Or maybe not so slow after all? This might not matter much to many, but those who use the Internet for work or study or research, the difference between waiting five minutes to download a 45 minute documentary on a topic…
A few years back, I was asked to write the introduction as the final work came together for the author and artist who crafted “Keepers of the Tradition.” The intro was granted 1400 words initially, and lives below; the final…
There goes the daily squirrel, passing under the window beyond my desk. He was always at such risk, and knew it: tentative, uncertain, hesitant. Gandy was always watching. But this morning, as if he knew he no longer had to…
Gandy is gone as of an hour ago, after seven years and four months. That’s a lot of dog years, and they were good ones. She had an enchanted life on Goose Creek after being a rescue puppy that could…
SustainFloyd’s Personal Climate Pledge asks YOU to be intentional about what you eat, drive, wear and throw away. I post it here for the couple of Fragments readers who might stop by. Some of you have seen/heard this on Facebook…
Found in my collections of snippets, a quote from Wendell Berry, one of the few wise men of our era, in my opinion: To destroy a forest or an ecology or a species is an act of greater seriousness than…
At some point last year, we at SustainFloyd were considering creating hats and mugs (as first items in a possibly longer line) for sale as a source of revenue to support our programs–like the Farmer’s Market, the Refrigerated Truck, the VoltzWagon,…
In part, this essay is born out of the current local discussion within the Floyd County Board of Supervisors about the best way forward for the county. The fork in the road offers the options of continued reliance on “cheap” fossil…
And so, like many of you, I struggle to find balance, courage, and focus for the coming year. And I see work (a few items listed below) that is worthy of my time–a commodity in somewhat short and uncertain supply…
I awoke with a start. I had fallen asleep slumped against my favorite leaning poplar a ten-minute walk from the house. I was most certainly not exactly there now. I had nodded off on a warm summer afternoon, but now…
It has not been a spectacular year for fall colors in our part of the Southern Appalachians. The prolonged late-summer drought seems likely to have contributed to the subdued palette, but the alchemy of autumn is a many-splendored mystery with…
Most people might think it’s a good thing–that there are demonstrably and significantly fewer insects than there were three decades ago. But consider that these morels are critical links between the primary producers (grasses and other greenery that turns sun…
Not surprisingly, I came to discover that there is no one by that name with a PO box in that small Blue Ridge mountain town whose name and zipcode appeared on the envelope. The namesake of the purported sender was…
Once upon a time, there was a strange farmer of Erehwon. He gathered his curiosities, his precious things–momentary objects that held his attention and delight–and hoped others might wander down his lonesome road and share his fascination with the ordinary.…