Slogging along

Sloggging along in the mud, that is - after an exceptionally wet fall and early winter, there is no let up in the precipitation. Its rained six of the last seven days - have stopped keeping a record of rainfall, its in the "just too much" category now. Walking across the pasture in the fog yesterday, I noticed that as soon as you lift your foot, the impression is instantly filled with water. The ground basically cannot hold any more moisture, hence a flash flood watch each & every time it rains.

Although this image was made yesterday (its on film... not instant), today began the same way, a dense fog. Then rain, driving rain, pouring rain, sun showers, bright sun, and the cycle repeated itself. Most remarkably the temperature soared to 62 degrees. There were a few crocus in bloom but the wind has probably torn them to shreds. For the first time this year, there were dozens of frogs frolicking (the genteel word for what was transpiring) in the pond. Tomorrow night's low of 24F will likely end their joyful celebration.

Floyd county is in a high wind warning but most counties betwixt here and the Atlantic seaboard are under tornado watches and warnings. Its been a totally no-rules sort of weather day at Stratheden Farms. In walking the canines tonight, one oak tree was on the ground and lots of dead limbs had blown out of trees. Time to do a little waltzing with the chain saw for next winter's heat - when and if the weather breaks long enough. At the moment, its too soggy to take a tractor out to pick up the wood - the tires tracks would damage the pastures, and you just don;t let freshly cut wood lay on wet ground and absorb water.

As the sun disappeared into the speeding clouds, the wind velocity increased further. And the lights are taking to blinking every once in a while, hinting this should be published before it vanishes!

you win some and you lose some-

And Mr. Fuzzy is not winsome.

Although the doctoral dissertation was accepted in 2008, from time to time, Mr. Fuzzy still works on revising it for publication - and still suffers dissertation PTSD. At least once a week, a dream laden with abounding anxiety about completing the dissertation revisits the unconscious mind. The most common variant is discovering during defending the dissertation, some major source of information was overlooked.

During the "research years," occasionally oblique references to a possibly important source were uncovered but the actual book, pamphlet or journal article could never be located. Sometimes this could be attributed erroneous citations, typos, or, to put it in a nicer light, 'willful imagination.' One title surfaced several times in rather off-hand mentions (nothing as firm as a foot note) but since WorldCat showed no copies in United States libraries and The British Library catalogue failed to list it either, the best evidence pointed to 'mythological.'

Whilst perusing a photo-forum a few weeks ago, lo and behold, a German member claimed to be quoting from it. A near panic attack followed in nano seconds. WorldCat and British Library were double checked but even a decade later, neither showed a copy had appeared.

Q: If the end-all and be-alls of the research world failed to show it, oh, what to do?
A: consult a money making mega book vendor such as AbeBooks or Alibris.

Voilà, there is was - and could be purchased and delivered to the United States for under 20 Euros from a Berlin book store. The 'purchase now' button was immediately activated. It arrived two days ago in fine condition. The first glance was promising; published by the same printer as the most important single work ever written on soft focus lenses, Heinrich Kühn's Technik der Lichtbildnerei, written three decades earlier. Oh no, if it was promising, did that mean the dissertation was somehow lacking or worse, in error? Ackkkkkkk.

After a thorough examination, the good news is that Praxis der Weichzeichnung was essentially a 113 page puff piece for its author, Michael Neumuller, who was promoting his own photography as well as advocating a single brand soft focus lens, the Rodenstock company's Imagon (a skeptical mind might even wonder if Rodenstock underwrote the publication). It has no direct quotations, no footnotes, no bibliography, no images by anyone else, no signs of rigor. Worse, Neumuller plagiarizes Kuhn at length without any form of attribution. Perhaps he thought that anyone who read Kuhn's book of 1921 was not going to read his 1955 tome? A fair assumption with millions of Germans & Austrians of the 1920s now dead and the libraries in ashes...

With the mind at ease, a fine night's rest ensued.

Knoxville

An invitation to an eighteenth century party in the wilds of Eastern Tennessee brought Mr. Fuzzy to the sophisticated downtown of Knoxville first.

It has been three decades since mine eyes laid upon old Knoxville - the new downtown is thoroughly delightful. Great restaurants, theatre district, arts district, pubs and bars, parks, plenty of off street parking, friendly people and just a warm ambiance that pervaded everything and everywhere.

Its a very alive area with many people living downtown in five to ten story buildings from (mostly) the 1920s. Based on the paucity of notices of units for sale or rent, it appears the living spaces are well filled.

There are no ugly, run down buildings or empty eye sores. It seems the area has become very popular and for good reasons.

