Garage in the country - Albemarle Country, Virginia 

"We come to terms as well as we can with our lifelong exposure to the world, and we use whatever devices we may need to survive. But eventually, of course, our knowledge depends upon the living relationship between what we see going on and ourselves. If exposure is essential, still more so is the reflection. Insight doesn't happen often on the click of the moment, like a lucky snapshot, but comes in its own time and more slowly and from nowhere but within."

 Eudora Welty, One Time, One Place.  The Eye of the Story - Selected Essays and Reviews, Vintage 1990

Trees and fog - Albemarle County, Virginia 

"So I have spent my life watching, not to see beyond the world, merely to see, great mystery, what is plainly before my eyes. I think the concept of transcendence is based on a misreading of creation. With all respect to heaven, the scene of miracle is here, among us."

From Psalm Eight , an essay by Marilynne Robinson from from book The Death of Adam - 2005

Home grown tomatoes - Greene County, Virginia 

Female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail - Papilio Glaucus

Several weeks ago there was an article in the local paper about an up-coming butterfly count. The idea of trying to count butterflies makes my head hurt, but the North American Butterfly Association sponsors yearly butterfly counts throughout the country in order to monitor butterfly populations, provide an enjoyable activity for members and promote public interest in butterflies.

My wife offered several of her butterfly photographs to illustrate this post. She likes to tease me that I have all this expensive camera equipment just to take pictures.  These lovely butterflies were photographed with her cell-phone.

Spicebush Swallowtail - Papilio troilus

Erecting the Ferris Wheel before the fair - Greene County, Virginia 

View from the Fairgrounds - Greene County, Virginia 

The Greene County Fairgrounds is a large empty field for most of the year. There is an exhibition hall, a fence and wooden poles with lights. Surrounded by farmland on a long straight stretch of Route 230, it looks a little lonely. There are no other houses or buildings in sight.

It is hot the first week of August and a blue summer haze shrouds the mountains to the west. Preparations for the fair are underway and soon the field will be full of tents and pens and carnival rides. Then  the crowds will come.

Preparations are underway

Next week, the rabbits and goats, the prize-winning tomatoes and jars of family recipe pickles will be gone. The carnival will pack up and move to the next town and the fairgrounds will be empty once again, the days silent and the nights lit only by the stars and moon.

Corn grows right up to the fairground's fence

Demolition Derby - Greene County Fair 

The Greene County Fair starts this week, and yesterday morning I drove over to the fairgrounds to see the preparations. A demolition derby was held on Saturday night. On Sunday morning this car was sitting by the road in front of the fairgrounds. I am not sure if it is the winner or the loser, but either way, I feel certain that its competitive days are over.

I have never attended a demolition derby myself, so I can't tell you much about it, but they are a perennial favorite at county fairs. There is an article on Wikipedia here about the history of the sport, but after looking at this mangled car, I am not sure I want to know any more.