Tag: rural communities

Daydreaming of Summer

Color Photography

I can’t believe it’s still Winter. Well, more to the point, I don’t want to believe it’s still Winter. I’ve had enough of gray skies, muddy roads, cold and damp. I want to see green grass, blue skies and life everywhere I look. I miss the butterflies and honeybees that fill my yard. Warm weather brings songbirds to my mountain. I know each one of them by their voices. Some of them have returned every year to live in the brambles in the edge of my yard.

The Ironweed in the photo is a late summer flower. It emerges during the warmest part of the year.

Today I’m hiding from ice and snow but in my heart it’s still Summer.

A Country Sunday

Color Photography

A country Sunday is special thing. So with tomorrow being Sunday I thought I would share some memories with you. It starts with a quiet spot, a cup of coffee, a Bible and in the old days a copy of The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, also known as Strong’s Concordance. (When I was a kid I used to think that it was the “exhausting ” Concordance. That book seemed to weigh slightly less than a 1973 Ford LTD. Carrying it to the table was an exhausting task.) After studying the morning lesson and having a hardy breakfast you go to the church for Sunday school and then preaching. After services are finished everyone gathers outside of the sanctuary and visits for few minutes. These days we head out to restaurant but it wasn’t always that way. Back in the day extended family would go the home of the patriarch and have a home cooked meal. The afternoon was spent with those who mattered the most. That’s how we kept the world small in the days before the internet. During the warm season the kids would have a change of clothes ready. After dinner we would climb trees or throw rocks at old cans. Sometimes we would start a game of touch football (American Football for my international friends) that would quickly become a full contact game complete with muddy clothes and skinned knees. Soon the familiar sound of mothers calling out to their sons would end the game. After a mild scolding for getting your clothes dirty the family matriarch hands out packages of leftovers and everyone goes home.

But it’s not a time to be sad. When the work week ends, Sunday will come again.

Rechargeable People

black and white photography, Summerville

I’m all out of deep thoughts today. Sometimes you just need to sit down and calmly recharge. It’s okay. Even Kal-El ( aka Superman) needed a day off to just go be Clark Kent. However, I’ll take a quiet spot on the lake over a frozen fortress any day.

This fishing peer on Summerville Lake in West Virginia is one of my many fortresses of solitude. It’s not that I’m really alone there, it’s actually a popular place. But it’s also a place where I feel free enough to put away the person who the world sees. I can tuck my cape into my shirt, slide on my glasses and pretend to be normal for a little while.

Wanderlust 

Color Photography, Uncategorized, West Virginia

My lifetime has been lived between mountains and rivers.  One of the things I love most is that the hills and ridges always seem to have some secret just waiting for us to discover. I eventually found the time to head across the river and explore only to find more questions on the other side.  There are days when I wish I could just load a good ATV up with supplies and see how far down the tracks I can go.

  The mountains in the background were once occupied by the Adena. Our local history says that there was a huge wall that stretched for miles.  I have daydreams about what the landscape would have been in those times. What were they keeping out? What were protecting? Surely a culture that built a huge stone wall would also have buildings.  Is there abandoned temple hidden somewhere in the deep forests? The Adena had copper tools.  Is there also a golden idol tucked away just waiting for Indiana Jones to find? Maybe and maybe not. But I would love to find out.

Glade Creek Grist Mill at Babcock State Park 

Color Photography, West Virginia

The Glade Creek Grist Mill at Babcock State Park in West Virginia is one of our most popular places. It’s especially popular with artists and photographers.  I think the reason why we’re so atracted to it.  The mill harkens us back to a simpler time when life was more organic.  The days when water and horses powered our technology. This allowed for a life that was less micro managed.  There was time for friends and family to meet beside a steam and enjoy life.  Small stones accumulated in a pool near the bank hold an entire world of colors and shapes.  Insects and crayfish dart around in the pool like waterborne fairies performing a dance.  This is what real life is. 

 The mill is still in operation certain times of the year.  We have friends who still take grain to the mill and grind it flour.  Home baked bread from home raised grain has a smell and a flavor not found in the bleached out over processed chunks of starchy foam that comes in a plastic bag.  Real bread is a wonderful experience.  

Today the subject of automation is discussed at length.  There are doubts and fears as well as hopes and dreams.  I  look at the image here that represents the automation of the past and I’m reminded that  before the mill all that flour had to be ground by hand.  There would have been no time for observation of life in the water.  No time for pleasant conversations about life.  I have hope that automation of the future will provide the same benefits if we are wise with it’s use. 

If you’re interested in visiting the Glade Creek Grist Mill at Babcock State Park in West Virginia  you might want to check out the link below.  

Glade Creek Grist Mill at Babcock State Park