Doctor HP Flowers

the DOME lives next door

        Were you looking for Doctor Flowers' new blog about Stone Mountain Park (DeKalb County, Georgia)?  Regrets, that site is next door.  This is Flowers' first blog featuring photos from his 30-year travels along the Blue Ridge Mountain back roads.

        To jump next door for a visit to his 'Stone Mountain Meanderings' blog simply type the following Uniform Resource Locator (URL) web address into the address line in your web browser.  Then, press 'ENTER'.

                   doctorflowers.typepad.com/sm-park/


See you shortly at the DOME next door.

Many thanks for your visit, Doc

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Mixed Messages

 

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All I said was,
Ladies, which way to the Park…




© d071022-019  Goldenrod
  Edgefield County, South Carolina
  Monday 22 October 2007



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Sunrise Services

 

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     Normally my walk in the Park occurs two to three hours after sunrise.  How much may have been missed, forever unknown.  This Momma and her chicks is certainly a touching example.

     Apparently unconcerned, she allowed them to wander closely in my direction, pecking intently among the pine needles, before leading the clutch back to the waters edge for a final pose. 




© d110430-013  Momma with Chicks
  Stone Mountain Park
  DeKalb County, Georgia
  Saturday 30 April 2011



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Gillum's Store

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© r0771-32  Gillum’s Store
  Madison County, Virginia
  Saturday 26 November 1994



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Violet with Leafy Stem

 

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The Canada Violet sprouts leaves directly from the stem
Few others can manage such a prodigious feat
My need to revisit this spot deserves no better reason…




Canada Violet, viola canadensis
Chattahoochee WMA
White County, Georgia
Saturday 16 April 2011



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Call Me Dewberry

 

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     This is a species of Blackberry.  I want to call it Dewberry, Rubus fragellaris, but have more work to do before that can be confirmed.




© d110402-002  Dewberry?
  Stone Mountain Park
  DeKalb County, Georgia
  Monday 4 April 2011



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March Madness

 

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        During the inimitable madness of college basketball bracketology, another March Madness quietly transforms the Park creating a wealth of champions from nowhere.




Wooly Ragwort, Senecio tomentosus
Granite Outcrop Hikers, Homo sapiens
Blue Star, Amsonia tabernaemontana
Robin’s Plantain, Erigeron pulchellus
One-flowered Sandwort, Minuartia uniflora

Stone Mountain Park
DeKalb County, Georgia
Saturday 26 March 2011



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Chipmunk Chatter

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     Neither taxes nor radioactive cooling water, gas prices, a leaky roof or box elder beetles and belly flab can enter this pre-Spring Chipmunk-level conversation with the gladful Trout Lily.




© d110314-006  Trout Lily
  Erythronium americanum
  Stone Mountain Park
  DeKalb County, Georgia
  Monday 14 March 2011



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The Winning Step

 

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At home, a rainy day
Chasing lizards in the living room
And leaks in the kitchen,
I chill with Teddy Wilson
Then step into Spring.




© r1414-25  Spring Opening
  Randolph County, West Virginia
  Thursday 1 June 2006



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Green with Trust

 

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     There seems to have been a common desire, when stores and service stations closed for business, to leave the gas pumps standing.  As a reminder of place and times.  As a reminder the clerk did not need to question my statement of gallons and cost.




© 0765-17  Gas Pump
  Dinwiddie, Virginia
  Dinwiddie County
  Monday 12 November 1994



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Pickin' in Prosperity

 

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     What’s it like to explore villages and towns, street by alley in pursuit, peering up and around corners, looking for the perfect window?  I’ve taken more pictures of windows and doors, over the years, than any other subject.  By far.  And cannot explain why I’ve posted so few. Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz on History Channel’s American Pickers express the same fascination with each Sinclair sign and gum ball machine they rescue. The hunt, the find, the rush.




