growing – crowded – tangled – exuberant – comfortable
This is what makes photo challenges so much fun – looking at an archive from a different perspective. My offerings are as diverse as the chosen topics, selected to match each of the descriptive words above:
GROWING
Nothing beats a child growing. This was our Baby-J just a blink ago.
CROWDED
Crossing Prague’s Charles Bridge on a rainy day. I bet it’s quite a different scene these days.
TANGLED
Wires, wires everywhere in the Old Section of Hanoi.
EXUBERANT
To me, nothing is more exuberant than fireworks, these from a July 4th at Linville Ridge, NC.
COMFORTABLE
Back to an image of the South African leopards, just couldn’t get enough of them.
It’s still hard for me to think about, or even plan, travel at this time – but I do miss the adventure. This year’s cancellations were, of course, due to Covid-19; but the year prior we had some cancellations for a much happier reason, the birth of our first grandchild! Family-time with grandkids trumps even the best trip!
We are blessed to have so many wonderful travel memories, this one from a favorite trip to South Africa:
For years my husband has been picking up feathers for me. I don’t know what it is I love so much about them, I just know I do. In Florida, he finds a lot of peacock feathers, but here in North Carolina, it’s usually turkey feathers. As it turns out, our cat, Pippi, also loves feathers, so I’ve had to keep them far out of reach from frisky paws.
For as long as I can remember I have kept a feather in a cup of pens on my desk. Maybe it’s linked to my love of history, but I enjoy the symbolism of the quills famously used by early writers. My vase of feathers has long been a conversation piece in our home, although it’s not as noticeable these days perched on a high mantle, thanks to Pippi.
I now know feathers are hard to photograph. I think what makes them so special is what also makes them hard to capture with a camera. Each unique color and barb seems to absorb light differently. Even using my Nikon 60mm macro lens I wasn’t getting the sharpness I wanted, so I defaulted to some more artistic close-ups.
“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul . . . ” ~
This is actually part of a re-post, with an update, from a topic I wrote about last year.
Rural barns. Old barns are disappearing way too fast throughout America’s countryside and the backroads of North Carolina are no exception. This topic was also perfect for A Photo a Week Challenge about Nostalgia as well as Cee’s Fun Photo Challenge about old buildings, including barns.
The Appalachian Barn Alliance is a not-for-profit group dedicated to preserving rural history in part of western North Carolina by documenting historical barns and the traditions they represent. Last summer, my husband and I took one of their self-driving tours and visited the barns of Walnut Township in Madison County, near Asheville.
Once in Madison County, we followed winding country roads for about two hours to nine different barns the preservation group researched. There were many other old barns and farm buildings along the route, turning our drive into a sort of barn-treasure-hunt.
A few of the barns were not exactly where we thought, but the directions got us close enough to figure it out. Most of the structures were eventually used for tobacco drying of some sort, and many were originally built to house livestock. The history of each barn was as interesting as its deteriorating appearance and we could soon spot the distinctive monitor roof and gambrel roof designs. Along the way, we read about many used as flue-cured tobacco barns and converted in the 1920s to air-cure burley tobacco (used primarily for cigarette production). Many early barn-owners sold (or bartered) their barn roofs for advertising . . . maybe our first billboards? Does anyone else remember those “See Rock City” barn ads?
This year, due to Covid-19 the group has had to cancel many fundraising events but has come up with a great way to still conduct tours. Participants travel in their own cars and follow the researcher/guide as he conveys info by phone or walkie-talkie, during the 3-hour tour ($45pp). Once at a barn site, the guide uses a microphone and it’s easy to keep socially distanced. For info email info@appalachianbarns.org. There are so many routes still to explore and we plan to try one of these tours sometime soon.
