From the Ridge Top

Hit was in the spring of last year – eighteen and fifty nine -- and the day was one of them bright clear ones with all the world looking like hit had been washed clean. Old Baldy’s the highest peak on Bear Tree and with the sky so close hit seemed to me like hit wouldn’t be no trouble atall to reach out and maybe grab God’s shirttail.
. . .

Off in the far distance I could see the mountain humps a-stretchin out in blue rows till they kindly melted into the sky. And then it come to me as how I’d like to travel beyond them mountains some day, maybe see the great ocean that my kin had crossed, back when they first come to this land. I stared off into that blue far-away and, like I had heard the preacher say one time, my spirit took wing. (From the upcoming In a Dark Season )

Today wasn't perfectly clear, but when the young folks decided to climb to the ridge, I sent my camera along. I'm busy writing, having just learned an interesting tidbit about Miss Birdie -- besides, a recent bout with a weird knee tells me I'd better not try that steep hike. No spirit taking wing for me. but I'll join you all in traveling vicariously.

By the way, people often ask about the parallel ridges you see in the grass in the picture above. No, they're not from plowing -- far too steep -- but from years of cattle tacking their slow back-and-forth way up and down the slopes.

This is our holler. Far down below, to the left of the center of the picture , you can see the roof of the blue house (aka Julio's) and beyond it the pond. You can see poplar trees greening up and red new growth on the maples and, in the upper right hand corner, the road curving around the mountain, just above the place where Dessie and then The Three lived in that alternate world.

Which I now have to get back to because Miss Birdie is telling me more and more about her life before she was a cute little octogenarian.

Thanks to Claui for taking the pictures!