danrouth

Cricket in the Country

I spent part of the day Sunday shooting a sport I have heard about all of my life but have never had the opportunity to see played in person. I wasn’t on a trip to Great Britain or one of the former Commonwealth countries where the sport is so popular that it ranks number two in the world behind soccer with the most fans. Rather, I saw cricket played for the first time in rural North Carolina, just 5 miles from my home. An English businessman with a love for the game has built an extremely fine cricket facility in Climax, North Carolina, and each weekend from April to October, local teams from the Carolina Cricket League play games there. Like I said, I don’t know a lot about cricket, but I do recognize athletic ability, and the guys playing this game are very serious about what they do. Very serious and just as friendly, as many of the players took time to answer my questions and help me understand the rules. I plan to stop by again and learn more. For more info on cricket in the Triad, go to http://www.carolinacricketleague.org/ccl/index.jsp.

Yellow Dinghy

Boats, Massachusetts

Yellow dinghy. Rockport, Massachusetts.

Saturday Morning at the Farmers’ Market

Agriculture, Farm

Neighbor and cousin Lula Mae Routh at the Asheboro Downtown Farmer’s Market in Asheboro, North Carolina. She and husband Thomas are there twice a week during the summer selling the vegetables they grow on their farm in Grays Chapel.

Sunflower Detail

Flowers

Detail from a sunflower in the garden. Grays Chapel, North Carolina.

Real Horsepower

Horses

From the Southeast Old Threshers’ Reunion. Very large horses pulling very large weights and loving it.

Southeast Old Threshers’ Reunion

History, Travel

Photographs from the annual Southeast Old Threshers’ Reunion held in Denton, North Carolina. Horses, steam, tractors, implements. If it’s old and it’s farming, it’s here. For info, go to http://www.farmpark.com/.

Gettysburg Wall

History, Pennsylvania

My wife Dedra and I stopped in Gettysburg on the return trip from visiting our son in New Hampshire. Both of us are interested in history and the Civil War in particular. We did a quick tour of the battlefield and stopped at one of the most poignant spots there. The image above was shot at the wall on Cemetery Ridge. On July 3, 1863 a large Confederate force under Robert E. Lee attacked the center of the Union line in what is now called Pickett’s Charge. The Southerners walked across almost a mile of open land directly into a hail of Northern fire. Somewhere near this spot the color bearer and a sergeant from the 26th North Carolina found themselves alone and directly in front of the 12th New Jersey manning the wall. Rather than fire upon the Southerners, a New Jersey soldier reached out with his arm, called “Come over to this side of the Lord.”, and helped the two enemies over the wall.