Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Dogwood In The Fall 10119” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.
The dry September wind claimed a toll on the Fall colors. However the Dogwood tree in my parent’s yard still shows it’s glory in crimson. No special treatment was given to the tree. It’s change seems to come from sheer strength of will. The photo was taken on October 1st which was a few days before the rains finally returned. As I stood beneath the branches and thanked God for the beautiful colors I started to think about how hard the late Summer drought had been. The image shows that many of leaves have turned brown and are dry. And yet the tree gives as much beauty as it can. The few red leaves are more appreciated than in the past few years because they’re less abundant.
You see, it’s easy enough to have success in the good times when everything is going right. But it’s the harsh conditions of the bad times when you don’t give up and bring as much as you can muster to bear that makes the difference. The harder the struggle, the sweeter the reward.
We need to not judge ourselves according to what was done in a perfect environment when success was almost a guarantee. It’s what we can do when times are tough that truly shows our resolve even if the results are not as prolific.
Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me on Facebook or Use the Contact form. The YouTube link below takes you one of my slideshows.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.
Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Barbed Wire 81019” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.
Since the time of the ancients mankind has labored to tame the elements. We wrap our world in bands of steel and concrete tempered by blood, sweat and tears then declare ourselves as victors but nature just laughs and plays along for a little while. What is a few decades of being tamed by man when you have seen Millenia pass by? Slowly but surely each drop of rain begins to break the bonds laid upon the Earth. The forest advances and whatever isn’t pushed aside is swallowed up by the trees. Eventually iron returns to the sand, concrete is broken by roots and the moss covers all. The world returns to be a clean canvas for the next generation.
Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me on Facebook or Use the Contact form. The YouTube link below takes you one of my slideshows.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.
Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “The Color Of Tranquility” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.
The big blue truck takes me down the Midland Trail just as it does nearly every day. The exception being that this time the sun is higher in the sky than usual. The cool Fall rains have fallen softly onto the mountains rescuing the chance for those Fall Colors. The changes are still in the early stages as lush green leaves begin to shift into the different tones. The Kanawha River peacefully echoes the forests as they reveal their glory to all of creation. I have no particular schedual today and it’s a perfect moment to stop by the water and refill my “tranquility reserves”.
As gaze at the wonderful creation thats been laid out before my eyes the thought that fills my heart is that “Light is the language of the forest and the trees sing in harmony”.
What must it be like to be able to actually hear their voices?
Believe it or not, there is an answer to that question. There’s a rare medical condition known as Synesthesia where some people see sounds and hear color. (Clicking the blue link takes you to a virtual reality video of what it’s like to experience Synesthesia). A good Appalachian Fall must be quite a concert for those people. I can only imagine what that would be but my imagination sees a sound graph in the reflections on the water.
As the season progresses the songs will come to crescendo and slowly fade away as a lullaby when the forest sleeps and only the silence will echo through the mountains.
Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me on Facebook or Use the Contact form. The YouTube link below takes you one of my slideshows.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.
Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Chufa 82019”. The photos in this post were taken specifically for this article. All of the photos on my blog are my original work and are available for purchase by following the instructions at the bottom of the article.
Every so often I encounter a wild edible plant that has real potential to bbecome a cash crop in the right hands. As the world population grows and as urban sprawl puts pressure on wilderness the demand for high quality nutrition becomes more intense. Many people ( and I am one of them ) believe that the solution is to move away from agriculture ( The tending of fields ) to horticulture ( The tending of plants ). Rather than go into a long time consuming explanation I’ll just say that it’s better to have a decentralized system. And plants like Chufa lend themselves very easily to the broad range of conditions a decentralized system would require.
The part that is harvested is a marble sized tuber called Tiger Nuts. The tuber is collected in November and December and an individual plant is capable of producing around 2000 nuts in lifetime. Being a perennial plant, Chufa doesn’t need to be planted every year. Like a potato, it be required to save some of nuts to replenish with but unless you destroy the plant during harvest it will come back by itself for multiple years.
So, when I decided to write about Chufa my knowledge of the plant came mostly from old dusty books on my shelf. I knew it was a wild edible plant and that it produced an underground nut that you could eat. But, I never took the time to actually gather it and try use it any meaningful way. But after learning a little more and recognizing the potential I thought that I would simply step out onto my property and collect enough to do a presentation. The next image shows my entire harvest.
