by don | Nov 20, 2013
It will likely take awhile for the smoke to clear after the Table Rock Fire near Linville Gorge in the Grandfather District of the Pisgah National Forest either burns out or is suppressed. The fire was first spotted Tuesday, November 12 – the very same day that...
by don | Nov 15, 2013
I can be standing five feet from my girls and say something simple like, “wash your hands,” “brush your teeth” or “clean your room,” and not even an eyebrow will twitch in acknowledgement. But put those same girls down in the basement with TV or ipad/pod blaring at...
by don | Nov 6, 2013
Traveling from east to west, the Mississippi River Bridge is a time portal for me. I drive for hours squarely focused on the here and now, then I reach the bridge and in a breath I’m suspended above the Big Muddy, the river stretches for as far as I can see to...
by don | Oct 16, 2013
Millions of years ago America and Africa rubbed shoulders and the Appalachia n Mountains were created. The ancient Appalachians, at one time as high as the Alps or Rockies, created quite an east-west barrier from Canada down to central Alabama. Today’s, kinder-gentler...
by don | Oct 9, 2013
I was at the Allens Creek soccer fields Saturday morning watching Maddie play w hen my eyes were drawn to the mountains across the way. Red splashes like watercolor brush strokes climbing a mottled green canvas were shinning from the forests. It was Virginia creeper...
by don | Sep 25, 2013
The rains came Saturday. It was a good day for a soaker, from my perspective. I had writing I needed to catch up on and it’s not as hard being stuck away down in the dungeon when it’s pouring. We had seen the forecast for Sunday and I remember remarking to Denise, on...
by don | Sep 18, 2013
Thanks to an invitation from a friend – Blair Ogburn, senior naturalist at Balsam Mountain Trust, I was able to spend a few hours last Saturday (9/12) morning looking for fall migrants at Balsam Mountain Preserve. Great friends, great birding, add a twist of...
by don | Sep 12, 2013
Sorry, I couldn’t help it – I saw Hamlet at Montford Park this past weekend. But to be more specific, get thee to City Lights Café this Friday, September 13 at 6:00 p .m. for “Land of the Crooked Water.” Land of the Crooked Water is the inaugural offering of the...
by don | Sep 6, 2013
The loud, piercing keee-eeeeerrrr jerks your head up involuntarily to see the essence of wild freedom – a red-tailed hawk, wings outstretched banking slowly in the blue. It stops you, if only for a second or two, it stops you. If you are close enough to get a...
by don | Sep 1, 2013
Roger Tory Petersen called it, “one of the most breathtaking of the world’s weirdest birds,” and it was John James Audubon’s “rose-coloured curlew.” But the name that has s tuck is roseate spoonbill. The roseate spoonbill is one of only six species of spoonbills in...
