Among the costumes posted below is the one I wore at the Winter Sun Spookfest this past Saturday Night. Be the first to guess which one it is and get your name up in lights here at Loose Leaf. 1. Will the 2. Real Colleen 3. Please 4. Stand up. Post note: Identities will be [...]
1. Safety in numbers 2. Ahead of their time 3. The best of both worlds 4. Express yourself! 5. The shape of things to come
It was “standing room only” at Floyd’s Country Store, home of the Friday Night Jamboree, when Democratic Senatorial Candidate Jim Webb and former Governor Mark Warner came to visit on Thursday. By the look of the line of young people waiting outside for their arrival, I figured that a high school field trip was underway. [...]
“I feel a little like Leonard Cohen to her Sylvia Plath,” I leaned over and whispered in my friend Jayn’s ear. We were at the Café Del Sol for the monthly spoken word open mic, and Sierra Bell had the mic. Sierra, who grew up in Floyd and recently graduated from Appalachian State, read three [...]
1. I recently ran into a friend who I hadn’t seen in awhile. When she asked me what I had been up to lately my answer was this: “I’m the nutty professor of blogging. My computer desk is my lab.” 2. I knew I wanted to be a poet when I heard Leonard Cohen singing [...]
1. And now they’re falling like a steady rain … 2. in a storm of color in late October … 3. Leaves on trees … bright flags in sunlight … 4. ride October’s fast parade
At the first annual Floyd Fandango, an autumnal beer tasting carnivale hosted by the founders of Floyd Fest, my husband and I saw a clown balance a wheelbarrow on his head while juggling sticks. We got advice from a talking crystal ball, rode on a Ferris wheel, drank mead, and ate handmade potato chips. Unfortunately, [...]
I want a pink blow-up raft … to drift carefree …in a body of water I belong to … A pink blow-up raft floated into my consciousness during a recent therapy session. “When’s the first time you thought of a pink raft?” my therapist asked me with interest. We both recognized that the raft was [...]
I followed the muse into town today. It came in the form of a pink pick-up truck with a license plate that said “FARM USE,” but I read it as “FAR MUSE.” The truck was moving slowly, and I was worried I’d be late. I was meeting Ginnie from Golden Daze for breakfast at the [...]
1. My better half 2. Bleeding heart 3. Falling for you 4. We’re quite a pear
1. Eulogy for Falling Leaves: Some die of natural causes … They drift to the ground and close their eyes …. Leaving their perfectly unmarked bodies … scattered like photographs of my ancestors … 2. Read the rest of this poem HERE or listen to my Shakespearian understudy recite a stanza of it HERE. 3. [...]
It was probably the last time this year that I or my husband will mow the two acres of grass that surround our log home off the Blue Ridge Parkway. But that wasn’t the best part of mowing the lawn this past weekend. The best part was the perspective it gave me. Unlike in summer, [...]
The last few weeks of my brothers’ lives played out like the conclusion of a dramatic Hollywood script, a plot with a twist. The road trip they took, two weeks before the first death, became the beginning of a larger journey, the one in which they would both leave this world. ~ excerpt from the [...]
The burgundy shirt that hung on the post in front of Amy’s new apartment let me know I was at the right place. A Woman’s Clothing Exchange, a long time tradition in Floyd, was about to begin. “Late afternoon tea served, bring a simple snack or sweet to share. Leftover clothing given to Angel’s in [...]
1. Do your own thing 2. In your own time 3. Follow your own instincts 4. We’re not in Kansas Post notes: All the above photos were taken in my neighborhood on the Blue Ride Parkway. In the last photo you can see the top of Buffalo Mountain, Floyd’s highest peak, at nearly 4,000 feet. [...]
Our regional blogger meet-up at the Café Del Sol – called together because fellow-blogger Terri Dulong was in town – came and went like a whirlwind that left my head spinning. At one point I counted 8 bloggers (all talking at once), 9 if you count Bernie, who made a brief appearance and who doesn’t [...]
1. Last week I picked my great niece up at school and drove her home because she was sick and her mother couldn’t get off work. On the way, we passed the sign posted here, and I had to pull over to snap a photo. Needless to say, my niece didn’t understand my fascination with [...]
Tryptophan is my friend. I woke up this morning at 8:00 a.m. with that sentence in my mind. The capsule of tryptophan (the amino acid found in turkey and milk) that I swallowed at 4 a.m. had made me groggy, but it was worth it. I slept. Yesterday, I rode out to Ellett Valley in [...]
