Whisperings........

(Ponderings inspired in Cataloochee Valley)

Venerable valley, that time has forgotten.......do you mourn for those who left you behind?

When the winds blow and make these old boards creak and groan, does it stir up memories of life now gone?

The plow no longer digs deep in your ground... No more laughter, no more singing, no more church bells sound.....

But I believe you still remember, because you whispered it to me.... I heard the murmur on the cool mountain breeze.... You sang softly of age-old mysteries... and of life and death in this ancient valley......

Black Water.......

"I come from the mountains, Kentucky's my home, Where the wild deer and black bear so lately did roam; By cool rushing waterfalls the wildflowers dream, And through every green valley there runs a clear stream.

Now there's scenes of destruction on every hand... And only black waters run down through my land. Sad scenes of destruction on every hand,

Black waters, black waters, run down through my land..."

- 'Black Waters' by Jean Ritchie

I know I have been single-minded in my posting as of late. But my heart is extremely saddened and angered by Mountain-top mining. It is destroying the beautiful state where I live....and the state that I grew up in. When you see your fellow Appalachian people suffering because of the negligence of a few in power, it is hard not to speak up.

The above picture is of a stream filled with Coal sludge. The water in West Virginia and Kentucky is literally being poisoned. I am very grateful that PBS recently did a special on this issue....they are the first media outlet to do so. You can view it here. It is a longer clip, but it is a worthy endeavor of your time as we all use electricity....much of which is powered by coal mined in my state.

THIS is the price of coal...... Should the Appalachian people continue to suffer, be sick, and in some cases, die, to supply our nation with electricity? President Bush just recently made a statement that our nation needs to make this sacrifice to take us from dependency on foreign oil. I have to say that I strongly disagree.......

This new website has made it easier to let your voice be heard about the new Regulation passed by the Bush Administration to allow Coal Companies to basically have free reign for Mountain-top Removal.... with little to no accountability. It also features a moving preview of an upcoming documentary about the people of Appalachia's suffering and fight to end Mountaintop Mining.

PLEASE, please take the time to view these clips and let your voice be heard.....

A Door For Anna......

For my friend, Anna, who loves doors...

Welcome back to the states, friend! Wishing you many new adventures and much blessing in your new home...

Can't wait to see your new front door!

Fall Fun .....

A taste of what's to come...


Forward Thinker...

Over-achievers...

End of season slump...

Trend Setter...

For some more Fall Fun, head to my new blogging friend, Brandy's, site for a fun fall give-away. And spend some time reading her delightful posts...she lives simply and is very creative and inspiring!

Provision.......

(an excerpt from an e-mail I sent to my family shortly after moving to our new town)

I had a wonderful night last night....just one of those nights where it seems the stars are all aligned just for you. We were invited to Vacation Bible School at a little country church up the road..... down a beautiful, winding, one-lane road following a creek. I stayed with Sir Laughsalot through the evening... went to his class with him. He made friends with the class clown right away, an onery little red-headed boy. They carried on, laughed, and played together the entire night..... Such a wonderful thing to see after having to leave all his friends behind when we moved.

Another mom was there and I sensed a kindred spirit.... and a familiar accent. We trepidly started conversing and realized we were both from the same area of North Carolina and she had also gone to college near my hometown in Kentucky. Before long, we were laughing, too.... and didn't stop talking until the evening was through. We even got some looks from the teachers to hush. As the evening wound down, we exchanged phone numbers, e-mails, and 'See ya tomorrow's!"

It was dark when we left..... and the cicadas and peepers were almost deafening. I had a euphoric feeling walking down the little road to the car, with the sounds of the country in my ear, the little white church's steeple lit up in the background, and the sound of kids laughing. A night of good conversation, a possible new friendship, and knowing my son is getting that gentle, fun introduction to Jesus that we had at our bible schools growing up. We drove home with the windows down, listening to the night sounds, and Sir Laughsalot softly singing the songs he had learned that night.

I believe Someone did line the stars up for me last night.......

Wordless Wednesday...

An Appalachian sunset....

