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 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 MemorialMarch, 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 CarolingiaSAVANNAH, GEORGIA, April 2025 Spanish moss, hanging from old oaks, dances in the breeze. Bright, warm afternoon sunlight streams across stone statues as I enter the garden of memories. Azaleas bloom as tourists walk along rows of beautiful and historic graves. I’m amazed; like at Père Lachaise, I could spend here all day. Morning started […]
Read More Gardens of Good, Ages of EvilSomewhere 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 IndustriesThe 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 CultureJubilee 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)
arianna's creative travels 