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I wish everyone a belated Happy New Year! I hope you and your loved ones are staying safe and warm. In East Tennessee, 2024 has come roaring through like a mad badger, bringing with it a snowstorm I hadn’t experienced since I was a child. My mind hearkens to winters in the holler. We were essentially trapped for weeks at a time back in the beautiful dark places, where mountains hide the sun so that it barely glints across the valley, let alone the backroads burdened with ice under snow under ice under snow.Continue Reading

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We’re nearing the end of the year and the holiday/ winter season is just around the corner. The chilled air carries a magical, fresh scent; holiday bells jingle our benevolent ears; families and friends gather for grand meals or just plain old togetherness. This season affords us the chance to hear our family stories, our histories, our proud moments, and some we might like to sweep under the rug.Continue Reading

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From his window view my son seizes a ribbon of morning light that gives him excuse to pause, take measure of the ochre mist shrouding the still-dark presences of trees. He’s riddled in his chest by the sight of rocks splitting the sun’s head, now a wobble on the mountain’sContinue Reading

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In: Biology, Nonfiction
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Autumn is the season of dying and death – but life, as in our own experience, carries on. Winter, to me, is the first season of life. In temperate zones, perennial plants, most notably trees, are asleep in winter. Thing is, a lot of infant vegetative color appears throughout theContinue Reading

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I love Autumn and Winter. I love the trees’ rustic changing colors and the crisp, cool temperatures, abated by a snuggly fleece throw and a cup of hot chocolate. I love the greater sense of my ancestors as the veil thins. I love wooly worms and pumpkin patches and bonfires.Continue Reading

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In: Photography, Zoology
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Nestled south of Asheville, next to the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Bent Creek Experimental Forest, The North Carolina Arboretum’s gardens and wooded trails are one of my favorite photo hunting grounds.  Each visit reveals new subjects and new perspectives.  During the winter holiday season, the gardens are bedecked inContinue Reading