"Slow Road Home" by Fred First

Fragments From Floyd was one of the first blogs I discovered when I went googleing on the phrase "Blue Ridge Mountains" (actually Marie Freeman’s “Blue Ridge blog” was the first site I hit and it was her links list I was following to Fred’s). Fred’s writing spoke to me and when he starting blogging about the book project I was intrigued. When he made the pre-production order offer I jumped for it.

As you can see from the photo, I have been having a time warping experience of it. Reading both the book and the “Fragments From Floyd” archives. Moving forward on one “slow road” as I move backwards on the other, makes for an interesting if warped sense of time and place.

I highly recommend the book as a great read of the sort I haven’t read in years. And having the ability to follow the evolution of Fred’s style as he explored his muse in public on Fragments only adds to the enjoyment of the book.

Mail Pouch Tobacco - Indiana

"Enjoy some history about Mail Pouch Barns: "Mail Pouch Tobacco" means bright yellow letters on a barn whose red planks have weathered to dark brown against an Appalachian hillside. In the 1870's the Bloch Brothers, whose name appears on the sign's masthead, had a small side business rolling stogies in Wheeling. At some point, they began bagging flavored stogie wrapper clippings as "scrap", or chewing tobacco, and sold them under the names of the stores who handled their product. Soon the brothers launched their own brand, "West Virginia Mail Pouch Tobacco". Although it is not specifically mentioned in the company's 75th anniversary history, for a time the product was also promoted for smoking."

I found this barn in southern Indiana a few years back. Something about the photo keeps calling me back. It lived as my wallpaper for a while after I took the picture and I keep printing it for different reasons. It was early spring and the light was washed out. The trees were just starting to leave out and the daffodils were blooming all over the countryside. The above paragraph is from the Greene County Pennsylvania Tourism website and they have a bit more to say about the history of the barns, so check it out. My photo has had a bit of Photoshop magic applied...

Google Earth

This is the view of North Carolina that I am dreaming over...Looking north over Boone into Virginia with Mt. Rogers on the horizon.

I can waste more time playing with Google Earth...They shouldn't put programs like this in the hands of a mapaholic. The only problem I have is, why, with the latest photo update is this part of NC (and only this part) covered with clouds? Have I been using up too much bandwidth guys? I appreciate the higher resolution in the sat photo's, but higher resolution of clouds is still clouds...

Oh well, If you don't have Google Earth, get it...it will even work (slowly) on dial up.