A first...and a second...

Been meaning to post this pic of my nephew and niece as it represents one of the first pictures we've received with both of 'em smiling! And a cute one it is, at that! Smiles get even bigger when you click on the pic ~

The 'second' is that they turn two this Friday, July 3rd, so we'll be looking forward to seeing their birthday party pictures since it's a little hard to get to Boston at this time (take lots of pics, Mom and Roger!)

Well, I crashed with a rare mid-day nap Monday and can't say I accomplished a whole lot outside of going on some necessary errands first thing in the morning, so today is clean-up and organize from last weekend's show, and make cuts on this week's projects. Short post this AM as I'm hitting the ground running - okay, walking. Mercy is at the door as I made the mistake of jingling her collar a minute ago...

Stay tuned for more pics and cool stuff tomorrow!

How can you tell it's Monday?

Just observe the squirrels...

Nothin' wrong with the 'gray-body' above...a bird feeder full of fresh food and a warm summer sun (and lack of a nearby canine) made for some great vegging conditions. I can relate!

The small, new Maggie Valley show this past weekend ended up being a nice little show afterall, and worth my time. Met a lot of new faces and blew the cobwebs off of all my show equipment in successful fashion - the first show of the year is always a test of seeing what I forgot to bring, or what didn't make it into which box, or finding out that something that normally stays in location X has mysteriously moved to some other uncharted location. The afternoon storms held off, as well.

One of the more popular 'racks' was my "Recession Specials" (above, left), flutes I threw in a box 4-5 years ago because of some playing or cosmetic 'issue', or just some experimental design I was tinkering with. I didn't have the heart to toss 'em in the fireplace, and I kept thinking that one day I'll fix whatever the ailment at hand was per a particular flute. Well, I got some up and running...I've learned a few things the past few years, so it was actually fun and rather satisfying to be able to play 'doctor' and bring a few to life. Mind you, they are 'seconds' in appearance and such, and are marked down accordingly...but folks seemed to identify with the rag-tag flutes (and their price tags!).

I'd almost forgotten about the elk antler rack I made while I was out in South Dakota, after someone gave me the pair...perfect for the bahama mama flutes and walking cane flutes. I'll be working on those pictures this week as I continue to firm up the new website. At some point I'll blog about some of my other art from years past...one such piece is "Angel Dog" in the backbround: acrylic faux mosaics on wood. 'Nuther post for a 'nuther day!

Big July 4th weekend ahead...glad the heat has broken a little with a cold front that just came through. And it's time for some more neice and nephew pics as they turn 2 this Friday! Hope you have a great Monday, even if it's squirrelly!

Hard to swallow...

Unless you are one....


(click on pics to enlarge)

Cute little bugger I captured, this Barn Swallow perching on metal pilings. Potential flute carving perhaps?....

------------------------------------

By virtue of knowing ahead of time I probably won't have enough time to tackle my weekly 'Fried Fridays' foray tomorrow, I'll pass this week and simply give the golden fryer award in advance to South Carolina governor Sanford...not for his affair coming out yesterday so much as for the 3-ring media circus his staffers and aides had to create in the spirit of a really bad Keystone Cops movie. Guess I can't blame them too much for confusing the Appalachian Trail with Buenos Aires, Argentina...

(cue the crickets chirping...)

And now with a follow-up to the summer art show scramble from the previous post...

Well, let's just say I made a particularly good move in emailing an artist I've never met whose website indicated she was really involved with regional shows in the mountains...lo and behold I got hooked up with a small, new, but apparently quality art show in Maggie Valley of all places...starting SATURDAY! YIKES! When I got in touch with the organizer she had received a vendor cancellation just 5 minutes before my phone call...a bit of serendipity, and with the very affordable fee I've got nothing to lose.

However, I now have EVERYthing to gather together quickly. Hence, I'm hitting the ground running today and trying to think ahead as much as possible. There is a boat-load of stuff to take care of beyond the tent, tables, tablecloths, and racks, especially with this being the first tented show this year. Weather looks fine if not downright hot for the mountains this weekend...near 90. I'm in space #10 which is nice and shaded...I'll take it!

Onward and upward. Lemonade from lemons. Flutes from sticks...hey, there's an idea!...

Go figure...

You know what they say about the word "Assume"...

...it makes as 'Ass' out of 'u' and 'me'...

I had decided early this year to focus what few art shows I'd vend at to venues in the western NC mountains as opposed to the Charlotte/Piedmont region. I usually sign up for only 2-4 shows as I am limited in how quickly I can produce new stock, which last winter was quite slow, indeed.

Maggie Valley is quite the small but touristy destination west of Asheville, just short of Cherokee. The Chamber of Commerce puts on a July as well as Labor Day arts and crafts show at the Festival Grounds, there. Seemed like the choice to make.

Only they didn't.

