Thursday, November 19, 2009

And the Winner is...Sunny!


Sunny...the early bird got the worm! You were the first to guess correctly at 6:30 am this morning! Thanks for jumping in there and participating. When you have the chance, choose the photo you want and email me at felsteadd@gmail.com and let me know your choice and your shipping address.

Thanks to everyone for joining in the contest. The original post is below:


You can click on the individual picture for better viewing. Two images that go hand in hand. I hiked to the Little Greenbriar Schoolhouse. Like so many settlements named after a familiar landmark...a branch of the Little Greenbriar stream ran cold and clear just beyond the schoolhouse. Only in use for 3 months a year during the 1800's due to the children helping with life's duties...the crops, the firewood and the family cow for the children's milk. The graveyard held the stories of children who attended but never made it to adulthood...the settlement's community resting place. The park ranger pictured spoke from experience...she rode horseback past the settlement day after day as a youth and retold to us the stories of her great grandmother who attended the Greenbriar school. She spoke of the area as if it were a living entity unto itself...with at the same time a respect and a dread in her voice. The beauty of the land and the bounty it gave forth helped ease the harsh existence of day to day dangers of the wildlife, disease and raiders from outside the Cove.

I sat in the schoolhouse on the poplar board benches, forgetting about the darkness that was encroaching for the hike back, entranced by her recounting of early American education...truly... reading, writing and arithmetic. The reader was the family bible, writing was with gypsum on a slab of black slate dug from the Greenbriar and arithmetic counted bushels and miles.

On my return to the trail head, darkness had surrounded me. I reflected on the day, transfixed as I read....

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there's some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Robert Frost




21 comments:

boneman said...

her hand reached up, feeling every wrinkle and scar. Life had been harder than what she thought, by far. Her gaze dropped down to the childrens' graves beneath the cabin. And from somewhere a thought started, from somewhere within.
"would it have been better had I died all those years ago? Not felt the pains or the lonliness I've come to know?"
She laughed, then spit, "foolish! Of course not!" and pulled out a kerchief, blew into it snot.
"Heck's fire, and any old way, If'n I was dead, I couldn't'a had my say,"

Jessica said...

Beautiful photos as always. I have given you an award on my Learning Along the Way Blog. :)

Heather said...

Oh, Dan. What a beautiful post. To have the opportunity to speak to such a wise woman, with such life experience.. oh, what I'd give!
I love when you post about life, as it used to be. Your pitures take us back to those times.

Dan Felstead said...

Boneman!!
You sucked me right in on that one. I thought...WOW, I have never seen this side of Boneman before and then I got to the last 2 sentences! Actually in a strange way, I could see this particular person...at least from the photo...making both comments!

Dan

Dan Felstead said...

Thank you Jessica for the award. Itled me to your other blog that I had not been to before. Also, congrats on becoming a Senior! I imagine it has seemed like a long road to get there but it will be worth it in the end!

Dan

Dan Felstead said...

Heather...
You see right through me! I love all types of photos...pastoral, landscapes, portraits, urban etc...but my heart and my passion is with the history behind them. When I grow up I want to be a historian! One of the things that I have not photographed and have a real desire to is a civil war or revolutionary war re-enactment...not just one marching down main street but one that takes place in the fields and grounds where the battles actually took place. Someday I will get to one.

Thank you for your kind words, I appreciate them. Have a great weekend.

Dan

Heather said...

Swept away with your words and photos, Dan... I was :o)

shabby girl said...

I do love this blog! The pictures just take you back somewhere in time! Your words are the transportation.

Loved the boneman comment!

boneman said...

glad you liked it, Dan. It's my own version of walking on alligators. Just take the vision and go with it wherever it leads.
Needs maybe some editing...
ah well. I have holes in the knees of my jeans, too.

septembermom said...

To hear a living history in such a setting must be remarkable. Wonderful, provocative post. Fantastic photos.

Cynthia L. H. said...

Captivating! Truly where a picture is worth a thousand words (at LEAST!) I am overcome by the character of the woman in the photo and the life and death that flash between the two...(I wanted to comment with something snappy like bonema---great job, there, by the way...) but I was almost speechless. (And I'm a writer! That almost never happens! Thank you! I will be back,
C :^)

Dan Felstead said...

Vermont Heather...
Thanks for the kind words...I am sure that you have some of the one room schoolhouses up their in Vermont. After all, New England is like the cradle of American Civilization...I really want to visit that area at some point.

Dan

Dan Felstead said...

Shabbygirl...I really like your metaphor of how words can be the transportation to a place and time. This is exactly what happens when we read a novel or poem...nice thought.

Dan

Dan Felstead said...

Boneman,

Your words need no editing... if they were edited...they wouldn't be boneman!

Dan

Dan Felstead said...

Thanks Septembermom...
I do love to hear the history of places like this...it makes them much more real and especially if the "teacher" is speaking from first or second hand experience.

Dan

Dan Felstead said...

Cynthia...Welcome to the blog...glad to have you aboard! Feel free to comment anytime on your thoughts about the photos. So many times the comments are much more on point and more elegant than my words could ever be. I try to write from the vantage point of the camera lens so I have the baggage of knowing what was going on at the time the photo was taken. Many times, without that perspective, one can offer a whole new light on the image.

Thanks you so much for your kind words and I appreciate your input.

Dan

Sunny said...

Yeah! *Jumping for joy*
I'm so excited, I seldom win anything and nothing as nice as one of your pictures.
What an interesting piece of history the Little Greenbriar Schoolhouse is.
Thank you! *Still jumping for joy*
Sunny :)

Dan Felstead said...

Sunny! I am glad you won. Anyone who gets up and leaves comments on blogs at 6:30 in the morning deserves to win!

Dan

Pura said...

The Frost poem is so befitting for this post. And, the park ranger looks as if she actually lives there. Great photography Dan. I love that dark, ominous aura you bring out.

Pura said...

Btw, it's always amazing how people no matter where you may encounter them have a story or two to tell.

Dan Felstead said...

Thanks Pura...that was my favorite Frost poem and if fit for the mood of the day when I was there!

Dan