Sunday, November 1, 2009

The Award Game

Many thanks to Miss Yves, whose Photograff blog I always enjoy, for offering me a Creative Blogger prize! I've been trying to make up my mind what to do about these prizes -- they all require time to complete the requirements and they all ask that you pass them on to other bloggers.

Up till now, I've happily participated but, more and more I'm finding that many blogs don't accept prizes, just because they are so time consuming. So I'm going to do as they have and say thank you but I just can't play the award game any more. The daily blogging is time consuming enough!

All the blogs over there on my sidebar are deserving of prizes! I love visiting them, whether in North Carolina, Chile, Missouri, Austria, Ohio, France, California, Maine, Ireland, New Jersey, England -- you get the idea. I love this virtual travel. And I feel like these are my friends. So unconditional awards for everyone!!!

And now some recent photos . . .

This is a little old-timey filling station that some clever person has restored in the nearby community of Walnut.

An old headstone in the cemetery surrounding a no longer used church, also in Walnut.







The graveyard continues across the street and creeps up into the woods.














More autumn leaves -- these from Sweet Gum (Liquidambar) trees in the parking lot of our local Tractor Supply store. The shapes of the leaves and the wide range of colors are breathtaking! I'm going to have to think where we might plant one.
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21 comments:

Martin said...

Hi Vicki

I have to say, I'm with you on the subject of awards. Well put.

Love the photographs. Any idea when that filling station might have first gone into business? And, Walnut! What a great place name.

Carol Murdock said...

Hey Vicki, that 5th photo reminded me of Starfish, colored ones of course!I hear ya on the Award Game.
It is Sooooooo time consuming. I've been thinking of putting a note on my sidebar too.Just trying to post and follow and answer is all I can manage and I'm slacking on that! :)
Oh! Enjoyed the Newsletter!

Vicki Lane said...

Hey, Martin -- I haven't a clue on the date -- and my husband says that it may, in fact, be a reconstruction by a hobbyist. I'll try to find out.

Walnut was at one time called Jewell Hill -- or possibly Duel Hill. Records and spelling disagree. We also have in our county - Big Pine, Little Pine, Ivy, Laurel, Paw Paw, Red Oak -- all trees lending their names to communities.

Yep, Carol, I'm going to put up a little notice, much as Reader Wil has done.

Miss_Yves said...

"The graveyard continues across the street and creeps into the woods"...

In France, the graveyards are usually closed by walls as if the living were afraid by the idea of death...
I was a surprise , and a pleasure for me to discover "open" churchyards " in England .

NCmountainwoman said...

I share your love of old cemeteries. I often stand among the graves and reflect on the very harsh lives those brave pioneers had. Your photographs are lovely.

Find a place away from the house for your Sweetgum. They are beautiful, especially in the fall, but they are a bit messy. I remember spray-painting sweetgum balls when I was a child for Christmas decorations. Such good memories.

Reader Wil said...

You are right about the matter of awards : they are nice but time consuming! And answering all comments is for me more important.
On your photos, which are so lovely, it says Walnut. Now I have just watched some DVD's about "the little House on the Prairie", which is situated in Walnut Grove. Is that the same place?

Vicki Lane said...

Interesting, Miss Yves. There are many old cemeteries in US cities that are enclosed -- and some in the country too. But fences are expensive and in our rural area, not used except to keep cattle where they should be.

Thanks for the tip, Mountainwoman. I believe there are some cultivars without the gum balls -- but what's the fun of that? I want to be able to collect and spray paint them too!

Reader Wil -- Little House took place in the mid west, I believe. Maybe Indiana? I'm in North Carolina -- the southeastern US. Not the same Walnut.

Stella Jones said...

I'm glad you got an award Vicki and I understand that they take up time. I too feel the same way. I am currently trying to think of 10 honest things about myself for an award that Pranksy gave me. 10 is a lot. I can think of about three, the rest aren't interesting really.
I love your pictures of the trees and leaves and the little old filling station.
Have a great Sunday.
Blessings,
Star

phyllis w. said...

Love those photos, Vicki. Wasn't that cemetery mentioned in Pamela Duncan's book Moon Women? And in Sheila Adams' My Old True Love? I don't recognize the filling station, but we usually bypass Wallnut when we drive that way.

I spent a very pleasant fall afternoon taking pictures at Riverside Cemetery in Asheville a few years ago. Have you visited there with your camera?

Vicki Lane said...

Star, like you I can only find a limited number of interesting or unknown things about myself.

Phyllis -- I think you're right about that being the cemetery mentioned but I'm upstairs and the books are down and I'm too lazy to go make sure.

I visited Riverside about five years ago before I got so in to photography -- what a good idea! I'll have to go back!

Vicki Lane said...

Aha! The Walnut Grove of Little House on the Prairie was in Minnesota. See HERE http://www.walnutgrove.org/

Eliane Zimmermann said...

i love the essential oil from the sweet gum tree (gorgeous picture!). it smells like marzipan when to dilute it! apparentlty it growes more than slowly, at least here in our garden. it has been here for about 7 years and is still about my size. but i love it for every pink-red-orange-yellow leaf.
and yes, i felt very much the same when i got the last two awards, it's nice but too time consuming.

Anonymous said...

Here on the old farm that our property used to be attached to, there is a very small, very old cemetery in some scrawny woods near the old barn. The grave markers are so worn they are barely stubs, and at first glance look like random rocks. Then, when you look carefully enough, it is obvious there is a pattern in the placement of the stones. There is no history we know of regarding them, but I enjoy visiting them and wondering... Deana the queena

Vicki Lane said...

Tell me, Eliane, what is Balm of Gilead made from? Around here it used to be called Bam Gilly and involved lard and the buds of some bush or tree.

Deana -- I imagine that at one time every farm had its little private burying ground. There are quite a few around here and, so I'm told, there is a permanent right for descendants to visit them, even though the surrounding property has changed hands.

Reader Wil said...

Thank you Vicki! I found it using Google Earth and it is indeed in the middle of the USA. I love those stories and I have three boxes of DVD's.

Vicki Lane said...

I loved those books, Wil, though I didn't read then till I was an adult.

Victoria said...

Great photos, Vicki! I especially love the first one. When I biggified it I was entranced by the iridescent colors of the leaf to the right of the red and gold ones.

I received the Goodweather Report today...oh, how I wish I could be at that lunch in Greenville tomorrow!

Vicki Lane said...

And I wish you could too! I'd love to meet in person all my blog friends.

I really love that photo too. I though I was just taking a picture of the red and yellow leaves but when I saw it on the computer, I realized that it's the background that makes the picture.

maría cecilia said...

Hello Vicki, the places around you are very beautiful, loved that old filling station.
I also had to say no to awards, they really are time consuming.
Cariños
María Cecilia

Nancy M. said...

Vicki, a lot of my family is buried in the Walnut Cemetery - Inez, both my grandparents, my mother, father, brother, sister, and uncle. Inez and my grandparents are buried to the right of the church and the rest are buried down the hill to the left. There use to be a play house over a grave across the road (beside the big white house)and it was usually full of dolls. Lots of history......

Vicki Lane said...

Oh, Nancy! The playhouse full of dolls is such a compelling detail . . .let me think how I might use it eventually . . .