Doctor HP Flowers

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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Laurel in Stormy Light

     This shot was taken along the Blue Ridge Parkway, near mile post 238 elevation 3400 feet, in Alleghany County, North Carolina.  A formidable storm cloud exhaled a radiant  breath of diaphanous silver light.  The Laurel and I were both caught off guard.
     Fourteen years later, actually 10 days ago, I splashed by this spot in a driving rain wet brakes shuddering with scornful displeasure.  Did not stop for another shot.

    

© r0732-04  Mountain Laurel
 Blue Ridge Parkway, Mile 238
 Alleghany County, North Carolina
 Friday 10 June 1994

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Purple Haze

Flowers:  "We are pleased to welcome Carl Gustav Carus - doctor, natural scientist, philosopher, artist and author - a profoundly influential critic of the contemporary art scene.  Dr. Carus would you kindly repeat your reaction upon seeing today's posting called Purple Haze." 

Carus:   "…climb up, then, to the summit of the mountain, gaze out over the long chain of hills… and with what emotion are you seized? -- you are filled with silent devotion, you lose yourself in boundless space, your whole being undergoes a quiet cleansing and purification, your ego-self vanishes, you are NOTHING."

Flowers:  "Our listeners will be interested to know that you first published this observation in 1835 at the peak of German Romaticism.  Do you think a deeply personal reaction like this has any relevance to our mass media driven contemporary world?"

Carus:  "Ein problischt nicht!"

© r0105-07  Purple Ridges
  Blue Ridge Parkway, NC
  Mile 431.  Richland Balsam.
  Friday 7 June 1985

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Oracle at Mile Post 428

     Modern geology aside, and all that, it's hard for me to believe the electrified etchings standing on end at Mile Post 428 only represent the chaotic aftermath of a seriously overheated earth - tuly belligerent and unpredictable. My regular pilgrimages to the Oracle stationed at Mile Post 428 reach far beyond a simple reading of the expressive veins exposed there by Mother Earth. …well, the less said about that, the better.

    

© r1121-31  Rock Face
  Blue Ridge Parkway, NC
  Haywood/Jackson County
  Saturday 12 August 2000

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Panogram - Rough Ridge Tunnel

© r1125-13  Curve Sign Scenic
© r1125-14  Rough Ridge Tunnel
© r1125-19  Rough Ridge Tunnel
© r1125-20  Mile Post 349
  Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina
  Friday 6 October 2000

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Brite Parkway Morn

     It's a 5-star "Wow." I camped on the Parkway the Friday nite before.  (Exactly where will remain secret.)  What's equally secret is the intense personal-level beauty of the high Blue Ridge Mountains in the earliest moments after sunrise.  Traffic doesn't built in these remote areas until nine or ten.  So, for a couple of precious hours it's one-on-one, full strength.

    

© r1119-23  Lone Bald
© r1120-16  Sunflowers
© r1119-12  Cowee Mountains
  Mile Post 432.7 at Lone Bald, 5600' elev.
  Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina
  Saturday 12 August 2000

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Mile Post 421.7

     Finally, a posting devoted specifically to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Shots are beginning to shake out of the archive.  These two come from my early attempts to locate each Parkway Mile Post, including interesting views and features, on US Geological Survey 7.5 minute topographic maps.  This view of the rock face on Silvermine Bald can be seen from the Fetterbush Overlook at Mile Post 421.7.  Here the Parkway lies above 5500' elevation, above the deciduous trees, in the spruce-fir zone.  All shown on the Sam Knob Quadrangle.
     Just imagine, in the 1800s before this road or any other existed, the determination needed to work a silver mine in this rugged terrain that, even then, was know 'more for lure than lode.'

    

© r1116-07 Curve Silvermine Bald
© r1116-04 Curve Mountain Dandelion
   Mile Post 421.7 at Fetterbush Overlook
   Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina
   Saturday 29 July 2000

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Metaphysical Interrogatory

Flowers:  Why did you cross the road?
Turkey:    Is that you Doc?

Flowers:  Yea.  Why did you cross the road?
Turkey:   Happy Birthday.

Flowers:   Thanks.  Why did you cross the road?
Turkey:   You're the third person to ask today.

Flowers:   Fine.  Why did you cross the road?
Turkey:   I didn't.  I climbed up the bank.

Flowers:  You are a chicken, aren't you?
Turkey:   Of course.

Blue Ridge Parkway
Mile Post 370
Buncombe County, NC
Thursday 8 June 2006

Dramatic Moments

Atmospherics along the Blue Ridge Parkway
Can change suddenly, in any season.
Being there when it happens
That's the challenge.

    

Blue Ridge Parkway
Mile Post  431.5
Haywood/Jackson Cos., NC
Thursday 8 June 2006

Norfolk and Western

     The Blue Ridge Parkway always serves up an extravagant experience even on a wet gray day in November.  Passing thru sleet mixed snow at higher elevations I drift cautiously downhill and pause for a moment of meditation at the Roanoke River and N&W Railroad bridge. The Parkway is calm on a Tuesday in late November with opportunities to linger - without sensing time - to absorb a natural mood browned by early winter, frosted with silver light. Cool, cool.

     My gaze follows the railroad as it bends out sight flowing easterly thru a narrow passage.  Daydreaming... Presently I hear the rumble. In the late 1800's one of the richest high-quality bituminous coal reserves was discovered in southwest Virginia at Pocahontas. By then wooden ships were a thing of the past replaced by steel and powered with coal fired boilers. Mile upon endless mile of coal cars moved along these tracks for decades, rolling east across Virginia to the Hampton Roads terminal at Norfolk.  Rumbling nonstop.  Fueling the world's navies.  The tiny village of Big Lick becomes a railroad town swelling with prosperity, destined to outgrow its back woodsy name.

Title:            © N&W Railroad.  r1102-28
Series:            Railroads
Location:         Blue Ridge Parkway
                   Mile 114.8 at Roanoke River
                   Roanoke County, Virginia
Date:             Tuesday 23 November 1999