Award winning author Mark Warren will discuss his book, “Survival Tricks of the Trail,” at 6 p.m. on April 11 at the Macon County Public Library on Siler Farm Road in Franklin. 

By the third week of April, spring is in full bloom throughout the picturesque valleys of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

With my eyes closed, I can’t see the patchwork of brown leaves and fallen twigs covering the forest floor before me, the pale green lattice of lichen peppering the trunks of upward-reaching trees, or the waters of Fisher Creek rushing over a bed of weathered rocks.

This one goes to the Pigeon River, due both to the actual metals found in a sampling site along its bank and to the very metal way its fish populations have rebounded after the Canton paper mill shut down in June. 

Performer. Writer. Director. Instructor. Photographer. 

A severe drought. A moderate but steady wind that’s coming from the north and very dry. Parched leaves swirling everywhere. 

To the Editor:

As yellow falling leaves and cool, dry air are floating into the mountains, it signals to knowledgeable residents that it’s time to look up.

This time of year, as the wind rustles the leaves and the shadows begin to elongate as the sun lingers lower on the horizon, the veil between the worlds seems to grow thinner and thinner.

Among my favorite plants to teach to children is jewelweed (Impatiens capensis & I. pallida).

I hiked up the ridge behind our house early one July morning and saw an eastern box turtle with a millipede in its mouth.