Meet Mattie - A Friday Find

What is SO not to love about this wonderful creature.  I'm linking up with Kim Klassen today with her weekly Friday Finds.  And check out what we found in Thomas, West Virginia!

Mattie is an AKC purebred bloodhound...a gentle giant of four years of age.  Mattie loves to run and follow scents...in fact, bloodhounds have been known to follow and track something with so much tenacity that they forget to meet their physical needs of rest, food, and water...sometimes running themselves to death.

Mattie has four girlfriends...quite the playboy!  They are all purebred bloodhounds as well who have given him many children.  But Mattie has his morals.  No shacking up for him.

He lives with his caretaker, Barry,...a local, salt of the earth mountain man who has a long history in the mines of West Virginia.

Barry chatted with us quite a long time while we ooh-ed and ahhh-ed over his fine furry fellow.

And he told us about a backroad, off-the-beaten path way along an old rail bed to find this little gem.

Locals are ALWAYS the best.

Friday Finds - Appalachian Style

Today's Friday Find was found in Appalachia...

West Virginia...land of my blood.

This piece of handmade pottery was done by a West Virginian artisan who markets her work through Mountain Made and Tamarack - Best of West Virginia.  Both of these venues are extremely picky about the quality of work they accept for purchase by their customers.  I love the variance of shades and the pitting texture.  This baby's breath (remaining from one of the arrangements at my mother's funeral) is perfect.

And while I collect pottery from West Virginia artists for the sake of art, I am also attracted to pottery because it is a reminder of what I am.  I am merely a lump of clay the Potter has placed on the wheel of His will.  And when I feel the pressure of His hands and fingers on me, pushing and probing, sometimes through pain...looking at the pottery reminds me that this is the work of my beloved Potter, molding me into who He wants me to be for purposes He determined long ago.

I am grateful to be the work of God's hand...in progress, of course.

A Quickie for Texture Tuesday

A free and easy edition of Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday...one of Kim's textures added to an image (this one with Kim's newest kk_touchof-1).

There are times I am very attracted to doing landscapes...kind of light and airy with hint of detail.  This scene is rather nondescript...ordinary..could be anywhere.  But the marker to the right tells the tale of this site:

This episode is result of August 1882 election-day fight. Tolbert, a son of Randolph McCoy, exchanged heated words with Ellison Hatfield, which started a fight. Tolbert, Pharmer and Randolph McCoy Jr. stabbed Ellison to death. Later the three brothers were captured by Hatfield clan, tied to pawpaw trees, and shot in retaliation.

This is in Buskirk, Kentucky...3/4 mile from the Kentucky/West Virginia border...near the town of Matewan, West Virginia.

Can you imagine how many stories there are in all the nondescript places in this world that bear no marker?

A Sense of Sutton - A Photowalk

Edster, Bruno, Arthur, and I were blessed to be able to take a vacation to my second home...West Virginia.

In the heart of this state is a quaint small town of 992 people called Sutton.  Sitting on the Elk River, Sutton is a slice of Americana...  It is also a town that cherishes the creative endeavors of local, Appalachian artists.

This colorful building truly drums up the curiosity...

And this old church converted to Landmark Studio for the Arts...particularly emphasizes drama and dance.

While the Cafe Cimino is an elegant restaurant and a Bed and Breakfast, it also has a gallery that is an extension of Mountain Made, arts and crafts of West Virginian artisans including pottery, jewelry, painting, textiles, and photography.

But walking down the brick streets...there are other treasures and components that give you a sense of Sutton...

This town is big on swings...(so love this wicker swing!)...

And porches...

and places to sit...

whether alone...

or joined by a friend or a friend you haven't met yet on a bench...

And plants and flowers are sprinkled as you walk along the way...

Tulips in white, wooden flower boxes...

Lilacs outside curtained windows...

Potted posey outside a cafe...

And these breath-taking bleeding hearts in a neighbor's front yard...

But I loved looking at buildings, signs of wear, and structures...

Like these blue arches...

Or a door and stairwell heading who knows where...

And old, ornate wrought iron fence that has seen better days...

A sign that hints of the culture of this town...

Locking in or locking out?...

And this delightful positive graffiti at the Girl Scout center...

And signs of children...

And no matter how short or long your stay...you cannot help but know this is a true American home town.

A Sense of Place - Week One Reflection

It's been awhile.  I think I needed a little breather after a 14-day series...

Of course, I remain entrenched in Kim Klassen busyness...including a new class in her Test Kitchen... but this week I plunged into a new adventure with a Kat Sloma course called, Sense of Place.

Oh maaaaaan...DEEP!  First week's focus:  Do you photograph as you travel or travel to photograph?

As Winnie the Pooh would say, "Think, think, think..."

But the "committee in my head" believes that it has to be: I travel to photograph!

Now, in past posts, I have written about my Appalachian roots...and while living in Ohio with West Virginian parents, you are hardly aware of anyplace else.  But after my father died in 2009, I longed to find out more about my family tree beyond my grandparents...discovering a five century legacy of Appalachian roots. I realized West Virginia is truly my home...and go their at least three times a year to capture it all.  Not just places...but the taste, feel, smell, people, emotion, the oldness, the heart and soul of its true essence and history.  And of course...at least one WVU Mountaineer football game is always an annual event!

And as you can see...the "sense of place" at a Mountaineer game is its people...its fans!

I travel to photograph the idiosyncrasies...another part of the "sense of place"...

Rusted, non-working vehicles in fields...or sometimes on concrete blocks in the front yard...

Mountain isolation colliding with the high-tech world...

It may be a humble abode...but we have our satellite dish!

An Appalachian woman scurrying into the IGA...

And the ruggedness of a hard life in the hollers near the Kentucky border...

And of course its sense of history:

A foundry and repair shop for Shay engines that repaired what pushed the logging cars up steep mountains during the logging industry in the early 20th century...

Civil War era of Harper's Ferry...

And sense of my history...

The one-room schoolhouse my father attended...

The log cabin built by my 5th great-grandfather, Henry McWhorter.

The little mountain church my father began attending as a baby, where he heard the Word he based his life upon.

And the gift of a migrant scarlet tanager in the trees above my great-great grandparents' grave...

And of course, the sense of place in its breathtaking beauty...almost untouched over time...

The cotton grass of Dolly Sods...

Abundant fields of wilflowers...

White-tailed deer in the mountain mist...

Endless mountaintops...

Tumbling waterfalls from mountain rivers...

Dappled sunlight in the holler known as Thurmond in the late afternoon...

and unassuming wildlife...

Some known as a West Virginia speedbump...

And yet...I can never capture it all...put it in a box...and bring this sense of place home...

And what my heart hungers for the most is something that cannot be filled...

The longing to touch and embrace those dear to me who are no longer part of this world...

My family...

A sense of place...is it elusive?  No...as I always carry it in my heart!