Fall Is a Time-Lapse in the Mountains

It is one of nature's blessings that we in the Western Virginia mountains can follow peak leaf color to within a day's drive of Roanoke for nearly a month, beginning at the Pennsylvania border and following the trail to Western North Carolina and East Tennessee (as well as all of eastern West Virginia).

Today, I went up into Botetourt County and at first glance, it looked like the color had been soaked out of the mountains and they had turned to rust. On further inspection, however, what you see here was revealed through various camera lenses. It just doesn't get ugly, even when the rust is dominant.

 

That's me in front of one of the homestead buildings at the festival.

A Beautiful Day at the Folklife Festival

The Blue Ridge Folklife Festival at Ferrum College in Franklin County is always an event to anticipate if for no other reason than to watch the draft horses working, the mules jumping or the hounds chasing a dead raccoon across a large pond.

It is also a great place to watch people watching analog machinery (some of it steam-driven) performing tasks best assigned to the 19th Century.

It is also one of the fun places to shoot photos of people (redheads, especially) and things (tools, food, tack, tractors, and a bunch of other stuff. 

My good friend Susan and I haunted the grounds at the Blue Ridge Institute on the Ferrum campus Saturday and here's some of what it looked like.

Susan and I with our new buddy, Fluffy.

Note: That is not a naked child under this guy's shirt; it is his belly.

Don't call me 'Red' ...

... me, neither ... 

... and certainly not me.