Category Essays

Music, Mountains and Big Trees

Back in December, I was offered the opportunity to contribute a “500-700 word article on Southwest Virginia’s outdoors or nature” by the Crooked Road folks. It now appears (on page 23) in the program guide for next week’s Mountains of…

Forestry Series Link

For those who don’t see my infrequent posts on the Book of Face, here is a link to the four part series on Forestry’s Future that just completed its run in the Floyd Press. When Forests Disappear / Fred First…

Feather Go Home

Go to medium.com to see more images for this post. We don’t know what goes on in their minds when they are with us, but only the smiles and memories they leave in our own hearts and memories when they…

Finding Water: A Draft

So I may have mentioned (and perhaps one reader noticed) that I am accumulating draft pieces toward a third book if all goes well. (All never goes well, sometimes something does, OTOH, and I’ll take it.) The working title changes…

Thoughts About Place

It started out as an assignment, sort of, for Tommy Bailey’s book, Floyd Folks. Which, btw, if purchased in town (say, at the Floyd Community Market) will send proceeds to support  the market. The version of my little part of…

Good Will Toward Earth

I pulled out my trifold scrap paper scratch pad that is always with me. The Earth had just moved under my feet in the middle of a church service, and I had to take note. What had happened is that,…

For Your Health: Take a Walk

I find myself, once again, staring out the window by my desk, my eyes falling more often than not on the “New Road” that rises out of the pasture just past the barn. We (and especially SHE) follow that path…

What Difference Does a Season Make?

I’m catching up with myself, from this time a few years back when I imagined keeping up all along through an entire year with a seasonal journal–part of my “Floyd County Almanac” that sits just exactly where it did when…

Flowing, Together

I’ve always liked the word “confluence” for the fact that, if I could see  and hear through the wall in front of me, I’d experience the joining music and rush of Goose Creek where it merges with Nameless Creek. Both…

Back Into the Natural Order

Earth Day will feature a panel discussion, each participant offered the opportunity before that to deliver a 5 – 7 minute message. Mine I’ve entitled Back Into the Natural Order, since my talk was titled for me as “Getting Back…

Floyd, Down to Earth

We’re a week from Earth Day 2013, this year offered from the Floyd EcoVillage center for the first time. I’ll be leading a “nature walk” and maybe sitting on a panel discussion of Floyd County’s general ecology and environment. Towards…

Ill Winds: A Necessary Evil

I’ve made my peace with the cold. By this time of year, I’ve remembered all the tactics for staying unfrozen when it’s single digits outside–tricks with scarves and woolen things, mostly. But I’ve never done very well accepting January wind.…