Change and Unchanging

40°f, or 4.5°C at 7am. Thin cloud cover, thank goodness, or it would have been colder. Full moon was a beauty last night.

Along the way yesterday

Yesterday was road trip to Huntington, WV, for a visit to the VA hospital there--nothibg serious, just picking up the shoes they supply about twice a year. Used to be that you would go in and get measured, then they mailed the shoes, but now they must be picked up. Since the VA reimburses Larry for mileage, it actually costs them about 8 times more for him to drive down to get the shoes. Crazy. 

Since it was a wet morning I went along this time. Couldn't work outside and didn't want to work inside! It is an easy drive along the Ohio River, and used to be so rural and lovely, but in the past year that has undergone dramatic changes as a new, huge steelmaking plant is being built.

Ready to lift...whatever needs it, I guess.

Temporary housing trailers for the hundreds of workers on the site. We saw license plates from Alaska to Texas and everywhere in between.

This used to be a big dairy farming rivr Valley, but no more. A few farmers are hanging on.

The plant will bring hundreds of jobs and much change. For the better? Well, most would say so. This is an economically depressed area. I admit that I mourn the loss of so much fertile land. And historically rich in Native sites. I imagine the area was thoroughly examined before work began, though, as is required these days.

Another sign of the past.

At least on our little road change comes very slowly, and I appreciate that immensely.  After you turn off the highway Joe's Run is much the same as it was when I moved here 50 years ago, and for all those years I have enjoyed and photographed the spring wildflowers along one particular stretch of the road. Here is what I found yesterday:

Creasy greens (wild mustard) gone to flower.

A hillside of Mayapple, also called Mandrake

Dwarf blue iris

I am not sure of the name of these low-to-the-ground yellow flowers

White delphinium

Pale blue delphinium

Phlox and wild geranium

Black haw tree

Isn't it just stunning?

Wild geranium

Purple delphinium

More wild geranium

A few white trillium are hanging on

A fallen dogwood still blooms its heart out.

Lowly, but lovely fleabane.

At home, these little ones greeted me in the woods by the house.

Bluetooth, aka Quaker Ladies,

and violet wood sorrel.

Other folks may celebrate the steel plant, but I will always find my joy in nature.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.