© d071023-013  Window with Bars
  Prosperity, South Carolina
  Newberry County
  Tuesday 23 October 2007



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My Puzzlements

 

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Thirty-two degrees in the Park this morning
Breezy, but not windy
It’s not breezy, closer to windy
Between closer to windy and windy, actually

Better ask my fingers about that
     “With the same kind of glove on each hand
     Fingers on the right stay really cold
     Those on the left always feel warm.”




© d071225-013  Trees by Lake
Stone Mountain Park
DeKalb County, Georgia
Tuesday 25 December 2007



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From Under the Ice

 

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Delusions
Impaired reality
Hallucination
     “I am Louisiana Red, and
       I come from behind the sun”
Ice dreams
Ice dreams
Ice dreams




© r1273-06  Barn at Sunrise
  Hardy County, West Virginia
  Tuesday 21 May 2002



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My Blackberry Wish

 

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     Day 20, homeward bound.  Riding the Blue Ridge Parkway from Benge Gap in Ashe County, south 155 miles to State Road 215 in Haywood County.  Ten blissful wildflower hours.  Twelve devotional stops for opportunities like this.  Over dosing with infatuation.
     12:30 pm.  Three Knob overlook near Crabtree Meadows, milepost 339.  While flat on my back, conducting myself like any prototypically aggressive advanced amateur photographer would under the circumstances, camera aiming skyward up the rock face, isolating a goatsbeard floating on the draft, a curious question echoed about, “What kind of flower is this?”  Craning my surprised neck from ground level, scanning, locating and focusing, “Water parsnip,” I echoed like a sonar blip.  He patted me on the back for that one,  satisfied and a bit avuncular.
     Such was my upturned introduction to Harry Ellis, resident of Bakersville in Mitchell County.  Wildflower photographer for 40-years.  Extensively published in outdoor photography magazines.  He had a trunk full of exhibits, too.  Covers, articles, essays.  Beautiful eye-popping work.  I felt small and inadequate.  He even showed me a shot of trout lilies growing on a tree branch.  Remarkable, trout lilies don’t grow in trees!!  I turned off my camera and replaced the lens cap.

     Looking back on that day,
     I wish Harry Ellis could see this shot. 




© r1215-12  Blackberry
   Mile Post 422.0
   Blue Ridge Parkway, NC
   Tuesday 12 June 2001



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M M X I ?

 

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Maybe 3-D will help.




© d071103-002 Railroad in Fog
   Rock Island, Tennessee
   Warren County
   Saturday 3 November 2007



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The Fire Truck Salesman

 

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     “Mmmmmm,” my palate trembles.  Chocolate fudge oozes from the spoon.  At Dee’s Drive-In overlooking the Tug Fork Big Sandy River here in Louisa, Lawrence County, Kentucky.  Only a silver dollar’s throw across the River from Fort Gay, Wayne County, West Virginia. I’m so glad to be on the road, pleased to be right here, and delighted to have been a Fire Truck Salesman, if only for 15 minutes.  That’s Andy Warhol type fame.
     It was this morning.  A micro story of mistaken identity climaxed with a three mile truck chase.  Beginning (Act 1) at the Turkey Creek water wagon. Finishing (Act 2) at Jarrell Community Church. Local cast: an on-stage volunteer fireman who, like many, chuckled at the idea that someone on vacation would with forethought leave home and drive to Turkey Creek, Kentucky, to take a picture of their fire truck; and, an off-stage supervisor who knew exactly what the dude with camera was hustling.
     Several minutes down the road, that dark thought brought pickup tires sliding to a stop beside me.  For me, here was about the nice church yard.  For him, here was a message delivered, “He say’s to tell you the truck is not for sale.”…  There was a pregnant pause.  He chuckled again, and casually began to tell me about the church. It was his after all.

     FINIS

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© d070601-023  Fire Truck
© d070601-025  Jarrell Church
  Turkey Creek, Kentucky
  Martin County
  Friday 1 June 2007



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