Noise, Nuts, and Notes

Our Dog, the Chimera ~ Half canine, half squirrel. It’s not that Tsuga is underfed or lacks variety in his diet. Sometimes he just feels like a nut. He has taken a liking to walnuts, and we can hear him crushing them from across the creek. Then, in the middle of the night, we see them again. Can you imagine how hard it must be to digest a walnut shell? Do you know that ground walnut shells are used as a sand-blasting abrasive? Small wonder then that the dog has problems digesting them. Even the squirrels are smart enough not to eat the shells.

Blogger event ~ Tomorrow I’ll be attending a blogger event in Roanoke sponsored by Roanoke biz2biz.com; I expect it will be a pretty well covered event, and there will most likely be live podcasting and moblogging from WDBJ where the event will be held. I didn’t know until I had or he signed up at one of the speakers will be area blogger, Sean Pecore, from nearby Boones Mill. My understanding is the program is primarily to facilitate the use of blogs for business communications and marketing, and so I expect to learn a few things and also meet some new friends and fellow bloggers.

Note cards ~ Thanks to the several folks who left suggestions about the note card choices. I had already pretty much decided that the rock church didn’t fit as well as some of the others. I’ll be going back through and looking for another couple of choices before I finally decide on which five to include. It will probably be at least three weeks before I’ll have any cards available, but I’ll let you know.

Noise and smell of city ~ The smell of clean air and the sound of nothing but nature — these are things that I am too often indifferent to until I experienced their opposites, which I remembered this morning can be found at the Roanoke Airport. Stepping out of the car to help Ann with their bags made me want to get back to Goose Creek as quickly as possible. Exhaust fumes and sirens stand out in such sharp and unpleasant contrast to the pleasantries of home. I know the wife will be glad to return to the ordinaries that we take for granted.

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fred
fred

Fred First holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession. He moved to southwest Virginia in 1975 and to Floyd County in 1997. He maintains a daily photo-blog, broadcasts essays on the Roanoke NPR station, and contributes regular columns for the Floyd Press and Roanoke's Star Sentinel. His two non-fiction books, Slow Road Home and his recent What We Hold in Our Hands, celebrate the riches that we possess in our families and communities, our natural bounty, social capital and Appalachian cultures old and new. He has served on the Jacksonville Center Board of Directors and is newly active in the Sustain Floyd organization. He lives in northeastern Floyd County on the headwaters of the Roanoke River.

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