Back in the garden...

Just can't get enough of the flowers.... 

This lily's about 8 inches across. Impressive reproductive organs. Smells good too. 

The only sunny spot in the mountains this morning

Running down the Nantahala River. The dark river gorge only gets sun in midday, hence its Cherokee name. Everywhere else I was yesterday afternoon and this morning was dark cloudy, fog or rain, all the way down the Appalachians from western Pennsylvania.  

Close up. 

This looks exciting... 

Did this river run this high in 1776, long before the dams? If so, did Bartram cross it? How? 

Gathering. 

Drifting off... 

Yesterday morning

One last quick look at Lake Ontario, so blue now.... 

Could be the Caribbean..... 

Why I'm not posting photos from the mountains this week

If you follow the Appalachians north to southern New York State and turn left at the Finger Lakes, you'll end up here, in the Great Lakes shore flatlands.

Sunset over Lake Ontario (Sodus Bay). 

Sunflowers along an interstate. A break in the rainstorms earlier this week, on the way north. 

Nowhere

Here's another mention of western NC in the national media: The Washington Post's Tyler Currie takes a walk on The Road to Nowhere. Good long article with lots of history, and a trip with former residents to the old cemeteries near the long-deserted town of Proctor on the north shore of Fontana Lake. (registration may be required).

Rhododendron time. 

From the top of Wildcat (a development near Murphy), looking north. 

Looking south.


On these ridgetop developments, interesting article about Madison County in the Christian Science Monitor: North Carolina's mountaintop homes stir debate. From the article:

But these scenic views come with other costs: Ridge-top building may cause downstream water pollution and wreck trout streams by causing too much silt to pour off denuded slopes. Others worry that as rooftops, decks, and greens poke out from the ridges, this pursuit of the perfect view may ruin the view for others - and compromise the region's most precious asset: its beauty.

(Via BlogAsheville)
Hear, hear. And it's not just rooftops and decks poking out from the ridges. Huge swaths of trees are removed, and that exposes a lot of bare soil from roadbuilding. Some ridgetops around here look scalped. A full page ad in the Asheville Citizen Times recently is touting a mountain top airport community near Burnsville. Hmmm.

More flowers

This one is pretty close to perfect. 

Hollyhocks.

After posting this, I looked at the ads coming up on right. Seems they're most always ads for property for sale (although there are cabin rentals, b&bs and the like, too). I don't think I need to be advertising real estate here, but I could use the income if these ads ever make me any money (you need to click on them for that to happen).
But there was one here earlier that made me queasy: new homesites accessed from the Blue Ridge Parkway. Please, no. Are those beautiful rural views going to be filled with developments, too?

Appalachian research

The Digital Library of Appalachia is from the Appalachian College Association libraries and is a searchable, browsable library of music, arts and crafts, customs, education, nature and religion.

You can search for something specific or just browse a topic. I browsed Music and found a link to Berea College's library on a local Murphy man, banjo player J. Roy Stalcup. The information in the essay came mostly from 1970's articles in the Cherokee Scout and the Clay County Progress.