Loose Leaf Notes

The rain didn’t deter garden lovers from participating in the Mother’s Day Farm Tour at Full Circle and Five Penny Farms in Floyd this past Sunday. Traffic up and down the long dirt driveway into Full Circle Farm for the open house event was steady in spite of weather.

The Farm Tour, now in its 4th year, has been growing in attendance each year. “We had about two hundred visitors last year,” said Tenley Weaver (pictured in blue shirt and boots). Weaver runs the certified organic farm off Spangler Mill Road with her partner, Dennis Dove. “I grow the flowers and herbs and Dennis does the vegetables,” she said.

It seems that flowers and garden greenery go hand in hand with Mother’s Day. One family shopping for plants traveled up to Floyd from Roanoke after meeting Dove recently at the Roanoke Natural Food Store and hearing about the Farm Tour from him. Enjoying their Mother’s Day outing, the family was purchasing plant seedlings for their garden. “We’re trying to go organic,” the mother said.

Weaver and Dove are not only full-time market growers; they operate Good Food-Good People, a local fresh produce distributing network. “It’s a private cooperative business,” Weaver said. “We represent twenty-five to thirty growers from the backyard farmer to bigger farms. We wholesale to restaurants in Blacksburg, Roanoke, the New River Valley, on the Parkway, and to health food stores,” she explained.

The Full Circle Farm Tour featured several large greenhouses filled with flowers, herbs, and vegetables starts. Booth displays of local products overlooked rows of growing greens and included those from Weathertop Farms, Brights Farm and Chef Natasha Shishkevish. A horse pull activity was canceled because of the rain, but Abe Goorsky played fiddle in the early part of the day, Weaver reported.

Pointing out pots of pineapple and tangerine sage, Weaver broke a leaf off from one of the plants to release its aroma. “It’s not like turkey sage,” she said. “It’s used for culinary purposes and it makes a nice tea,” she added. Everything grown on the Full Circle Farm is edible, even the flowers. There were pansies, nasturtiums, snap dragons, and calendula.

“My goal is to grow every culinary herb that any chef could want,” Weaver said. She also runs Greens Garage, which provides local products to the neighborhood and to word-of-mouth traffic. The Garage, described by Weaver as “a farm stand and more,” is open year-round and sells fresh organic and biologically-grown vegetables, local free range and grass fed beef and pork, local honey, fresh eggs, regional cheeses, and more.

When asked if there’s ever a lull in the farm work, Weaver said, “It never slows down.” In the winter months she focuses on sales and marketing, and “lots of meetings” to coordinate with GFGP members who will be growing what in the upcoming year.

The sun broke out in the afternoon. At Five Penny Farm on Thomas Farm Road, two musicians performed on the deck of the wooden building that will soon house “The Shooting Creek Brewery.” The Brewery, on the Blue Ridge Wine Trail, has a planned grand opening in June, said farm owner Johanna Nichols. The farm, now in its fourth year of operation, is certified organic.

Children played on the grounds, a dog stretched out on the grass, and shoppers mulled through the hanging baskets of flowers and trays of leafy green farm grown plants. Some of the Farm Tour goers strolled up and down the rows of growing hop plants. The plants, prickly vines climbing up a string pole fence, will be used in special seasonal brews, Five Penny co-owner Brett Nichols said.

Note: The first two photos were taken at Full Circle Farm and the second two at Five Penny Farm.

Posted by Colleen at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

1. A front row seat at the First Friday Irish Night Jam at Oddfellas Cantina.

2. Lucy Goldman Singing Dougie Mclean’s “Ready for the Storm.” Tina Liza Jones (on the left) was strumming an unusual guitar; I think it was THIS.

3. Several played fiddle and one played a harp. I wish someone in the group played THIS, an instrument that when played well can bring tears to my eyes.

Posted by Colleen at 9:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

The following is the third and final installment of a story I wrote about our local art scene for a Floyd Press special insert. Part I is HERE. Part II is HERE.

The literary arts also have a presence in Floyd, with a monthly open mic night and at least two writing workshop groups. Poets and writers of all literary styles gather once a month for a Spoken Word Open Mic at the Café Del Sol. Books by local authors can be found in downtown shops, as can an abundance of music CDs. Open mics provide a performing stage for established musicians and writers, and also act as an outreach to those getting started in those arts. Blackwater Loft and Oddfellas Cantina both host monthly open mics, mainly for music.

Some of the venues for the arts in Floyd are seasonal and involve grass, lawn chairs, pavilions, or decks. The Oak Grove Pavilion at the Zion Lutheran Church hosts a summer schedule of music and plays, which are supported by donations that the church passes on to local charities and causes. The Pine Tavern has hosted some well received acts on their outdoor Pavilion stage. Tuggles Gap Motel and Restaurant has a weekend outdoor music series, and Jazz Festivals at Château Morrisette Winery attract crowds from far and wide.

Floyd isn’t just a venue for local musicians. Famous talents have played here. Maria Muldaur performed at the Pine Tavern. Leon Russell has played there and at the Winter Sun. The Country Store has featured Wayne Henderson with Jeff Little, The King Wilkie Band, Ronnie Stoneman of Hee Haw fame, and more. Floyd Fest, a world music festival on 80 acres off the Blue Ridge Parkway, features camping, vending, children’s activities, and six stages for musical performances. The festival, about to begin their 7th year, has helped to secure Floyd’s place on the music map. They welcome community participation, headline well known national and international acts, and feature emerging talent from the region.

Other signs that Floyd is a flourishing community of many artists turn up in unusual places. Outdoor wood sculptures by Charlie Brouwer and Lanny Bean can be found around town. The main desk at the Jessie Peterman Library was carved by Ernest Bryant, whose Celtic mantel fireplace was featured in a story for the Washington Post and a 2004 issue of Fine Homebuilding. The Hotel Floyd, which opened this past fall, enlisted the help the arts community to decorate and furnish their guest rooms and suites. The fourteen theme rooms showcase Floyd culture and art.

The arts in Floyd have come far since The Old Church Gallery paved the way when it opened in 1978. With a focus on cultural arts and local history, the Gallery is about to celebrate their 30th anniversary. Many of the wide range plans that Pauley and others envisioned the Gallery taking on have manifested, either at the Gallery or through other organizations in town.

“The more the merrier. I love it when lots and lots of creative things are going on,” Pauley said. “I never cared who did what, just as long as it got done,” she added.

Instrument makers, fiber artists, jewelers, woodworkers, painters, potters, sculptors, photographers, musicians, writers, and actors have all been attracted to Floyd. The same qualities that drew the first influx of artists in the 1970’s continue to draw talented people today. Today’s Floyd artists enjoy an expanded local appreciation for the arts, a variety of welcoming venues, and a growing interest in Floyd as a creative community that values country life.

Photos: 1. Spoken Word Open Mic collage. 2. Happy Wanderers, a sculpture by Charlie Brouwer at Over the Moon, inspired by a grade school song and a hike with his grandson.

Posted by Colleen at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

A Flourishing of Arts in Floyd, Part I is HERE. This story originally appeared in The Floyd Press on March 27, 2008.