More Wordless Wednesdays here.

Your Comments Needed..........

Before this happens to any more mountains:

The Bush Administration just issued a regulation to allow for the expansion of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining practices. The new rule would allow the practice to continue and expand. Mountaintop Mining has already destroyed more than 450 mountains and ravished the communities that surround them through the burying of streams and headwaters, flooding, and toxic waste and debris being dumped into the valleys below.

This new regulation is open for a 60 day comment period. Fred First has set up a site with instructions on how to comment here

"Mountaintop Removal is occurring right at the heart of one of the nation’s main hotspots of biological diversity. According to the Nature Conservancy, the mountain region including southwest Virginia, southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and northeastern Tennessee contains some of the highest levels of biological diversity in the nation. This region is also at the headwaters of the drinking water supplies of many US cities"........ This is something that affects us all.

This is not an issue of coal vs. no-coal. It is not a political issue. It is a matter of doing what is right and not what is most profitable. The production of coal is up but mining jobs are down..... Coal Companies are making more profit than ever because of this practice, but the regions where they are mining are still some of the most impoverished in the nation. Communities are being left with nothing but polluted water, flooding, and a ravished landscape.

Please let your voice be heard on this issue. And a big thanks to L.L. Barkat,

June, Colleen, Brandy, and Fred for helping spread the word. If you post about this topic, please let me know and I will link to it.......

A Stroll through the Land of Enchantment...........

A magical shop in the woods..........


An encounter with a wee faerie along the way......


The King's next court jester.......


A knightly encounter.......


Looking for loot........


A bit of theatre......


'The Rogues' and their Groupies.......

-All photos taken during our weekend at The Maryland Rennaisance Festival.

No Need To Fear........

Sir Laughsalot is here!!!!

Or should I say, Robin Hood? Either way, there was no need to be afraid of this big, green monster we came across at The Maryland Rennaisance Festival , with such a brave companion at my side.

Sir Laughsalot started the day as a knight, but happened across this super cool hat and changed roles for the day. That's the fun of the festival.....both children AND adults get to play make-believe!

Much more to come, but this fair maiden needs her beauty rest after a long weekend of being rescued from ugly green trolls and keeping up with a 5 year-old in Wonderland........

Wordless Wednesday.......

'Playing In the Shadow of Coal'

(photo courtesy of 'Pennies of promise' website)

To find out how Massey Energy and the Coal Industry are endangering the lives of these children go here.

For more info on how Mountaintop Mining is destroying the beautiful Appalachian mountains, go here.

For more Wordless Wednesdays, go here.

Let The Children Come.........

....A young worshipper caught in action at church. She delighted me, as I watched her excitement and sincerity while singing praises to God. She knew all the words to all the songs we sang. And I was reminded of Jesus' words that we must come to Him like a child...... with that wonder and awe...... innocence and joy..... for He is 'Abba', our Father, who 'takes great delight in us, and quiets us with his love, He also rejoices over us with singing." (Zephaniah 3:17)

How awesome that the Creator of the Universe also rejoices over *ME*....and You... and this little girl who is so excited about her Maker! And how very humbling...........

"I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;

with singing lips my mouth will praise you. "

-Psalm 63: 4-5

Please Help...........

How You Can Help.........

My dear readers, there will not be many times that I bring up 'issues', so to speak, that I urge you all to act on. It's not really the purpose of my blog. But Mountaintop Mining is something that is so wrong and so destructive that I have to get the word out. It is devastating my part of the world. I think until we picture this happening in our own communities and not think of it as someone else's problem, nothing will be done. Because it's happening in some of the poorest and most isolated areas of Appalachia, the local people's voices are not being heard over King Coal's and it is a practice that has been veiled in secrecy. But there is something we can all do right now.

The Clean Water Act was enacted by Congress in 2002 to “restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters,” and prohibited the dumping of material into waterways for the purpose of waste disposal. In 2002, the Secretary of the Army changed the definition of “fill material” in order to include mining waste. Since debris from mountaintop removal is no longer considered “waste,” coal companies are dumping millions of tons of mine waste into streams, so far burying more than 1000 miles of streams and headwaters...

