Several photos, to celebrate blog renewal day....

   So far, I am able to do this next post!  Wonderful.  It is the first of May, chilly out, multiple birds still at the feeder, gun control being argued on the national news, and time to look to art and to reach out to each other to make sense of  what comes our way.

 

These tulips hail from Bergen, in Norway, where I was almost exactly a year ago.

at a birthday party for an extended family member in my neighborhood

talking things over

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4-H competition, several years ago, both are winners, in Elliott County

This fine fellow is named DON KEY OATTY.  He lives happily in McCreary County, KY.

I hope that you share with me the joy in how we see both the greens of spring and the sorrow of the harm left behind after storms, floods, winds, and fire.  Even the cruelty we humans sometimes show each other --   seen in the harshness toward those we do not understand -- is shocking when it leads to killing each other or punishing people simply for being different.  It isn't as if there is only one way to live on this earth.  Can't we practice kindness instead?  Tolerance? Over- come our fears of differences? Imagine what goodness can do? 

It's good to share a few photos and some concerns. Thanks for listening and looking -----  Ann

Enough of winter diversions! It's time for the promise of redbuds!

     I am so glad to be making a new post. I love working with my photos, and I love sharing them with those of you who keep returning.  I hope everyone is warm and dry, but I know that this year that's asking a lot.  There seem to be relentless climate challenges these days.  In what ways can we help each other through this!?!

    I have quite a few redbud photos because it is a favorite time of year for me.  And that time is almost here.  So, in case I get distracted by this year's spring, I want to share a few of my photos early -- all made very near where I live in northeastern Kentucky.

 NOTE: for some unknown reason I wrote the above weeks ago but then I couldn't get the photo part to work.  So I have been waiting and checking on it regularly.  Then tonight, again for some unknown reason, it seems to be working!!  I am keeping this post short, even so, in case the magic disappears.  And now some redbud photos:
 

 

These flowers -- which are also branches -- are always eye catching.

I always look for this "patch" of redbuds along this nearby dirt road

a photo from several years ago

This tree was once a little transplant next to the steps down to our house. It has survived ice storms, children climbing on it, super winds, and such.  So far.  

 

 

 

 

 

I love this photo, made near Winchester.  The sky and the light made me happy for the tree's abundance.

Of course the dogwoods like to follow the redbuds.  This past weekend, with a friend, we drove  all the way south to Harlan County, Kentucky, to the Pine Mountain Settlement School for a gathering there.  The dogwoods puncuated the woods as we drove through, mountains on either side of the road. The redbuds were mostly finished blooming.  The trees along the way were a wonder of greens, hillside after hillside. Our timing and the weather were a blessing. It was so beautiful to have the chance to drive on narrow roads through this spring display.

Please be happy for me and the chance I have had to share one more post.  I hope to this means I will be able to do a next one soon.  After 10+ years of this, I care about being able to share my thoughts, concerns, and particularly my photos.  Surely I will be able to be back soon.  Ann

    

 

 

 

FIRST POST of 2023!!!!

       Once again, almost by mistake, I was able to connect to my blog!  It is always a happiness to work on a new post. I hope everyone has had some peace and some joy over the holidays.  I also hope my friends in California are safe and somewhere dry during the current and unusual and dynamic and frightening and very wet weather there!!

     Here now are some of the photos and links I have wanted to share over the last 12 weeks.... Please note: the four grandchildren made it into these photos.....

always good food from the Cuisine J.W. !

Two photos of the versatile pond:

checking out bulldozer noises yesterday on the property next to mine (find my house !) 

looking across my field from my house at the newly shaved steep hillside  -- I learned that there will only be one house, at the top. When it is not winter, I won't be able to see it. 

 neighbors are treasures:

S and J's super cute Pygmy goat -- living for now in the house -- very lively and fun.

 

 

I made a DENVER trip in early November:

during a museum visit nearby E's office

an artsy view of two of my photos hanging at the bottom of the stairs  -- which are my exercise guarantee when I visit my Denver family.

