I like to explore and tell descriptive stories about places. I also make jewelry, music and mixed-media art.
Spruce 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 CHANGESThis upcoming week, I’ll be in Franklin, NC for the summer gem and mineral shows. The show dates are July 24-28, and you can find me and my jewelry at El Paso Rock Shop’s tent in the G&LW Watauga festival ground on US Hwy 23/441 (6295 Sylva Rd, Franklin, NC 28734, north of town). Franklin’s […]
Read More Franklin, NC gem show is comingLate 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 AppalachiaJune 2022 Rhododendron catawbiense are the purplish flowering of these soul-comforting mountain shrubs and are euphoria to witness in bloom. There are several sub species of Rhododendron, this one widespread throughout the region but only in bloom for a short time…sometimes as short as two weeks in certain areas. Generally, this happens in Southern Appalachia […]
Read More The Quest for Blooming Rhododendron near Roanoke, Virginia – part 1: taking the scenic routeoriginally posted April 2010 Jessica Powell and Brian Goforth want to bathe in a waterfall as a wedding ritual. Her dress will not just sit in the closet for years after their wedding, wearable but unworn; she will let the water and the rocks rip the dress into a mess of memories. And they will […]
Read More Go Forth into the Waterfall: Pisgah and Dupont Forests, North CarolinaAugust 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 