Representatives Frank Pallone and Christopher Shays introduced a bill that reestablishes the original intent of the Clean Water Act: to protect our waterways, not give industry permission to pollute and bury them. By the end of the 109th congress of 2006, the bill had 77 co-sponsors. If this bill gets passed, it will be a huge blow to the practice of Mountaintop Mining. Please go here to see if your representative is co-sponsoring the bill, and if not, call or write them to urge them to. Sometimes it takes more than one phone call or letter.

Also, our representatives will be home during the month of August. I have set up a meeting with mine while he is home, although he is opposed to the Act. I live in the main battlefield, where Coal Money runs our politics, but I will still continue to bug. If you live in TN, WV, VA, or KY, you'll have to fight extra hard..... and setting up a meeting in person, as a constituent, would be great. You can contact Appalachian Voices, and they can help you in this process.

This is something we all can do as a collective blogging community. Also, if you feel led, please re-post about this to help spread the word. If you do, let me know and I will link to it.

Who's Spreading the word...........

1. Nameless Creek

2. Fragments From Floyd

3. Green Inventions Central

4. Spatter

5. Simply Brandy

(Mountaintop Removal is an atrocity that is taking place here in my beloved Appalachian mountains. It's a cheaper way to remove coal that basically eliminates the coal miner. But in the process, it is destroying the landscape and lives of people in rural Appalachia. Flying over some parts of West Virginia and Kentucky, you would think you were flying over a war zone. Please help me spread the word. Here is an e-mail I received and ways that you can help.)

Before Mountaintop Mining........After.........

Today, I want to tell you about a place that is ground zero in the fight to stop mountaintop removal coal mining..... a place called Coal River Mountain.

Located in westernmost Raleigh County, West Virginia, Coal River Mountain is under threat from Massey Energy. Massey has applied for two mountaintop removal permits, and is considering a third, that would destroy nearly 6,000 acres of Coal River Mountain, effectively decapitating it. They would fill 18 Appalachian valleys with toxic coal mining waste and destroy the tallest peaks ever to be mined in West Virginia.

But a coalition of grassroots organizations, led by Coal River Mountain Watch, have joined together to protect Coal River Mountain - and bring the attention of the nation to the ongoing tragedy that is mountaintop removal coal mining.

Effort to stop the Coal River Mountain project is gaining momentum at the local level. Just last week, more than 100 local citizens filled the bleachers at a public hearing held by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection at the Clear Fork Elementary School to speak their minds about the massive proposal.There has never been such a turnout to a public hearing on a mine permit in West Virginia... but even more incredibly, every single citizen who spoke, spoke in opposition to the mine.There are many reasons that local citizens oppose the mine: it will pollute their drinking water, heighten the risk of local flooding, and destroy the mountains and the beautiful landscape that have been their family home for as many as nine generations.The mine, too, would destroy the long-term economic future of Coal River Mountain. As many citizens said at the hearing, for just a few years worth of jobs and a few years worth of coal, the mine would wipe out the opportunity to build a wind power facility that could provide long-term jobs and enough power to meet the needs of more than 90,000 homes forever.

Yet despite the united - and, at the hearing, unanimous - opposition to the plan to destroy Coal River Mountain, local citizens hold little hope that their testimony alone will stop the mine - because the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has never denied a permit application for a mountaintop removal mine. Never.

Even though most Americans would never support the destruction of this beautiful mountain and irreplaceable landscape, the people living near Coal River Mountain believe that their mountain will be destroyed because most Americans simply don't know what's happening in the hills and hollows of Appalachia.

There really is no such thing as clean coal...... to learn more about Mountaintop Removal and how you can help, go to Ilovemountains.org.

On paths, journeys, 100 posts....... and convergences along the way......

"Traveler...there is no path...paths are made by walking.." -Antonio Machado

"We do not belong to those who only get their thoughts from books, or at the prompting of books... it is our custom to think in the open air, walking, leaping, climbing, or dancing on lonesome mountains by preference, or close to sea, where even the paths become thoughtful...."

