Category: Color Photography

Lifecycle

Color Photography, encouragement, travel, West Virginia

From the first warm Spring rain you awoke to the life giving glow of solar affection.

For a season you bathed in radiance and grew strong enough to withstand the violence of the summer storms.

Strength has now faded and your tasks are complete. All that is left is to carry your golden glow to the forest floor and sleep until the time of rebirth when the sparrow sings and glory awakens you once more.

– Lloyd A Dempsey II

I have always observed that God’s Word is written first on nature. The life cycle of the deciduous trees of Appalachia teaches me that a Christian is conceived in Grace. The leaves don’t go and pull down the light from the sun. It is freely available for them to receive. We as humans don’t call down grace. It’s already here and freely available to anyone. In order to receive the life giving light of the sun the leaves must both awaken and open to receive the light. The Christian must also be awakened and open to receiving the grace of God. It’s the light that makes leaves strong enough to withstand the storms. Our strength is in Christ. At the end of the season the energy collected by the leaves stays in the leaf and is added to the fertility of the forest floor which is taken up by the roots of the tree and used to produce a new leaf. The Grace of God is carried into death by the believer until the day that Christ returns and wakes us from mortal slumber and we are made new.

A Dinosaur Hunt (Well, Sort of…)

Color Photography

Pictured above is the fossil of Lepidodendron. Theses are common find on West Virginia. I found this one as part of the wall of the gift shop at Babcock State Park. 😉 At one point I had the beginnings of a decent collection but donated them to an education effort. The surprising thing is when we find fossils of sea creatures on our mountain tops. ( Well, not so surprising to those of us who believe in a global flood 😁) I have found clusters of seashells in the Greenbriar River. Several years ago I was filling potholes in a private road and broke open some sandstone to find the fossils of reeds.

There’s a trick to finding fossils. First, you have to have an idea of where to look. I have had the best luck by studying the lay of the land and if I spot a place that has a depression where water gathers that’s a good place. Next, I look for sandstone. Fossils form when silica fills the organic matter and sandstone is silica. If the stone has layers then that’s a good sign too. I carefully place a chisel into the seam and gently tap. The layer should simply separate. More often than not there’s no fossil but it does give one an excuse to get outside and enjoy the fresh air. As always I implore you to respect private and public property which means that you need permission from the landowner. But it’s a relatively relaxing activity that’s cheap and easy. Even if you don’t find a fossil you might find a stone with neat patterns that could used as part of an art project. Give it try.

Quite Time

Church, Color Photography

I have come to the conclusion that being healthy and happy requires that we take a few moments every day to just release all of the daily demands and experience peace and quiet. For me that means wandering down a quiet path and leaving the world behind. If you don’t do some mental and emotional housecleaning the concerned spirit soon becomes cluttered and disorganized. One of my church elders once told me that “if we don’t come apart then we’ll fall apart. ” He was referring to times when Jesus would take the apostles aside and rest. It was in these times He would reveal things to them because they were in a mental and emotional place where they could focus on the revelation and fully absorb what was being taught.

Our modern world is a place of wonder. But all of the distraction can be overwhelming. Take proper care of yourself and find a place where you can just get some peace and be recharged.

Mysterious Mountains, Ancient Walls and New Eyes

Color Photography, West Virginia

As I look at peaks and ridges of my Appalachian Mountains I have an overwhelming urge to go explore each of them. Somewhere in this group of hills and valleys is the hidden remains of an ancient empire. Long ago a stone wall was built here that stretched out for miles. The big mystery to me is what were they protecting themselves from? There’s legends of giants in the mountains. I have always had this fantasy of finding a hidden cave entrance and stepping inside to find ancient treasures and stone artworks. At one point we would walk along and find lithics. Stone age tools and points that made life possible turn up here often. The worked stone comes from all over North America. It was often used as a barter when tribes traded with each other.

There’s also the story of a scuttled brass cannon from the “War of Northern Aggression “. (American Civil War) as well as rumors of Confederate gold.

More than likely one might find old overgrown farms. When I was a kid we could find old mason jars on almost any given day of exploration. It was probably left behind by a family who canned their garden produce but in my eyes it was always an abandoned moonshine still. Not all treasures are golden. Sometimes they are rusty tin, glass or ceramic.

Whatever is out there it’s bound to be interesting. There’s a story in everything we leave behind. Old walls, broken glass or rusty barbed wire it doesn’t matter. It’s all about the lives that filled these mountains and the stories that they left behind.

NEW ADVENTURES

Color Photography, travel, West Virginia

I simply love living in the Appalachian Mountains. Skyscrapers and busy streets are nice but for me nothing beats a long winding road and a great view of the New River Gorge as seen here from the Hawks Nest State Park overlook in Fayette County West Virginia. It’s a place where you can look down on the valley and watch birds soaring peacefully through the canyon. Occasionally you hear the long droning of a train horn as it crosses the river. I have it on good authority that kids would jump the train in certain spots and catch a free ride up the mountain. Not something that’s recommended today but a couple of generations ago things like this would be common.

In the Early 80s I would see people hangliding from the canyon rim and today we have zip lining tours close by.

I believe that there’s plenty of adventures still left in these hills. Who knows what tomorrow’s trend will bring? Perhaps I’ll ride a drone up river and photograph from angles I can only dream of at the moment.

Be at peace tonight friends and dream of new adventures.

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