So this was Thursday’s bizarre, abrupt twilight snowstorm. Look how beautiful and blue the sky was before snow and night fell together. Look at the size of the flakes!
Tag Archives: Virginia
My mediocre mountain shots.
March 2018. One of the things that I love about Roanoke is how its mountains are obscured on overcast days by low-lying clouds. It’s the kind of thing that would have been unheard of where I grew up — on the uniformly flat Long Island. I doubt the novelty of it will ever fully erode.
Artwork under sign for O’Brien Meats, Salem, Virginia
February 2018.
They say Montana is “Big Sky Country,” but Roanoke could be a contender.
February 2018.
Roanoke’s first snow, January 2018
These are from the winter’s first snow on Wednesday. I believe those tracks you see were made by a raccoon.
Iron Gate, Virginia, January 2017
The past week’s cold facilitated a rare occurrence — the freezing of the Cowpasture River in Iron Gate. My friend posted these yesterday.
I think that second shot is really damned cool. I believe that’s the spot where the protruding rocks make the mini-rapids that they call “riffles.”
Botetourt County, Virginia, December 2017
These are the last photos of 2017, I suppose. It’s nice that they are of such a beautiful place — despite those cold, foreboding gravestone-colored skies this past weekend.
Virginians are a hardy and gracious lot. And the people of Botetourt define hospitable. My friends there showed me terrific time when we celebrated the holidays.
And check out the second-to-last shot below. Those are the world famous Llamas of Botetourt County.
Salem, Virginia, December 2017 (2)
This is one festive town. It seems like there is a parade every five minutes. Last night it was the local high school boys; they’d won their fifth state championship for … something or other. Football, given the season?
They waved and shouted “Merry Christmas,” so I responded in kind to be polite. Then a particularly friendly Salem woman commented to me that I must be a very proud father, and that got me feeling all weird.
A couple of the kids shouted, “Support Net Neutrality!” That’s some nice work there, Salem.
I’m including a picture of me here to show off an early Christmas present from an amazingly talented poet friend — a monogrammed, handmade scarf. I only had errands yesterday in the town, but I threw on my dress overcoat and pretended to be Bruce Wayne.
Firewood and Christmas trees for sale in Roanoke, Virginia
It started snowing in Roanoke.
Even though you actually can’t tell from this picture, which I now realize. Dammit.
Use your imagination.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 