I like to explore and tell descriptive stories about places. I also make jewelry, music and mixed-media art.
First, 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 CHANGESMarch, April, and May 2025 While walking in a brick plant, on pressed red earth near Moncure, NC, I step over small rectangular pieces of brick, lying across the lot. The size, flat surface, color palette and softness of this material, I felt, would be perfect for rune casting stones, and this source in the […]
Read More Rune Brick and Red Drek – Vikings in CarolingiaJubilee Park, Ivanhoe, Virginia, mid-April 2024 Ivanhoe, the Fair now this is glamping true Revival, handling of the Serpentine embanked New (Kanawha) river The diva waters Still rush past this old railway, blast furnace and mine shaft left to history A fairground in the off-season, nearly empty Jubilee A small town that doesn’t need much […]
Read More Ivanhoe, the fair (a return)Camping near Pungo, Virginia Beach, with my parents, loblolly pines stand over us, offering little shade in the bright, humid air. A small canal encircles the campground, connecting water to Muddy Creek and the shallow Back Bay. A mile or so from here, Grace White Sherwood lived, farmed, and probably swam, 300+ years ago. Grace’s story is famous in Hampton Roads, an herbalist and farmer in colonial Princess Anne County known as the “witch of Pungo” and the only* person convicted of witchcraft in Virginia, surviving her “ducking” trial by swimming to the shore.
Curvy 2-lane roads take us through floodplain and forest, with watery ditches on both sides. Occasionally there is a church, horse training center, or boat landing. Our campground, North Bayshore, is at the end of such a road, adjacent to the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. We rent a canoe from camp and float down the canal to Muddy Creek, in the Refuge. It would be very easy to slip out into the network of waterways and spend a day out there exploring…
Late July, 2022 I’m back at the mountain family property at Fancy Gap, Virginia, clearing paths and finishing construction of the stone labyrinth. There have been storms; trees have fallen, and mushrooms are growing all around (including in the labyrinth). I’m learning to identify these mushrooms, so if you know these species, let me know […]
Read More Mushrooms and a rainy season in southern AppalachiaJune 2022 Rhododendron catawbiense are the purplish flowering of these soul-comforting mountain shrubs and are euphoria to witness in bloom. There are several sub species of Rhododendron, this one widespread throughout the region but only in bloom for a short time…sometimes as short as two weeks in certain areas. Generally, this happens in Southern Appalachia […]
Read More The Quest for Blooming Rhododendron near Roanoke, Virginia – part 1: taking the scenic route“Down in the Virginia mountains, On U.S. fifty-two, There is a long old mountain That truckers blood does stain. Four miles from top to bottom, That trailer brakes will burn, Many curves ahead, They call it Fancy Gap.” From “Ballad of Fancy Gap” by Jim Marshall of Hillsville,VA Some of my first memories are riding […]
Read More Ballads of Fancy GapMid April to Early May, 2018 As my sister and i travel ( she hikes, i support and hike some) north on the Appalachian Trail thru Georgia, toward North Carolina, the weather turns cold with two April winter storms passing through, bringing ice and then snow to the mountains. We freeze, some nights together and […]
Read More The Appalachian trail from N. Georgia into the Nantahala
arianna's creative travels 