Life on the Other Side of TurkeyDay

You’ll be shocked to learn that there was absolutely NO shopping activity from this household on Black Friday–a day upon which those who have the day before given thanks for all that they have are driven by an incomprehensible consumptive urges to go out and buy more. (And you want it delivered to your house in 3o minutes, get Amazon Prime Air…I’m not making this up!)

It seems like it ought to be a day upon which you are compelled to give stuff away, out of your abundance, to those who have not been as blessed. (You may have to step over one of them in the crush to get into Target or The Gap first thing Black Friday morning.) We were driven to go out and collect twig-kindling for the stove, taking the high road up above the bluff. This is NOT the path of least resistance. Bluff View West-Goose Creek This view from the top of the bluff looks down on Goose Creek just where it is joined (out of view to the left-center) by Nameless Creek. Behind the tree, the sun is just setting below the western ridge at local sunset–about 4:00, but even earlier in another three weeks at Winter Solstice. We have to import sunshine from up top, and it gets here the next day. We are, however, not plagued by the winds visited upon our elevated neighbors last week! House at Local SunsetIt was just about here below the house that the temperature dropped as the sun settled lower in the west and cold air began to slide down into Goose Creek Gorge.

Both shots taken with the iPhone 5s–the top with the very good pano function of the default camera app. It does a very good job of (almost instantaneously) stitching images without merge lines or exposure lapses. There is a little color noise in the sky. Picky picky.

The bottom shot was taken with the Pro HDR app, that actually takes then processes two separate shots exposed for highlights and shadows. I’m noticing on this shot there are some ghost edges in the larger version, but I was pretty shaky by that time of day. A tripod adapter for the iPhone is in my future.

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fred
fred

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. Nice pics! I did all my shopping on Black Friday…from the comfort of my home office, with beer and baked goods close at hand. 60 minutes online and my Christmas gift distribution duties for the year are almost complete.

  2. No shopping here (though I’m Canadian, many have adopted this horrid practice…)

    Great idea to actually GIVE instead of shop!

    Gorgeous pics (supposed defaults and all)!