Autumn has come to the Appalachian Mountains of southwestern Virginia, and it is glorious. So far, we have had brilliant oranges and yellows - I've not seen a really good red, yet, but that may just be because I've not been at the right place to see it.
The photo at the left was created on my camera (that happens to have a phone!) by using an application called Mirrorgram. The top half is the top half of a photo of trees near my home, and the bottom is a reflection of it. If the sky had been blue rather than cloudy white, it might have looked like a reflection in water.
Where I live, we have four very distinct, equal seasons and I really enjoy it. Our winter is a real winter, with snow and icicles. Our spring is a glorious riot of flowers and birdsong. Our summer is rarely over 90 degrees with wildflowers growing along every road and highway. Our autumns, however, are truly spectacular. Our mountains are covered with hardwood trees that turn brilliantly rich with color. i have taken hundreds of photos lately, but I haven't yet got them edited and cropped to look their best. That's the problem I have - I have such a vast area of beauty to choose from that I have a hard time choosing the best pictures to share. Perfectionism is the biggest block for me, as I want them to be
perfect so I put off editing them until I have the
perfect block of time.
Crazy.
My photos are so important to me as I have MCI (Mild Cognitive Impairment) which may or may not go into full blown Alzheimer's Disease or Dementia. I have lost neurons in my brain to the point that my brain has visibly shrunk as seen on an MRI that I had a few years back. I have diabetes as well as other serious chronic illnesses, and my eyes are at risk. I have cataracts that will have to be corrected sometime in the future, according to my ophthalmologist (thought I'd have had surgery this month, but they didn't grow as quickly as he had predicted, thank God).
I tell you all of this simply to explain why this blog and photo project is so important to me - it isn't just to provide others with the opportunity to see our area (something that is important to me) but it is a way to make a mark on the world, saying "this is what I saw. I was here."
Here's a photo I took this afternoon
 |
| It was raining hard and hailing when I took this photo. If you can see it enlarged, you can see the rain as it pummeled everything. |
Hope you are having a beautiful fall so far, wherever you are!
Kat =^,^=