Choose me.

Yep, first ever 'rejection' letter that simply stated it had nothing to do with my flutes, only that they already had enough flute vendors, and they needed to limit types of crafts. Took me a minute to pick my jaw up off the floor...

I vended at Bele Cher in Asheville last summer, a 3-day show whose size and scope dwarfs the Maggie venue. I was the only flutemaker there. I took part in the long-running Church Street Festival in nearby Waynesville last October...and the only flutemaker there.

And now the Maggie Valley Chamber tells me they already had enough flutemakers. And it's not open for discussion. This I just gotta see.

Unfortunately, it was one of the later submission deadlines, and I can find nothing else still 'open' to consider for this summer. If anybody knows of a good lead, let me know! Guess I'd better get the new website up ASAP and reorient my compass lickety-split...

That's really all the news from my Lake Wobegon at the moment...kinda consumes your mental energy when you get blindsided like that. Happy Summer to y'all, now that it came in officially Sunday. Mercy just got her long-overdue summer cut and none too soon! Kinda like this portrait of her, too...


WOOF!

"Fried Fridays: Blind Stupidity"

If you are a regular follower of these "Fried Fridays" posts, you are well aware the people involved are not the sharpest tools in the shed.

They don't have both oars in the water.

They're a few fries short of a Happy Meal.

Most of 'em should let people think they're idiots and keep their mouth shut, instead of opening it and removing all doubt.

Reader Monica sent a story from Salt Lake City that fit the bill, alright. A robber wielding a pick axe entered the "Black Diamonds" store and demanded they fork over their precious metals and money. The employee had to explain as best he could that there were no diamonds or gold or jewels: it was a technical climbing gear outlet. The befuddled robber probably had that deer-in-the-headlight look as he next decided to steal some computer equipment and programs and then make his get-away.

Of course, all that exchange took some time, so the employees had ample time and opportunity to note his appearance, what he was driving, etc. Lucky for them none got bludgeoned...ya know, when I think of tools that might be used in a robbery, 'pick axe' just isn't that high on the list. Thanks for that head-shaker, Monica!

When people get desperate, they tend to become blind, or at the very least myopic as they focus intently on the greed-deed at hand...while perseverance can be a virtue, it does have a down-side...

DATELINE: EDWARDSVILLE, ILLINOIS

Carleous Clay, Jr. is a 26 year-old Michigander who pulled up alongside a woman to ask her directions.

Or so she thought.

He attempted to rob her at gunpoint, but the quick-thinking mother hit the accelerator and took off, fully aware her 3 children in the car had to be protected.

NOTE: don't mess with a mom and her babies.

You don't take off after them, either. Alas, Carleous was a scumbag-on-a-mission and was bound and determined to chase her down to continue the heist. The pursuit was on.

Mom was quickly on the phone with a 911 dispatcher, immediately put in contact with the Sheriff's Office, and they told her exactly what to do and where to drive...

I can just imagine what Thug-eous felt when he realized too late that the mom had led him straight to a nearby sheriff's department. And, well...

As the late, great Paul Harvey would now quip,

"And now you know....the rest of the story.
Good day!"

"A Tale of Two Cities (Forecasts)"...

(click on pics to enlarge)

Short blog today as I crashed extra early yesterday and am now playing catch-up for all the things I put off doing! Who, ME, procrastinate???

Thankfully, I awoke to a radar that was active outside our viewing area, warnings a-churnin' along the Savannah River Valley, and that's fine with me. We had the Severe Thunderstorm Watch go up in the mountain counties just before 1pm, which then spread into the Piedmont by 4pm. I do believe our mini-cool wedge helped keep the atmosphere above us more stable, hence lack of widespread storm problems last evening.

However, a tornado warning popped around 9:30a on the south side of Asheville for a small but clearly rotating cell. Unimpressive on the radar in every way, but there. Mountain T-warnings are unusual in that the uneven terrain is not favorable for the development of funnels, though the Asheville area is in the rather broad French Broad/Swannanoa River Valley. Late yesterday afternoon I saw a T-warning pop for Ashe County, which has quite the rolling topography. The shot below is roughly 15-20 miles to the northwest of where the warning came down (taken last fall):

Here is the radar scan from that cell, the T-warning outlined in fuschia...

When I did a 3-D scan, there was little of note to see; too, this area is a bit far from the radar beam, so there was a lot of missing 'info' in the lower reaches of the storm. Compared to the 3-D scans I blogged with yesterday which had strong development up into the purple and white velocities, this one was only up into the red. All that to say I have no impressive 3-D scan from that warning. HOWEVER...

One of the many tell-tale things you look for in a doppler radar scan is a 'couplet'. Basically, reddish colors in a 'velocity' scan indicate winds moving away from a radar, and greenish colors indicate winds moving towards a radar...and where you have a clearly defined red-green 'point' of sorts, you have at the very least rotation aloft. Whether it makes a funnel that reaches the surface is another matter, but check out this beautiful couplet that is as 'clean' an example as I've seen in NC tornadoes in quite some time...

