Amusing the Walkers

People like to go for walks around the Burnsville Library. This person decided to offer them a little entertainment. 

 

Shadow Typography

 

Righteous Rime

 

That's not Spanish Moss. It's astonishing rime ice that Miika saw on the Appalachian Trail.

A bit o' Burns from Joe

 In 2016, at a Cabin Fever University Scotch tasting event, Joe Hollis gave a memorable recitation of Tam O' Shanter by Robert Burns. He was holding the book, but he managed to deliver about 2/3 of the poem from memory.

Joe, back in the day

 

Joe Hollis, early 1970s, at the wedding reception for Janet Ohle and Frank Ghigo.

Joe Dancing

 

Big wind, big tree, late night

 

This was the scene just before midnight Saturday night on Hannah Branch Road.  Thanks to the quick efforts of neighbors and the South Toe Volunteer Fire Department, we had the road open in half an hour.

I Heart Pie

Robin 💜 pie.  We 💜 Robin.

Bringing in the Squash

 

Randy heads home from the community garden with an oatmeal-powered trailer full of winter squash.

Always Astonishing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We share the planet with these creatures!

Hearts-A-Bustin'

 

Miika reports that the Hearts-a-Bustin' are bustin' all over. 

Euonymus americanus. Its other common name is Strawberry Bush, but why would you say that when you can say hearts-a-bustin?

Shall We Gather at the River?

Setting for a wedding on Blue Rock Road.

Ohle's Pond Bees' Nest

 

Late Summer Beauty

 

Remembering Fred Park

Fred Park--dance caller, musician, raconteur, MC, photographer, ink maker, and river enthusiast--exited stage left on July 31, not so long after discovering that he had stage IV lung cancer. 

 His daughters Suzannah and Georgia Rose along with many friends staged a memorial concert followed by a dance at Warren Wilson College on August 19. It was a lively event filled with songs and stories: a perfect tribute. They streamed the concert on YouTube and you can watch it here.  

During the past 10 or 12 years, after he moved to Celo, Fred was the most frequent caller at the dances at Arthur Morgan School. He was a great teacher of dancing, his timing as a caller was impeccable, he had a voice that could cut through a wall of noise, he knew hundreds of dances, and his love for community dancing was unsurpassed. 

Rather than pick dances based on the abilities of the least experienced dancers in a crowd, he preferred to challenge people a little even if that made the teaching take longer. He was comfortable calling to a room of 100, and he was just as present and enthusiastic when there were six or eight. 

Back in 2010, I made a little video late into a dance evening at AMS. The crowd had thinned out, Fred wanted to try a dance form called a "triple," and he had to join the dancers to make the numbers work out. It was tricky, and he had to do a lot of correcting while he was dancing. But everyone stuck with it, and at 40 seconds you can see what happened. (A few months ago, Fred dropped into the comments and wrote out the calls for the dance.)

We're going to miss that guy.

Sunfall

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Miika found the sunfall!

Camera Retrieval

 

Jeff retrieving a pinhole camera that has been recording the path of the sun for just over a year. Will post the picture shortly.

When it's cuke pickin' time in Yancey County...

 

Seen through a tiny hole

 

This morning, as part of preparing for a photo workshop that Jeff and I are teaching at Penland in a couple of weeks, I made this picture of our house using a commercially-made pinhole camera that someone gave me a few years ago. No lenses were harmed in making this photograph. 

The white trapezoid is a tarp that we put over the deck in the summer.

Purveyor of Hugs and Smiles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday friends of Fuller McLeod, purveyor of hugs and smiles and friend of all wildflowers. We remembered her beautiful voice, her laugh, her daily walks to the river, her botanical knowledge, her role as adopted granny, and the way she welcomed everyone into her life. 

Scape Day

 The garlic scapes come but once a year. We try to make the most of it.

Bottom Edge of the Cloud

Evident Digestion

 

Celo Community VS Downed Tree

 

Miika sent these pictures of a Celo Community crew clearing a downed tree on Hannah Branch Road.

She also sent this picture of another wind event. This is spring leaves blown all over Ohle's Pond.

The Mysterious Walking Feet of Spruce Pine

 

DOT Precision Tree Trimming

 

Pine Shadows on Pond Bank

 Thanks to Jeff for summoning a few fellow phenomenon enthusiasts to view these fantastic pine-trunk shadows and shadow reflections at the pond just before the sun slid behind the Blacks. 

 

 

Undercats!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday was scavenger hunt day in Celo and Team Undercat assembled next door before heading to the event. They're cats. With underwear. "We're like underdogs only smarter," they explained. 

 

A pithy situation

 Linda Goodwin sent these pictures with an explanation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cleared out dead pokeweed stalks yesterday & pale gold coins fell to the ground.

Turns out pokeweed is one of the few plants (with walnut, butternut) that produce ‘chambered pith’ inside the stalks / twigs. Found a research paper from 1980 & photos from the NY Botanical Garden, but there’s almost no info about this online.

Each layer is like a skinny Cheerio covered with tissue paper. Neat little things.

 

 

Controlled Burn

Last weekend, Celo Community (with backup from South Toe Fire and Rescue) did a controlled burn of the field next to the community garden. 

 

Pretty tidy, don't you think?

A Crowded Garden

 

AMS had a full house for Octopus's Garden last weekend. This the the school's annual talent show and coffee house. The menu was impressive and the skits and songs were fun. The event raises money so support the upcoming 18-day field trips.

Click on this to see it bigger (or it might not make any sense).

Chinese Balloon over Celo (from Janet Frazier)

 

From Janet Frazier: "While doing my yoga practice yesterday morning, I saw the balloon pass over. If you look in the cloud just above the leafless tree you can see the small white dot. View is from our deck on Halls chapel Road looking out over the Blacks."

Jeff and Robin are going to teach at Penland (more cabbage)

Jeff and I are teaching a photo workshop at Penland this summer. It's called "Photography in the 4th Dimension" because we are going to use the connection between photography and time to unpack some fundamental photographic concepts. We made this silly video as a promotion.

Conversing with Cabbage

 

Sunday Morning Science

Jeff imitates a water molecule (two oxygens attached to one hydrogen) during a  science inquiry with Shaw and Grey at the first Sunday brunch of the winter.
 

Scrabble 23

 

Essie and Nancy in a very friendly battle for Scrabble supremacy at the 2023 Cabin Fever University Scrabble Tournament, one of our longest running events. 

Essie took home the trophy. 

Dreams Die Hard, they do

 

Another year begins, and for the first time since 2020, my day started early at the Arthur Morgan School kitchen. It's great to be there when the first morning sun of the year hits the Blacks. 

The occasion, of course, was the return of the Dreams Die Hard Diner, a New Year's tradition since 1983. Click on this picture to make it larger and find Sarah and Jody. 

A few people had to leave before we took this picture, but these are some of the folks who put it on. Three generations of Dreyers this year, also five people who were born in Yancey or Mitchell (Evan is missing from this picture).