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586 Search Results for "george ellison"
Highlands plateau still a world of green hills
Published: 2012-07-19 16:33:29Several years ago I wrote about Bradford Torrey’s A World of Green Hills, which was published in 1898 by Houghton Mifflin and Co. The book is divided into two parts, equally devoted to Torrey’s travels in Western North Carolina and southwestern Virgi...
Read MoreAlum Cave for a breath of fresh air
Published: 2012-07-19 16:10:40I recently happened upon an interesting article that described an excursion made in 1860 to the Alum Cave on the Tennessee side of the present-day Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Titled “A Week in the Great Smoky Mountains,” it was published in ...
Read MoreAn early account of Western NC
Published: 2012-07-19 15:25:07While crossing the Blue Ridge north of present Asheville in the early 1540s, Hernando de Soto’s scribes entered some brief descriptions of the landscape in their journals. In all likelihood, a letter written in 1674 by Abraham Wood, a Virginia merchant...
Read MoreLooking for carnivorous plants in WNC
Published: 2012-07-18 13:41:56Some plants like Jack-in-the-pulpit and Dutchman’s-pipe have evolved methods of entrapping insects in their flowers so as to assure pollination. But only a few plant species in North America actually devour insects so as to obtain life-giving sustenanc...
Read MoreRandom thoughts and voices
Published: 2012-07-11 14:29:45Here I sit by my window watching the creek go by with nothing in particular to write about except the random thoughts and voices in my composition book: “Negative capability is the gift of being in the world without any desire to reconcile contradictor...
Read MoreLesser known plants after more tangible awards
Published: 2012-07-03 20:28:17For me, those plants found here in the Smokies region that have verified practical human uses are, in the long run, of more interest than those with often overblown reputations for sacred or medicinal uses. For instance, the history of the common roadsid...
Read MoreCombating things that sting and itch
Published: 2012-06-27 14:13:40This is about critters and plants that sting and itch. There are lots of things out there in the woods that can cause discomfort or worse: hornets, poison ivy, poisonous serpents, poison sumac, ants, skunks, no-see-ums, and so on. Two that I experience o...
Read MoreAn evening with George Ellison and Lee Knight
Published: 2012-06-27 14:05:48As part of a summer series of music, the Marianna Black Library in Bryson City is presenting a special program of words and music, featuring George Ellison, reading from his new book Permanent Camp and Lee Knight, singing tunes from “The Songcatcher’...
Read MoreRivers in WNC bear native names
Published: 2012-06-20 15:39:38Long before the first Europeans arrived, the Cherokees developed ceremonials that focused on the spiritual power of running water. When ethnologist James Mooney arrived on the Qualla Boundary in the summer of 1887, those beliefs, which he described as th...
Read MoreFern workshop part of activity series
Published: 2012-06-20 15:32:16Local writer and naturalist George Ellison will conduct a “Fern Identification 101” workshop from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. July 5 at the Highlands Biological Station. Of the 70 species of ferns in western North Carolina, participants in the workshop will...
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