-Friedrich Nietzsche

"Still round the corner there may wait, a new road or a secret gate...." -J.R.R. Tolkein

This summer I sat in the back of The Floyd Country Store with Colleen. We tried to hear each other over the din of bluegrass music and the 'whooping and hollerin' of dancers having a grand time on the dance floor. She saved me from having to do the Texas two-step with a sweaty hillbilly with no regard for personal space. We talked of things of the heart and similarities in our journey.

The next night, I spent an evening with Fred First and his wife, Ann...under a canopy of old-growth Oak trees...listening to traditional Appalachian music.

It seems fitting.... the first two bloggers I met in person were the authors of the first blogs I read. The two that inspired me to start blogging.... They both add a little beauty to the world with their words, musings, photography, poetry.

Blogging has been a pleasant journey for me...a creative outlet.. a voice for my thoughts.... a world opened....and I have stumbled into an incredible community of fellow journeyman that I consider friends. Some of whom I have shared on a deeper level with....beyond blogging. And I am grateful for the new paths made and shared. This was most evident over the summer, when I had to attend to personal matters and blogging was put aside for a time. I was moved by all that checked in regularly, words of well-wishes and prayers, and thoughts and lovely words sent my way.

What an interesting world... where the thoughts of a country girl in Appalachia could reach India....and Britian.... Canada..... the Netherlands... and all points in between..... and foundations of friendships could be laid out.... journeys could be shared with people who are also climbing the mountains.... living life... dancing....leaping.. and sharing along the way.

And here's to future friendships and meetings, where our paths get to leave the virtual world and converge in the flesh.... my set date with Anna to chat over Diet Coke and a Dr. Pepper.... and perhaps some margaritas, as she has been known to boast about her skills as a margarita mix master. She's been with me from the start of my blogging journey.... and I'd be hard-pressed to find a post without an encouraging comment from her. And a future date with Moi, who lives near one of my sisters......to watch cheesy Bollywood movies while we paint our toe-nails and eat bon-bons. And who knows what other encounters might follow.....

100 posts ...... 'and miles to go before I sleep'......

Nature's Bounty.......

A recent, overcast day found us picking wild blueberries just a short distance away from where we live. A tip from a local park ranger led us to just the right spot.... a huge blueberry bog in the midst of a nearby designated wilderness area. The dirt road leading to the area was windy and steep and we drove slowly up it. After about 20 minutes of driving through a thick canopy of trees, the landscape suddenly opened up and I was amazed to see the immense, wild bog.

The blueberries were at their peak, and the whole time we were picking, I thought to myself, "How lucky am I?", while gazing out at the misty mountains and harvesting nature's gift. The slight drizzle and low-hanging clouds lent to the magical feel of the day.....

The end results of our harvest proved delicious.......

Seasonal Fruit Muffins

(you can use peaches, raspberries, or blueberries)

- 2 c. flour (i mix wheat and white)

-1 T baking powder

-1/2 t. salt

-1/2 cup sugar (i use raw sugar)

-1 t. cinnamon

-1/2 t. nutmeg

-1 egg

-1 cup milk

-1/3 cup melted butter

-1- 1 1/2 cups fruit

Preheat oven to 400*. Combine first 6 ingredients (for peaches, replace cinnamon and nutmeg with 1/4 t. mace). Beat egg lightly, add milk and melted butter. Make a well in dry ingredients and pour in liquid mixture. Stir just enough to combine and then add fruit. Sprinkle with topping and cook 15-20 minutes.

topping

-2 T brown sugar

-1/2 t. cinnamon

-1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Roots..........
(The following is a re-post. With unpacking and trying to get all settled into our new home, I decided to re-visit a couple of entries about my roots. Now I am even closer to my family's homeplaces....a mere half an hour up the road. An area I never considered living in that fate has brought us to......)

