She Keeps Her Secrets

I’ve been doing a lot of recent reading on the “right to roam” that exists in Scotland and other countries around the world, where any undeveloped land is available for everyperson to use for recreation and exercise. I think this would be an incredible benefit for West Virginia and the United States more generally. These rules have restrictions - generally, a buffer of 10-15 acres is established around houses - so the concern of random people in your yard seems handled.

But for a state where most of the land is held by large, out-of-state landowners - the WV Center on Budget and Policy finds that 25 private owners hold nearly 20% of the states private acreage - this would open an enormous resource for recreation and activity. If folks read this and have thoughts, I’d love to hear them.

This will be the last “intentionally chosen” image from within an hour of Morgantown, but there will be more, I promise. I can say this with confidence because we keep finding new wonders and beautiful places in West Virginia, even in places we have visited generally in the past. It’s out there, you just have to find it. Remember to respect the place and people that might come after you - take your trash, and generally try to leave no trace.

Hope y’all have a great weekend.

Holding. Still.

Good Tuesday Afternoon -

It feels like we’ve been holding for a long time now. By my figuring, we’ve been in some form of lockdown since March 13, a full 60 days ago. While I was still going to work for a few days after that, that’s pretty close for most folks. 60 days of trying to support my friends businesses. 60 days of avoiding the grocery store and the hardware store cause I don’t trust the other people there. 60 days of worrying about my friends in healthcare and my family.

And it seems that it likely will keep going for a while - I know the “reopening” is happening, but I’ll say that I’m not going to hang out in a restaurant anytime soon. I’m still not going to any store with more than about 10 cars in the lot.

It seems for a while, we’ll be holding. still.

This is another in the “less than an hour from Morgantown” set. Hope folks enjoy.

Mustard Run

Good Friday Afternoon!

It has been a waterfall chasers season this spring so far - the only catch is that the top places are all on the “social distance” warning list. That’s fine with us, it just means talking to a few more people, and walking the off-the-beaten-path a little more - we always prefer that stuff anyways. Over the next week or so, I’ll run a set of images of places that are all within an hours drive of Morgantown - but might be a bit more than an hours walk (or not!).

So, to start this little drainage was an accident. We were looking for historic stuff and hoped to find (maybe) some climbing rocks - and found this lovely little stream. While the drainage is criss-crossed with old grades, we never did find anything more substantial to help us understand what might have been here.

Hope folks have a great weekend and are able to find a quiet corner of our beautiful neighborhood.

Metaphor?

Good Morning!

I sometimes go back through the photo-archive here, and find shots that either didn’t have a place, or I simply ran out of time to do anything with - this is particularly true over the last year or two. Since spring 2018, I’ve been full-court on getting my PhD done, my daughter had brain surgery, I got married, and then my daughter started high school. A pretty full plate!

So, shots like this, end up left on the cutting room floor. This was taken very early one morning while I was in Jacksonville, FL for my daughter’s surgery. At the time, it was just visually interesting, but when I came across it the other day - in this current situation - all I could think was “what a visual metaphor for how things feel right now”.

It’s tough not to look at things, and feel like “the wheels are coming off”. I am proud of WV and how the state has responded to all of this - currently ranked #1 in a good way - but I worry that this will just bring “the out of staters” here when they don’t come back on line just as fast. I worry about the supply chains that already seem to miss all but the most populated parts of WV. I worry about my folks, and my friends restaurants. I worry about my job. The most powerful country in the world, and we’re all realizing that the safety net isn’t that great, and the essential folks aren’t who we thought they were.

Hope y’all have a great week.

Moonlight Serenade

Good Friday Afternoon,

I suspect the social distancing jokes are starting to wear thin. That said, we have been working hard at being conscious of going places where other people are - or going at the times that other people may be there.

Moats Falls (or Party Rock, as lots of folks know it) is usually a pretty busy place starting this time of year, and on a few occasions, it has looked busier than I expected, given the time of year (it isn’t warm yet!) and the distance we’re supposed to have.

So, I took a different approach. One evening, I realized that the moon was out enough to see by - which means enough light to work by - and no one else anywhere in sight. It was lovely to hear the roaring of the river, and watch the stars and clouds moving overhead, dancing to their own moonlight serenade.

