Dreamlike State

So, back to work, after our first real vacation in more than a year.

We spent the last stretch immersed in the woods, waters, trails, and history of this little place, and we managed to go some places we’ve never been, and seem some things we’ve never seen - a tall order for us in this place.

I found myself maybe struggling with a “midlife crisis” of sorts, during this stretch. Thinking about how I want to be “out there”, finding places like this in the middle of a beautiful summers day, vs sitting inside day dreaming. I find myself sitting and thinking about “how many more perfect, 75 degree summer days do I have left?”, and how best to capture them.

I haven’t totally figured that out. But todays photo is a perfect example of what I’m talking about. How finding a way to that kind of independence and freedom feels dreamlike. How there are parts of this beautiful place that are dreamlike. And how being immersed in beauty and freedom like this is dreamlike.

Hope folks have a great week.

Neowise

Hey Y’all -

So, I’ve been getting a few more images up the last stretch - enthused by getting out to the woods and fields, and seeing our friends and summer weather. It was a weird year - today’s image is a good example. Neowise was a phenomenon last summer, and given how much I love shooting astro, it was a given we’d go out after it - and we did. My wife and daughter and I had a great family evening in a big field in Barbour County, marveling at how you could see the comet with the naked eye.

And then I came home, and didn’t use this photo at all.

It’s been a wild couple of years in there - kid had brain surgery, getting married, finishing a PhD, surviving a pandemic. With all that on the plate, it made keeping this little operation up and running a “luxury”. I kept shooting - that’s for me; selfish - but the writing the posts, and deciding what was “good enough” and curating the feed, and managing print orders, and figuring out how to do art shows, and whether to make pieces that no one can go see, and…. you get the idea.

Neowise stands for “Near Earth Object, Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer”. Nice job on the acronym, there NASA folks. But taken more simplistic it would seem to translate as “New Wisdom” - something I feel like I have a ton of, after the last several years.

Love y’all, and happy Tuesday.

Summer

TGIF, right?

I want to say "thank you" to the folks that have messaged me, checking on us, checking on this operation.

Everything is fine. Just very busy (first, surviving the pandemic, now it's rebounding from the pandemic), and trying to get my excitement back for the social parts of this project. I've been a bit disillusioned with the social media part of all this - fighting with the "paid reach", and organic content parts of it, and realizing that it might be a while before art shows and such return to what they were.

Regardless, we're still out here adventuring, and I'm still out here taking photos.

Love to all,

S

Bluebells

It’s spring wildflower season!

When I was young, I don’t think I appreciated these as much as I do now. I remember seeing trilliums, but all of the others, not so much.

The arboretum (where this photo was taken) is fantastic for the spring ephemerals, and my only guess is that I was too preoccupied with the end of semester in the past to notice them.

So, get out there, they don’t last long. :)

Patterns

Hey Y’all!

I promise I’m still taking pictures, but it has been a pretty stressful and hectic couple of months.

That said, I:

Had a birthday

Have been fully vaccinated

Watched my daughter compete in her first swim season

So not bad.

Love to all y’all, and try to talk soon.

Shades of

I’m working on a bigger piece/bigger thought for release sometime in the near future - and meanwhile, the snow keeps on coming.

This shot from a cross-country skiing day recently - a sport I’ve done a total of 3 times at this point. I must be getting brave to take the camera, given the falling. :)

This image puts me to mind of thinking in “black and white” - and how the world is almost all shades of gray.

Hope folks get a snow day tomorrow,

S

Ghost

So it seems we’re going to have a “Real” winter this year. I’m pretty excited about that. Over the last few years, it’s felt like winter, as I remember it from my childhood, was over, gone. The days on end of snow. Not seeing the grass for weeks or even months at a time. The keeping the fire going, because getting out wasn’t guaranteed, and slow, quiet drives through the woods on unplowed roads.

So today’s photo is a bit of a “mood” photo, about taking some time to remember winter, and the ghosts of winters past in an increasingly hot and crowded world.

Ride

So I had a birthday this week, and first up, I want to say thank you to everyone that sent well wishes/took the time to drop me a note. We’ve met a lot of folks doing this (and our day jobs), and it’s sometimes humbling to think about the waves you put out into the world. Thank you for thinking of me!

Today’s note is a bit more targeted - I just wanted to say thank you, and I love you, to my wonderful wife. She is always motivating me out of my comfort zones - and letting me do the same to her, and it’s fun having a partner who seems to see the world “the same kind of off-kilter” as I do.