Another sign that the arts have grown in the community is Floyd’s active nightlife. Music lovers and fiddle players spilling over into the streets for the Friday Night Jamboree is part of Floyd’s heritage and its music reputation. Held at the Floyd Country Store, the Jamboree has been written about in the Washington Post and other regional and national publications. People from all over the country and the world have attended. Most recently a home schooling family of four red-head girls and three boys from Alaska performed on the Jamboree stage. On the road with their band, The Redhead Express, learning more about Bluegrass music was part of their home schooling curriculum.

“They found us online and asked to play,” Jackie Crenshaw, one of the Floyd Country Store owners said. “They loved seeing the multi-generational mix – adults and little kids – and were especially surprised to see the teenagers here,” she added.

The Jamboree and the County Sales store, renowned for providing an extensive selection of Old Time and Bluegrass recordings since 1965, are two of the good reasons why Floyd is part of the Crooked Road, a 250 mile Heritage Music Trail that winds through the Appalachian region of Southwest Virginia.

Although Floyd’s musical reputation has been built on Old Time and Bluegrass music, on any given weekend night residents and visitors might also hear Reggae, Salsa, Rock and Roll, or Blues. While dancers are flat-footing at the Floyd Country Store, others are dosey-doeing at the monthly Contra Dance held at The Winter Sun Music Hall, or enjoying a jig at Oddfellas’ monthly Irish Night.

The Winter Sun Music Hall, where an African dance troupe and a South American band are promoted and booked from, has played a role in stimulating a cultural exchange of the arts in Floyd. International, national, and regional acts have played on the Winter Sun stage. The Music Hall’s sprawling wood floor is great for dancing or practicing yoga at one of the classes they offer. Part of a complex of businesses housed in an old renovated textile factory building, the Music Hall has hosted a Halloween costume party, several benefits, and provides a stage for Floyd’s Young Actors Coop.

In many cases the venues in Floyd that feature dining and live music also promote the visual arts. Café Del Sol, Oddfellas Cantina, and Blackwater Loft all have regular rotating art exhibits on display. Over the Moon, above the Harvest Moon Food Store, is a café as well as a fine arts gallery.

Some establishments focus entirely on the arts and have built on the momentum of earlier community efforts. The June Bug Center specializes in the performing arts, everything from Shakespeare to Kid-interactive Story Theater and dance classes. Last year they hosted a Middle Eastern celebration called a Hafla, and a Poetry slam that brought the youth of the community together. Before the June Bug Center, The Floyd Theater Group filled the niche for community theater, hosting plays and Skit Night during the 80’s and 90’s. Around that same time the Mountain Rose Dance Center’s yearly dance recitals filled the high school auditorium with attendees.

The Jacksonville Center for the Arts, a renovated dairy barn, was home to the Winterfest Arts and Craft Fair before the renovations and before it was heated. Today at the Jacksonville Center you can take a class on blacksmithing, glass works, pot throwing, paper making and more. Their Hayloft Gallery is a popular venue that regularly features exciting exhibits of contemporary and folk art of local, national, and international artists. Winterfest, still going strong at the Jacksonville Center, will be hosting their 13th annual fair this coming winter.

Although much of Floyd’s art and music scene happens downtown, stretching from one end of Locust Street to the other, county residents have been creative in the way they showcase their arts. 16 Hands, a group of ceramic artists and one woodworker, helped set the stage for the recent surge of arts in Floyd with their biyearly self-guided studio tours. The open house tours began in 1998 and have grown to include visiting artists. Members of 16 Hands have gained national and international recognition for their art. Catherine Pauley recalls that several of the founding members were some of the earliest artisans to move to Floyd and believes that other artists coming to Floyd twenty years ago may have followed on their reputation.

Musical events held in farmhouses and local inns, known as House Concerts, are an old country tradition that is becoming popular again. Blues musician Scott Perry, who teaches music and hosts “Back Porch” concerts at his music store, The Pickin’ Porch, thinks they’re great.

“They’re music and musician focused events, as opposed to the music being secondary to dining and drinking.” Perry said.

Perry, who recently performed his second House Concert at Ambrosia Farm Bed & Breakfast, appreciates that at these venues he can do what he does best without having to think about asking for tips. Concert-goers are happy to pay a reasonable pre-set musician’s donation in exchange for a front row seat in an informal setting that includes a chance to meet and talk with the performer.

Post Notes: Photos are of The Floyd Country Store (home of the Friday Night Jamboree), and a sculpture in front of the Jacksonville Center, made by high school students who attended a week long sample course in the arts last year. Click HERE for the final installment of this story.

Posted by Colleen at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This is the first installment of a three part reprint from a story that originally appeared in a Floyd Press special insert on March 27, 2008. A post about the process I went through writing this retrospective on Floyd arts can be found HERE.

Whether it’s food and shelter, or creative arts and entertainment, Floyd Countians have a long tradition of providing it for themselves. Although Floyd has been home to talented musicians, quilters, woodworkers, and resourceful types for many generations, the county has recently been experiencing a renaissance of creative arts.

Native Floydian and high school art teacher, Catherine Pauley doesn’t remember anything organized going on in Floyd in the area of fine arts in the late 1970’s when she and several others decided to start an art association, which would become The Old Church Gallery. She does remember their earliest efforts promoting the arts in Floyd as playful.

“We were doing sidewalk art and art shows on the courthouse lawn. We ran wire along metal posts and hung up paintings. Kids, adults, everyone made them,” Pauley recalled.

Around the same time that The Old Church Gallery was being formed, young artists and musicians, pursuing the self-sufficient lifestyle and natural beauty Floyd has to offer, began moving to the area. Adding their input to the existing creative culture, they developed markets that showcased their arts, such as The Barter Faire, a Renaissance style event that was once held yearly on the Pine Tavern lawn. The Annual Floyd County Arts and Crafts Festival – which started in the high school cafeteria and has since spread onto the grounds and elementary school – was also taking off during this time of seeding the arts.

Many of the homespun endeavors that groups began back then to highlight the arts have recently been coming to fruition or have spawned new growth. New venues and businesses related to the arts have been cropping up, more music and art classes are being taught, and downtown improvements and opportunities for entertainment are drawing more visitors to Floyd.

Jayn Avery has been making her living in ceramic arts for more than thirty years. She’s recently been able to retire from traveling long distances to craft shows, finding more market venues at home. Weekend treks to sell her wares at The Roanoke Farmer’s Market have proven successful.

“Since doing the Roanoke Market, my sales in Floyd have increased. It’s provided consistent exposure and a new clientèle. When people ask where they can get my work, I send them up to Floyd,” Avery said.

Avery’s lace impressed production pottery has always sold well at the New Mountain Mercantile, one of Floyd’s earliest shops to feature local arts and crafts. Her large hand built vessels and blue glazed heron sculptures were first exhibited at Floyd’s Jacksonville Center for the Arts, where she is an active board member.

“My higher end art pieces are selling in Floyd now, and they never used to,” Avery said. The range of interest in her art has also increased.

“The Bell Gallery has sold pieces to people across the country,” she added.

