The Colors of Fall: A Short Travelogue With Solenne
Originally posted on Octoer 19, 2008
Disclaimer: Approximately half of the photos here are not directly doll related. If that bugs you, please feel free to scroll to the ones that are (a little less than halfway down) for the doll-related photos. I really enjoyed taking Solenne with me on a short trip in my car, and planned for a short stop or two by leaving extra early in the day. I’m so glad I did…and I’ll have to do it again soon.
It was sunny but chilly when I set out on a road trip yesterday morning. My oldest son gets married today and my youngest son needed to be picked up at college almost 3 hours away and brought home to be in the wedding. Mid-October is prime time for fall foliage color here in the Mid-Atlantic, so I grabbed a doll and my trusty Canon A610 digital and off I went, heading due west through western Maryland and Northern West Virginia.
This isn’t a great shot, because it’s difficult to shoot through a windshield at nearly 70mph, but pay particular attention to the break in the mountains you can just see in the distance. That’s where we’re heading first.
There it is again, just ahead and around the bend….
Approaching Sideling Hill, and its exhibit center…although we won’t be seeing the exhibits today; instead I plan to use the high vantage point to take some pictures of the gorgeous colors in the valley below.
Behind that tree is the north half of Sideling Hill, a man-made pass cut through the mountain, which, when it was made, exposed the fascinating characteristics of a natural syncline. Some light reading is available on Wikipedia if you are interested in the site:
And here is the south half of the cut. As you can see, the sunshine didn’t last and the clouds were building the entire time I was there, coming from the southwest, right where I was eventually headed.
My poor overworked camera did its best, but with the constantly changing light and the long distances over which I tried to shoot, it could only record a tiny fraction of the riot of color we saw.
The eastern-facing slope has the best view. On a warmer day, it would have been enjoyable to have lunch at one of the many picnic tables there. This was what I saw the minute I got out of my car, bringing Solenne along to sit and pose for me.
And this is what Solenne saw…
Poor Solenne. It was rather breezy on the hilltop and the wind kept blowing her hair about her face. Off in the distance, you can see a bright-white painted church that always seems to glow no matter what light is on it.
Solenne waves to the photographer (me) and a little later to an interested man who stopped by and took pictures of us both. He wanted a photo of me taking a photo of “my friend” so we obliged.
Where it wasn’t obliterated by clouds, the sky was an absolutely beautiful blue.
I always enjoy the changing expressions of my dolls when they are posing for me. They seem so alive. I had to wonder what was on Solenne’s mind when I took this one.
Maybe after all, she was just upset that her hair kept blowing in her face!
Gee, Jill, you think?
The clouds were really rolling in now, and the sunny day was changing rapidly to overcast skies. Guess we only had the sun for the early part of the morning this time. But my extra time had been used up anyway, so we retreated to my car, and headed west once again.
As I pulled out of the visitor’s center and as soon as I reached cruising altitude, I was able to snap this photo of the north exposure of rock on Sideling Hill. Yes, it’s rather blurry, but it was taken with one unsteady hand out the passenger side window while I was driving – uphill. Not to worry – traffic was light and I paid more attention to my driving than my camera, which is why the shot is so bad.
I had to snap this picture of a logging truck in the lane in front of me. This is just for my West Coast buddies, who will no doubt laugh about the truck full of kindling we in the East call “logs!”
It was still mostly cloudy when I reached my destination, but the colors of the trees were no less beautiful on the college campus than they had been along the way.
Solenne is a Domuya Saisha; her faceup is by Jay Searle. She wore pieces of the very autumnal “Garden Spirit” Dollheart outfit today on our journey.