gov. Andy Beshear!!!

Now a salute to the first day of spring!

post #276
       I can never keep from making a few photos to celebrate the beginning of this most wonderful of seasons. When I was a kid in Connecticut, I definitely considered winter to be the very best. I loved playing in the snow with my sisters. As soon as I moved to Kentucky in 1974, however, I was overtaken by the beauty of spring. Wild flowers! Redbud trees! Dogwoods everywhere! Birds going wild with breeding and nesting and eating bugs! The magic of so much awakening and bursting out in a short time!
      My plan for this blog has been to have several posts featuring the birds who have visited me over the years, but today I am putting that project off still another week. First I need to say hooray for the very coming of spring itself. Then to shout out a thank goodness for April.     
       So here is what I have seeing over the past week:

the crocus crowd, looking this good for a whole day!

Meanwhile, nearby, the very beginning of blooms on a forsythia bush

As a photographer, never forget to look overhead for what may be unexpected.

In forty two years here I have never before caught the moment when this moss along the bank of the driveway's edge was flowering!  I was simply on my way to pick up the mail, only to notice that this special event was going on. One day. I was disbelieving at first. Could that be a fungus??  NO WAY. 

in the garden, showing off

In the middle of all this nature mystery, Grayson Rural Electric Coop decides we need a taller pole for the long wire to our house. So here are three photos from that unexpected project.  I'm glad I was here to watch.

This job took two trucks and 6 guys! I'm sure they had other projects nearby as well.

I later went to town and to the post office, where these flowering trees may be blooming too early, so sharing their beauty only briefly.  I hear they don't like frost, and we might have had one last night. 

Meanwhile, in the house, my loyal sweet potato continues its growing journey, bringing the one sprig of basil along with it. My next plan for it, if it lives another few weeks indoors, is to plant it outside, to see what happens  then!  I take my magic wherever I can get it. 

          And here's a special hello to those of you who are visiting this new post on this very first day of spring!
 

still more note cards, chapter 4: some favorites!

post #265
       It may be a New Year, but I have not yet finished sharing some of my cards. I have been saving a few more favorites for this post, chapter 4, as a way to celebrate bringing good things forward into a new year. I am not necessarily a fan of clean slates and resolutions.
      Many of the images are chosen for their titles.  When I showed the first one to a friend and neighbor -- in the country sense -- he said "Oh, groundhogs boiling coffee." What? Where did that come from?? I loved the expression, and I trusted that he wasn't making it up on the spot, though he could have. Even so, I did ask around to find out if others knew that expession as well. Many did! I felt enriched by learning such an evocative phrase through one of my photos.

        This next image happens every spring. These steps are located halfway between my home and "town" so I never forget them. I even remember the house that used to sit on the top of the hill and watched it be left alone and then taken down a few years later.
       I talked over possible titles with my friend George Ella, and she came up with "legacy," one word that describes so much. Yes!

      The power of the words is somewhat different for the following photo of some other friends and neighbors. The title "stripping tobacco" can't really describe the poignancy of what is happening. This job was something they had been doing together every December for ages; this year (2010) was the last year. The end. No more tobacco. I have always been grateful to them for letting me know their plan -- and grateful the counter didn't collapse when I stood on it to take the photo!

Hard to explain, but this next image is one I imagine I love for personal reasons. It is our creek, it is spring, I got the greens and the water to look like they really do look, and it doesn't look like this every day. But I was there for this day. I call it, simply, our creek in spring, or sometimes just spring creek.  Since I handwrite my titles on each card, I don't always have to say the same thing. I can therefore forget and redo or simply revise as I go along, an advantage of the extra work hand writing the titles takes.  

field, fog, and fence

      These two mourning doves never fail to fascinate, even though I made this photo with a slide early in my career when I was the photo-illustrator for George Ella's Counting on the Woods (DK Ink, 1998).  For the card's title, I use the words from the page they are on in the book: two birds, daybreak's words. I took it out my bedroom window, on a cloudy day (of which there were many during that long, cool spring). Doves, bless their hearts, actually LIKE to hang out together; I needed birds that would do that. Again, thank you, George Ella.

       There is not time to show all my cards, but I can't neglect to show the next two, both requiring the cooperation of animals. In one, showing off helped, and, in the other, take a look at the ears.  The showing off image is one of my most well known. It also sells well as a card.

Big Wheel

ear-winking mule

      For those of you who like the photos from other places, my most popular one is this street scene in Chipping Campden, in the Cotswolds of England. I have used many variations in the title, since I am never sure how much information to give without detracting from the image itself. If anyone wants to give title making a try, please feel free to let me know one for this image. Click on Comment, and sign in as Anonymous. That usually works. Thanks! (Now that I think of it, maybe simply "hanging in England" will work?)