Some artists, like Avery, work at their craft full-time out of their home studios. Others support themselves by combining their art with part time jobs. Still others wait till they retire to tap their creativity.

Bob Grubel, a founding member of the band Grace Note, supplements the income his music brings in with a job supporting individuals with disabilities. Over the years Grubel has recorded nearly a dozen tapes and CDs of his original music and the music of Grace Note. He sings and plays piano at local and regional venues and even finds time to keep a large garden, although he gave up his goats a decade ago when his music career started to take off.

“I enjoy wearing a different hat several times a day, going from music to supporting the individuals I work with, to farm activities,” Grubel said.

Grubel, who also performs at churches in the region, is set up to record music at his home. He also uses recording studios throughout the New River Valley.

“I love being in a community with so many musicians finding their niches,” he said.

Gretchen St. Lawrence, who relocated to Floyd with her husband David two years ago, is a late blooming artist, retired from years of working in the corporate world. The availability of art classes at Floyd’s Jacksonville Center was a factor in the St. Lawrence’s move to Floyd, but Gretchen says the main draw was the friendly and encouraging people. One of her first connections with Floyd artists was through The Floyd Figures Art Group, a non instructional art group that first began meeting in the early 1990’s and uses live models for figure drawing.

“Artists here foster each other. Everyone at the Floyd Figures group accepted me without question or judgment,” St. Lawrence said.

St. Lawrence, who is currently a member of Art Under the Sun – a grassroots art association that hosts a gallery and offers art classes – explained that the support of other artists helped her to feel comfortable as an artist. From that place of acceptance her work flourished.

“It just took off. People started commissioning me to do pet portraits,” she said.

Post note: The photo is of a Floyd sign in front of noteBooks and the Black Water Loft. Click HERE to continue this story.

Posted by Colleen at 11:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Johanna is my son Josh’s peer, a Blue Mountain School alumni, Floyd High School salutatorian, a young German-born woman that many of us here in Floyd watched grow up. She’s getting married on the summer solstice.

Forgoing a wedding shower, or even the traditional Floyd Blessingway, she requested a Machitun, a shamanic drumming healing ceremony. The ceremony was brought back to Floyd after my friend Katherine, a ceremonialist, and other Floyd women traveled to Chili and learned it from the Mapuchi women shamans.

Burning sage wafted in the air, cultrun drums reverberated, and the shaking of rattle conversations opened the way for good visions to come.

Following the ceremony, we gathered around Johanna with big smiles on our faces to tell stories and give her our blessings.

“A jiggly jolly girl in pig tails with her head in a book and roller skates on her feet” was the way some of us remembered her. As a young girl she created miniature fairy worlds. Now she’s making the world a better place as an environmental organizer. Sipping from the chalice of fruity herbal liquor, we sealed our wishes for her and her partner, Nick.

Then we held court upstairs at a long dining room table. The wine flowed as we were treated to an Eastern Indian feast fit for Queens, Priestesses, and Machis, prepared and served lovingly by two of us. Gifts were presented and oohed over. Laughter and chatter filled the air.

Post note: Johanna’s mother, Starroot, is a well known Floyd visionary artist. You can check out her work HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 5:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

The following was published in The Floyd Press on January 3, 2008.

You know the saying ‘everything under the sun?’ Now you can get Mexican food there. A new restaurant called El Charro recently opened in the lower level of the Winter Sun building on Locust Street in downtown Floyd.

El Charro means “the cowboy” in Spanish, said Malena, wife of one of the new restaurant owners. She pointed out a large sombrero on the terra cotta wall to my husband and me while describing the traditional dress of a Mexican cowboy. Her father was a cattle raising cowboy, she told us as she wrote down our lunch order.

The restaurant is a family business, owned and operated by two brothers, a cousin, and their families. The extended family lives in Galax and has one other restaurant in Radford, Malena explained.

“You’re all going to love Floyd and want to move here,” I joked to her. She motioned to her daughter who was cleaning off a nearby table and explained that her daughter wouldn’t want to change schools or move away from her friends.

From our comfortable booth by a big picture window, my husband and I watched Christmas shoppers stroll up and down the tiled hallway just outside the restaurant. The hallway and restaurant décor continues the South American theme that began with the first shop in the building, the one that bears its name – Winter Sun – an outlet featuring clothing hand painted in Ecuador.

I don’t remember what my husband ordered because I was happy with my own meal – grilled chicken fajitas, sautéed onions and peppers, guacamole, salsa, and beans – and so I was not tempted by his. It was a few days before Christmas and the atmosphere was festive. A family of about fifteen was celebrating together at a group of tables that had been put together to make one long one. Many of them had arrived carrying stacks of wrapped gifts, which they deposited in a pile nearby.

El Charro is the newest establishment in the building that once housed a textile factory before it was purchased and renovated by Winter Sun clothing store owner, Anga Miller. Other shops in the recently remodeled downstairs include The Craft Cottage, which sells homemade candles and soaps; Art Under the Sun, a Floyd Artist Association's working gallery; Studio One, which offers art instruction to students of all ages; Wildfire Pottery; and the Anderson Gallery and Press. Upstairs is home to Café Del Sol; Winter Sun clothing store; and Winter Sun Hall, where performance art, dances, and concerts take place.

“This is about as close as Floyd gets to a Mall,” I said to my husband, impressed that everything in the building was so inviting, conveniently located, and locally owned. Looking out the restaurant window and waving to a friend, I added, “And the food here gets my four stars.”

Posted by Colleen at 10:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

There were seven us, all authors, on a Dickens of a night. We were invited by our local independent bookstore, noteBooks, to sign books as part of the evening festivities, which included late night shopping, Christmas caroling, musical acts, and visits with Santa. I wore my leather Victorian lace-up granny boots, a long black skirt, white blouse with a gold laced vest, and a fur trimmed hat shaped like Santa’s. The funny part was that I wasn’t in costume because those are my real clothes.

Next to me at the author’s table, Pat Woodruff had on a long black hoop skirt, a lacey top, and black Victorian heeled boots. She had the newest book, Strange Tales of Floyd County, and did the most actual signing. The rest of us bantered back and forth, greeted guests, and drank tea or coffee out of mugs that David St. Lawrence had given us with the name of his book on the front, Danger Quicksand: Have a Good Time.

But mostly we spent our time being entertained by Lee Chichester’s live falcon, CJ. Lee, author of Falcons and Foxes in the U.K: The Making of a Hunter, also has hawk. I had thought her falcon was named “Seajay” because it squawked like sea gull, but Lee told me CJ was short for Crow Jo, a variation of Mo Jo, which had been the name his original owners had given him. Back then he hunted ducks, now he hunts crows. CJ had his eye on the decorative sequined fruit in a bowl between David and me, and in particular the red apple, because it looks like blood, Lee told us.

Our books ranged from a children’s storybook to a book about death (mine). One of the signers was a child who had published a coloring book. Fred First of Slow Road Home fame was there, glossy eyed from having just attended another book event the day before, which he blogged about HERE.

