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 GapHappy 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 GapSAVANNAH, 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 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 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 EchoesPART 1, Crabtree & Mine Creek Greenways, Raleigh, NC, August & September 2024 and such Raleigh, North Carolina is the city where I was born and where I lived through college. As a child, I would play by the creek near our house and then walk along the wooded, sometimes rocky trail that followed it. […]
Read More Gneiss Weather for Piedmont Geology
arianna's creative travels 