The brighter the colors, the stronger the winds...just a beautiful velocity scan of that T-warning cell. They also had serious rainfall issues in Ashe County, with mudslides and flooding reported in several locations. Rains started early in the morning in Ashe and Watauga Counties especially, so by the time the late afternoon big dawgs rolled in they made for a serious mess...

Following is a 'storm total' grab I took at 1am today...sorry I don't know the length of time for the image, but it gives you an idea of the overall widespread storm coverage we've had lately:


The National Weather Service made their official assessments yesterday of the prior day's potential tornado damage in NC and SC...at last check they had classified 3 tornadoes, one EF-0 and two EF-1s. There may be more detailed info yet to come down, as well as a graphical index I can share with you on the blog; I just made a quick check and only came up with short written confirmation reports, so I'll go snooping later today.

Time to head 'em up and move 'em out, as they say. Oh yeah, the blog title 'inspiration'...I have models that say zero storms today, and one that says a 20% chance...and at the moment I am seeing a Storm Prediction Center covering us in a "slight" severe storm chance for today which has me putting storms in the forecast, albeit few in number...the PM met has been going 'dry' for two days, and I feel compelled to keep chances in the wording...will toss my proverbial weather coin and call heads or tails in a couple of hours after some new data comes down....wheeeee!!!

"Holy Tornado, Batman!"

Literally minutes before turning in for the night for this morning's shift work at WSOC, a tornado warning popped for the storm that had just passed on the west side of Cherryville in NW Gaston County. The problem with the cell was it's not-terribly-fast movement and the explosive nature in which the cell grew.

The following are images I quickly grabbed from my Gibson Ridge Level 2 data radar system feeding from GSP National Weather Service office. The time was roughly 6:15p through 6:35p, though I mistakenly didn't save all of the screen image which had the actual scan time. The purpose of these grabs is simply to let you look at a powerful storm and see some neat features that came out as a result...this is by no means a scientific, 'official' discourse, just a weatherman-heading-to-bed-who-had-to-tear-himself-away-from-the-radar-because-he-needed-to-sleep-and-couldn't-do-anything-about-it-anyway type of moment., kapish?

(click on pics to enlarge)

Just a rough approximation of the storm cell that headed south and a tad east yesterday around supper time...I-85 is the red line dropping down to the left of Gastonia, and Highway 74 is the yellow road running west through Shelby, FYI. Kings Mountain is at the bottom of the yellow circle where 74 splits from I-85.

When a radar image has substantial 'white' in it, it is producing a good bit of hail, and probably at a decent size. We refer to these as "hail cores"....

Within each color 'level' (white being stronger than purple being stronger than red, etc.), I can still manipulate through the intensities...and noticed a strong growth at the top of the storm indicating very cold temperatures and significant freezing in this cell intensifying...

Soon enough hail was reaching the surface, along with damaging winds and a strong likelihood of a tornado on the ground. One particular scan of the storm as it neared the Kings Mountain area was noting 3.7" hail aloft...ouch!

As I switched to scanning the purple intensities, it removed the significant hail core...and you can see straight through the storm to the surface below. Yet more proof in the pudding that this was a serious tornado-producing storm , with the funnel somewhere at the base of this tube...

One could argue for two likely funnel formations...the strongest with the hail core, but also a potent vortex to the left, SE edge...

Same image as the previous one, just a bit of re-shading and positioning...

In stepping back to the red levels, which are strong enough indicators in any storm, notice how the mass aloft is narrowed to a more specific area in the lower altitudes, stressing again the focusing nature of the winds in this cell...

While the hail shaft is not showing up on the surface coloration, this cell was still in tornado mode...

And with that I had to force myself to go to sleep...nothing like getting all worked up when the 1am alarm is a mere hours away! I hope the following link works, which is a nice representation of the local storm reports made on this storm. More reports will be made after daylight comes this morning, for sure:

STORM REPORT GRAPHICS

We're not out of the woods just yet, but I need to wrap this up and head into the station. Have a great and calmer day!

Mo' misty morning shots...

(click pics to enlarge)

I'm starting with another couple of Green Heron shots that I got after the first set in yesterday's blog...what I love about these, especially as I mull making a Green Heron closed-end flute, is that I have detailed pictures of the backside feathers...easy to get the side and front shots, but from behind and above is not so common.

Did watch this one jab and miss what was not a small fish before it decided to fly away...

A lone elderly woman was crossing this footbridge that I thought made for a serene shot...

...and a lone Mallard drake was doing the ol' one-legged nap pose against a desert of blue-gray...