After an hour of bookish book sitting I had a strong urge to play hooky. “I’m going out to not smoke a cigarette," I told the bookstore owner as I headed for the front door. Outside it was unseasonably warm with just the right amount of chill in the air, and a few Dickens-like characters floating around. It wasn’t long before I found Santa sitting on a bench in front of the courthouse. It might have been the first time I had seen a completely available Santa, as though he was there just for me to fulfill a childhood fantasy. David, who was also playing hooky, snapped a photo of us. “Have you been good?” Santa asked. Of course, I denied any wrongdoing, but wasn’t able to elaborate because some children had come by and were waiting for their turn with Santa.

The new Village Green building sparkled with white lights. People were mulling about. I was out in front of Doug Thompson’s Blue Ridge Muse, taking a photo of the lit up window, when Doug and his wife Amy invited me in. Amy showed me the Christmas mugs she had purchased for the occasion from Angels in the Attic, our town’s popular thrift shop. Doug was busy talking to shoppers, but later that night he visited the book signers at noteBooks and took some close-up shots of CJ, which are likely to turn up in next week’s Floyd Press.

Angels in the Attic was my next stop. I was drawn in by Christmas red in the window. While trying not to buy a little girls Santa dress for the granddaughter I don’t have (yet), I caught some impromptu Christmas caroling. If Santa wasn’t enough to get me in the holiday spirit, this was. Dr. Sue Osborne and her son Mars were joined by singer Kari Kovik. Judy Weinzenfeld accompanied them on violin as the woman behind the check-out counter in bright red prairie hats hummed along.

Post Notes: You can read more about the book signing event at Floyd's Dickens of a Night and view more photos on David's blog HERE. See the video recording of the Angels in the Attic caroling session HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 8:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

The following was published in The Floyd Press on December 6, 2007.

Roberta Flack meets Bob Marley, that’s how I first described the music of Emily Brass when she was lead singer for the popular Floyd-based band, Foundation Stone. Back then I considered Foundation Stone to be a hometown “house band.” They regularly played at The Pine Tavern Restaurant, renowned for its Sunday Night Open Mic, community gatherings, and the Italian cooking of chef, Michael Gucciardo.

But then the Pine Tavern closed and later Foundation Stone folded when Emily and her husband, Jacques, the band’s bass guitarist, broke up. It felt like the end of an era, significant losses that would lessen my opportunities to dance with and socialize locally with friends.

The Pine Tavern has been open under the new management of Reed and Jane Embrey for over two years now. They serve down home Southern cooking that the Roanoke Times has rated with 4 ½ stars. Tom Ryan, a satirist who authors the online Floyd Enquirer, tends bar in The Tavern Room. This past Friday night, the venue and the sound of Foundation Stone were reunited. Emily, a singer, songwriter, and saxophonist, hosted a party for the release of her new CD with her new band, The Emily Brass Band.

In the old days bands played in the restaurant’s main room. Tables were moved to make room for dancing. Over the years, I and others wore down some of the Tavern’s wood floor shine with our enthusiastic and persistent dance steps. Since then the place has expanded. On this night, the last of November, we danced under the Tavern Pavilion, closed in with plastic and warmed with portable heaters. But it didn’t take long for people to throw their coats over the backs of chairs. Emily has a stage presence that encourages a feeling of celebration, and when she plays sax she reminds me of snake charmer with a talent for getting everyone up and shaking to her rhythmic grooves.

“Who knew?” I asked more than once of those who danced near me, after hearing lead guitarist Richard Ursomarso play. I’ve known Richard, a Floyd Market Gardener, for years but didn’t know he could play guitar riffs like a top chart musician. Other band members who rounded out the reggae, jazz, and hip-hop influenced sound were bass guitarist John Lindsey, keyboardist James Pace, and Foundation Stone drummer Dave Brown.

Emily, who is originally from Montreal Canada, is an environmental activist, and her lyrics reflect that. We once shared a group bus ride to Washington D.C. to protest the start of the Iraq War. She wore a large silver Statue of Liberty crown to go with her hand painted sign that read “Protest is our Patriotic Duty," one of the slogans we came up with at a sign painting party the night before the march. She volunteers her time to help put a local newsletter together, which frequently happens on my kitchen table, and sells Guatemalan clothing when she’s not busy writing and playing music.

The name of her new CD, “Open Door,” suggests the hopefulness that is an integral part of Emily’s style. With a sultry voice ranging from soothing to commanding, she raps and sings lyrics that prod listeners to think about how they live, urging global awareness with a hip upbeat that causes me to look around and smile at my dancing neighbors.

Although most of the songs Emily performed were new ones off her CD, every now and then she would shout out to the crowd that it was time for a “Foundation Stone fix,” and the audience would cheer and prepare to sing along.

Emily’s website, emilybrass.com, best describes her music and what it’s like to dance to: Like a musical shape-shifter, Emily Brass takes you on a psychedelic hippie-hop journey, channeling the ghosts of old school rap, rock-steady reggae, ragtime jazz, and 60's rock & soul, while relentlessly keeping you in a sweat-inducing, smile-inspiring trance-dance, all night long.

Maybe not all night long for some of us, but when it comes to the music of Emily Brass, I’m good for at least a first two hour set.

Post notes: HERE'S a short video clip of the band on the Pine Tavern Pavilion Stage Friday night. And HERE is a Roanoke Times write-up about Emily which links to audio of two of Emily’s songs. Emily’s CD can be purchased online HERE. It is also available in Floyd at noteBooks, Café Del Sol, and New Mountain Mercantile; and in Roanoke at Seeds of Light.

Posted by Colleen at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

My favorite part of the Floyd Country Store, home of the famous Friday Night Jamboree, is the seating. When the store reopened this past summer, after a renovation that allowed for more room, the lightweight plastic and folding chairs covered with colorful cushions and crocheted seat pads got my attention. The jamboree crowd has always been a full house that spilled out onto the street, and I had never seen the chairs empty before. I was struck by how hospitable they looked and wondered about the people who provided such a homemade touch for the comfort of others.

The renovated store looks especially pretty lit up at night. It was decked in Christmas lights when Joe and I arrived this past Friday night (the day after Thanksgiving) to meet up with my son, Josh, his girlfriend, Anna, and Anna’s family who were in town from Minnesota. Even with the expanded space, which holds more than a few hundred people, by the time we got there every seat was filled. We stood in the aisle, shoulder to shoulder with others watching the Sigmon Stringers, a family bluegrass band from North Carolina. From the start of their set, the dance floor was never empty. The click and clack of the flatfooters could be heard over the fiddle playing band, whose youngest member looked to be about twelve. The oldest might have been her Grandpa.

I was wearing clogs, the wrong kind of shoes for flatfooting, a mountain style of step dancing that resembles tap and is related to clogging. Even if I knew how to flatfoot or could contain myself enough to dance using only my feet, I didn’t want to chance it with the shoes I had on.

Watching the spirited dancing done by people of all ages, I began to think about my mother and father’s last visit to Floyd when I took them to the jamboree. It was just a couple of years before my dad, a WWII vet born to South Boston Massachusetts Irish immigrants, passed away. We had seats right up front. I tried to convince him to dance with me by explaining how flatfooting was related to Irish step dancing, brought over by the Scotch Irish settlers. But flatfooting was too much of a leap for my dad, who was more comfortable doing the jitterbug.

