lloydslensphotographyllc

A Few Minutes Of Forest Tranquility

Hello Friends! Tonight’s Feature Image is titled “Crimson Archway 113020” and is available for purchase by clicking the thumbnail and reaching out to me on the contact page.

The forest is silent as the mists softly settle on sparse leaves. The remanent leaves of the young trees stand out like glistening gems against the bland background of the sleeping mountains. The falling mists are cool on my skin and I can detect the faint smell of the fresh earth coming up through the leaves. Somewhere in the canopy a fairdiddle barks his displeasure at my presence. Looking up through the bare limbs I notice the shaking of a bushy tail. He thinks he’s well hidden. When I sit still enough for long enough the tufted titmouse will come and forage the bushes. I remember when one in particular became fascinated with the laces of my boots while I was on my deer stand. He kept tugging at the ends without realizing he was perched on my leg. He would have kept it up until he untied it if I hadn’t snickered. I take the time to notice how water collects on the leaves until it’s heavy enough to roll down. It’s just the beginning of December on the day I took the photo but I’m already noticing changes to certain buds that foretell the upcoming late season blooms. There are certain flowers that only bloom in late fall and climatic winter. Life is in constant change. If things are not changing they are dead. I take a deep breath and enjoy the scent of the forest once more to hold the tranquility in my spirit and its time to walk back to the big blue truck and move on to my next destination.

Good night friends and be blessed throughout your days.

Hey Friends! Just a quick reminder that Lloyds Lens Photography is available for portraits!

To book me simply reach out using the Contact Page and we’ll set a date. If you’re within a 50 mile radius of Summersville West Virginia all travel fees are waived.

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Another Lesson From The Old Barn

black and white photography, Landscapes

Hello Friends! Tonight’s Feature Image is titled Old Barn On Muddlety Creek 120120BW” and is available for purchase by clicking the thumbnail and reaching out to me on the contact page.

Weathered wood creeks and rusted tin rattles in the icy assault of Old Man Winter’s rage. The once majestically constructed barn strains to keep her shape but she’s weary from the decades of buffering the climate. I fear that she just doesn’t have many seasons left. It’s a bittersweet moment as I stand in the road and listen to wind whisper that it’s only a matter of time before she gives in. The timbers will turn to powder and the tin will be scattered in ravages of time. And what will become of the small histories of lives that were touched by the old landmark? I know that the true nature of time is not tangible to mankind in our current life. And yet at the same time I know that whatever was once held never truly fades into oblivion. It lives on in some frozen cosmic moment in various states of being. It’s also true that what once was can be remade by hands that are willing. It’s really just a matter of investing the will and the sweat along with that essence of life invested. Blisters and calluses are the currency of the will. As a race mankind is capable of making real almost anything imagined. The Good Lord said so at the tower of Babel. I read through the Bible and there is a lot of emphasis on the words “If the people are willing and have a mind to work.” You see, the old barn didn’t just spring into existence. Someone had to look at the fallow ground and see a farm that was successful enough to justify the barn. They either cut and hauled the timber or took what they had and purchased it. They cut it to the needed dimensions and formed from their will through the sweat, blisters and calluses until it was there. It fades away now not because it was used up but because it was not maintained. For whatever reason, the will disappeared. But what if someone else found the will? The old beams would need to be cleared and new ones put in their place but it can be done.

My final thought for tonight is that we face a lot of challenges in the near future. And in some cases we will have to clear away the debris and start fresh. We’ll have to invest our sweat,blisters and calluses but if the people are willing and have a mind to work then what once was can be again. We are human. We change worlds because that’s what we are born to do.

Hey Friends! Just a quick reminder that Lloyds Lens Photography is available for portraits!

To book me simply reach out using the Contact Page and we’ll set a date. If you’re within a 50 mile radius of Summersville West Virginia all travel fees are waived.

If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is

https://www.facebook.com/aviewfromthelens/

If you’re enjoying my blog and don’t want to miss a post then you can sign up for email alerts on my website.

https://lloydslensphotographyllc.com/

Have you checked out the Zazzle Store?