Hope folks have a great weekend.

Like A Rock

I’ve written here before about the Coffindaffer Crosses, and they catch my eye all across the state.

I especially love the ones that definitely took “the extra effort” to place. There was a set on a cliff-line above Birch River that is a challenging hike to access - let alone hauling the materials up to it.

This one is another favorite. This rock, at the confluence of the New and Gauley rivers at Gauley Bridge, would only be accessible by boat, which means this wasn’t a particularly easy project. I can appreciate someone putting in the extra work for their vision.

Hope folks have a great week.

Trillium Grandiflorum

Good Friday Morning -

Every year, it seems, I have a quick post about the spring flowers, and how they “do what they do every year”. This year, this thinking is on my mind more than usual. The spring trilliums have been especially welcome. Their simplicity and beauty is always striking to me, and the fact that they are both so transient - only here a few weeks every year - and so eternal - they come every spring, regardless of what is happening in our world, or how bad or mild the winter was.

They are on now, out in the mountains - easy to appreciate while social distancing.

But if you miss them, you’ll have to wait a whole year to see them again. And it’s a little more pressing right now, that “next year” is never promised.

Have a great weekend.

Friend's Mill at Daugherty Run

Good Tuesday Morning!

The “social distancing”, combined with the flowers coming on from early spring, always leads to interesting finds this time of year. We’ve talked for years that following the flowers - especially the daffodils - usually lead to something interesting.

This was no exception, while riding backroads we spotted what looked like stacked stones, and yes - daffodils. Hiking down to the creek, it seemed likely that something was here, but it was tough to figure out what.

The only thing I can find that seems likely is a reference in an old WV Geologic Survey book, dated 1914 that mentioned “Friend’s Mill on Daugherty Run”. Knowing how they liked to build those old sawmills, using waterfalls and other natural drops, I’d imagine this might be that spot.

Hope folks have a great rest of their week.

Wolf Creek Falls (Back to the Land)

Good Friday morning everyone,

I’m having a moment of “back-to-the-land” as I watch all of this other stuff swirl around. I understand that at some point, we have to “get back to normal”, but I’ll be honest, I’m not sure I will want to do so.

I like getting to spend time through the day with my family.

I like getting to have lunch with my family.

I like being “done” at 5:30, versus until the phone quits ringing.

I like thinking about growing my own garden, and cooking at home.

Are there things I miss? Yeah, sure - I miss getting beers with my friends. I miss visiting my family, particularly my parents and the folks in my home neighborhood.

But I won’t want things to go back to normal too fast. I hope that we all realize that a many things that “could have been done” before are now being done. People are working from home, with their kids. People can shop locally, buying from local farmers and supporting local restaurants. Calling back to the other day, people can go outside, and experience nature, versus living on their devices. People are meeting with their doctors via video calls. We can manufacture and grow and invent here in our area, and take care of our own - which we are doing now.

Why would we want to go back?

Hope folks have a great weekend

Essential Services

Good Morning!

Regular readers of this outfit will know that we consider “being out” pretty essential. I seek the woods and waters and the empty places, and find it to be as important in my life as most anything past food, water, and shelter are.

And most of the time, we’re the only people that seem to feel that way. I don’t know how many times we’ve been out to the woods, or parks on a bluebird day, and wondered where all the people were. “How can they be inside today?!?”, we’ve asked ourselves.

Now, in a time where “social distancing” is more important than ever, I’ve been saddened and disappointed by all of the folks congregated outside, and am now confused about why they are outside.

And I’m not talking about a couple taking a walk, or a single person out for a run, I’m talking about big enough crowds that the Governor felt compelled to close the Coopers Rock overlook or Blackwater Falls.

I think this frustrates me for two reasons -

1. the wear and tear on these places we love, now seeing more people than I’ve ever seen using them - and likely by people who don’t do “outside” much, and

2. If you weren’t outside before, why are you outside now? Put another way, if you were willing to spend your sunny Saturdays day drinking before, or your lovely evenings at home watching TV before, why are you out now?

Today’s photo from one of those “where is everyone” days - on the beach, on a perfect morning, with 2 other people. A far cry from the photos of the beaches we’ve seen in the last few weeks.