When and if you do score a seat on a busy jamboree night, you’ll be bound to get to know your neighbor in the similar way you do when you sit next to someone on a plane or any other close quarters. Eventually Joe and I found ourselves nestled in a back corner of dance hall, sitting next to a couple that we struck up a lively conversation with. The man, a Floyd native, bore the family name of the road I regularly take from the Blue Ridge Parkway into town. He shared some interesting bits of history about our neighborhood that we didn’t know, and in the time it took for a few songs to be played, we all knew a good bit about each other.

After awhile I wandered around to the front of the store to see what the rest of my group were doing. Some were browsing through the rack of music CD’s. There was talk of a hot fudge sundae from the soda fountain. Josh and Anna were on the dance floor waltzing. I ran into the Country Store owner, Woody Crenshaw, who was wearing denim bib overalls and a baseball cap over his sandy brown longish hair. As we talked, I checked out his shoes, more flatfoot worthy than mine, I decided.

“You need to put some metal taps on those, Woody, so we can hear you when you dance,” I said.

“No. Those are only for the good dancers,” he answered.

Seems you don’t want to draw attention to yourself until you master the dance. Taps are something you have to work your way up to.

Post Notes: See Josh and Anna dancing the waltz at the Friday Night Jamboree HERE and Woody talking about the Jamboree HERE. And HERE'S a close-up , especially for Kenju, of someone flatfooting.

Posted by Colleen at 8:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

It was a final Farewell Memorial for Elliot, the poet and one of the founding members of the Floyd Writer’s Circle who passed away in November two years ago. The tribute was expressed through spontaneous performance art involving his T-shirt collection.

I was having a conversation with my friend Kathleen’s fiancé, Wayne, about The Epic of Gilgamesh and a toasted bacon and sautéed onion sandwich that we both like from the Blue Ridge Restaurant. Kathleen, a historical society archivist who had just addressed the crowd at the Village Green ribbon cutting ceremony, joined us. I reminded her that it was the second anniversary Elliot’s death. Elliot, Kathleen, Mara, and I were all founding members of the Floyd Writer’s Circle and regular Scrabble partners.

Elliot walked stooped over with a cane. With long hair and a full burly beard, he looked somewhat like the Harry Potter character, Hagrid; or maybe Bette Midler, who Elliot named when I asked him once who might play him in the movie of his life. He liked to wear a beret and a daisy behind his ear. He also wore and collected T-shirts, mostly whimsical and comical ones, or those related to his love of contra dancing.

Elliot didn’t have many ties with what little blood family he had. Kathleen, also a contra dancer, worked with a small group of friends to close down Elliot’s house after he died and ended up being the distributor of many of his belongings. She happened to have a large black garbage bag full of his T-shirts in her car.

“I’m ready to let them go, but first I have to photograph them. Do you want to do that with me now?” she asked.

It seemed fitting to spread the shirts out on the grass in front of the historic Jacksonville Cemetery. Elliot, who had a sense of humor but was also somewhat of a Scrooge, would have appreciated the drama and the aged grey tombstones. It was also the closest empty space we could find near the Grand Opening we were attending.

We snapped pictures of the lined up T-shirts from all angles, admiring their colors against the green grass. Turquoise, hot pink, green, and yellow ones gave a bold accent to the whites they were outnumbered by. Some I remembered from when Elliot wore them. Each told a piece of a story from Elliot’s life and gave us, his fellow writers, plenty of catchphrases to read and to ponder.

Kathleen was excited that she had just found a home for Elliot’s old cameras, another one of his collections. I reminded her that I still had a large box of his collector’s ink pens. After packing up the T-shirts together, she headed over to meet up Wayne at The Blue Ridge Restaurant. I agreed to take the T-shirts to the Café Del Sol Spoken Word that evening where some of us would be reading a few of Elliot’s poems and to give them away. As I lugged the heavy pack to my car, I felt like a strange kind of Santa and imagined passing out T-shirts to the poets, writers, and lovers at the café that night. What would Elliot think, I wondered? I laughed at thought of him with a snow white beard.

Post Notes: Read about the memorial Spoken Word held for Elliot two years ago HERE. And Scrabble with Elliot HERE. The closest I have of a posted photo of Elliot is HERE.

NEW: My photographs, a poem, and a quote are being featured today on Sheila Cason's blog, Beauty, "a blog about beautiful things on weblogs." Check it out HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 6:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

A group of investors purchased an abandoned building in downtown Floyd because they didn’t want to see a McDonalds there, Woody Crenshaw, one of the investors told the crowd at the ribbon cutting ceremony this past Saturday morning. What was most recently Farmers Food Grocery Store has been renovated into “The Village Green,” a timber-framed style complex of offices and businesses.

“We got fudge coming,” Woody joked, referring to Nancy’s Candy, a homemade candy company based in Meadows of Dan that now has a front row store in the Village Green.

The green part of the Village Green is still to come. I stood on the newly spread mulch where some of it will grow as I edged my way in for a photo opportunity while listening to Woody, who also owns The Floyd Country Store, home to Floyd’s famous Friday Night Jamboree.

After speaking to a crowd of well over a hundred, Woody turned the speaker’s platform over to Kathleen Ingoldsby, a Floyd County Historical Society archivist, fellow Scrabble player, and member of the writer’s circle I belong to. Kathleen talked about the history of the building and the site, which is adjacent to the historical Nannie Harman Howard House, aka the Rakes Mansion.

With a similar style to the Village Green building, the new Hotel Floyd sits behind it and almost looks like an extension of the compound. Hotel Floyd owner, Jack Wall also spoke and later gave tours through the hotel’s themed rooms. Woody introduced Jack by describing the hotel as “a real deal boutique hotel filled with the best of Floyd’s arts and crafts. He ended his introduction by saying, “Don’t forget to buy locally.”

Besides Nancy’s Candy store, there is a book store, a clothing store, an interior design store, a timber framing storefront, art galleries, and more at The Village Green. Blue Ridge Muse blogger, Doug Thompson, and his wife Amy own one of the new galleries. Named after Doug’s blog, The Blue Ridge Muse Gallery is in a prime corner location with a view of downtown, which I imagine will give Doug, a journalist and photographer, even more opportunity to keep his hand on the pulse of Floyd activity.

After the ribbon cutting, I chatted with some of the enthusiastic ceremony attendees before heading over to the Hotel Floyd to run an errand. As a decorator of The Writers Suite, one of the themed suites in the hotel, I had a book to drop off for the bookcase. I passed by Jack who looked like a pied piper leading a line of about twenty into the Bell Gallery room for a tour.

In the Writers Suite, I ran into Fred First, local blogger and fellow writer’s circle member, whose framed photograph of a tree hangs in one of the Writer’s Suite’s bedrooms. His wife Ann hadn’t seen any of the rooms yet and he was showing her around. As we were talking, he happened to mention the visit he and Ann recently had with Texas blogger Gary Boyd and his wife.

