1. I love THIS video, found at Kimmy and Jacob’s. Do you think the idea will take hold? I want pink pants just like those.
2. I bet you can read this: Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny [...]
We used to think hay bales were put there by farmers for Andrew Wyeth to paint.
Conformity
Do Your Own Thing
Loyalty
Perspective
End of the Season Temptation
Note: All the photos were taken in our Blue Ridge Parkway neighborhood, except the pool closing one. The dog is Jazzy, chow, inherited from our son Dylan. I think he should [...]
One day we’ll all write books
then retire to a tropical island
to live without shoes on our royalties
pick fruit off the trees for breakfast
We’ll buy fresh fish wrapped in newsprint
but won’t read the news on Iraq
We won’t have TV, won’t have to listen
to songs of the 60’s being used to sell products
One day we’ll live without [...]
In Floyd we have locally famous artists, potters, wood-carvers, writers, and musicians; alongside well-diggers, saw-millers, hunters, and homebuilders. We also have midwives, herbalists, dousers, and rites-of-passage ceremonialists. Is it any wonder that I publish my books from my log cabin home, from a make-shift office that used to be my [...]
When someone close to you dies, you begin to look at life through the eyes they no longer have, or you find yourself doing things they loved to do because they no longer can. When I hear music that I know my brother Danny would have liked, I close my eyes and let [...]
Amy the Black wants to know five weird things about me. Only 5?
1. I once saw the word “thinking” and was convinced it said “thin king.”
2. The bravest thing I ever did was jump into a hole on an ice covered pond, naked after a sauna.
3. The first time someone asked me [...]
1. I think of blogging as rapid fire target practice. Doing it daily, I can’t help but improve my writer’s aim, but sometimes my arm gets tired!
2. I’m one step further in my goal of having my blog at least generate enough income to keep me in printer ink ($85 a pop for all [...]
I have a three acre piece of sky. It mirrors our three acres of green earth. It’s a good size for looking at the stars at night, but because our property is nestled in by trees, big firs and tulip poplars, I can’t see the sun when it sets.
But I need [...]
AKA: Friends in High Places
Numero Uno
Two is Company
Three’s a Crowd
AKA: Writers with Floyd-ties Hobnobbing
One of the best parts about participating in the Franklin County Book Festival this past weekend was hanging out with Fred, Floyd’s First Blogger, and running into fellow presenter and old friend, Jim Minnick. Jim is a widely published regional writer, a teacher of writing and [...]
A couple of months ago, I drove my husband, Joe, to Abington, Virginia, where he was presenting a workshop on Mindfulness. I drove, so that he would be free to prepare his presentation and then have time to rest before giving it. Now it was his turn to drive me – to [...]
My sisters and I have an unusual family trait. We remember events by what clothes we were wearing at the time. On the day my brother Dan’s doctor at St. Luke’s Hospital in Houston told me that Dan would not likely recover from the liver disease he was battling, I was wearing [...]
1. Since I started doing the 13 Thursday I’ve been on the lookout for opportunities to photograph 13 images, but due to the superstition surrounding the number, it hasn’t been easy. There is no #13 floor in most buildings, no #13 seat on planes. No airport gates. No #13 room in [...]
“If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.” — Nelson Mandela
What do you believe? Is it true?
In an effort to examine her belief systems and better understand what divides us, Rachel Pickett has taken to the road to talk to people [...]
If you don’t understand yourself you don’t understand anybody else. ~ Nikki Giovanni
Years ago, I audited a creative writing class at Virginia Tech, taught by renowned poet Nikki Giovanni. I remember my excitement when I learned the word “audit” and what it meant, apart from its IRS context: that you [...]
1. Peaceful
2. Fragile
3. Distant
4. Impermanence
5. Nostalgic
Photos: 1. A floater at Great Oaks Country Club in Floyd. 2. Gone to seed plant in my yard. 3. Buffalo Moutain as shot from The Saddle on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Floyd, Virginia. 4. Sand castles at Bethany Beach, Delaware. 5. Aging sunflower [...]
This is a photo of me at a Scrabble game yesterday, talking on the phone with my blogger friend, Naomi of “Here in the Hills.” I’m at the Café Del Sol in Floyd, Virginia, and she was calling from Los Angeles. Here’s the story:
Mara called to cancel our Scrabble game at the [...]
Mara says what she likes best about me
is how easy I am to please
Like when she showed me how to make
Celtic borders in Microsoft Word
I clapped my hands and cheered
And when she said -
while looking up a word
playing scrabble -
The dictionary always distracts me
I giggled and wrote it down
What I like best about Mara
is that [...]
