We are coming into peak tomato season in the Southeast and with it comes an abundance of tomatoes in the produce section at your local Ingles Markets as well as backyard gardens.

Hello from atop the roof of my parents’ 1840 brick farmhouse. Some 20 feet up on the back end of the structure. It’s hot as hell walking across the old roof in the midday sunshine and heat of early summer in the Champlain Valley of Upstate New York. 

Wednesday morning, June 12, I left my sister’s house in Sapphire for my very first music festival. 

I’d been to plenty of other concerts, raves and shows but had never dedicated more than a few hours to live music at any one time.

Please don’t get me wrong, I love the orchids of springtime. Love them. They tend to be as big and showy and beautiful as springtime itself.  Ladyslipper orchids, both yellow and pink (Cypripedium acaule and C. parviflorum) and showy orchis (Galearis spectabilis) are certainly beautiful and fun to see blooming in the woods in the spring.  

As both kids and parents head into summer vacation, thinking about having easy and inexpensive snacks available becomes more important: 

Rumble Reader Recipe: Baked Peaches

It’s time for a late summertime check-in.

This summer I’ve been learning several important life lessons. 

Youth have multiple opportunities to get outdoors this month with a variety of events offered by Haywood County Recreation and Parks.

According to the calendar, summertime is still a couple weeks away, but with morning birds singing and the sun brightly shining, it certainly feels like we’ve already rolled over into the summer season.