Winter sunset. 

On Appalachia

No new photos yet. The weather is beautiful, sunny, if a bit cold, but it's that wind -- biting, harsh -- that's keeping me indoors. Better weather soon.

Meantime, some links worth checking out, via Fred First at Fragments from Floyd: Eastern Tennessee State University is publishing an Encyclopedia of Appalachia, in the bookstores soon.

Fred also mentions another new book about Appalachia, United States of Appalachia: How Southern Mountaineers Brought Independence, Culture and Enlightenment to America by Jeff Biggers. From a description:

Beyond its mythology in the American imagination, Appalachia has long been a vanguard region in the United States-—a cradle of U.S. freedom and independence, and a hot bed for literature and music. Some of the most quintessential and daring American innovations, rebellions, and social movements have emerged from an area often stereotyped as a quaint backwater. In the process, immigrants from the Appalachian diaspora have become some of our nation's most famous leaders.

An interesting counterpoint to James Webb's book, Born Fighting: how the Scots-Irish Shaped America.

New Knox blog

For those Southern Highlands folks on the Tennessee side, Knox Views is a new community blog for the Knoxville area, organized by R. Neal, formerly South Knox Bubba. Love the header photo.

Camera still works

Remains of a tree. Wonder how long ago this one was standing? 


Thought my camera was dead as it wouldn't turn on for a couple days. It's a 5-year-old Nikon Coolpix, and I figured its time was up. Was ready to buy a new one, had found the one I wanted, but now the Coolpix works again. Photos -- like this one -- don't seem as sharp to me as they used to be, so I may still update sometime soon.

Fog over the Hiwassee River from the bridge in Murphy. 

Raindrops on the lens...camera wouldn't work last night so hope I didn't kill it using it in the rain.... 

In downtown Knoxville

 
 

This is where the 1982 World's Fair was held....

 
 

Beautiful blue-sky January day...
 
 

(The photos look different because I couldn't get them to post through 'Hello!' as I normally do...after several attempts they posted directly from Picasa to Blogger.)

Talk story of the week

...The story about the owner of a now-closed local auto dealership who was arrested and accused of being the man who robbed a Murphy area bank last week....

Columnist Mark Townsend finds this story pretty funny (second item)...."A policeman in Nashville once told me that the prisons were full because most criminals were only paddling in the shallow end of the intellectual swimming pool. Just for that moment Wednesday, our illustrious suspect didn’t even get his feet wet. "

(Note links are to the Cherokee Scout and the stories will change when the new edition comes out next week.)

Snow on the Snowbirds....and lots of sun. 

Dark and dreary

It's pouring again. We've gone from rain to warm to snow to warm to rain in the last few days, and it looks like more of the same. Hard to find anything to photograph in weather like this; although the snow was beautiful Saturday the high winds made it too chilling to go out in it. Maybe I'll get some snow photos the next time...like tomorrow?
 

The crooked road

For a glimpse at the rich bluegrass tradition in Virginia (as well as some beautiful mountain scenery, check out the Roanoke Times' special multimedia Web package, Going Down the Crooked Road. Learn about Floyd, Galax, Grayson, and more. Hear bluegrass music, find recipes and stories. Definitely worth a visit.

After the rain....again

Too bad: The photo doesn't really capture the effect of sunlight on rainsoaked branches; everything was sparkling.
But it was just a brief light moment between rainstorms. Now the wind is roaring with more rain and colder air. We had a couple nice warm days though.  

Old photos

I've created some galleries on Flickr where I'll be posting some of my favorite photos permanently. Many of the photos in the mountain gallery were posted here once, but there are a few that I shot pre-HighlandsCam. So far the collection is just a few photos but I'll be adding to it as I go along.

This photo is of the most photographed spot on the Blue Ridge Parkway, so you all know where it is....


And, I should note here that one of the most prolific commenter on this blog (well, practically the only commenter) is Sonia from Brazil, who has her own photoblog called Leaves of Grass. This one's worth checking out for the lovely photos of tropical plants and trees, her 'walks around my neighborhood' and for her recent post gathering up lots of photos of the beautiful buildings in downtown São Paulo...

Springlike! After days of cloud and a long, foggy morning, suddenly the sun is back. It's still cold (about 40 here so far) but the birds are singing..... 

New Year's Day

View from Fain Peak: A few patches of sun, before the storm rolled in...Today (Monday) there would be no view at all with fog and clouds following overnight thunder, lightning and lots of rain. 

That's Murphy in the middle of the photo. 

West of Murphy (Friendship/Suit area), looking east .... 

Zooming out...this view from a new development over the hill...our house is in the dark pine forest at extreme right, although with recent logging it's less pines than it was a few weeks ago...