We were talking about the very real bonds that are created between fellow bloggers who have never met in person. I was feeling disappointed that I didn’t get to see Gary, who keeps up with Floyd activities by regularly reading all the Floyd blogs. I joked about being dissed and was preparing myself to give Gary a hard time once I got back online, when I flipped through the leather guest journal in the room and saw an entry from Gary.

He stayed right here in the Writer’s Room?!” I shouted.

It was true, Fred concurred. But faster than an email shooting through cyberspace, all of my disappointment melted away when I saw my name in the entry Gary had written. “Sorry we didn’t catch up with you, Colleen,” Gary wrote. It was a nice twist to a morning spent acknowledging community and the interconnected bonds we all share.

Post Notes:
The blogger gets blogged: Check out June’s post on the Village Green Grand Opening HERE. She caught me in the act.

Photos: 1 - That’s Floyd Press editor, Wanda Combs, snapping a shot of the ceremonious ribbon being cut by a town counsel member, the Floyd county mayor, and Woody Crenshaw. 2 - The crowd of onlookers. 3 - The Hotel Floyd Writer's Suite journal.

Posted by Colleen at 1:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

This room is an artistic blend of old and new. An antique desk recalls images of writers from days gone by. The uncluttered classic furnishings in the study inspire introspection and calm, while the light infused olive colored walls throughout the suite offer an openness and brightness that stirs a calling to creativity and quietude … from the Hotel Floyd’s Writer’s Room webpage.

The whirlwind weekend ended up being a romantic one. It involved a complimentary night’s stay in the Hotel Floyd for the work I did on decorating the themed Writer’s Room, and a free dinner at Oddfellas Cantina, given to Joe from the soccer team as a thank you for his coaching last year. These bonus events were preceded by a writer’s circle, ceremoniously held in the Writer’s Suite.

Earlier in the day I suffered a meltdown. It was the cumulative effect of it being Museletter weekend, writing a major piece about health care, packing for the overnight stay, and eating some blue fish for lunch that caused my face and hands to go beet red and sting, otherwise known as an allergic reaction. By the time I reached the hotel, several writers were waiting for me to let them in. I was only half coherent, dropping things all the way up the stairs, and gasping for air in between breaths as I talked to Mara and her daughter Kyla, who both offered their help.

We work-shopped one writer’s essay on grief that was set on a ferry boat in Canada, Mara brought a poem about painting homemade thank you cards and a rock with her daughter, and I brought the unfinished rap lyrics I’ve been writing for a friend’s band. After the two hour meeting, Mara hung out with me. She wrote an entry in the guest journal that sits on the antique desk while I went around straightening the pictures on the wall, most of which had become crooked since the last time I was in the room.
“Maybe the place is haunted,” I said. It was three days before Halloween after all. Mara nodded and suggested that it was Elliot, a poet and writer’s circle member who died two years ago and whose dictionary sits on the ledge next to the old typewriter in the Writer’s Suite.

After Mara and Kyla left, I zipped up my vest and headed out to walk around town with my camera, just in time for sunset. By 7:00 I was in Odfellas waiting to meet Joe who was coming from a soccer game. Scribbling furiously in my notebook, I felt like a Natalie Goldberg imposter. Natalie, author and poet, loves to write in cafés, something I’ve always been too distractible to be good at.

I write: A man in a red jacket with a guitar slung across his back approaches the stage, followed by another man who has hair like Adam Duritz from Counting Crows.
The second man is wearing a reggae scarf and cradling a cell phone to his ear. A woman who seems to know them throws her leopard skin coat across the back of the chair. Julie, my waitress who also teaches yoga, owns the restaurant now. She knows I like New Castle beer. I didn’t know it was Mother-in-law day until Julie told me after I asked her why the Bell Gallery family sitting by the front window had two vases of fresh roses on their table.

Joe arrived just as Nora Jones on the stereo was being turned down and the first musician was tuning up. His guitar strings are not used to the cold, he tells us, because he’s from Florida, on his way to Boston. Joe orderd stuffed scallops and I got the tuna steak. I asked Julie for butter because I don’t like to dip my bread in olive oil. I write a note to Natalie before putting my notebook away so Joe and I can hold hands as we listen to the live music while our dinners are being prepared:

Hey Natalie, I’m starting to get the hang of this writing in cafés thing. If I had known it could include Nora Jones playing on the stereo and a frosty glass of New Castle beer I probably would have been here sooner.

P.S. Write back.

Posted by Colleen at 9:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)

I hovered over the table, across from Emily, the hip hop singer and saxophone player who was the lead singer for Foundation Stone before they broke up. We were snipping and clipping November submissions for the local newsletter that gets put together at my kitchen table each month. Every now and then I would break the silence or change the conversation with, “But we still have to name the moon.” Naming the moon is something our friend Jayn started and usually does, but she was down the mountain selling her pottery at the Roanoke Market.

Emily, who was wearing a pale pink headband that held back her long blonde hair, a magenta sweatshirt, and a necklace the color of sand, made a few suggestions, to which I answered, “We’ve already used that one.” After more than twenty years of putting out the newsletter called a “Museletter” all the typical names for November had been used, like Thanksgiving, Hunter, and Bare Trees Moon.

“Empty … open … darkening … stark … potential,” I tried, hoping to hit on a word that would conjure a November feeling.

We were looking for quotes and glue sticking graphics on borders when Emily said, “Maybe we should get out the thesaurus?” She was speaking my language. I pulled the faded blue hard cover edition from a nearby bookcase and handed it to her. She looked up “gratitude,” expecting to find a fresh synonym to go with the horn of plenty clip art I had just pasted down on the community bulletin board page.

“Let’s ask Joe to name the moon,” she said, slamming the book shut a few minutes later. I got up and looked out the window.

“No, he’s on the porch doing paper work, rubbing his forehead with his hand. I don’t think we should ask him right now.

A few minutes later he came inside.

I was busy looking for a poem by Mara about not doing housework that had slipped under the table when I heard Emily ask Joe to name the moon.

“That’s it!” we both said at the same time. As soon as he said it we knew it was perfect. Apple Crisp Moon.

“We’ve never used that one before. Jayn will love it and it goes well with the Thanksgiving blessing on the front page, the one Joe’s nephew Cameron taught me: We love our bread. We love our butter. But most of all we love each other.”

We also love our apple crisp.

Post notes: Emily’s CD Party announcement is featured on the front page of the Museletter. The Emily Brass band will play at the Pine Tavern on November 30, 9 P.M. with Ash Devine opening the show. You can hear Emily's music HERE. More about the Museletter HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 9:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

1. The bride did not arrive in a carriage.

2. Her ride did not turn into a pumpkin at the stroke of midnight.

3. She did not run from the ball at the Rockwood Manor or lose a glass slipper on the stairs.

4. Toasts were made and vows exchanged. A community of friends with longstanding bonds, new friends, and family who had watched her grow-up joined together, showering her and her prince with loving blessings. Roses bloomed by a gushing fountain. On a perfect fall day, gold and silver gifts were piled high.

5. The chocolate cake matched the dresses on the ladies in waiting. Fireworks exploded and everything from the polka to the “Rock the Casbah” was danced to.