Spiderwort is a gorgeous flower whose saturated purply-blue color was only intensified in the overcast skies...


As the sun broke through the overhanging mist, the light became better for some close-ups, like these dew drops (or rain drops) on a rose. I'm a big advocate of looking for the picture within a picture, hence not showing you the general 'pretty rose' shot.

And, lastly, a time to reflect...

...what is a set of dead branches sticking up out of the lake is momentarily transformed into a relflecting pool floating in space.

Again, all pics were taken with the ol' Canon S2 that has pleased me so through the past few years. As you go about your day and see something beautiful and neat, see if you can find your own 'pictures' deeper within...and stop to enjoy it!

"Oh there's a little Green Heron...."

"...doin' what it oughter,
a little Green Heron,
fishin' in the water..."

OK, so the song works better with the original 'little white duck'. But this feathered friend is much more interesting to look at...

(click on pics to enlarge)

As I headed out for a foggy morning walk around a nearby lake, I decided to grab my little silver Canon S2, the one with the long repair-shop stint last fall. I hadn't used it much lately, but figured it might come in handy.

Soon enough I happened upon this Green Heron fishing along a shallow section of shoreline and figured I'd see what the little super-zoom could do...and I was not disappointed. I've never taken pictures of a Green Heron before, and this one made for a very tolerant model, though I kept a good distance away.






Later, farther down the shoreline in the filtered sunshine of the morning, I did spy a Leashed Black Heron that was wading in the shallows, though apparently not interested in fishing at the moment...

I have other non-bird pics from the walk that I'll share in a later post. I said it earlier and I'll say it again: the repair center put in a new lens and motor, and this new generation lens is significantly sharper than the original one, which was none too shabby. Worth the wait, it was!

Happy Monday to all y'all! Starting Wednesday I'll pull 6 mornings straight at WSOC that may well wrap up my fill-in stint there. I've got an art show in Maggie Valley in July and need to tweak my growing flute stock, so look for pics of new flutes, including a raven-head walking cane branch flute. Lots of cool 'stuff' waiting in the wings...

An empty poke...

I've looked. I've searched. I've read. I've mulled.

Plenty of crazy stories as always, but nothing worthy of my 'Fried Fridays' billing.

Yeah, a SC man jumped off the I-26 bridge into a river, which prompted a multitude of emergency calls about a 'suicide jumper'. Turns out the guy ran out of gas, called a friend who happened to be on the river in his boat and the driver jumped into the river and swam to his friend's boat so he could take him to get gas...

There's the California dog that took himself for a walk in a nearby park, found and ate a stash of marijuana and then returned home fully stoned. Nothing that a $1,500 vet bill for stomach pumping and a good night's rest couldn't cure...

Or the Israeli woman who is at this moment going through every garbage dump to find her mother's mattress she threw out....she intended to surprise her ma with a new bed, only to find out that her mother distrusted banks so much she stored a cool million in financial notes in her former bedding...

And the prime parking space in Boston that sold for $300,000...good ol' American excess.

Nope, I think I'll just sit this stormy week out. Yet another day ahead of atmospheric cuisinart shredding, so I'll try to get some outdoor work done in advance of all that fun.

Y'all be good now, y' hear?!

'Glad' follow-up...

I posted a blog early this morning that I'd composed before going to bed last night...after posting it this morning, I realized the glads had all these wonderful raindrops on them from the maelstrom's overnight. I figured it was easier to simply post some more photos in a separate entry than try to go through the trouble of rearranging the earlier post...go back and check it out for comparison! As always, click on pics to enlarge and marvel at the 'small' world...

"A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain."

Robert Frost

"Sometimes I wish that I was the weather; you'd bring me up in conversation forever. And when it rained, I'd be the talk of the day."

John Mayer

'Glad' you like it....

(NOTE ~8am: I have some neat pics of raindrops on these glads I just took; I'll be editing them and posting them in their own post shortly, so check back!)

After I got home from my News 14 shift, I hit my usual 'wall' with lack of energy to start any ambitious flute (or other) project. Figured it was a good time to go shoot a few pictures of the two white gladiolas that have sprung forth in the yard. I have to stake them lest they fall over on their sides, and they have such pretty curves to them, blooming sequentially upward. Nothing more than pics you can click on to enlarge and just enjoy their beauty...







The daisies aren't far behind, and if you've never looked closely at a daisy before it opened, you're in luck!

Kinda sorta looks like some carnivorous plant getting ready to sink its fangs into something, eh?!


From the past couple of days I've also been watching a pile of sticks getting ready to bloom into branch flutes...

These I have debarked and trimmed so I can better assess their potential life as a flute, pondering where all the various parts of the flute would go over the course of days or weeks. The large pieces are Dogwood, and the smaller ones are Hickory, I think. Just dead sticks and trunks they were...nice little pile of Cracker Jack boxes for later!