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…
Tag Blue Ridge Parkway
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…
Showing Your Cards
No, not that kind. I’m not one for those kind of games. This is just a quick Saturday morning note to let you know that the Photo Note Cards are on the shelves at… [su_highlight background=”#c8cfe2″ color=”#191f5a”]▶ The Floyd Country Store in…
Green, Green, Green They Say
The wave of green has reached the higher peaks of the southern mountains now, the canyons and corridors of leafery having become the only view from all but a few open vistas along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Yesterday’s  performance by cooperative…
Frozen Peas: Thousands Die Young
I have been feeling the pain these past few well-below-freezing April mornings knowing what our local vegetable farmers are suffering at the hand of winter that won’t give it up. Thousands of tender sets and sprouts in long rows, the…
Goose Creek Goods Open Its Tiny Digital Doors
This will be old-business for the 104 kind folks who LIKED the Goose Creek Goods page on Facebook since Saturday. But since there is not anything like a complete overlap between Fragments readers and Facebook friends, I’ll run the risk…
Flurry of Fall Foliage in Floyd
Okay. I’m done with the letter F for now. Let’s start over with the letter A. A is for aster. Aster used to be the genus for these, er, asters that now are apparently in the genus Eurybia. So much…
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…
A Mill By Any Other Name
A stroll in the December archives finds this image [click to enlarge] from early December, 2007. I had been manning a book table at the Chateau Morrisette Winery Wine Club members banquet (what a nice invitation, I met lots of…
NexRad Puts Terry’s Fork on the (Wx)Map
I was living alone on Walnut Knob, MP 152, off the Blue Ridge Parkway, in 1997. On an afternoon walk to a high point above the cabin, I spotted a white object on the horizon far to the north. That…
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…
Quietude: A Sweet Fragrance to the Ear
Image by fred1st via Flickr From Road Less Traveled column, Floyd Press, 17 June 2010 Can we sustain in our corner of southwest Virginia those amenities and virtues that make it a highly-livable place? We want to perpetuate the abundance…
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…
Nature. Photography. What Else Is There?
Okay, it’s a GO! We’re into the final stretch, and there are still places 1) at the B&B for the weekend Nature Photo-Workshop Weekend ($60 per person–contact Claiborne House at link below to register), or 2) to sign on for…