    Gettting ready to bike to school:

This last-photo-for-tonight is by Rebecca.  It shows the "first waterfall" and Nik and Hannah who came the week after Christmas.  Lucky us!

I just wanted to show signs of life in the winter here!  I am going to do more "normal" photos in upcoming efforts.  I seem to get distracted from doing one of these posts on a totally predictable schedule, so I will just say I plan to return here soon.  Many thanks for your interest in my work.

 

O MY GOODNESS, finally a new post

       It has finally happened!!!  Almost by mistake I visited my blog tonight, just to see if anything had changed that would allow me to add a new post. 

     Well, happily for me, all things appeared just as if nothing had held it back during the last several weeks!!  So I am going to go ahead and try to do the post I had planned over a month ago.  I so hope this means I will be able to return to posting every other week again.   I am excited!  Hi, everyone!!

Kentucky neighbors out the back window of a friend's house in southern Kentucky, last month

 

 

a favorite photo of a great blue heron, in a cove on Grayson Lake, during a ride in a small boat

from a walk in the woods one spring with Doug and Karen, after Doug discovered this patch of spring trillium covering a large rock, on a steep hillside

an amazing birthday card from Jean P. on my 75th birthday

our hen, our happy moments

 one moment at home, one night, one sky

 

 

 

dear friends in England, not my photo except that I love it

Dad with patient offspring, seen outside an upstairs window, during a 20 minute family feed

along the ride home from town --  Appalachian hillsides

shirt image is of Justice Stevens, my son's hero

two grandchildren photos which I couldn't resist including in this potpourri of photos

    Well, I couldn't actually do what I expected to for this blog -- another mystery to be worked on -- so I simply switched to sharing some photos I love.  All that remains now for tonight is to "publish" these without a hitch.  Thanks for sharing this happiness with me. 

      

        

Fall photos, over many years

    I had planned to finish this post two weeks ago, but wonderful life kept me busy and preoccupied. Fall has always been my favorite season -- until, of course, I experienced April in the Appalachian Mountains -- and I love trees. So, to celebrate how nature forges onward season after season, no matter the politics, here are some trees I have loved.  [Almost every photo was made in October.]

    

at home

Cumberland Gap, on the Tennessee/Kentucky border

windshield wetness

 

 

black walnuts -- look out below!!!

light within, for Jean

pond at summer's end

pond again, always changing

 

Cumberland Falls, two days ago, showing the effects of the drought in the area

another viewpoint of the falls, a magical place

back home, this year, not yet peak colors

 

but pretty close....

and a last shot, from summer, a favorite tree of mine, at Gary and Mary Sue's

 

Kentucky barns, part 2 -- the last part, for now

            WHY DOES THE PRINT START OUT SO SMALL!  I have to trust that once again it will look normal once I am finished pulling it together.  I love working with my photos for each post, but I sure can get irritated (as much as I ever get irritated --- which, actually, isn't much) over digital idiosyncrasies.

         Four more photos of the old barn which has been part of what I called my home place for 45 years:

 

 

        

            and now some photos of Jean's barn that Jonathan rebuilt!  He lowered the roof a full story.

taking out a floor, I believe, and using the materials to make a newer barn

Jonathan likes horses -- and cattle!

    

 

Bravo, Jonathan!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

the barn in use

 

Then these beautiful sheep - in Vermont and not in Appalachia -- share a barn before one day being dinner....

    This has been fun and I look forward to offering other gathered images. Every two weeks. It feels good to be back at it!!!

    In the meantime, don't forget to vote soon!  Of course I support progressive ideas, so I'll just say it's insulting that men --- who don't get pregnant through no fault of their own -- are sometimes not able to accept the rights of women to decide their own health care needs.  But in any case, let's all vote and support democracy for every person. And try hard to imagine ourselves in the footsteps of other persons. After all, we share a single earth.