As the saying goes, she’s my “ride-or-die”, made better by the fact that we like going to the same places. :)

Love to all of you, and thanks again,

S

Winter Stars

Years go, dreams go, and youth goes too,

The world’s heart breaks beneath its wars,

All things are changed, save in the east

The faithful beauty of the stars.

Winter Stars, Sara Teasdale

These Colors

It’s weird to think about how much of our discourse these days is defined by colors.

Teenage me would have only really known one big saying relative to colors, “these colors don’t run”.

This is odd to me, because it used to be saying that “We wouldn’t back down from a fight”. Now, in my 40s, it seems all we do is fight.

No real conclusion today, just have had more weird conversations, and the realization that my generation is “the last of it’s kind” in a lot of ways, of late - and it makes me sad for the folks younger than me.

Maybe more next time. Love.

Leading

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

Lines of Stress

Whoo-Wee, what a first week of 2021.

As I’ve talked about here, I recently finished a PhD where my research topic was focused on causes of rural out-migration. In short, what is happening in a place like WV that causes people to leave, when we know that folks in this place desperately want to stay?

(you can read more, if you are interested here: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/7568/).

As I did this work, the differences in politics and resources between rural and urban kept coming up as a huge, massive, critical difference, and the politics for residents in the places being “left behind”.

What this leads to are lines of stress - where people that should be on the same side, and want the same outcomes, don’t - and I learned a long time ago that telling people they are bad people for feeling the way they do isn’t a productive way to make change. At the same time, I don’t subscribe to the view that the best way to fix anything is by destroying it. I also don’t think you can wish or “complain” away change - which seems to be much of what the tension in my little region is about. The change - long predicted to come - is here, and folks are not doing well at managing, understanding, or working through that change.

I’m not sure what to do with all of that - but having honest, open, and non-inflammatory conversations, where we start with the same set of facts seems key. How we can get to that point, strangely, seems almost out of reach.

Photo of a really fascinating sheet of ice on a pond, where I think the colors are due to different stresses and thicknesses in the ice.

Have a great weekend.

Coal Run Falls

I had a post written earlier this week for today, but after the results in DC this week, I decided against it.

"A house divided against itself cannot stand."

So, here’s a waterfall. A pretty one at that. Hope folks have a good weekend.

Pirates Cove Falls - West Virginia

Happy New Year, Y’all!

So 2020 was… something. In a year where we held on for dear life - and did have some big positives - a few things had to fall off the plate.

What went right? Well, we generally stayed healthy, got my daughter through her Freshman year of high school, got my PhD finished, and I taught my first college course. My wife had a professionally successful year, and we found ways to get into the woods - though for a change we stayed very close to home, seeking out the hidden corners of places we’ve been a thousand times.

That said, it was a trying year. Everything took more time than usual. Teaching was hard. Finishing my PhD was hard. Somehow, I managed to work MORE hours, working from home. In a normal year where I have 4 or 5 big projects, I had closer to 8 - not counting teaching or defending.

So this little operation fell off. Not being able to travel, and it feeling like work - true work, like drudgery - meant that it was a good time for a hiatus. We weren’t able to do shows or exhibits the way I like to - why make a piece to hang in a gallery that no one can visit?

So, all that said, I’m trying to get back to basics in 2021. More time with my family. More time doing things I love. And I do love taking photographs in the woods of West Virginia. Especially waterfalls.

Hope y’all have a good week.

End of The Season

Good Saturday Afternoon!

I know this is a bit off schedule, but I took yesterday off just to go outside and enjoy what was likely one of the last “great weather” days of the year - a true “end of the season”.

2020 has been so strange, it’s hard to totally comprehend. Why did so many people respond to lock downs and quarantines by going out to the parks and forests? Will they keep going after this is “all over”?

It’s also interesting to see how none of this made much difference in some circles. I was talking to a fellow yesterday about the weirdness of 2020, and he mentioned the biggest worry he had this year was how dry it was - that it was hard on his crops. I was honestly refreshed by that conversation.

Fall and Winter 2020 are going to be something to behold, I suspect. I’ve heard of a curse - “May you live in interesting times”. And the times, they are interesting. Fall is a transition time regardless, and there are so many things in upheaval right now that its tough to know where to stand to stay out of the chaos. That all said, I can make simple wishes. I wish all of you a happy, healthy, and calm rest of 2020.

Hope y’all have a great rest of your weekend.