Be careful, make good decisions, and take care of each other out there. It’ll all be over soon enough.

Time. Will Tell.

Good Friday Morning, all!

For starters, thank you to all of you that responded to my short note the other day. It has been a very long road to get that dissertation done, and I’m proud of the work and the results. I managed to do a dissertation focused on issues in West Virginia, and I will always be grateful for the time and support of my committee to go and do that.

I think any project that people work on, you want that work to “mean something”. Sometimes that payoff is fast. I love mowing my grass, because the payoff is immediate - I love the smell, the job is done, and I get to feel good about it. For my research, it’s a bit trickier, because making change at the level of the state, for people that live here is slow - even in the best case.

Will my work lead to the change I want? Well, photography is a game of freezing time. I’m sharing this photo that was made over a few minutes in one day. The wall in the background is probably 100 years old. The creek, though it is always moving and changing, is as old as the mountains.

As is the case in all of these, time will tell. (which means I have to be patient in my work as well)

Much love to all of you, and glad to be talking with you all again.

S

Glow Long - West Virginia

Today’s post will be short. I successfully defended my PhD today - the culmination of literally 8 years of work, and I’m glad to be standing on this side of it.

I’m proud of the work, what it seems to say, and what I’ve learned, and I hope the glow of it sticks with me for a long time.

Like this sunset. :D

Love y’all, and talk soon.

I've Seen Many Seasons

I’ve photographed this tree several times. It’s an old, stalwart, tough apple tree that grows apples that aren’t sweet, at least not to start.

But every spring, it blooms and leafs out, and does its job.

I’ve been taking note of all the little plants and trees that are starting to leaf out right now - spring in West Virginia - and how unconcerned they are. They have a clarity of purpose.

I think that’s some of whats tough for us right now - that clarity is hard to come by. Carmen wrote a post the other day that spoke to the “noise” in our heads - go to the store? Don’t go to the store? Should I clean that all up?

Strange to be a bit jealous of a tough old apple tree.

Talk to y’all soon.

Self Reliant (And No Margin For Error)

Living in West Virginia has been interesting as this whole pandemic thing has developed. In the early stages, I think we replaced March Madness, and watching the Mountaineers, with updates on whether we could be “national champions” and be the last state with a case. As the weeks have worn on, we’ve watched as lots of out-of-staters have come out here trying to hide from the disease, raising tensions with the locals, to the point where the Governor has started closing campgrounds (based on talking with friends and what I’ve seen locally, probably overdue).

You see, in many (most?) of these small towns, things run on thin margins. The grocery store isn’t set up for a band of refugees from the eastern metro to come out and stockpile their vacation home, so they can hide out for a month. The hospital isn’t set up to manage a wave of infections caused by someone from out of the area that wanted a “corona-vacation”, when there weren’t any infections before - and folks weren’t taking trips out of state to begin with.

This is the double edged part of living out here. Friends of mine have joked that they “have been training their whole life for this, just stay on the farm, start the garden, and wait for it to clear out”. But it also means that the margin for error, for sickness, for extra cost, isn’t there. Lucky for us, we generally find our own way through times like this - we’re used to shortage, we’re used to “making do”, and we tend to prefer to “socially distance”.

Love y’all, and talk soon.

So Big So Small - West Virginia

Hi There!

So what have y’all been up to over the last few months?

I kid. Like many folks, we’ve had lots of things turned topsy-turvy over the last few months, and like many folks, it feels like it landed at a weird time.

I’m in my last semester of a very long grad school push - in theory, I graduate in May - and while i was looking forward to getting back to my photography - and talking with you all, this isn’t exactly the circumstance I had hoped for.

That all said, I’m willing to count my blessings. Today’s image is my first back in several months, and the first of the “covid-19” era, and I wanted to start it by talking about people and the goodness of this world we’re living in - even in these challenging times. These are some of those things I’m thankful for, taken just a few short weeks ago (first of March!) - great people, my lovely family, and a beautiful place. Since we all can use a little “content” right now, I’m hoping to have a little something for you every day, we’ll see (I do still have my dissertation to defend in about a week). But, lucky for us, we were “social distancing” before it was cool - and I have a lot of interesting stuff to share with folks.

Love you all, and glad to be back.

