The other side of the gorge

The Rocky Broad River flows eastward from areas like Etoah and Brevard, through a narrows where nice swimming can be had, then past Chimney Rock and into Lake Lure.  The gorge it flows through has this high escarpment on both sides, and some folks know of the trails on the northern side.  I don't.  Since I no longer can hike, I'm only a little interested in where trails are.

The Rocky Broad River flows under the new highway bridge next to the old one, now Flower Bridge. 

Chimney Rock keeps an eye on a Pink sculptural pelican.

But I love vistas...even if mine now are from the ground up (or the roads that traverse the edges of mountains.)

Looking over the balustrade of the old bridge at the channel of the Rocky Broad River going into Lake Lure.  And then came tropical storm Alberto's rains at the end of May...

As you may have noticed, on May 29-31 there was flash flooding, or catastrophic flooding, depending on where you were, along the very same river...leaving a lot of mud, and closing off many roads.  Here's the entrance to the Chimney Rock State Park, which is closed of course.  But it should be cleared off soon, and the waters have receded and the sun has come back out again! (I need to go see how the gardens have fared!

The mountain overlooking the gorge opposite Chimney Rock (out of picture on left side)...with the Flower Bridge in foreground.

 this is a curly leaf willow, which was a nice friend giving shade.

I have no idea how much of the garden was damaged by the flood waters...but I can imagine that it doesn't look like any of these pictures now.  I hope it can be brought back to beauty soon.

Matthew and choppers and Haiti

I was out walking in the sunny afternoon on Sunday. A new path, and I was taking lots of photos, to share here soon!

And suddenly I heard a chopper's rotors overhead. I swung my camera up, and couldn't find it.  You know how your visual arrives after the sound, right? You know that because you hear the thunder and then count the seconds before the lightning arrives.

So, I was clicking away.  At least 2-3 shots. Of course I couldn't see through the branches if I'd captured a thing.  Then another helicopter came over, and I tried again. And then a third one came by.

I was sure out of all of these I must have captured one of them at least once. But when I started editing them, the choppers were these tiny little light colored blobs in the midst of leaves and branches.  It was "where's Waldo" for editor me.

So here are a couple of the shots I came back with, cropped quite a bit.

Probably the first one appearing, over on the right side.

Perhaps a second one passing overhead.

The last one disappears

I am guessing they are carrying some rescuers, back from working at the coast where hurricane Matthew left lots of damage.  But they don't have army type markings, so I doubt that they are National Guard.  There are still curfews along the coast where people can't return to their homes yet.

There are a lot of people who are on the highways going home, and I hope they all get into their homes and everything is ok for them. There is still a lot of flooding here in North Carolina where rivers have to deal with draining 14 inches of rain. I know by the news reports that many hundreds of people near the Atlantic coast in the 4 southeastern states have damage of some kind to clean up. And electricity still hasn't been restored to many.  It was over a million people at one count.  (That's Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.)

And I am aware that our news media in the US is really not making any efforts to give news of the devastation of the Category 4 Hurricane Matthew in Haiti.  When North Carolina reports around 7 people killed, Haiti has around 870. And that's before the cholera outbreak comes.

Rescue workers in Haiti

Haitians review their losses

I wonder which part of their home had had the green door.

There is simply no way the Haitians can deal with the level of destruction this hurricane left. I'm changing my profile picture on Facebook to be this one of the green door. I may not be able to fund a doctor to go help these people (or even for food), but I hope my talking about their plight might bring awareness to someone who has the resources to do something.

Quote for today:

No matter where life takes you the place that you stand at any given moment is holy ground. Love hard, and love wide and love long and you will find the goodness in it. Susan Vreeland in “Lisette’s List”