The Great Spangled Fritillary has been a frequent visitor these last few days to the butterfly bush growing beside the cabin, and they should be joined within days by the migrating Monarchs who’ll be making their annual trek through the North Carolina mountains, a journey that peaks for us in September or early October. I’ll … Read more
Harriet Tubman was born into slavery here outside Cambridge, Maryland, in Dorchester County, and no one could have predicted at her birth in 1822 that she would become its most famous and most celebrated citizen. Tubman was a freedom fighter like no other. Though “barely five feet tall,” she became a giant. In 2024, the … Read more
If everyone always lies to you, Hannah Arendt once wrote, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, “but that no one believes anything at all anymore—and rightly so, because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, to be ‘re-lied,’ so to speak” — the liar constantly rewriting his own history. Arendt … Read more
The domesticated tomato may date back 7,000 or more years, but the 2026 edible variety didn’t show up in Murphy, North Carolina, until July 23 at our local farmers market. At least this was the first I had seen this season. So, naturally I’ve been eating a summer’s worth of tomato sandwiches since. And every … Read more
The first hummingbird of spring visited my deck on Thursday, two days ago, and today, Saturday, April 11, I finally got a photo of one. The visitor I got a blurry photo of traveled to Cherokee County, North Carolina, from Central America. Like most of his fellow travelers, he is a ruby-throated hummingbird — the … Read more
Georgia State Road 197 intersects U.S. 76 between Hiawassee and Clayton, Georgia, plunging south through Moccasin Creek State Park and the mountains of the Chattahoochee National Forest until it dumps Helen-bound motorcyclists onto Georgia State Road 356. From there you’ll follow the scenic, twisting two-lane through the valleys and mountains, past Unicoi State Park, and … Read more
Two days of cloudy cold weather packed up, bundled up, and trundled up the mountain paths and out of western North Carolina just in time for spring, 2026, which arrived today with sunshine and temperatures that stretched to 72 degrees. Tomorrow, the weather god, Freyr, promises even more sunny warmth. Word is he’ll push the … Read more
The Ides of March marked misfortune and doom for the ancient Romans, but in 2026, the month didn’t start out that way in the North Carolina mountains. March 1 marked sunny, beautiful motorcycle weather in the western mountains. You take what you can get. The thermometer eventually reached 73 at mid-afternoon. Today I rode over … Read more
Snow started falling over the Maryland peninsula on Sunday, and it didn’t stop until Monday afternoon by which time the sky gods had dumped as much as 15 inches of the stuff on anything that stood or lay in its path. To be correct, of course — and why not? — this is the Delaware, … Read more
