I like to explore and tell descriptive stories about places. I also make jewelry, music and mixed-media art.
First, 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 GoneBy 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 GapMarch, 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 CarolingiaJanuary-February full moons Across brown, rolling fields , gray layers of clouds slowly cover clear patches of morning sky. Pines provide patches of green on an otherwise muted pallette. This time, snow and sleet are on their way. I pass through, embracing the season of the far sun for a change. At the Dan River, […]
Read More Winter Dread and GuidanceAs cold weather envelops the Eastern Woodlands, local artisan markets or bazaars take form. This coming weekend, my “Starri Ari Stones” will be set up at two of these: Saturday, November 23, in Danville, VA at the community market downtown , and “Chance’s Flea” Sunday, November 24 at Rebus Works, Boylan Heights, Raleigh, NC. Times, […]
Read More Holiday Markets begin this weekendThe 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 RiverDanville, 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 CultureAugust 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 weatherThis year, one of my travel goals has been to see the rhododendron in bloom. Through exploration and research, ecstasy was achieved; the blooms were awesome, and they inspired a beaded art necklace. June, 2024. The spring bloom period in the eastern woodlands finally reaches the Appalachian mountains. Gardens in the cloud forest create a […]
Read More Rhododendron flowers, a necklace, and prideJubilee 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 