Today’s harvest was rather sad.
In fact the entire root system of the second plant was devoid of tubers.
None of the plants had tubers for me.
I collected a total of 1 tuber that was about 6 millimeters in diameter. I just sat there asking myself how this could have ever been a staple crop 4000 years ago in Egypt.
Even today it’s grown commercially in the Mediterranean. More research gave me the answer. The nut doesn’t form until after the top dies off. I am actually about 6 weeks too early to harvest the nuts. They have only just started to form. But in the harvest season for Tiger Nuts the ground is often frozen here. And that’s where the solution for harvest intersects with the techniques of urban farming. Chufa adapts very well to a container garden. And because it seems to like wet soil aquaponics would seem to be the best way to bring this plant out of the wild and back into the garden.
I mentioned that it was a staple crop. The ancient Egyptians kept it and so did Native Americans. The nuts were used to make flour, and they are the main ingredient for Spanish horchata which is a drink similar to almond milk. In fact while researching for this article I encountered a lot of comparisons between Chufa and Almonds.
Recently, the consumption of almonds have come under fire because they require so much water to be diverted into a plantation in an area that’s naturally prone to drought. But here in the Eastern Woodlands a Chufa substitute can easily be grown and a harvest extracted in far less time. Plus, these aquaponics systems can be set up in any number of empty industrial buildings that are scattered throughout the rust belt.
But, if you want to try this unique food on a decentralized scale by growing it yourself then I recommend a simple flower pot and decent potting soil. I have seen the plant growing in shade, open fields, rich bottom lands and old strip mines so it will adapt to almost any environment.
Since I wasn’t able to provide an example of how to use Chufa myself I’ll end this post with a link to a very well done video of how to make horchata.
Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me on Facebook or Use the Contact form. The YouTube link below takes you one of my slideshows.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.
Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Curious Onlooker” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.
The crisp morning air is full of chirps and whistles as the local songbirds carry on hundreds of conversations at the same time. The rain has stopped for now but the grass is still covered with the morning dew. Scattered clouds drift across the little slice of sky between the mountains of my my home. I have put out some feeders in hopes of charming the birds in for a shot but so far they’ve been been fairly shy. As I scanned the forest for signs of a colorful songbird I saw something moving stealthily along a fallen branch. Since the leaves are still wet he barely made a sound as he searched for the perfect spot to hide the hickory nuts. I began to zoom in and focus but wasn’t really able to focus through the dense underbrush. As I watched him tuck the nuts under a clump of sphagnum Moss he suddenly became aware of my presence. But instead of scampering up the nearest tree and escaping through a network of branches he came in closer. Something that isn’t really unusual for a squirrel in an urban environment where they might get a free meal but up here in the mountains they tend to be more cautious. Often they will give three quick barks and sit high in the tree tops flashing their bushy tails like a warning flag and chatter as loud as they can to alert the others that mankind is in the forest. I have had more than one hunt ruined by a bushy tailed tattler. But for whatever reason this one wasn’t really sure what he was seeing and decided to get a better look. He sat up there on his branch for several minutes pretending to be invisible and peeking out every few seconds. The only other time that a squirrel has been this curious about me was when I was about ten years old and playing in a tree fort with some friends. The fort was simply a few boards nailed to a fallen tree at a friend’s house but it was enough for us to sit on. A large branch ran behind us horizontally and gave us a back rest. That squirrel snuck up on us so quietly that we didn’t notice until it crawled onto my arm. When I turned my head to see what had touched me it startled the squirrel. In a brilliant tactical maneuver he jumped to the top of my head and sprung into canopy above never to be seen again. I hadn’t thought of that for a long time. Even now it makes me chuckle.
The curious squirrel in tonight’s feature image must have decided that I wasn’t really anything to be concerned about because after he finished his game of peekaboo he went back to collecting the hickory nuts from the edge of the forest and hiding them in his little moss vault.
Hello Friends and thank you for your support of my page. If you have enjoyed the photos or the writings please let me know by commenting and sharing my work on your social media. I also want to invite you to Follow Lloyds Lens Photography on Facebook
If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is
Did you know that I also do portraits by appointment? If you’re interested in a portrait session either message me on Facebook or Use the Contact form. The YouTube link below takes you one of my slideshows.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographer.
LLOYD'S LENS PHOTOGRAPHY LLC 