One goal was to visit Boyd's Jig & Reel, a Scottish pub with live music and over 200 Scotch whiskeys. Its just the right size to be intimate but not tiny, with booths, tables and a lovely old wooden bar. Two lovely bar maids in wee kilties held court and were a fountain of information about the various delectable delights in the bottles behind the bar. It might seem surprising but my indulgence was a pint of locally brewed dark beer and it was delicious. The music did not start until my bedtime, 10:00 p.m., so I cannot evaluate its qualities. They will see me again.

There were a number of fine restaurants downtown, for dining as well as early day fare. Breakfast repast was at The French Market, a very popular morning cafe. They had a monstrous selection of breakfast and luncheon foods but my eye had already settled on the substantial crepe menu, finally alighting on the salmon and cream cheese. Oh my it was tasty. A sign of a fine cafe is not only the best of coffees but likewise the best of teas, and they did not disappoint.

Readers who know the author well also know he seeks out old and photogenic cemeteries. The First Presbyterian Cemetery, in the core of downtown, was begun circa 1790. As one might expect of the staunch Presbyterians of that era, headstones tend to be very modest in scale and design, nonetheless, there were many of visual and historic interest.


Knoxville is an easy four hour drive from Floyd and based on this visit, another shall follow before the year is over. Should you find yourself in Knoxville, follow the evaluations on Zomato and Tripadvisor and you cannot go wrong. Have a wonderful time there.

Jonas' Threats

It seems that just about everyone not in a coma heard about winter storm Jonas, both the threat and the reality. The National Weather Service was very accurate with their prognostication for Floyd County and should be commended. The news media, however, seemed to fear this was going to become the gateway to the next Ice Age. The truth: 12-14 inches, mostly falling on Friday, dead calm so almost no drifting, and dry enough that it did not adhere to conifers (thus no downed power lines).

The day before the storm was a beautiful day, cloudless until about 3:00 p.m., dead still, and about 50F. In the afternoon, thick cirrus clouds appeared without notice, the humidity soared and you could feel a major change was in the air. This was an ideal day to make last minute preparations, including: bringing firewood up to the porch, drawing 10 gallons of water in case the power went out, checking the tractors see they had full tanks of diesel and were covered, double checking the backup supplies for the felines and canines, loading the cameras with film/charging batteries in digital cameras, etc. Robust human foods were also laid in so large quantities of beans, meat, etc., were available, with an eye to foodstuffs that could be cooked in the fireplace if required.

 Snowfall began about 4:30 a.m. Friday and continued until Saturday mid-morning without ceasing. It was a very heavy snowfall, the sky was dark all day, but despite the length and density of snow, there was not as much accumulation as you would expect. The snow had an unusual texture, nearly crystalline, like Graupel or Snow Pellets and stayed in that form during the entire event. There were some on-and-off waves of snow on Saturday afternoon but they did little to add to the depth on the ground. By Sunday, the skies were a beautiful blue once more.

the car on Saturday morning

The birds were desperate for food and feeders remained buzzing with birds all through the weather event. They were consuming more than seven pounds a day! Blue jays, cardinals, juncos, doves, a pair of starlings (!), and numerous small birds.

The worst of the snowfall passed by about noon on Saturday but the sky failed to brighten one tiny iota. It was literally dark all day. Then the winds came up from the west, swinging to the north. Sounds terrible, eh? So your humble author suited up and with two cameras, one film, one digital, in deep protective pockets, trudged off to seek interesting compositions.

Mr. Fuzzy cooked up a storm during the storm, it just seemed like the thing to do. Not the most elaborate but favorite meal was buttermilk, cornbread with sorghum and a pot full of mixed beans and pig knuckles. Oh, and a dark Scottish beer for desert.





Sunday was largely cloudless and beautiful, the storm had passed. Here are two views of that sunset, one looking east and one west. All in all, this snow was less than a number of events in the winters of 2008-09 and 2009-10, and unlike those storms, this has been followed by warm days. At this point, most of the snow has melted away and the forecast for Monday is 59F. This was a perfect storm, beautiful, and then gone!

Turkeys looking for food just below the house

First snow

Beginning before day light and lasting about four hours, a light snow fell on Stratheden Farms. There had been light flurries twice before this season but not enough flakes to cover the ground. Although the temperature was barely below freezing, about an inch accumulated this morning. It has warmed since and most of the white has removed itself. Tonight the forecast is for a low of 14F and a much colder night to follow. Winter has definitely come to stay.

Wendell Berry poem

The Man Born to Farming

The grower of trees, the gardener, the man born to farming,
whose hands reach into the ground and sprout,
to him the soil is a divine drug. He enters into death
yearly, and comes back rejoicing. He has seen the light lie down
in the dung heap, and rise again in the corn.
His thought passes along the row ends like a mole.
What miraculous seed has he swallowed
that the unending sentence of his love flows out of his mouth
like a vine clinging in the sunlight, and like water
descending into the dark?

- Wendell Berry

Wendell Berry is unquestionably my favorite Kentucky author of all times. I've been fortunate to meet him and hear him speak several times.

Ghost Towns and Red Chile

The huge winter storm, Goliath, which swept the West and Great Plains had little precipitation effect on Stratheden but how the temperatures have dropped since. After a record warm December, the last three mornings temperatures at sun rise have been 12, 10, 14. The fireplace/furnace has been burning steadily over that time with a semicircle of felines napping about six feet away.

Glenrio, New Mexico, on the old Route 66

 It impacted Mr. Fuzzy in another way, causing a hasty exit from Goliath's path as he returned from New Mexico. Yes, indeed, Mr. Fuzzy made a short-notice trip back to the old home place just before Christmas. Fourteen days and 4,000 miles of driving - the first serious test of the Nissan Rogue purchased last May. The GPS system performed quite well except in one remote area of New Mexico where, although it knew the auto's position and direction, it wasn't as certain it was driving on a road. On leaving Oklahoma City, the disembodied female voice in the dashboard spoke: "Go straight for 267 miles" (to Amarillo). Mr. Fuzzy had forgotten how very little traffic is on the interstate once past OKC and how easy the driving became due to lack of traffic, flat and straight highways. He also forgot that Texans regularly drive at 90 mph and greater.

Driving the 500 or so miles from OKC to Albuquerque would have been a total no-brainer had it not been for the 45-60 mph headwind straight out of the west. The Rogue made 35 mpg at some point on the trip but only 19 mpg into that hellish headwind. Combined with an automobile speed of 75 mph, the car's hood was experiencing a 125 mile per hour wind - and constantly deforming from the air pressure. It looked more like a pool of liquid mercury being poked than a hard metal surface.

Argos Gallery

The main goal of the trip was to reconnect with dear old friends and if possible, take a few photographs. Most nights were spent with old friends, some from the 1970s, a long, long time ago; usually we picked up right where left off seven years ago, before the Floyd relocation. Many thanks to Olee & Sharon, David & Debbie, Charlie & Susan, Ted & SuAnne, Terry, who fed, housed and entertained me. There were also visits with Argus & Janet, Rixon, Jon, Eric, and Bill. Thank you all for your time and love.



Hitting Santa Fe near lunchtime, it seemed more than appropriate to have lunch at La Choza with SuAnne. The meal was its usual - magnificent and bolstered into the stratosphere by Sarah remembering me after all those years. Dining there was like receiving a huge enveloping hug from your granny.

 Tea time was with a new friend, Jon, whose photographs I have admired on Flickr for some time. Its always a thrill to have a face to associate with the art. What a great guy and talented artist. He was an early adopter of coffee-based film developer and generously shared some of his experience and personal refinements.

Rixon informed me that the exhibition, POETICS OF LIGHT, was still on display at The Palace of the Governors Museum. Since it contained three of Mr. Fuzzy's prints, he trotted right over to see how they looked on the wall. What a fabulously designed and hung show - was unduly proud to be hanging with some very talented folks from around the globe.







 After visiting Albuquerque and Santa Fe, the car turned straight south, down I-25 for a night in the hot springs town of Truth or Consequences. I soaked that night and the next morning in the Pelican Motel's private hot springs and felt all the better for it. Pre-departure breakfast was at a funky little coffee shop/bakery, Passion Pies. It came in the form of a waffle bent into sandwich form stuffed with nuts, goat cheese and fruit. Indescribably delicious. Oh, did I mention gourmet teas? No, not in a bag, they weigh it and place it in a large open bag in your cup which brews wonderfully... oh my goodness. It was worth consuming three huge mugs full...

Lonely grave, Hillsboro Cemetery

 Thence via the thriving ghost town of Hillsboro to the dead ghost town of Lake Valley, the non-town of Nutt and finally Deming, a lively town full of ghosts. It was another day of uniquely western winds, gusting to 45 mph and full of sand, grit, tumbleweeds and general detritus. I had to hold the tripod & camera down to keep it from blowing over or away. This was a situation where digital image stabilization really makes sense.

Lake Valley

Goliath was now forming in Canada - with a three day drive to Floyd ahead, it was time to hop in the car and beat it Eastward. Coming through Portales, New Mexico, it was 70F - a few days later, the same spot had ten foot snow drifts and thousands of dead cattle. (http://www.pntonline.com/2016/01/01/terry-snow-storm-lesson-meaning-blizzard/)







Swooping through northern Arkansas to pick up a friend, we dodged tornadoes in the northeastern corner of the state, apparently passing through two tiny towns just struck... yes, indeed, time for home. Quite a trip.