Smoky Mountains Rain

Homeward bound from New Mexico I cross the rain and fog-shrouded northern reaches of the Great Smoky Mountains near the Tennessee-North Carolina border. I pause my tense traverse at a roadside rest stop. Beyond the stand of trees the Pigeon River winds through the Smokies on its way to a rendezvous with the French Broad River in Tennessee. For a fleeting moment the cloud cover scatters and light works its magic on the landscape. In the distance 4,928-foot Mount Cammerer makes a brief appearance in the mists.

© Ilija Lukić 2015

Smoky Mountains Rain

Endless Horizons

Springtime fills the heart with Wanderlust. Big sky country and roads stretched unto boundless horizons promise adventure and invite quests of renewal. Here is where curiosity takes wing, the mind conspires with the universe to dream and the soul feels eternity. Here is where the grand endeavors of the natural world fill wells of human wisdom with whispers of success by her most humble components.

 © Ilija Lukić 2015

Endless Horizon
(Near the Running Water Draw north of Clovis, New Mexico USA)

Where The Llano Ends
(Llano Estacado escarpment south of Tucumcari, New Mexico USA)

Unchain My Heart
(South of Broadview, New Mexico at sunset)

Fuego En La Llanura

Another high plains sunset is minutes away. Clouds in the western skies take on mystical shapes reminiscent of a roadrunner--our State bird. They ushers in the evening fires over tablelands strewn with prickly pear cactus and cholla. I turn eastward and take a few moments to relish the comforting, mellow hues of night unfolding across the prairie. The Texas Panhandle border lies at the horizon.

Bury my heart in New Mexico. I love this land of enchanted vistas, our mixing bowl of cultures, our tenacious people, our vibrant art and our future of endless possibilities. In the language of the ancient Diné people, AhóÁ to the Land of Enchantment!

© Ilija Lukić 2015

Roadrunner Sunset

Fuego En La Llanura
(South of Broadview, New Mexico USA)

Delta Blues

Brume and mizzle obscure Tennessee woodlands and my descent into the Mississippi alluvial plain at Memphis. Swollen by spring snow melt and heavy rains in the watershed the mighty river strains banks. Spillover inundates fertile farmlands in the Arkansas Delta. Ribbons of water in furrows and ephemeral ponds shimmers under breaks in cloud cover. Once Little Rock is in the rear view mirror I find overnight accommodations in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. At first light I will depart Clarksville and push across the rolling plains of Oklahoma and westward into Texas and New Mexico.

© Ilija Lukić 2015

Bynum General Store

Once a bustling cotton mill village along the banks of the Haw with stores, school and even a movie theater, Bynum still echoes with sounds of its heyday. The general store opened in 1936 stands silent reminder to a once vibrant community life. Now closed, the store still serves as a focal point of community events. Most notably the gospel, folk, blues, rockabilly and bluegrass Front Porch Music venue, which takes place weekends on a stage at the back of the store from May through August.

© Ilija Lukić 2015

General Store
(Bynum, North Carolina USA)

First Touch Of Spring

At daybreak overnight sprinkles linger under low cloud cover. Glistening droplets adorn first touches of spring greenery. White splashes of flowering dogwood and pink crescendos of redbud breathe new life into my winter-weary spirits. Cooper and I rove wooded trails to the joyous chorus of song birds and percussions of a woodpecker. We chance upon the Haw River. I pause and take in the quietude created by rushing water. Cooper obliges primordial urges to explore every scent and sound in the riparian underbrush.

From its perch overlooking the river a Red-shouldered Hawk takes wing to escape our breach of hunter’s code and resumes its quest for food upriver. Undeterred by the commotion a Great Blue Heron stalks prey along the rock-strewn banks of the Haw. My heart races in exuberant celebration of the wild. The natural world most certainly nurtures the primal threads that bind us to one another and define our humanity.

© Ilija Lukić 2015

First Touch Of Spring
(Haw River near Bynum, North Carolina USA)