September and I am still down

I'm at the library again. I wanted to post this update. It might be awhile before I get on blogger again -- much to my chagrin. Some other issues have emerged in my quest to get back on blogger -- problems that I am working on resolving. Thanks to RunE, Nature Weaver, Hattie, Birdman, Carole Ann Carr, Barbara Rodgers, turquoisemoon, and June Calendar for the supportive comments. I miss everyone and everything about blogger -- barbara

CRASHED

I am sitting at my nearest public library writing out my tale of woe. 

My computer has crashed. My mother-board died. 

I have ordered a new Dell. 

In the meantime, until I get it up and running, I will not have access to anyone on blogger.

I expect to be off about three weeks.

-- barbara

APPALACHIAN HOME IN THE BACKWATER AREA

Appalachian Backwater Area

Vacant

The house above is an example of the vernacular architecture found in the backwater areas of central and eastern Kentucky. Backwater having two meanings; one, that the area is peaceful and isolated and two, that the area's culture can be moving to a different drumbeat than other parts of the nation. 

Most of these small cracker box types of homes were built in the early 1900s when many backwater areas did not have electricity nor plumbing and schooling was not emphasized as important. Today these types of homes on the Kentucky landscape  are swiftly disappearing along with the culture they symbolize.

Like any culture we can always learn something from it. When these homes can no longer be spotted on the land we will have lost a friendly handshake along with values such as making do, hard work, and simple ways.

APPALACHIAN STREET MUSICIAN

Xyara playing one of her flutes

Street musicians are a rare commodity in the small town of Berea, Kentucky. Xyara, a flutist, is one of those rarities that fills Berea's main street with lilting rhythms for a short period of time each year. A former native of Appalachia she now lives in southern Oregon. Her family still resides in Appalachia where she visits once a year while also bringing her music to her native streets. 

Xyara's headdress

Her clothes and headdress exude a mother earth quality. When I asked her how she feels about Appalachia now that she lives in Oregon she said that the natural beauty of the land such as the sassafras and tupelo trees speak to her when she visits. She feels that she will always have part of her being  in the natural richness of the stories and traditions of Kentucky. 

Her lovely lilting notes attract the smiles of passing folks. She is animated as she plays in her bare feet -- moving in rhythm to her music. 

Xyara  travels with a collection of flutes that she plays at different times. There is a softness to listening to flute music that soothes one's soul.

DOWN BLUE LICK ROAD

Down Blue Lick Road one can see the remains of an old agricultural base -- now dotted with ranch homes on acreage. One wonders what this area looked like before the building splurge of the past thirty years. Who owned and worked the land? Who sold the land? I have a tendency to be theoretical as I ride down many roads similar to Blue Lick -- once farms now mostly  ranch type homes. The historical markers on the land appear as outbuildings and barns. Not many. Just a few to remind you that there are old memories that travel with the land.  

The small old barn above is slowly deteriorating. When it falls what will take its place? The fabric of farms is steadily being torn to shreds with only an outhouse there, a barn down the road, and perhaps a storage shed mingled in with the new garage.  -- not even farm houses seem to survive. 

Why are we in such a rush to let our farming past with all its beautiful structures fall into ruins -- almost right before our eyes? 

SUMMER READING AND NATURE

My Mother curled up on her lawn in Birmingham, Michigan

 when she was about 18 years old.She loved to read. 

Having a place to curl up and read a book has become one of the treasures of summer

When I think of summer activities the first one to pop in my mind is reading. Probably this idea was born during an unusually hot summer like the one we have been experiencing lately.


Non-fiction books are my favorite. Within this category my interests run high is many directions. I thought I would recommend a few good summer reads. The following three nature books are diverse starting with the life of an environmentalist, secondly, living with nature, and lastly, gardening with nature. Hopefully you might pencil one on your "to read" list.

A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir
by Donald Worster, copyright 2008, 544 pages

• His thousand mile walk
• Author noted environmentalist writer
• John Muir, pioneer of environmental movement
• Environmental battles

A Country Year

by Sue Hubbell, copyright 1983, 240 pages.

• Bee keeper
• Living alone in Missouri Ozarks
• Self taught naturalist
• Ex-librarian -- fifty year old woman

Gardening at the Dragon's Gate

by Wendy Johnson, copyright 2008, 464 pages

• Wild and cultivated world
• Green Gulch Farm and Zen
• Lasting terms of agriculture are on nature's terms
• Garden practices

Enjoy!

PRIMITIVE STONE/ROCK ART

OLD THREE STORY COMMERCIAL BUILDING

While out playing camera sleuth last evening I came upon a beautiful example of primitive stone/rock art. Almost hidden from the community it offered a great repose from the commercialization of the town. It was both old and new in its presentation.

The stone/rock art is a retaining wall that runs about thirty feet along the side of an alley. Its height is about 15 feet at its highest. Across from the wall is an old three story commercial building leaving a narrow pedestrian alley running between the building and the wall.

Above is the first glimpse I got of the stone wall -- part shadow, part sun. Upon closer inspection I noticed the diversity of the old stone and rocks and the few human touches that looked recently added. One recent addition appeared to be a narrow garden bed at the foot of the wall.

Given the types of stone work within the wall I estimated the age to be from about the time of the early 1900s. Rather primitive yet absolutely beautiful with the color variation of  rocks and stones. One metal window with a cross-hatched screen was inset in the wall, rather a mystery as to why. 

Large boulders are found along the bottom tier of the wall. Their beauty can be viewed above. Notice the bottoms of inset blue bottles behind the plants

This middle wall section with the pottery sun is filled with what I call a cement mix with gravelly type stone. The sun is a newer addition inset with a newer cement mix.

Art work pieces adorn the wall -- a hanging metal pot -- a  small blue container inset in the rock wall, gives one the human art feeling. The wall part behind the blue planter is gravelly but without the colors or beauty of the lower two thirds of the wall. Yet its crudeness lends itself to the human and natural drama of the wall.

The wall is shaped with nature and appreciated by the human mind. Beauty can be just around the corner in the least likely spots.

DROUGHT

Hearing that the drought is affecting crops in 29 states, Kentucky being one of them, I thought I would visit some local gardens to see how the corn is doing. Corn and soybeans are suffering the most under the current dry spell. 

A photo of  local garden corn told the story around here -- as you can see it was drying up before producing full ears of corn. 

I guess this will mean higher costs for corn and soybean products -- which really are found in most processed food.