Wrought in Cedar

 

The Ring of Life

Long after the branch is gone
Smooth worn the chiseled stone
Under a tree of life a song
Ringing round that heavenly throne

One of my favorite "haunts" is old cemeteries. The contrast with the granite and grass. The old cedars that cut into the wrought iron fences. The ornate and overdone stones of the forgotten wealthy. The humbly simple stones of the remembered meek.
When I was young, it was a place of fear, a place of spooks, to be avoided. The older I grow, it seems more a welcoming place, like old friends, many of whom reside there.
I stroll from stone to stone and ponder the lives lying beneath me. I often wish that we could chisel more of our lives upon the stones, something of who we were, what we held dear, how we died, how we lived.
But 'tis all a mystery, like death itself. We all know that one day we shall come to this place, yet
like little children, we feign dwelling with the spooks.

Missing Transfiguration

The ordinary into the extraordinary?
Expectation of transformation
should be in our every thought
That nothing in this life should be
considered common or ordinary
when we consider the invisible hand
that wrought this
marvelous expectation to reality.

Total Loss

 

The call from Jordon came Sunday night. We were thinking at first he was joking, as he usually does. He said that he and Ben wrecked the truck, that it was totaled. Melanie and I were at the Huddle House, just finishing a breakfast supper. We drove across town down Pinemount, then down Birley Road to Johnson Road, where we found the truck off the dirt road, over a fence. Ben was driving with Jordon and two girls in the passenger seat. They said they were not speeding, but heading down the dirt road when the back brakes locked up, they went into a spin, flipping three times,coming to rest upright over the fence.
By a miracle, no one was hurt, the air bags did not deploy. There at the scene was Ben's parents and the Pope's, whose daughter was with Jordon and Ben. We called Trey and he bought his 4 wheeler and pulled the truck off the fence. We had to change the front tire which was off the rim. The truck cranked and Russell and I drove it slowly back to the Popes house. Two days later the insurance adjuster came and totaled it out, cutting us a check. The next day the salvage company came and got it.
That little truck drove many a mile with Landon over to St Augustine and back and all over. It was a good truck and a crying shame to lose it.
But, it was a big blessing that no one was hurt.

Grand Magnolia

The frost did pass by these Spanish Magnolia's. The sky was a clear,crisp blue, the temperature in the mid-sixties, and I was quite content to be on the Gum Swamp Road.

Upon fields of Frost

On Kayak Court, the sun was just coming over the trees and the frost from the nights freeze was yet upon the ground. I paused and took this photo, attempting to balance the brilliant white with the morning sky. My ground was a bit darker than I wanted.

Planter Garden

I came upon this nice planter garden off Voss Road. I want to build planter boxes like these and create a backyard planter box garden. But since the truck was totaled, I am out of a way to get the eight foot boards I need to haul them.

Double Run Home

My home continues to progress along. I've added a front door. Next the steps.
Windows were too expensive so I will just have to stay out more if I want a view.
I've placed it in a field so there is no danger from falling trees.
I wish to live a life of unquiet desperation, free from the confines
of a desperate city.

Why did the chicken cross Cline-Feagle?

I do not know, but everytime I am on my favorite road in Columbia County, he is either crossing or in the middle. Today I was up early and made the long loop I like to take(which I used to take on the bicycle)down Price Creek Road to Cline Feagle and on down to Providence and back. I stopped at Bailey's along the way for fifty pounds of layer crumbles for the two hens.
Then on to Watermelon Park for gas and then back home, having only taken twenty photographs, a low for me.

Mary's Raleigh

Mary Knapp lives off Gum Swamp Road. I took this photograph and turned it black and white for my friend Tomi-Sue Markham. I hate to see any bike chained to a tree. I had a good of mind to free it.

McGlamery/McCormick

Never grow tired of passing the old McGlamery place on Gum Swamp. In the mid-eighties, Mrs McGlamery was selling the old home and property for a whooping $75 thousand. Today, Mr Jordan, who owns the property is trying to sell it for a Million.

Guineafowl

Got snakes?
Get some guinea
They say if a snake ventures into the yard
they will seek it out
gather around it and
torment it until either it leaves the yard
or you come out and
rid the yard of the snake.