I like to explore and tell descriptive stories about places. I also make jewelry, music and mixed-media art.
July 2026, North Georgia/NC This summer, I don’t go to Franklin for the gem shows. Since 2018, it’s been a major seasonal event for me, only skipping over one year because of the pandemic. However, I passed through the town on the 4th of July and had another kind of insightful experience. DRAINED SWAMP The […]
Read More Interdepence Day, A JourneyFirst, 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 CHANGESSomewhere 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 IndustriesAugust 2-4, 2024, Virginia and North Carolina It’s a sunny early morning at Fancy Gap, and I’m going to the Saturday market in nearby Galax, Virginia, to set up with my jewelry. While it’s my first time at this market, and I didn’t get prior confirmation, I’m able to get a metal stall in the […]
Read More Galax, Fries, Pittsboro: fair markets and stormy weatherJubilee 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)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 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 esctasy
arianna's creative travels 