Snow Business

image copyright Fred First
I have an excuse to venture up onto the Blue Ridge Parkway today, threatened snow notwithstanding. I’ve happily volunteered to do some writing for High Vistas, the newsletter for the Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and have a meeting with a Park Service spokesperson regarding the need for a couple of foot bridges at Fishers Peak–over near the Blue Ridge Music Center.

I’ll be heading over there next week (again, weather permitting) for some pictures and heck–maybe a hike and my first tour of the Music Center, scheduled to open for regular performances again in June. By then, and by donation or other funding, hopefully the trails will have bridges and boardwalks. Stay tuned. And why not join the Friends in their effort to keep the Parkway beautiful, safe, and well maintained–a national treasure to be proud of!

The strange image above is the result of some rainy-day doodling: a panorama taken from the parkway and cubed, then turned into a “planet”. Fun, if weird! You might see more of these. Rainy-snowy days ahead.

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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. Fred, this image is eye catching stuff indeed – my first thought (until I put on the spectacles and took a closer look at it) was “aha, a fisheye lens here”. I shall have to try this out on photos of trees in Lanark with Photoshop.

    … it’s cold here (about -30 Celsius this morning) and we are still shovelling out.

    Cheers,
    Cate

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