Pollinia: How Milkweeds Do It
It seemed simple enough. On the Blue Ridge Parkway on the way back from an oil change yesterday, and in no particular hurry. I pulled off to the shoulder of the road and grabbed my camera (which you can also…
Category Blue Ridge Parkway
Friday Nature Unknown
…and the answer to yesterday’s Puzzler, below. But the flower you see here is one I don’t know to species. It looks like Monkshood (see the cowl?) but is a weak climbing vine. It was growing supported by various wet-meadow…
Traveling Hopefully
So I had this notion a month or so back that my experience as teacher, speaker, field trip leader and engaged citizen would mesh nicely before small groups of folks who come to Floyd County lacking any depth to our…
Black and White: Mt Laurel
If you drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway in late May and early June, you’ll be missing the forest for the trees if you don’t stop your car, get out, and walk along the forest edge. You’ll see, hear, smell…
Blue Ridge Parkway in Bloom
I’m hoping I’ll have a reason to travel to Chateau Morrisette this week (to leave note cards for sale in the Winery Tasting Room store.) The native pink azaleas (Pinxter Flower, or Rhododendron nudiflorum as I learned it, now R.…
Footloose at FloydFest12: Nature Hikes
First the bad news: FloydFest 12 is sold out. The good news is that you’ve got your tickets. Right? I don’t think I had any Fragments readers on my several hikes at FloydFest last year, but you never know, so…
Another Book? Maybe. Maybe Not
I drove across the county to visit a friend on Sunday  (taking the image above as the sun settled close to the distant western horizon.) He has a market stand, and invited me to keep him company while he chatted…
Mabry’s Then and Now
I can’t remember the trail that led me to it, but browsing across it brought back a number of pleasant memories from 2004. The piece I happened upon in the Blue Ridge Country Magazine online was about the Mabry’s who…
…And a Little Child Shall Lead Them
Image by fred1st via Flickr The Blue Ridge Parkway: Gateway To The Future The 469-mile-long Blue Ridge Parkway is often depicted as being “more than a road.” Superintendent Phil Francis interprets this in part by explaining that “many people see…
Mountain Home: Parkway Symposium in Roanoke
Okay. I’m getting “journey proud” as an old co-worker used to say of one anticipating a trip. I could be wrong–in which case, I will, after all, feel disconnected from the crowd, disengaged from the topics, and anxious to just…
Alligator-back Formation: I’m Glad I Asked
Why do the rocks at 3200 feet at the “very edge” of the Blue Ridge look as if they were laid down by water, layer after layer, when it is from harder, igneous rock that this geological province is formed…
Fred’s 1st Nature/Photo B&B Weekend April 23!
Grab your calendar now: circle the weekend of April 23rd. Got it? Now, call or email Claiborne House Bed and Breakfast in Rocky Mount, Virginia. 540.483.4616Â Book yourself (and your Significant Other) a room (or come solo and enjoy even…
One Flower and a Bee
One of the recurrent pleasures of nature-focused photography is that it gives you excuses to do things a grown man would not ordinarily do. Had one of the several Parkway motorists who passed me on my knees in a field…
Natural Resources
I am pleased to know that this Blue Ridge Parkway image from Floyd County near Tuggles Gap MP 166 will be included in the upcoming 2009 Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation calendar. More details about how and where you can obtain…