Magic Hour in Appalachia

Magic Hour in Appalachia, a photo by Quilter Bear on Flickr.

This was a spectacular sunset but we have them frequently here. I daresay that unless it is raining, we have at least one minute I absolute glory in the sky and of course, usually it is much longer. It must have something to do with the mountains here (just guessing) but the sunsets are beautiful,

Autumn Makes My Heart Sing

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  =^,^=

Hold Calls, We Have a Winner!

I wrote the name of everyone who made a comment on the last post, which made each a and my husband chose the name and the winner is...

drum roll please...

Shelley Shockley, come on down! You are the newest contestant...uh, no, you are the proud winner of a very special personal favorite photo postcard from me! I hope that you really enjoy it. It is one that I took when my husband and I went traveling in a county in Southwest Virginia one beautiful afternoon, in the Heart of the Appalachian Mountains. We went on a pretty narrow gravel mountain road and I ended up taking 425 photos! And after reviewing them quickly, I only needed to delete two, so that should tell you how beautiful and special that day was for me, artistically. I don't want to spoil the surprise of her card, so I will refrain :)

Shelley has a website http://shelleyshockley.wordpress.com/ and it has tons of great stuff to explore!

Congrats!

PS please email me at ArtyKat (at) me (dot) com to give me your address :)

Liberated My Art! Plus a GIVEAWAY

I participated In the Liberate Your Art postcard exchange , and it literally changed my life. Here is the link to what I am referring, and on that page you will find a video of all the postcards exchanged. Mine is there (one of 2 that I sent) at about 2:48 - it is a photo of three teasels (sort of looks like a thistle) and I will post the photo here soon.

Click on this link:
All about the Exchange

This postcard exchange literally changed my life! My friend, Kathryn Hall, who was also a participant in this exchange, told me about it and encouraged me to join. I am a retired woman who used to be so very creative even when I was swamped with work, and my private practice, and raising a family. However, when I became disabled, and actually HAD the time to be as creative as I wanted, I had lost interest due to multiple physical challenges and fighting depression due to being housebound for eight years (no longer, since November, thank God). My precious friend (more talented than any one person I have ever seen!) knew that the creativity was still inside of me, and she had been trying to coax it out. This was one of her various ways of trying to do just that.

I signed up but didn't really quite understand what I was getting into, and didn't put my all into it. Yes, I made my requisite five postcards from photos that I had taken, but there were surely better ones that I could have chosen - or maybe one of my watercolor paintings would have been better to photograph and use. Anyway, the postcards started coming and I was absolutely BLOWN away by the quality of art! But even more, this community of artists welcomed me with open and embracing arms, and I've needed friends and like-spirited fellow artists in my life SO MUCH. They changed my life by encouraging me and including me even though they didn't know me from Eve.

Kat, of Kat Eye Studio, is a wonderful encourager and human being, and I'm going to be following her from now on... where she leads, I'll follow!

Here are the postcards I received... one apparently got lost in the mail, as it never came :(

This first one was by Angela Vular

This one is by Elaine Millar http://elainemillarfiberworks.blogspot.com/2012/09/

This is by Lisa Wright (the one to the left) http://www.all-the-wright-stuff.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/once-upon-postcard-swap.html

The one to the left is from Eliz Burton

And the last one, from the Host, Kat Sloma

I am holding a contest GIVEAWAY! If you leave a comment below, you will be entered in a contest to win one of my (better) postcards! I will draw out the winner's name on September 30th, and announce it so the winner can message me with their contact information. Good luck!

Kat

Fall is here... August isn't even over!

Fall is here... August isn't even over!, a photo by Quilter Bear on Flickr.

Everywhere that one looks in my area, one will see the leaves either falling or scattered upon the ground. It is shocking to me that it was only August 23 when this photo was taken and yet the trees and foliage show signs of it being much later in the season.

I love autumn - I used to say it was my favorite time of the year until I moved here to Appalachia. Here, EVERY season is the most beautiful season.

From now on, every photo I take holds a special sadness and preciousness to me, as we have come to the realization that we must move back to Kansas soon. Our medical needs have increased and we have no family here to help us if one of us is hospitalized or worse. My husband just came home from the hospital (two hours away) after his kidneys started to fail and it was discovered he had a blood clot in his leg.

We don't actually have the funds to move yet, though the need is quite urgent. My daughter and elderly sister live where we are moving, and so we won't be alone. I am going to be listing a paypal account where friends and those who appreciate my blogs can send even a dollar to help us. It is important that we leave as soon as we can, as the snow and ice is on its way soon.

If you are interested in helping, go to paypal.com and enter any gift to this address: QuilterK@verizon.net We are traveling 1000 miles with just the two of us, and both of us are "older" and both of us are disabled.

A Post You Might Like To See

I'm not able to post all the photos here that I wanted to, and there are many that I wrote about in another blog... so I am sharing that public post. I'm sorry that I had to do it this way, however, here it is! If I  could post easily to my blog here from my iPhone, I'd do that, believe me!

http://quilterbear.livejournal.com/403379.html

Also, I have this to add:
Just today, we have made the tentative decision to move away from this area. I am  intensely grieving the loss of this beauty, but there are such outstanding benefits to leaving that it simply must be done. I'll explain later when I am able to do so. These photos I've taken will be all the more precious to me if we do move. I'll find beauty wherever I go, though, that is a promise I have made to myself. I will be posting photos no matter what!

A Cabin at the Edge of the Woods

A Cabin at the Edge of the Woods, a photo by Quilter Bear on Flickr.

This cabin that is now uninhabited has captured my heart. I am formulating either a novel, short story or poem about it. It screams "Appalachian" to me. I hope to do a notecard series of all four seasons, and maybe other weather conditions, centered round this cabin. I have taken photos of this cabin before, as you'll see if you look at previous posts.

At the Edge of the Woods

At the Edge of the Woods, a photo by Quilter Bear on Flickr.

What springs to your imagination as you see this photo?