Photo courtesy of Western Carolina University Southern Appalachian Digital Collections
To see an enlarged version visit this page and click on photo.
Straight orchard growing Yates apples in Demorest, Georgia
Reinfried Armstrong Romanes (April 4, 1896-1978), more often known as R. A. Romanes or simply as Romanes, was born and raised in Europe. In 1919, he emigrated to America and, through family and political connections, settled in Alto, Georgia, where he remained for the rest of his life. It wasn’t until 1925 that Romanes became interested in photography, but after that time, photography became his passion. He made pictures of farming families in and around his adopted hometown in northeast Georgia and took landscape shots in Georgia, South Carolina, and western North Carolina. Most of the photographs in this collection were made in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s and many are labeled as to where they were taken.
Creator
Romanes, R. A. (Reinfried Armstrong), 1896-1978
A few fruit trees are blooming in my area. I’ve noticed them as I’ve drove to and fro over the last two weeks. I’ve also noticed the sarvice trees blooming.
The apple trees in our backyard aren’t blooming yet, but the crab apple tree below the house and Granny’s plum tree are in full bloom. Amazing that just a short distance makes such a difference. Actually it’s not the distance it’s the lack of sunshine here on the north side.
A very old apple tree is blooming down the road. The people who planted it have been dead and gone for decades, yet when I see it in the spring of the year I always think of the elderly couple. I wonder what they would think about this ole world today and I wonder how many more years the neglected tree will bloom.
Our forecast is for temperatures to dip back into the 30s by the end of the week. Hopefully it won’t get cold enough to hurt any of the blooming trees.
Last night’s video: Helping Austin & Corie With Their New House – DIY Affordable Countertops.
Tipper
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I live in Western New York state. It has been raining here for days. It’s in the 40’s and may snow again in a few days. I’m going to the local Maple Syrup Festival this coming weekend. That will be a welcome sign of spring. My neighbors forsythia bush is just starting to bloom. Enjoy your spring time projects.
I received two Bradford pear trees for a retirement gift. I thought they would produce fruit. Nope, just striking white blooms. Very photogenic, but very useless ornamental trees otherwise.
Hi Tipper!
None of our fruit trees have begun to bloom yet. It’s blowing like crazy a constant flow of mad wind- a little bit scary. Not looking forward to the snow storm predicted here in NY. I’m so happy Corie and Austin are right there on the homestead with you now. Such a lovely family you and Matt have.
I love to see blooming trees of any kind but one of my favorites is the dogwood tree. They are in full bloom here and are beautiful. My husband and I have been noticing there is the most wisteria growing this year than we have ever seen. It’s in full bloom but the vines seem to be everywhere in some really tall trees. When I was young, we had what I thought was a wisteria bush (tree) and Mama kept it cut back, but I’m pretty sure it’s a vine. I hope someone will chime in if I am not correct.
Loved seeing the new countertops in Corie and Austin’s house. They will be beautiful when Matt finishes them. Knowing Pap built the cabinets, that’s so special. Hubby and I watched it, and he loved that idea. I know Corie and Austin are so excited. We’re so happy for them. Matt’s a special Dad to do that for them.
The other day in our garden the wind was blowing the apple petals my way. They looked kinda like snowflakes. I just have the one tree and its variety unknown. It bloomed heavily this year – now if only the Japanese beetles don’t eat all the leaves again. I want to dry some more.
I have a complicated relationship with our flowering trees. I love their beauty and I am always cheered by their blooming but I also have allergies: it reminds me of the roses with thorns. I enjoyed the countertop video and I appreciate that solution to less expensive countertops. Lovely job!
I always wondered what a ‘sarvice’ tree was as the ole timers called it. After research on the internet I discovered that it is actually a ‘service berry’ tree. Another word to add to the ‘Appalachian’ vocabulary! Of course I call it Hillbilly!!
Sarvis is how the old timers pronounced service. When they spoke the word they said sarvis, but they wrote it as service. Who’s to say they were wrong? Perhaps the isolation of Appalachian peoples prevented the degeneration of the original pronunciation of that word and many others. Most people think Appalachian peoples and their dialects are a degradation of their culture. I think it is a preservation. We cannot change history by majority vote!
Tipper we are vacationing in the Shenandoah Valley this week with 4 of our grandchildren. It’s so beautiful here and I have noticed the daffodils and tulips are in full bloom and so is the yellow bells. Our bloomed a month ago in Eastern NC . I am enjoying all of God’s beautiful creation here.
