Blue Water, Blue Wall

  Daredevils, Stay Home!          The temperature rises. Everybody’s heading to the water. The beaches are wonderful, but around these parts, the rivers and lakes are the cooling grace on hot summer days.         Since the Blue Wall is rich in waterfalls, there are inevitably large numbers of people seeking them out as well. The water coming out of the mountains is cool and refreshing, and submerging in a pool of fresh mountain water is close to nirvana.        There are those who want to climb to the top of everything, waterfalls included. A wrong step at the top of a waterfall can be, and often is, fatal. Even crossing a river a ways back from the waterfall can be hazardous, especially if there is a deep channel of swift water that you don’t realize is there until you  step into it. Your feet can literally be swept from under you. Don’t ask me how I know this, but I have been young and dumb...

  The roadsides and highways along the Blue Wall are full of beautiful wildflowers. At 55 mph, ragwort and dandelions have made a sweep of yellow for the past several weeks . At 45 mph, clumps of white daisies appear, coordinating with the yellow like the perfect summer outfit. At 35 mph, tiny white asters appear in the mix like w ispy clouds, along with emerging seed heads from the uncut grasses. Given a good reason to get out of the car and walk these country roadsides, we could see a wealth of native beauties, ever-present but never seen from inside an automobile. If a stalled economy means less frequent roadside mowing, maybe that is the silver lining we all look for!  

  The air along the Blue Wall is drenched in the perfume of flowers.   Last week it was Fraser magnolias and tulip poplars . t his week, the scent of blooming privet and Japanese honeysuckle is heavy along the roadsides, and Southern magnolias are filling our neighborhoods with their sweet smell. Deep in the woods, mosses smell almost as sweet as the magnolias, but harder to identify. I love being with hikers who stop in their tracks and say, “What is that smell?” Open up those windows, people, and take a deep sniff!    

  Saturation   The long-term weather forecasters were calling for drier-than-normal conditions for this spring, and this past winter. How wrong they were.   Everywhere I go, people are talking about the amount of rain we’ve had this spring , how well the flowers are blooming, and how good the lakes look. Even as I write this my neighbor is trying to mow his grass between intermittent showers.   If you want to stay on my good side, don’t call this weather ‘bad’ or ‘nasty’ . Doing so brings to mind a song I heard this week by the wonderful Hagood Harpists, called ‘Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven, But Nobody Wants To Die’. Everybody wants the flowers, but nobody wants the rain. I say, abundant rainfall is part of what makes the Blue Wall special. Deal with it!  

  Power.   If you are at all interested in engineering, and maybe even if you’re not, made plans to tour the Bad Creek Project on Hwy. 130 in Oconee County . This hydroelectric power plant is not only a work of art, it has a history that involves a lot of our local neighbors. The building of the place took ten  years, and the numbers involved with blasting out the inside of a mountain, and building a reservoir by literally trucking a mountain from one place to another, are astounding.   

  Our world is exuberantly, unabashedly, relentlessly green right now. Green, gr een, green, everywhere you look; lush, healthy, vigorous green.  And it’s loud with bird song. Birds migrating through the area are announcing their presence; kind people are trying to teach me the difference between a black-throated green warbler and a red-eyed vireo. Mountain laurel is blooming, and so are tulip poplars and cross vine. Looking upward, the tree leaves are green as can be and nearing full size, with none of the insect damage that riddled them with holes last year. And, no mosquitoes! Not so far, anyway. It’s a good time to be outside. I highly recommend it.    

  During my weekly travels I often cross over a river that is most beautiful. During the summer it is a popular local hangout, and, because I tend to shy away from crowds, I never stopped to check this area out for myself. Because it is so popular, it also tends to collect a lot of garbage. Recently I was inspired to stop, get out of my comfort zone, and start cleaning up the trash, one hour at a time. So far I’ve logged three hours at this place, plus help from a couple of other people, and there is still much left to pick up. But, it is looking better. In the picture to the right, I did not capture the image of the kingfishers swooping down over the river, or the multitude of birdsfoot violets in full bloom behind me. Now I have a sense of belonging to this beautiful spot, and henceforth I don’t think I will be as shy about stopping here.  

    Happy Earth Day! If this were a national holiday, we w ould all take  Monday off to walk in the woods, or paddle a quiet lake, or bike a few miles.  We aren’ t quite that advanced as a society, but there is no excuse for not taking a few minutes to go outside and appreciate th e beauty of S pring in the Upstate. Thanks to the recent rains, the streams and creeks and rivers are full; waterfalls are rambunctious. The birds are singing, the weather is behaving, and no mosquitoes are biting. Nirvana! Enjoy it while it lasts!    

  E phemeral wildflowers are like the cool, dry days of Spring: they only last for a little while, so we need to get out and enjoy them while they last . This group of woodland plants sprout before the leaves on the trees emerge, quickly bloom and produce seeds, and as the trees begin to block the sun, and the weather warms up, they disappear for another year. The fleeting beauty is somehow made more special by its brevity, and at this time of year there are many groups exploring the wonders of our native woods. I joined one of them last week for a trip to the Nine Times Heritage Preserve, where we saw bloodroot, foamflower, trillium, trout lily, and much, much more!  

All the projects which should be getting my attention are on hold. My attention, instead, is captured – captivated – by the miracle of watching the birth of baby leaves. This is a most simple preoccupation, but no matter where I go outside, my attention turns to the baby leaves. Some unfold like a pair of hands, others unfurl. My favorite baby leaves are on the hickory trees. They remind me of the birth of a human child, tightly curled into a little ball, but slowly stretching and lengthening to absorb the warm spring sunshine. It happens, if you are patient enough to watch, right before your eyes.    Maybe it’s silly, this fascination with baby leaves, but it’s one of the reasons I love the great outdoors. Plus it’s a pretty good reason to blow off work and go for a walk in the woods. What’s your reason? ~K     DID YOU KNOW?     The mighty Eastern hemlock, capable of growing 175 feet tall and of living 800 years, has been brought down to near extincti on...

    Blue Wall Weekly, 4.1.13     Spring’s Eventual Arrival (Blurb of the Week)     Speaking of patience, t hank you, Spring, for taking your own sweet time arriving. I like how you remind us that we’re not the boss of you. Here at the base of the Blue Wall the tree buds are right at the bursting point, swollen, elongating, but Spring is teasing us, blooming out loud in places, and in others holding tight to her bare silhouette. This gives us a little more time to appreciate the naked framework of branches against the sky, and to watch birds flitting around as they, too, wait for leaf cover before beginning their own rites of Spring.