Mirror mirror - Texas

Good Friday morning!

As hinted at on Tuesday, I recently had the chance to go and explore the Dallas-Fort Worth region of a Texas, getting a chance to visit one of my best friends and see a patch of ground I’ve never had a chance to explore before.

We’ve had a few trips the last few years that were different than our usual style - historically, we go on road trips, and the plan is not to spend more than 2 nights in the same place. To see as much as we can. This time we spent about a week all in one place, hanging with an awesome family and their adorable kids, and got to meet a ton of incredibly cool people in the area. On top of that, the “scene”, in terms of food and drink and coffee and museums was fantastic.

Overall, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the Dallas area - but also realized how lucky and spoiled we are here. It was hard - very hard - to get outside and play in Dallas. It was hard - very hard - to escape the city, to find a place to yourself.

This little spot is a “water park” in Fort Worth. Something that we take for granted - something we would find silly - a park where there is running water, flowing over rocks (or concrete), but you aren’t supposed to touch it.

It’s fun to find cool places, but its also fun to find reasons to appreciate where I’m from.

Hope folks have a great weekend.

Particle Density - Texas

Good Tuesday!

Today’s post will be short - but i was excited about this photo - a classic “I like it and no one will” image, but that’s ok.

The thing this makes me think of is all of us, whirling around our little parts of our world, interacting with the folks in our town, knowing our communities, and then wandering off from our little areas, and getting pulled into new orbits, . How we collide with people and places and learn and move. We’re all little particles, moving through space, and interesting things start to happen when there are enough of us all together. When there is sufficient density.

I’ll turn off the nerd for today. Love y’all

Inspiration, Not Direction - West Virginia

I think I have a “resolution” for 2020.

I think I’m going to stop sharing where my images are made, unless it’s from a well established place. I’ve been noticing in our region, and around the country, how social media has messed up many places - places that were beautiful, and remote, and now have been trafficked to death, with trash and graffiti.

When I started this little project nearly 7 years ago (!), the intent was to inspire folks to get out and see parts of West Virginia and the country that weren’t in the tourist guides. To show that there is beauty every-dang-where in this state, up in the hollows, off the gravel roads. Somewhere along the way there became and expectation that if you shared the image, you shared how to get there,

and how hard it is to get there,

and is it dog friendly,

and can I get there in a car,

and you’re just selfish and elitist if you don’t want to share it.

And I’m done with that. These places are special because folks DON’T know how to get there. They are just…. out there. These places are special because they are in your neighborhood, if you look, and these are the ones I’ve found, and i keep finding them if I keep looking.

That was always the point - my work is meant to be inspiration, not direction.

Hope folks have a great weekend.

Curves - Maryland

I love driving. I love cars. Maybe it’s the mechanical side of me, some of the same reasons I love photography, where I control the inputs and I control the outputs.

When I was a kid, I had a toy gearshift that I mounted on a board, and an old clock face that I drew a steering wheel on, and I would pretend to drive the racing line up and down the mountain at my parents house. I watched racing with my dad, I learned about engines and transmissions.

I ended up going to college and learning about advanced vehicles - my first job out of college was working on hybrid and electric vehicles, and I loved learning about them and figuring out how to make them work.

And now, today, I find myself lamenting this change coming.

I don’t want driverless cars. I don’t want autonomy. I don’t want infotainment and connectivity.

I want three pedals and a gearshift. I want the feeling of the chassis and the tires loading up, the sound that tires make as they start to slide, and how the pitch changes at the edge.

How ironic it will be if I have to go backward to get it.

Either way, in life and on the road, my favorite part are the curves.

Talk to y’all on Friday.

Swirling - West Virginia

Good Friday Morning!

So 2020 begins in earnest. It’s going to be a big, busy, crazy year, and I’m already trying to get fortified for the big push through the spring. Day job. School. Family Life. House. Car.

I’ve always liked busy - when I have quiet time, I tend to be antsy and chomping to get at the “next thing” - but for the first time in a long time, I find myself longing for a quiet month at the family farm, something I’m not likely to get for a very long time.

So, love to all of y’all and we’ll see what I can do on the photo front this spring, and for now I’ll just continue to be like this little swirl, spinning along on the edge of the larger current.

Swirling - West Virginia