 

        As soon as possible, I will add some samples of my cards with their colored paper choice.  I meant to do it weeks ago, though I have not yet done so. But for now I need to take a break from this fun time I give myself every week and do some actual real-life stuff. "Busy Day."
 

an early daffodil, and a salute to the AV conference 4 years ago

post #234
       I so enjoyed last week resharing the post about our wood cook stove that I decided I would share another former post this week. I have chosen the one I did my first year of the blog, in mid March, 2011, four years ago, post #24.  But first, a photo of an early daffodil from this year, the bravest one in our yard.  I made these two photos a few days ago.  I need to get into the woods soon and see what else is brave and early after so much winter.

at last!

the loneliness of the first responder

      I have to confess that my computer has been complaining that it doesn't have enough room anymore, mostly because of photos.  My profligate ways have finally caught up with me.  I absolutely have to spend some serious time this week getting things back in working order.  But first I have had a photo show in my car for 24 hours, and I need to get it unloaded at my gallery before dark tonight.  It is not healthy for framed photos or my note cards to be in the cold more than necessary.  All this behind the scenes stuff is part of the big picture any photographer has to deal with.
      I hope that next Sunday I can have my act together better before I do my next weekly post. I had wanted to share more early posts in any case.  So, if you haven't been reading my posts regularly for 4 1/2 years.... (which means most of you, I am sure) now is your chance!




post #24 (reprieve, from 3/15/11)
      I've just returned from a 48 hour 45th reunion!  The occasion was a first for this gathering of community action workers from the sixties known collectively as the Appalachian Volunteers, or AVs.  I had been a VISTA (Volunteer in Service to America) assigned to the AVs.  Friday afternoon fifty or so of us picked up where we left off so long ago.  It was fun, exhilarating, and fascinating. We explored our lives, deeds and the issues then and since then, with some I sure don't remember doing thats thrown in. We met in conjunction with the annual Appalachian Studies Conference held this year (2011) at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, KY.

Loyal Jones spoke Friday at the reception honoring Appalachian legend Homer Ledford.  Of course Loyal is also a legend!  This photo had its challenges -- the sculpture behind him being a major one.  But with some timing luck and by shifting my location, I am very happy with the result.

         
          The main thing I ended up photographing were the people at the workshops I wanted to attend myself.  So the following photos show others like me who worked in Appalachia in the late sixties, plus Appalachian scholars and young people working now on important issues like mountaintop removal mining, clean energy, and the devastation caused by Oxycontin and other addictions.
      I took these photos while sitting in those workshops listening.  Being able to record what I see in addition to what I hear makes me feel an increased connection to what I am learning.  It didn't hurt that the light was great!  And no one else was there to do it like I could do it.  (This is sounding perilously like "I couldn't help myself.")
     So what do I mean by "shooting in RAW"?   Well, raw may be primarily a digital term but, during this weekend, just being part of this reunion brought my emotions close to the surface.  I don't think I could have done these particular images without loving our shared bond. It's appropriate, perhaps, that shooting raw means having access to all the levels and information a photo provides.

waiting and waiting to ask a question in the workshop about Oxycontin

 

Sarah, articulate and passionate young activist, daughter of an AV

Dave Walls, former executive director of the AVs, scholar and professor

Mike Kline, troubadour, former AV staff, living our history through its music 

Bill and Claudia, former AVs in West Virginia, now working in DC

     Note: what ended up rising from the weekend's energy was a commitment for older activists to support the younger ones, and for younger ones to reach out to older ones.  Every one of us is needed.   And we need each other.

loving getting out and about in eastern Kentucky

post #185
        Last weekend's trip to southeastern Kentucky took place during the brief time between the snows of this long winter and the coming of leaves on the trees.  So all the driving I did on back roads was 1) not treacherous and 2) showed more of the bare bones of the region than one usually sees.  Of course I love stopping along the way to take photos or explore, even if I am running late.  My modus operandi seems to be that you never know what you can see if you take the time to look closely!  
        Thanks to those "oblivious to the terrain" cell phone directions, I ended up on a new-to-me road that turned out to be gorgeous but empty, with not even any houses.  It included some high-up curves I wasn't expecting, a thrilling rushing mountain stream, and absolutely no traffic.  Just me and my adventure.  Had I not been running quite as late as I was, I would have taken more photos.  

There's no other place to stop to take the photo!

      I think I was in Leslie County at that point, but on the way home two days later, I modified the route somewhat. The following photos are in Letcher County.  I think.  In Kentucky and much of the south, counties are all important.  The stream may be in both counties.  
      Near Delphia I stopped at a cemetery I had visited several years ago.  I sat on the hillside, being discreet about my camera, and took photos in front of me, to the right of me and also across the road.  I never mean to appear disrespectful, and I am not.  But it's true that the bumper sticker on the back of my car does say "I have been to the mountaintop and it wasn't there."  Another bumper sticker says EARTH.  Oh, and then there is the Obama bumper sticker, mostly faded after 6 years of wear.

This time there is a place to pull over.

      On the way home, I hoped to find again a scene that had gotten my attention, since I didn't have time to take a photo of it on the way down.  I am showing two views. I love this tree that is longer than the trailer it adorns. The dead stuff on the hillside is kudzu, not yet come back to life to take over the place.  There are several houses across the street, so I didn't linger.  Plus I was running late as usual....

      While I was at the Pine Mountain Settlement School, I took a few photos to share here, the first two with my cell phone!  I do NOT recommend this.  The other flowers and fauna I have tried are not this good.  I think these first two photos are simply sort of a miracle.  

spring beauties (an appropriate name!)

This yellow trout lily was the first flower of a great many in the area.  I used my body to make the shade so that there would be way less washed-out contrast in the photo.

the stream at the school, photo made with my Canon

   This last photo is from our yard.  It is current and I just wanted to show it off: