January Maple

image copyright Fred First
Behind the storm, the sun broke out–a good omen, I thought, for New Years Day. I set out with the camera, and didn’t make it any farther than the end of the driveway when the lighting stopped me in my tracks. It is a scene I’ve seen so many times before, but it never fails to dazzle me. That is good–to not take for granted anything that ever has the power to create awe and joy.

Trite as it seems to say it, I hope to see this place again, for the first time, every day this year. Some of that will end up in pictures–very ordinary images of very ordinary places and scenes–sometimes with the words they evoke, sometimes alone. (Many, like this one, will go to a larger image if you click on it.)

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Fred First holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession. He moved to southwest Virginia in 1975 and to Floyd County in 1997. He maintains a daily photo-blog, broadcasts essays on the Roanoke NPR station, and contributes regular columns for the Floyd Press and Roanoke's Star Sentinel. His two non-fiction books, Slow Road Home and his recent What We Hold in Our Hands, celebrate the riches that we possess in our families and communities, our natural bounty, social capital and Appalachian cultures old and new. He has served on the Jacksonville Center Board of Directors and is newly active in the Sustain Floyd organization. He lives in northeastern Floyd County on the headwaters of the Roanoke River.

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  1. Beautiful image, Fred. I saw it first in my RSS reader, which for some reason squashed it to roughly 4×3 portrait mode – and the odd thing is, the proportions look quite pleasing that way round – try it!

    Happy New Year!

  2. Beautiful image indeed. You see these things, perhaps, because you have resided in those other places that offer the otherside of ourselves. Are you also a fellow traveler on the dark side. It is a side that although interrupted by temporary respite, always returns. Although I see your images, they invite me to lie down.

    Good luck to you nevertheless.