I like to explore and tell descriptive stories about places. I also make jewelry, music and mixed-media art.
Fancy Gap, Virginia, late October, 2025 October is a beautiful month in the Appalachian mountains, and this year has been no exception. While last fall, the effects of Hurricane Helene were ongoing, much of the area around Fancy Gap has recovered. A cool front has brought the first freeze, and the weather on my visit […]
Read More Fall at Fancy GapFirst, happy 10 years to this blog! It was born in a café in Iquitos, Perú August 10, 2015, and it’s still going, though my travels are more local now. This August, my parents join me for a long weekend in a familiar place, beautiful Fancy Gap, to camp and attend the 89th Old Fiddlers’ […]
Read More Foggy Mountain Breakdown/Ten Years GoneSpruce Pine Mining District, North Carolina, July 2025 At the access to the mica mine stands a sign, “area closed to storm damage/not safe to enter.” Fallen trees and rocks rolled by nature can be seen. This is my first trip to western NC after Hurricane Helene. IT’S A SHAME ABOUT RAY I came for the […]
Read More GEMS OF THE BLUE RIDGE, GOING THROUGH CHANGESBy the spring, clogged with soggy leaves and fallen branches, surrounded on this slope of storm down trees and scattered car piecesOne flower shines in pinkish bloom, one resilient Rhododendron, queen of the holler. I descend to this hidden spot, grown over since my youth, beyond remnants of a homestead, some forgot. Clearing debris from the […]
Read More A Solitary Blossom at Fancy GapCold Moon, December 2024 As the final full moon rises before winter solstice on a cloudy night in the North american eastern woodlands, I look back through the past solar year and then to the path that lies ahead. Earlier this year, I decided to update the name of this blog to “Arianna’s Creative Travels” […]
Read More Creative Travels: observations of a cycleThe storm bore down on my headwaters, as it had done to my sisters, and I couldn’t hold back. We were all overwhelmed and enraged; this was just another breakdown in my ancient age. So full my banks, so strong my force, I broke bridges and carried campers along my course. I threw their pieces […]
Read More Fury of an Appalachian RiverAugust 2-4, 2024, Virginia and North Carolina It’s a sunny early morning at Fancy Gap, and I’m going to the Saturday market in nearby Galax, Virginia, to set up with my jewelry. While it’s my first time at this market, and I didn’t get prior confirmation, I’m able to get a metal stall in the […]
Read More Galax, Fries, Pittsboro: fair markets and stormy weatherThis year, one of my travel goals has been to see the rhododendron in bloom. Through exploration and research, ecstasy was achieved; the blooms were awesome, and they inspired a beaded art necklace. June, 2024. The spring bloom period in the eastern woodlands finally reaches the Appalachian mountains. Gardens in the cloud forest create a […]
Read More Rhododendron flowers, a necklace, and prideMay, 2023, Afton and Waynesboro, VA INTERSECTIONS and PORTALS I’m standing at Rockfish Gap of the Blue Ridge, looking east as Interstate 64 descends toward the Virginia piedmont and Charlottesville. To the west, the highway drops in to the Shenandoah valley. Here the Blue Ridge Parkway meets Skyline Drive, to the south and north respectively, […]
Read More Rockfish Gap and Waynesboro, part 1: CROSSING and ARRIVALIf you like dinosaurs, this is a story for you! Mark Cline says we are experiencing the future right now. In an early morning hour near Natural Bridge, Virginia, I stand outside the Dinosaur Kingdom II, meeting the artist who created this attraction and many other fibrous sculptures and installations. Next to us, motors whir […]
Read More A Tail of Two Dinosaur Roadside Attractions (and the SLIGHTLY fibrous nature of time)
arianna's creative travels 