Depth

I love this place, even if it sometimes confuses and confounds me. The people here can be kind. To a fault. The people here can be stubborn. To a fault. The people here can be skeptical. To a fault. The people here can be trusting. To a fault.

I tend to see that as depth, and of folks wishing the world would treat them the way they want to be treated. I’ve talked with folks that have enormous hearts for folks that are going through tough times - drug use, divorce, job loss. But also stern in expecting them to be working to make their own life better - no excuses.

I sometimes wish we were a little faster about accepting change - both as a necessary part of life, and as a means of seeing the future just a little bit sooner. We always seem to be slow to adapt, even though I know folks here to be the most adaptable people I’ve ever met. Maybe being able to do it, and liking it, are different things.

Like I say, depth.

Love y’all.

No Particular Place, No Particular Time

Good Friday Afternoon!

It has been a spectacular fall - maybe the first nice thing 2020 has done for us. Because of that we’ve been out running the back roads and trails and rivers pretty hard. I know I joked about it in my last post, but I’m serious - why do folks come to WV - or any park for that matter - as though it’s the only place to see nature, or trees, or wildlife? There are approximately 1,500,000 acres of public land in West Virginia alone - why in the world would you want to be part of a traffic jam while out “enjoying nature”?

So, we’ve gone elsewhere. We’ve done empty mountain bike rides in Canaan Valley. We’ve done empty river trips on the Tygart. We’ve done empty hikes in the Cheat Canyon WMA. It’s pretty strange - it’s like COVID has pushed people outside, but they still don’t make it more than a mile from the hard top road.

While I’m glad they are staying out of our playgrounds (for now), the fact that Dolly Sods and Blackwater, and the New are getting literally loved to death worries and saddens me. I imagine - and honestly hope - that it is a matter of time before there is a permit and max attendance policy for those places, and that those policies favor residents of WV. I would love to see a withholding of camp sites for folks with WV licenses or a fee for out of state visitors. Otherwise, there isn’t much difference in my mind between the throng at Dolly Sods and mountaintop removal mining. Both are out of state interests taking advantage of a resource at the expense of people that live here.

Hope y’all have a good weekend.

Blue Hole

Good Tuesday Evening!

West Virginia place names are amazing - sometimes. You can go to “Hell For Certain", you can take a vacation to “Porto Rico”, and apparently the wilderness at Dolly Sods are the most popular attraction in the state, based on the photos I’ve seen the last few weekends.

On the other side, we tend to also be not so creative. How many hundred Laurel Creeks/Runs/Branches are there (trivia answer 281)?

Today’s photo from one of many “Blue Hole"s in this state.

I’ve been a bit mystified by the surge of folks at Dolly Sods - a place that is undeniably beautiful, but I would be hard pressed to call the most beautiful in the state. So, I’m going to make a point the next few weeks to post some fall foliage, and all of it “not Dolly Sods”. There isn’t a shortage of leaves in WV this year.

Love Y’all.

Taking a Walk

Good Friday Afternoon!

Just as I was starting to get back on schedule with my posting, I had to replace a hard drive on my photo machine at home, and that definitely slowed down the editing process!

The good news, nothing was lost, and we’re back to work now.

This is definitely a “par for the course” in 2020 so far, but it was good to help with perspective. It was work, I had to get it fixed, it was something else on the plate to handle. But we took a walk, took a breath, and ultimately the only thing it really cost me was a few days delay.

I’m trying to approach everything that way - we’ll get there eventually, just stay positive and keep moving.

Easier to do when the walk you take pays off with views like this. Tough to beat WV in the early fall.

Hope y’all have a great weekend.

Red Tree

Good Friday Morning!

It’s been pretty exceptional to get out and do some hiking and camping in this early fall weather, after last fall being “confined to quarters” working on my PhD and then again being “confined to quarters” this spring with COVID. We’re starting to understand how to do the things we love while still staying safe.

I think growing up in the country - and 30 years ago - has made managing this whole thing easier on me than on my daughter. I find the fact that everything is connected, and constant social connectivity to be the novelty - not the norm - after growing up in the mountains with 3 channels on TV and a corded phone. My daughter is finding the lack of outside activity and the lack of social interaction pretty challenging. I was used to going months (especially in the summer) without seeing my friends.

I’m trying to feel her stress, but at the same time, I’m enjoying this “going back to the basics”. A phone call is fine. Not hearing from folks is also fine. I’ll be in the woods, or at the farm, loving the seasons changing and thinking about what’s for dinner. :)

Hope y’all have a great weekend.