Monthly Archives: October 2012

On the Porch


I was sitting in a friend’s Florida room, formerly a porch, when this combination of color caught my eye.  It yielded an interesting picture, after I slapped it around with Photoshop.

 

Red Spotted Newt

Yep, saw this little skitterer while walking the rails in Southwest Virginia.

Bird, maybe


It does look a little like a long-necked bird with a curved and pointed beak, doesn’t it.  It’s what’s left of a small tree.  Ain’t nature fahcinating!

Coke ovens

Coke ovens, in this configuration and in the beehive configuration, used to be thick on the ground around this area of Wise County.  We’re near Pine Branch and these are a few of the 60 remaining derelict coke ovens…there used to be over 300 here, with railroad access, from around 1920 to about 1980.  They were used to burn coal in the absence of oxygen to produce coke, which burns cleanly at high temperature.  Catnip, as they say, for steel makers.