In Appreciation Of The Alder

Color Photography, winter

Hello Friends! Tonight’s Feature Image is titled “Red Alder Catkins 120120” and is available for purchase by clicking the thumbnail and reaching out to me on the contact page.

The ice and snow blows through the little highland delta on Muddlety Creek as the long night inches closer. The Appalachian Winter is fickle here. Sometimes we get a white Christmas but most likely it be a wet Christmas instead. Real life is seldom like a story book. But real life is also constantly in renewal as well. Even though I refer to climatic winter as the season when the forest sleeps there are some arboreal sentinels that are only “playing possum” and are very much awake. Such as it is with the red alder. She sheds her leaves along with the rest of forest but when nobody is looking she puts forth her bloom. Beautiful crimson specks are found all along the wetlands right now. And soon they will swell with pollen to be carried on the winter wind. For all of my distaste of old man winter’s icy presence he is here to do a job for us. The howling gale that sweeps through the mountains and rivers propagates the members of the birch family. And while on warm days some bees will take advantage of pollen on the catkins they only gather from the male flowers. They don’t visit the tiny cones that will birth the next generation of trees. That responsibility falls to the cold hans of the winter wind. And without the right mixture of daylight and darkness the alder tree wouldn’t know that it’s time open one sleepy eye and add a little pop of color to the bland landscape.

Life is always with us. Even when it isn’t obvious.

Good night friends and be blessed throughout your days.

Hey Friends! Just a quick reminder that Lloyds Lens Photography is available for portraits!

To book me simply reach out using the Contact Page and we’ll set a date. If you’re within a 50 mile radius of Summersville West Virginia all travel fees are waived.

If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is

https://www.facebook.com/aviewfromthelens/

If you’re enjoying my blog and don’t want to miss a post then you can sign up for email alerts on my website.

https://lloydslensphotographyllc.com/

Have you checked out the Zazzle Store?

Hidden Destinies & The Moment We Have.

black and white photography, Landscapes

Hello Friends! Tonight’s Feature Image is titled “Hidden Destiny 113020bw” and is available for purchase by clicking the thumbnail and reaching out to me on the contact page.

There are so many hidden places in these mountains. Many of them have the steel ribbon that carries the coal but the general public will never see where they go or known precisely where they end. But today I took a diversion from my normal path out to one of places that these tracks eventually lead. The connect with multiple places, but one of them leads to a place where I spent my one and only day working on a strip mine. I was 18 years old and was working under the table so I’ll not out the person who gave me that experience more than 30 years ago. The mine was opening new ground and needed a strong back to carry bags of explosives to the holes. I wasn’t alone and together with a few friends we unloaded and carried what I estimated to be a ton of bags to where the engineers were setting the charges. At the end of the day when they did the blast we watched from a couple of miles away. The shock wave hit us twice. Once when it arrived from the blast site and then when it bounced off the mountain behind us. It was an thrilling experience that I’ll never forget. But today when I drove to the blast site ( as close as I could get without trespassing) the tracks where rusted and overgrown. The mine shut down long ago and the trains have no need to go there anymore. But the tracks on the end where I took the pictures are shiny and well maintained. The coal is still running but it’s coming from a different source. So on one hand the tracks go to my past and on the other hand they go to a future I’m not connected to.

Looking down the tracks and knowing that they’re only a few switches away from prosperity or despair it would be easy to become overwhelmed by potential for a bad end. But today, today I live. Sure, we need to plan ahead and be active in creating the future but all we really have is moment we live in.

My final thought for tonight is to remind myself that I can’t be so intimidated the potential for disaster that I look back to find that I’ve lost all my moments to fear and trepidation. Today I live. Not yesterday or tomorrow but today. Prepare for the future but don’t wait until it’s here to act. Respect the past but learn to let it go. And take time to appreciate the moment that you have.

Good night friends and be blessed throughout your days.

Hey Friends! Just a quick reminder that Lloyds Lens Photography is available for portraits!

To book me simply reach out using the Contact Page and we’ll set a date. If you’re within a 50 mile radius of Summersville West Virginia all travel fees are waived.

If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is

https://www.facebook.com/aviewfromthelens/

If you’re enjoying my blog and don’t want to miss a post then you can sign up for email alerts on my website.

https://lloydslensphotographyllc.com/

Have you checked out the Zazzle Store?

