There were no fireworks in Floyd this year, but our waitress at the Dogtown Porch bar brought the July 4th spirit. A family of kids put on a show at the Warren Lineberry Park to the bluegrass tunes of Junior Sisk, Jesse Smathers, Sammy Shelor and Barry Collins coming from the Floyd Country Store Concert […]
My energy has been lower than my normal abnormal low energy. My work at the local newspaper has slowed to a drip. Because of the pandemic, I can’t go to Dogtown and dance to live music. Floydfest, our town’s renowned music festival, has been cancelled and there aren’t even any July 4th fireworks to look […]
In these pandemic times, we take our entertainment where we can find it. It was a lovely break from my stay-at-home routine to spend time at the Villa Appalachia winery on Saturday. Not only did Jim Sharkey sing Wagon Wheel, but the wine was exquisite, the cheese plate delicious, the sun shone the whole time […]
Every town is a microcosm of the whole world. If we stay where we are and invest in our own community, the whole world eventually comes to us. – From Homegrown, the 2005 essay that I read on the air at WVTF Public Radio in 2005 The man in the photo, carrying the Confederate flag, […]
I’m pretty sure if I had my car parked in the yard, Mrs. Robin would try be a hood ornament. She poses all over the yard as if she was auditioning for the job. She does have something to preen proudly about. This is Mrs. Wren. Every time the birdfeeder gets near empty, she starts […]
To the sound of Tarzan yell… _______Wordless Wednesday
It’s like watching a birth. Cicada nymphs crawled out of the ground this week after 17 years. There were so many of them that they looked like a clone army climbing up trees. Once settled, their backs split open and they slipped out of their old bodies, reminding me of the old movie, The Invasion […]
My grandson Bryce and I share birthdays, three days apart in May. We celebrated with a camp-out on the Little River. We cooked our lunch on the camper stove and made ourselves at home. It was a first kayaking experience for some of us. (Thanks to Daniel at On the Water Outfitters). By the end […]
I finally got to see Tom Petty in concert. It was a couch tour, and, in our case, a bedroom concert. It was also my birthday. Not seeing Petty in concert was a bucket-list-missed and having this remote concert experience was a completed gestalt. When he died in 2017, I was regretful that I had […]
Pandemic staycation Where lovers leap A Mother’s Day abduction The hike was too steep When you can’t get a haircut or get to an art gallery An alien sighting while wildflower hiking______Our World Tuesday
If the shoe fits, wear it If the song lifts, hear it Don’t wait till midnight __________Poets and Storytellers United
Our grandson Liam (9) wanted to see the house we described to him in the Rock Castle Gorge from when families still lived there. He had the idea of sleeping in the abandoned house as a challenge but settled for looking in the windows. Known as the Austin Connor house, it was built in 1916 […]
People used to live in the Rock Castle Gorge when communities were self- sufficient, before the industrial revolution and before the blight of the chestnut tree that provided chestnuts to feed the hogs and a commodity to trade. The Gorge was named Rock Castle because it was once filled with quartz crystals, which popped out […]
It was a bucket list hike. We didn’t even know we were looking for it. An orchid. In the wild. I’d never seen a native one before, although I was aware they could be found in the woods of the Blue Ridge mountains where we live. Joe spotted it, and I said, “I think it’s […]
If you drove down the Blue Ridge Parkway in my neighborhood today, you might think it was Fall. With all the wind pollinated catkins and tree blooms and leaves unfolding in pastel shades of rust, salmon and gold, it could be October. But then there is this! ____________Our World Tuesday
Joe and I have been hiking for wildflowers along the Rock Castle Gorge loop in Floyd and Patrick County throughout the Coronavirus stay-at-home order. Just when I think that one of our wildflower hikes can’t be topped, we do another one and it is. For this hike, along the Rocky Knob section of the Rock […]
My grandsons love a good story, especially oral history, the legendary stories about the good old days and of their dad growing up. For a while now, they’ve been wanting to see the historic Tuggles Gap Restaurant and Motel, where both their dad and their uncle had their first jobs, washing dishes as teenagers. In […]
We followed a butterfly down the trail at the I.C. DeHart Memorial Park in Woolwine that Joe discovered while mountain biking with a friend (just 8 miles from our house). It was weekend two of hiking our way through the social distancing of COVID-19 looking for wildflowers. Joe explained that the single track for mountain […]
