I like to explore and tell descriptive stories about places. I also make jewelry, music and mixed-media art.
Happy harvest moon from the Northern Atlantic Woodlands! While the sky was cloudy enough last night to almost obscure the moonlight, I was able to spend an evening in its glow over the weekend out at Drekheim (and we howled!). With pleasant weather amid an eventful month (in good and bad ways), nature time has […]
Read More Occoneechee Mountain, a Piedmont side tripSpruce 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 GapAt 9:40 am, May 27, 1925, there was an explosion inside the Carolina Coal Mine, Farmville, Chatham County, North Carolina; as a result, 53 men lost their lives. This remains the deadliest industrial disaster in North Carolina history, but it is unknown to many in the state, but for a historical marker along US 15-501 […]
Read More Coal Glen Mine Disaster MemorialSomewhere in the middle of the Piedmont, a rocky river becomes silty and muddy and changes direction. Called the Deep River, it gives its name to the southeast’s largest Triassic rift Basin. The name “Deep River” is a translation of an indigenous name, sapponah (sappony), which, beyond this, has vague (conflicting?) sources but most likely […]
Read More The Deep River and its Triassic Basin: Cumnock to CarbontonPANGAEA is splitting slowly but not neatly. Forces pull apart land masses, and the water flows into the open space of the rift. The largest spaces eventually become part of the Atlantic. Smaller spaces become long, shallow lakes, swamps, and other wetlands, giving a habitat to large and small reptiles, insects, palm trees, and other […]
Read More Deep River Triassic Basin: A Grandmother of IndustriesCold 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 RiverThe shallow water of the lakeshore laps quietly in the darkness, as the sky begins to light. I’ve been flying, there ain’t no denying. My little wings flap quietly amid ferns that grow so high. I rest under a leaf and admire this beautiful scene. A new sliding sound comes from the shore, but I’m […]
Read More BugFest / Triassic EchoesDanville, Virginia to Eden, NC, Sept. 2024 “You can take all you want. It’s all rock around here.” -ABC Store operator, Pelham, NC SHALE BE COMING ROUND THE MOUNTAIN I’m standing on a multi-colored rock field between an ABC store and a visitor center near the North Carolina-Virginia line, looking downhill at what I am […]
Read More Dan River Rift Basin: Piedmont Geology and Culture
arianna's creative travels 