Forage Friday #86 Virginia Mountain Mint

Color Photography, Forage Friday

Hello Friends! Tonight’s Feature Image is titled “Virginia Mountain Mint 101119” and is available for purchase by clicking the thumbnail and reaching out to me on the contact page.

Please remember that Forage Friday is presented as trivia and not to be mistaken for medical advice.

The warrior ignored the pain in his body as he entered the sweat lodge and took his place on the skins laid out in preparation for his arrival. In the center of room was a stack of smooth stones that were hot from the fire burning outside. The sweat lodge was ceremoniously decorated talismans and amulets created to ward off spirits. In the dim light he saw the figure rise from the skins on the opposite side of room. He wore the False Face mask and the warrior knew that this figure was more than the mere moral that his tribe knew and loved. This was False Face inhabiting his uncle. He recalled the story of False Face he learned as child. False Face was an immortal trickster who had challenged the creator to contest of magic for control over the universe. To show his power False False moved a mountain but when he turned to brag to the creator the creator had already moved the mountain between them and False Face broke his nose by bumping into the mountain. As punishment for his arrogance False Face was cursed to be servant to the people. So when the medicine man wore a mask with a broken nose False Face had to obey. It was False Face that had taught the medicine men about the Mountain Mint. It was a powerful herb that was said to even have the power to raise men from their death beds. As the medicine man chanted inside his False Face mask he threw handfuls of crushed Mountain Mint onto the hot rocks. The warrior breathed in the aromatic vapors as he felt the pain leave him and his strength return.

Virginia Mountain Mint would have been used in a very similar way to the story above. Native Americans were not alone in their reverence for the mint family. The ancient cultures all over the world held a lot of same ideas about mints. Aside from minor differences in form a Scandinavian sauna and an Eastern woodlands sweat lodge function almost identical. And both use members of the mint family to help healing.

I believe that the ediblilty of mint is fairly common knowledge. Virginia Mountain Mint is used in the same way as a tea, seasoning or in a salad. And the reason why it’s so universally used in medicinal applications is that it has the same properties as the other mints.

Tom Brown Jr talks about beating the winter blaghs with what he calls “Rapture Medicine”. A container full of aromatic herbs that simply opened and inhaled when one is feeling run down from being sequestered in the house during winter. I had a long haul trucker confirm that as well. He kept a sachet of mint and cinnamon in his truck to help him stay alert.

Virginia Mountain Mint is also an analgesic and is supposed to strong enough to settle a toothache.

If one has a festering wound a decoction is called for. The Virginia Mountain Mint is simmered down into a highly concentrated tea and is used to wash the wound.

Mint is famous as a digestive aid and Virginia Mountain Mint is no exception. In addition to that it’s also used for fever, mouth disorders and menstrual problems.

Virginia Mountain Mint is a fairly good insect repellent. Like peppermint, spearmint and water mint you can crush the leaves and rub it on your skin and clothes to make yourself less appealing to the flies and mosquitoes. It’s not as effective as DEET but avoiding those guys is like escaping zombies. You only have to be less of a target than the other person. Plus it doesn’t have the long term hazards that DEET has.

And the last thing I have to offer you about Virginia Mountain Mint is that like the other strong mints it seems to repel mice and rats. And because it’s an attractive plant it’s suitable for planting around the outside of your home or in a box if you keep it trimmed. At the end of the season you can harvest the leaves and cure them by hanging in a cool dry place away from direct sunlight and scatter a few crushed leaves in places where you might find mice hiding. Again it’s like outrunning zombies you only need to be in a better position than the other person.

I believe that’s it for tonight. We will probably cover other members of the mint family at a later time.

Good night friends and be blessed throughout your days.

Hey Friends! Just a quick reminder that Lloyds Lens Photography is available for portraits!

To book me simply reach out using the Contact Page and we’ll set a date. If you’re within a 50 mile radius of Summersville West Virginia all travel fees are waived.

If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is

https://www.facebook.com/aviewfromthelens/

If you’re enjoying my blog and don’t want to miss a post then you can sign up for email alerts on my website.

https://lloydslensphotographyllc.com/