I like to explore and tell descriptive stories about places. I also make jewelry, music and mixed-media art.
SHE WORE A GREEN LYCRA DRESS TO THE WAREHOUSE PARTY The parties were funded by DuPont as it set up on a spring basin near the river. The scene had been Basic before that, it was all metal. Then came the industrial dance all-nighters and occasional death rock and harsh noise. It got huge, over […]
Read More Waynesboro, Part 2: A Walk Along the RiverMay, 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 ARRIVALLate 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 AppalachiaRoanoke, Virginia was initially called Big Lick, when it became a settler community in the 1800s, from the salt marshes by the river that would attract wildlife. The Warrior’s Path, and then the Great Wagon Road, came through this valley, forking here toward the south and west, serving as foundations for future transportation corridors like […]
Read More The Quest for Blooming Rhododendron near Roanoke, part 2: Stars, returns, and moments of esctasyFrom the red isilines bus on the Via Domitia, a first view of the snow capped Pyrenees brings chills. But those peaks are not where i am going. The transit terminal of Perpignan, down on the warm plain, is the transfer point for travel to Spain and everything else, and also the main city of […]
Read More The most southern wine region in France / Entering CataloniaWhen i wake, the first light of the sun passes through a gap in the range of rolling hills. Green fields with creeks and oak groves become slowly visible. The isilines bus stops near Montelimar, at an oak-lined rest area, and the air feels cool yet dry. I had slept deeply. Around 11 am, the […]
Read More Marseille – Mediterranean gritty euphoriaOn the last day of my tour in Belgium, my cousin planned a visit with a relative who lives in Spa. Until this trip, I thought of a spa as a high-society healing center, refined and removed from nature. Now i understand it is a town of mineral springs, acid fountains, in the Ardennes forest […]
Read More Ceci n’est pas un Spa – Spa, BelgiumTemple dreamer and minerval runner left to cross the desert at midnight under the full moon, guided west. We were ascending the mountain range separating the desert from the oak savanna and grassland valley. Our destination for the day: The hot spring on the Kern River, in the Southern Sierra down from Lake Isabella. To get […]
Read More Kern river canyon to Delano, California – Bellabacchae travelsAugust 17, 2015Arriving in the port of Yurimaguas after three days on a dreamy lancha boat filled with bored men, I am ready to bathe in a cool pool in the deep forest. First, however, it’s two or three hours in a crowded combi across the Cordillera Escalara, the last mountain range before the rivers […]
Read More Tarapoto, Lamas, Moyobamba: the Yungas of San Martin, Peru
arianna's creative travels 