I haven’t caught up on videos that I have missed this week with the kids, so I didn’t know Corie & Austin was able to get Uncle Steve’s house. I am so excited for them but mostly because those 2 little boys get to grow up together and roam the holler together. I grew up with my cousins behind me and beside me & my children grew up next door to their cousin on the same family land. That’s just so special!
I saw a dogwood tree in full bloom on my way to town this morning, a beautiful sight and a sure sign of good fishing. The annual cherry blossom festival in Washington D.C. is on my list of places to go and things to see. If I could see a sarvice tree blooming in these hills, that would be almost as exciting as seeing the cherry blossoms.
I think the blooming trees are beautiful to gaze upon, but my allergies do not like them at all.
Does the old apple tree still produce fruit? Can it be nurtured back to health?
Richard-I’m not sure the area is so overgrown it’s hard to tell.
It’s not difficult to graft an old apple tree and bring it back to life. If that old tree is still there, it must have produced some good apples. Are you guys cool enough to grow lilacs? Of all the blooming plants and flowers, I miss lilacs the most …
13Soap-I think they will grow here but we don’t have any.
What a treasure for Corie to have her father and husband working together to put down new kitchen counter top in a kitchen where her grandfather had built the cabinets. And to have Matt tell the story of using Pap’s saw to cut out the sink area & it being the very same saw Pap used to cut it out many years ago when the house was built. Now to me that’s just precious family history!
Tipper, here in SC PA we’ve had rain going on for three days and looks like it may not clear up till Saturday:) When I drive through the area I am oooing and a-glo with all the beauty I see. Daffodils, hyacinths, tulips, hardy azaleas, forsythia, spirea, redbud trees, apple trees, weeping cherry trees, and tulip trees are in full bloom. Grass is a growing and looks like I’m gonna be a mowing next week:)
We have a weeping cherry tree in our yard. I’ve been traveling for several days and when I left there were maybe a half dozen buds about to open. When I got back it was in full bloom. We are about 200 feet higher than town and I see them in full bloom down there almost two weeks before ours opens. Some Springs I start to think it may have died. Then it opens almost overnight.
I was guessing those were apple blooms and I’m happy to know I was right. Lol. Your educating me is finally paying off! LolTrying to imagine the sweet aroma of being there with bees and butterflies and birds buzzing about! What a lovely picture indeed! I sent you a video and hope it makes your day like you do mine every day, Tipper! Blessings to all you beautiful people (especially Granny, Ira and Katie) as we stop to enjoy the simple pleasures of a life well lived (high in the hog) in the hills! One more cold snap I say and then BAM-spring explodes! That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
My pear trees have little pears. Dogwoods are in full bloom, time to plant corn.
It got up to 83 here in flat country yesterday so I’ve abandoned my hope for snow.
I don’t have any fruit trees. My favorite tree to watch in the spring is the dogwood tree. Easter has just passed but every time I see a dogwood tree I think of the short story “Legend Of The Dogwood Tree.” Along with the cold snaps hurting the fruit trees, many also worry about their strawberries. 30’s are also predicted for here by end of the week but hopefully not low enough to cause any damage.
He took interesting photographs of life in both human and creation form.
It’s starting to look like Spring up here. The tree pollen has me sneezing and eyes watering. Robins are back already, leaving presents on my truck cab and hood.
yates is a fa.ily name, I have always wanted to have a tree Merciers had them one time when I was there. delicious.
In the north country I will soon enjoy redbuds, cherry and apple, crabapple, and my favorite, the lilac trees or some calling them bushes. Right outside my apartment window a crabapple is soon to bloom, which I look forward to each year, and also some ornamental plums which I can also see. Across a field I will soon see and smell a large lilac. Huge cherry and apple orchards grow here, and when in bloom they are quite something to see.
We had some apple trees and dwarf peach trees. But my favorite flowering tree was not a fruit tree but a redbud tree. We live to far south for them but I was recently in Tallahassee and saw one blooming. My mom would sit under the redbud and snap beans or shell peas.
Seeing that Redbud blooming reminded me of those days under the redbud tree.
We have a cold snap coming back as well. I have a couple of tulips blooming the last couple days that I hope make it through. I’ve seen hundreds of new flowers bursting open since April 1 and the breeze is bringing the scent of lilacs. I also love the Redbud best. The tulip tree is awfully pretty too.