6. A kiss sealed the spell. Friends and family wish them well as they write the first chapter of their happily ever after story.

Post note: Wedding congratulations to out to my friend Juniper’s daughter, Autumn, and her new husband Kris!

Posted by Colleen at 8:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Part 1 of this entry can be found HERE.

1. This is Alder Burnette-Holliday and Abe Gorskey representing Phoenix Hardwoods, the woodworkers who created much of the handmade furniture in the hotel. They're standing in front of one of their Phoenix Hardwood headboards in the Crooked Road room. I love this photo because I knew both these talented young men when they were children.

2. I’m probably not supposed to have favorite rooms, and if I did it would be the writer’s suite, right? In truth, all the rooms are beautiful and unique, but The Old Church Gallery is one on my favorites list. It was primarily designed and decorated by Old Church Gallery director and longtime Floyd art school teacher, Catherine Pauley, and Kathleen Ingoldsby, a member of our Writer’s Circle and Historical Society activist. The Old Church Gallery, founded in 1978, is just a stone’s throw from the Hotel. It preserves and showcases Floyd’s cultural and historical arts and currently houses an exhibit of a once active moonshine still. Catherine wasn’t able to attend the party due to a death in her family, but she was on everyone’s mind.

3. I got a tour of the Country Store Room by the store’s owner, Woody Crenshaw. He and his wife Jackie decorated their room. Woody named some familiar faces of local Jamboree icons shown in framed photos for me, and he had a few good jamboree stories to tell. It’s hard to see here, but the photos over the bed are of hands of jamboree fiddle "pickers” in action. The hotel is within walking distance to the Country Store and other Floyd hotspots.

4. Even the refreshments were locally made by some of Floyd’s best. We were served wine by the Chateau Morrisette Winery crew, who also have a room in the hotel. The food – lamb with cucumber raita, hummus, tuna, and stuffed mushrooms – was made by Over The Moon's chef. Sally from Café Del Sol provided dessert and coffee. Unfortunately, I stashed some dessert for eating later at home, but I left it idle too long and it got cleaned up. I’m still wondering how those chocolate fudge bars dripping with strawberry sauce and topped with whip crème would have tasted.

5. This is Malawi Room, inspired by hotel owners Kamala and Jack’s Zion Lutheran good will trips to Africa. I was really impressed when I heard that Jack pulled this room together. He told me he hopes to schedule a public open house for the hotel to coincide with the neighboring Village Green opening sometime in November. Joe and I were one of the few couples who stayed till the very end, talking to Jack and Kamala. We sat in chairs out in the grassy courtyard, where an amphitheatre for music will be built, talking with Jack, Kamala and a few others. At one point a couple came to check into one of the four rooms we didn’t get to see because they were either occupied or reserved. “Oh yes, now we have to run this place, don’t we?!” Kamala joked. Somebody got up to sign in the couple.

Posted by Colleen at 8:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

1. The Hotel Floyd is an eco-friendly building in downtown Floyd that began construction this past spring and opened on October 1st. The owners wanted to showcase Floyd art, furniture, music, and culture, so they called on local groups and businesses to design fourteen themed rooms. Since the beginning I’ve been working on a Writer’s Room with other members of Writer’s Circle I belong to. Other rooms are: The Crooked Road Room, Blue Ridge Parkway Room, Country Store Room, Jacksonville Center Room, Floyd Artist Room, Floyd Fest Room, Harvest Moon Room, Winter Sun Room, Jeanie O'Neil Room, The Malawi Room, Bell Gallery Room, Old Church Gallery Room and the Chateau Morrisette Bridal Suite. On Oct 7 the hotel owners hosted an open house party to thank all the groups for their work. The following photos were taken then.

2. Writer Circle member, ceremonialist, herbalist, and one of the Harvest Moon’s managers, Katherine Chantal made the first entry in the Writer’s Room journal on the desk that she and I picked out last spring. In it she welcomed guests and invited them to leave a journal entry of their own. The first writing in the journal was our version of a champagne bottle breaking dedication.

3. Another Writer's Circle member, Jayn Avery, is resting on the bed in one of the two bedrooms in the suite, below Fred First’s framed “January Tree.” She deserves to. The day before the party I read on Blue Ridge Muse that the hotel was booked to capacity for the weekend. I didn’t even know it was open! Jayn was down the mountain selling pottery at the Roanoke Market, so I called another friend involved to find out more. When I learned that it was indeed open and full of guests, I asked, “Did you see if the doily ever got put on the back of our loveseat?” I was there the day furniture and art got moved into the rooms on September 24, the same day Jayn and I found the doily. She took it home to wash and I headed for the beach with Joe for a vacation. The doily seemed like an important finishing touch detail. “Yes,” my friend reported. She had seen the doily.

4. Rick Cooley is looking through the writer’s scrapbook on the credenza built by local furniture maker, Sam Hancock. This photo was taken minutes before I learned that Rick had designed the hotel’s logo art for their webpage, postcards, and other advertising. He’s a member of the Floyd Artist Group with a themed room next to ours. Notice the high definition flat screen TV in this photo. All the rooms have them, as well as wireless hook-up capability. That's Lora Geissler's "Shell Ginger" behind Rick.

5. Yes, we spent a lot of time in the Writer’s Suite. It took awhile before we could break away to see some of the rooms that other local groups had decorated. In this photo Jack Wall, one of the hotel owners, is talking with two people from the Wall Residence Community. Wall Residences is a Floyd agency, which Jack is the director of, that provides foster care placements for adults with disabilities. It’s the agency I worked for (and am still involved with part-time) for nine years as a foster care provider. Notice the lamp set on a base of books that designer Jeanie O'Neill found for us.

Post note: Part Two with photos of other rooms and more will be posted tomorrow. Update: Part II is HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

The first item purchased for the Hotel Floyd Writer’s Suite came from Daniel Bower’s antique shop. An antique wooden desk with a pull down table and various drawers and letter slots became a symbol linking the past with the present. At the start of the hotel construction, a small group of us from The Floyd Writer’s Circle accepted an invitation from the hotel owners, Jack Wall and Kamala Bauers, to decorate one of the fourteen themed rooms being planned. We knew we wanted our room to reflect the historic tradition of writing and to connect old world writers with modern ones. With the help of interior decorator Jeanie O’Neill, we chose classic furnishings in earth tones to create a timeless, uncluttered atmosphere of self-reflection and study.

The last two items purchased also came from a local antique shop. A large crocheted doily and a translucent blue inkwell were found at Chic’s Antique Shop on the day in late September when furniture was moved in and art was being hung in preparation for the hotel’s October 1st opening. Writer’s Circle member and Blue Heron potter, Jayn Avery, took the doily home to hand wash it before pinning it to the back of the living room loveseat for the room’s finishing touch.

The old typewriter placed high on the lighted ledge in the main room has an interesting local history. It was donated by Mary Peters who used it during her years of work at the Bank of Floyd before electric typewriters were installed there in the early 60’s. Mary offered the typewriter after reading an article in The Floyd Press about the Writer’s Suite in which those who had ideas or historic resources to share were encouraged to come forth. Next to the typewriter is a tea set made by Jayn in one of her signature lace designs. A vase also made by Jayn in her Blue Heron studio sits above the kitchen cupboard and holds a locally picked arrangement of dried flowers.

