Doctor HP Flowers

Deliberation

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© d071103-076  Sunset
  Warren County, Tennessee
  Saturday 3 November 2007

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This One's for Ava

     This posting says, "thank you Ava."  She leaves kindly comments expressing her appreciation for my flower photographs.  The fact that Ava works in the flower business means a lot and encourages me to reach deeper and more often into the botanical archive.  Bless you, my Dear.
     This lovely specimen is Miami Mist (Phacelia purshii) one of two Phacelias with fringed petals.  It blooms in mid Spring and prefers moist woods in Tennessee and Kentucky.  I've seen it on one day only; however, that special day it appeared in numerous locations in Jackson County.  At one spot by the  Roaring River it formed a display that looked like lavender-tinged snow.

    

© d080423-031  Miami Mist
  Jackson County, Tennessee
  Wednesday 23 April 2008

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The White Knight

Hearing cries of distress
The White Knight gallops to save
Hooves churning, red eyes flashing.

    

© d081025-018  Friendsville Fire Truck
  Shaw Mountain Road
  Monroe County, Tennessee
  Saturday 25 October 2008

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No Place to Hide

In this barren spot
I realize with alarm
There's no place to hide.

    

© d071203-013  Barn on Plain
  Lincoln County, Tennessee
  Monday 3 December 2007

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Welcome to Mudhole (pop. 13)

Mudhole Activities Committee is pleased to announce
a fabulous slate of organized activities for next year:

     - Square dance contest
     - Horseshoe Tournament
     - Pancake suppers
     - Easter egg hunt
     - Possum skinning demonstration
     - First Fridays teen club
     - Fourth of July parade
     - Weekly militia drill
     - Halloween apple bobbing
     - Sunrise revival
     - Charity bake sale
     - Popcorn stringing at Xmas

© d081025-010  Community Center
  Mudhole, Tennessee
  Monroe County
  Saturday 25 October 2008

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Roadelation

A coupla trees
A bend in the road
It doesn't take much
To give some a big rush.

    

© d081025-053  Curve with Trees
  Mannis Road
  Monroe County, Tennessee
  Saturday 25 October 2008

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The Signature Shot

     Day 1:  Only a backroads addict could proclaim, with a straight face, that  driving in mud all day, winding thru the national forest in storms and steady drizzle, was beautiful and exhilarating.  It was, and I so proclaim.

    

     Day 2:  Opened chilly and calm under dramatic sky, the backwash from yesterday's turbulent front.  H-man Slim assumed all navigation and map management responsibilities directing the expedition confidently southeast from Athens, by way of state roads 30/39, thru Englewood then right on an unmarked track near the Monroe County line.  Early light seeped thru fissures in the loosening cloud cover sending shafts of gold from cloud to ridge to farm to fence and back again.  "The Signature Shot!" I blurted surprising myself.  While easing the truck across a narrow shoulder sinking my right side Goodyear Wranglers into an unsuspecting ditch.

    

© d081025-002  Road with Ridge
  McMinn County, Tennessee
  Saturday 25 October 2008

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Tri-Angulation

     Heavy rail collides with the chords of modern mass communication.  Coded messages ripple at the speed of light.  Where's the disco ball. Already my position on the earth has been targeted to within a third of a foot, or less.  Is there a threshold of safety.  I edge closer.  My follicles tingle.  Recalling the rapture experienced before the gilded statue of Goddess Athena in the Parthenon nearly twenty five hundred years ago.

    

© r0081-16  Railroad Truss
  Nashville, Tennessee
  Saturday 25 May 1985

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Rubber Boots

Take me
To Paradise
Rubber boots

    

© r1071-19  Sawmill Creek
  Greene County, Tennessee
  Saturday 6 June 1998

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A Message from the Sower

     My father planted a vegetable garden each year, a real necessity in those days for country folk of modest means.  And, he seemed compelled to expand its borders each year making it bigger and bigger exceeding the plot shown above several times over.  (Or so it seemed to me.)  "Why does he keep doing this," questioned the voice of disbelief from my adolescent sense of rationality.  With each annual growth ring I could see my play time shrinking below reasonable levels.  In fairness to him, even though certain tasks like potato planting or pole bean staking required additional hands, he seldom insisted that I forego play for garden chores.  Which, of course, was fine with me at the time.  Over the years, however, when confronted by reminders like this gardener, I feel a nagging twinge of guilt admitting that I fell short and could have helped him a lot more with little sacrifice.  A permanent message from the sower.








© d080423-019  Gardner with Buttercups
  Overton County, Tennessee
  Wednesday 23 April 2008

Above:  Vincent Van Gogh,  Sower with Setting Sun,  1888.


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