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586 Search Results for "george ellison"
Virgin’s bower is a favorite mountain wildflower
Published: 2018-07-25 14:11:27It’s late July and before long summer will be slip-sliding toward autumn. The gap between now and then is often overlooked in regard to wildflowers. The first flaming cardinal flowers appear along the creeks and purple Joe Pye weeds and ironweeds throw...
Read MoreJust sit on the porch and breathe
Published: 2018-07-11 16:00:50I write this down in the country again ... seated on a log in the woods, warm, sunny midday. Have been loafing here deep among the trees, shafts of tall pines, oak, hickory, with a thick undergrowth of laurel and grapevines — I sit and listen to the pi...
Read MoreA rich newspaper account of Bryson City circa 1910
Published: 2018-06-27 15:18:15Despite the boosterism (and alliteration) that permeated a front page layout (perhaps instigated by the ever-energetic Jack Coburn, who is profiled in the article) published by the Asheville Gazette-News for July 16, 1910, some of the descriptive content...
Read MoreBracken among the world’s most common plants
Published: 2018-06-13 16:17:27“Here and elsewhere, bracken is such an aggressive plant that one wonders why it has not taken over the world.” — R.C. Moran, A Natural History of Ferns (2004) Bracken fern is said to be one of the five most common plants in the world. Standing up ...
Read MoreLearning bird songs is an art unto itself
Published: 2018-05-30 16:26:08Editor’s note: This column first appeared in a May 2009 issue of The Smoky Mountain News. In the opaque early-morning light outside our bedroom windows, the birds that reside in our woods — or do we reside in their woods? — commence warming up for ...
Read MoreZeke’s gone, but leaves us a blank verse sonnet
Published: 2018-05-16 14:46:56Two German shorthaired pointers named Maggie and Zeke were our constant companions for years. When we went bird watching along the Texas, Gulf and Atlantic coasts, they traveled along in the back of the truck, their heads stuck through the camper top win...
Read MoreThe forlorn calls of the yellow-billed cuckoo
Published: 2018-05-02 15:11:50Editor’s note: This column first appeared in The Smoky Mountain News in May 2008. O Cuckoo! Shall I call thee Bird, Or but a wandering Voice? — William Wordsworth . There are certain sounds that haunt the southern highlands. Wind sighing in the high ...
Read MoreThe sacred animal that walks like a man
Published: 2018-04-18 15:17:17Editor’s note: This column first appeared in an April 2003 edition of The Smoky Mountain News. Bears have always held a special attraction for human beings. In a chapter titled “Killing the Sacred Bear” in his monumental study The Golden Bough: A S...
Read MoreBirch stills were once plentiful in the mountains
Published: 2018-04-04 14:50:02Throughout spring the pendent catkins of sweet birch (Betula lenta) will be dangling gracefully in the wind in rich woodland settings below 4000 feet. Catkins are the male pollen-carrying portion of the sweet birch (Betula lenta), also known as black, ch...
Read MoreOld-time dentistry just plain hurt
Published: 2018-03-21 16:39:53Old-time dentistry as practiced here in the Smokies region wasn’t pretty. All of the descriptions I have found make it seem just about barbaric, but, then again, when you’ve got tooth problems you’ll resort to just about any remedy. John Parris, in...
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