Being mindful of Mother Nature’s gifts
Lately we’ve been enjoying the hummingbirds each morning on our back deck.
Notes from a plant nerd: World, lose strife
For the past few years, whenever I encounter the whorled loosestrife growing along a trail or roadside I have been saying its name out loud, and slowly. Like a prayer: “World, lose strife.”
Up Moses Creek: Snapper, Part II
(Editor’s note: The first installment of this story was published in the May 10 issue of The Smoky Mountain News and is online here.)
Notes from a plant nerd: Put that in your pipe, but don’t smoke it
Plants and butterflies have a long history of evolution and interconnected relationships. Plants serve as food for caterpillars who eat their leaves to gain energy for their growth and transformations. This co-evolved host-plant relationship mostly occurs between native plants and native caterpillars. Many butterflies depend on this relationship for their lives.
Summer starts at Highlands Nature Center
The Highlands Nature Center kicks off its summer season on Memorial Day weekend, with extended hours noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, May 28, and summer hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday starting Monday, May 29.
Take time to read the ‘Book of Nature’
During the pandemic, regional authors have been busy. I’ve been made aware of several books being released this year by writers in our own back yard who have published books in several genres.
This must be the place: Drifting back down to earth at the peak of beauty
It was right around 3 p.m. when I knew I had to escape.
Sitting in the Panacea Coffeehouse in the Frog Level District of Waynesville on Monday afternoon, I had finished my writing for the day. I had concluded all my emails, correspondences and text messages, too. I just wanted to get away, even if but for a moment, from my damn smart phone and laptop in an era of Wi-Fi and unlimited data plans.
Sharing the craft: Jo Ridge Kelley Fine Art
With the traffic and noise of a busy Main Street in downtown Waynesville zooming by outside her window, Jo Ridge Kelley creates works of tranquility and natural wonders inside her cozy studio.
“I love being able to pull from myself,” she said. “I’m a very soulful person, and painting is a way to work with my feelings — to be living in the moment.”
Wildlife through a lens: Highlands couple explores the outdoors one photograph at a time
The years since retirement have been anything but dull for Highlands residents Ed and Cindy Boos. From Ecuador to Kenya to destinations across North America, they’ve traveled the world — camera bags in hand.
The resulting catalogue of photos, primarily depicting wildlife but also featuring plenty of landscapes, includes everything from a young elephant feeding from its mother on an African Savannah to a Smokies black bear giving a wave as it rolls on the ground.
George Ellison releases new book, reflects on decades of life lived in nature
The Fourth of July, 1976, was just around the corner when George and Elizabeth Ellison embarked on a hike that would change their lives forever. The two were walking in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park when their wandering brought them to the park’s edge, a remote and beautiful cove with a bubbling stream flowing through it.
SEE ALSO: Ellison releases new title