Through fate and serendipity, my husband's job has landed us within an afternoon's drive of a county that has deep family roots for me. My great-grandfather settled here and raised his family in the deep hills of Appalachia. The above farm belonged to my Great Uncle Curtis and his wife Sarah. Sarah was raised in this farmhouse, which was originally a log home (the logs can still be seen inside). She and Uncle Curtis inherited the farm and lived out their lives here- Aunt Sarah never leaving her childhood home.


Aunt Sarah and Uncle Curtis were very resourceful, as the isolation of the mountains necessitated: growing most of their food, making their own clothes, and raising animals. Sarah taught school and Curtis was a carpenter. They never had children, but raised a local orphaned boy as their own. Sarah always had homemade bread and fresh-churned butter waiting for any visitors that stopped by, visitors that included some of her students- some of whom I have run into, living close by, and they have related what a treat it was to be invited into their teacher's home.

My Uncle Curtis died in a tragic accident when I was two- felling a tree on his property, something he had done hundreds of times before...so I never knew him. But Aunt Sarah continued to live there on the farm and teach, and we visited her numerous times growing up. I remember her wood cookstove that she would bake fresh bread in, her sparkling eyes that would light up when we came to visit, and playing in the creek running along side of the house. Memories cherished..... and now passed along in the retelling to my son, who gets to relive them vicariously through our afternoon drives to the land of his ancestors.....

Roadside Art......


This is one of my favorite farms that I drive by on the way into our new town. It's literally on the outskirts of town and today, when I drove by, it looked like a watercolor painting. The red, green, blue, and yellow hues caught my eye, along with the light and shadows. It all melded together to form a most picturesque scene.
I pulled off the road to pause for a moment and take it all in. Peace and serenity embodied in a landscape.....

Thank God I'm a Country Girl...........

July 18

Father, set the lonely in families. Specifically I pray for Brock, Cody and Devon, that a family would adopt them and give them a loving atmosphere in which to thrive.

To find out more about these boys and adoption, go here.

Roadsides In Bloom..........

I've been inspired......

As mentioned in my last post, Fred First has started a project called "Unplanted Gardens: America's Roadside Bloomery". Wildflowers being near and dear to my heart, of course I had to participate.

With the craziness of my summer so far, my camera has been gathering dust..... not to mention it is currently being held together by duct tape until I can afford a new one. I have not been inspired to go "picture hunting" for a while now, but this project made me start seeing through a photographer's eye again. So I have been taking particular note of the roadside blooms again and have been snapping, snapping, snapping. :)

I submitted a photograph....the fifth one in the gallery, of wild daisies. But here are some extra beautiful blooms that have been catching my eye, also.

What a beautiful world, indeed!

So now that the word is out, you have no excuse! I have yet to see wildflowers in the gallery from Missouri (Mike!), the Pacific Northwest (Kirsten!), New York (L.L.), California (Sue!) or Florida (Moi and Christianne!)...... hint, hint! You can click here to see the official rules and gallery so far.......

Hope to see some of you over there soon........

Moving In The Summer Heat............

Again! We were doing the same thing two summers ago when we moved to this area from Maryland for my husband's new job. The thing that makes it worth it is the excitement of moving back out to the country from town and living in a farmhouse again. We are moving to a community about an hour away to be closer to hubby's work. So, here goes again! Thanks to everyone that has been checking in while I've been away. It has been a crazy summer and we won't be all moved in until the end of July, so I still won't be able to post regularly until we get settled.

But soon I'll be posting about playing in creeks, sitting on the front porch while gazing at the mountains, and being right down the road from my grandfather's homeplace. Full circle....back to my roots.

In the meantime, for all you shutterbugs...... My friend and fellow blogger, Fred First, over at Fragments From Floyd has started a neat project called "Unplanted Gardens: America's Roadside Bloomery". He's asking for photographs of roadside wildflowers and is starting a gallery of them. Go here to get more information and to view the gallery so far. I plan on taking my camera out today and documenting some of the local flora. Maybe I'll see some of your photos there soon........

Also, what a treat when I checked Anna's blog for the first time in a long while, and saw this beautiful close-up of my sister. Anna lives across the pond, in London, along with my sister. And her description of my sis is quite accurate. How I miss her.............

Until next time........ :)