Prominently featured throughout the suite is the collage art of Jennifer Spoon. Jennifer, a retired Radford University professor of graphic design, is a paper maker who incorporates letters and numbers into her compositions. Stamps, pieces of crossword puzzles, found images, and travel momentums give her collages a romantic old-world flavor.

Lora Geissler’s pastel of a larger than life pink blossom hangs above the wingback chair in the main room. Titled, Shell Ginger, it adds spice to the light infused olive oil color of the walls. A photograph of a tree in January standing in the forefront of a red-roofed barn makes a dramatic display in one of the two bedrooms. It was taken by photographer, Fred First, who is also a Writer’s Circle member and one of the local authors whose book, A Slow Road Home, is among those on the Writer’s Suite bookcase.

In the same bedroom where Fred’s photograph hangs there’s a reading chair next to a one-of-a-kind Susan Icove lamp. The lamp, decorated with old books and dictionary pages, compliments Highland Hardwood’s Sam Hancock’s bed headboard and wardrobe. We chose Sam’s handcrafted and classically designed furniture to add a Hemingwayesque feel to the suite.

Not surprisingly, books are a theme in the Writer’s Suite. Old and new ones by Virginia authors were tracked down by Writer’s Circle member, Kathleen Ingoldsby. Kathleen is an active member of the Floyd Historical Society who also worked with local artist Catherine Pauley designing the Old Church Gallery Suite, two doors down from the Writer’s Suite.

What would a writer’s room be without a Scrabble board? Or a dictionary? An old Oxford English dictionary placed next to the 1950’s typewriter belonged to the late Elliot Dabinsky, a poet and one of the founding members of the Floyd Writer’s Circle. Elliot’s photo is included with others in a collage collection of writers performing at Spoken Word events.

After a game of Scrabble, guests might want to flip through the pages of a scrapbook that chronicles the activities of local writers in the community. Or, they might be inspired to pen their own thoughts. At a Hotel Floyd Open House private party on Sunday, Writer’s Circle member, Katherine Chantal made the first entry in the leather bound journal that sits on Writer’s Suite antique desk. After welcoming guests to the suite, which features green technology design and the best of local artists, she invited them to compose a journal entry about their stay. It will be interesting to read over time what visitors think about the Hotel Floyd and all that our town has to offer.

Post Notes: Coming soon – a photo journal accounting of the Hotel Floyd open house private party on Sunday. The photos above are of the Hotel Floyd on moving day, September 24th; Jayn and the writer’s suite taken on moving day; one of Jennifer Spoon's collages, and Jayn, Colleen, and Katherine in the suite at the open house party. The Hotel Floyd's website is HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 8:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

I’ve never paid much attention to football. It took two big names, John Mayer and the Dave Matthews Band in concert together to finally get me into Virginia Tech’s Lane stadium. This free concert was conceived by Matthews, the Grammy award winning musician from Charlottesville, Virginia, as a way to show support for Tech after the deadly shootings of last April. Showing their Hokie spirit by wearing school colors, Tech students, staff, faculty, and friends filled the stadium with wall-to-wall maroon and orange.

Mayer, an avid blogger with school boy good looks, plays the guitar as if it was an extension of his body. Just seeing him appear on stage wearing a maroon Hokie T-shirt caused the crowd to erupt in ear piercing applause. Hearing him belt out his Grammy winning hit, “Waiting on the World to Change,” so close to home was a thrill.

“This is my prayer for you,” he told the Tech crowd before letting the lyrics of his song “Gravity” speak for him. Oh gravity … Stay the hell away from me … Oh gravity … Has taken better men than me … Now how can that be? … Just keep me where the light is … Just keep me where the light is … The blues that oozed from his red electric guitar were matched by the soulful facial expressions that Mayer made as he played.

I’m a dancer who needs a big space to move around in, but our seats were set up for watching football. I’m sure I stepped on my neighbor’s toes a time or two, and I might have knocked over someone’s drink while dancing. During the intermission between bands, I looked around and saw a few familiar faces, but I had never seen so many Hokies in one place. It was my first time witnessing the coordinated effort of Hokie fans as they rippled like dominoes from one end of the stadium to another doing their signature cheer. Let's go ... Hokies ... Let's go ... Hokies ...

Even though I knew that South African born Dave Matthews was from Virginia, I was surprised to hear the twang of his accent when he said things like, “”Thanks ya’ll … and all of that stuff.” Admittedly shy, Matthews sings better than he talks on his feet into the mic. Although, he did manage to speak about coming down from Charlottesville in a red van to play at much smaller Blacksburg venues many years ago. And his words were especially appreciated and met with applause when he said, “These are some dark times and the dark side, but I can’t think of anywhere else in the world I’d rather be than with y’all.”

The song that Dave Matthews Band chose to open with, “Two Step," related well to the reason we had all come together. Celebrate we will … Cause life is short but sweet for certain … Hey, we climb on two by two … To be sure these days continue … Things we cannot change …

I have a lot of respect for Matthews, who has weathered the premature deaths of close family members, and has lent his support for farm aid, rebuilding New Orleans, and other worthy causes. But who knew that he could dance like James Brown flat footing at the local jamboree?

The fact that my husband and I didn’t stay till the end wasn’t a reflection on the show. As performances go, it was one with a big impact, a spectacular light show, and the big brass and rousing fiddle jam sound that the Dave Matthews Band is famous for. But after three hours of high volume music and crowded dancing, I was tired and hungry.

We had taken our bikes to the concert to avoid the stadium traffic. As we pedaled off into the warm night, the band was well into their second hour of playing. We could hear them singing the familiar refrain from Bob Marley’s "Three Little Birds." ... Don’t worry about a thing … Every little thing gonna be all right … Singing: don’t worry about a thing … cause every little thing gonna be all right.

The song trailed off as we glided downhill in search of good pizza and a cold beer.

Video clips: 1. John Mayer sings “Waiting on the World to Change” at Tech HERE. 2. Hokie Spirit Cheer HERE. 3. Dave Matthews Band sings Two Step at Tech HERE. The above was published in The Floyd Press on September 13, 2007.

Posted by Colleen at 8:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

These days Floyd reads like a fairytale. In this storybook one traffic light town I live in, we buy food at the Harvest Moon, hear music at the Winter Sun, eat lunch Over the Moon, and see the latest in local art Under the Sun. Last week I met an artist named Jennifer Spoon at Over the Moon to buy a collage for the Hotel Floyd Writer’s Room. We did not eat pie in the sky.

Post Notes: To see the Cow That Jumped Over the Moon and landed at the driveway entrance and to read about her sidekick, go HERE. More Floyd goings on can be found by scrolling down in my "Where I Live" archives HERE.

Posted by Colleen at 8:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)

We’re not so different than moths and June bugs drawn to a flame in darkness. Maybe because for eons our ancestors sat in front of nighttime fires, it seems to