by Sarah Loudin Thomas | Nov 8, 2018 | Appalachian, Hiking, Miracles, Nature
I didn’t think we were going to have fall this year. The weather stayed summer so long. I figured we’d get a few mild days and then winter would pounce. And as for the autumn color? The prediction was that we would go from green to brown to gone. Which...
by Sarah Loudin Thomas | Oct 11, 2018 | Appalachian, bears, Family, Food, Memories, Nature
I’ve mostly given up trying to grow our food. I keep a pot of herbs and this year I grew a cherry tomato in a pot near the front porch. Based on what I paid for the plant and the number of tomatoes I picked, I’d say I broke even on that one. But, like the...
by Sarah Loudin Thomas | Oct 4, 2018 | Appalachian, Hiking, Nature, Poetry
I’ve loved Robert Frost’s poem Nothing Gold Can Stay since I first saw The Outsiders movie. I think that’s the hardest I’ve ever cried at a movie. The poem is so gorgeously bittersweet. To me, it’s always spoken of that moment in autumn...
by Sarah Loudin Thomas | Sep 13, 2018 | Appalachian, History, Nature
Having lived on the coast of South Carolina I’ve had more experience with hurricanes than I like. We actually moved to the mountains of western North Carolina in large part because of flooding from Hurricane Floyd in 1999. But the mountains are not immune from...
by Sarah Loudin Thomas | Aug 23, 2018 | Appalachian, Family, Hiking, Nature, Waiting
While in West Virginia last weekend my brother showed me some ginseng plants. He was checking them to see if they had seeds he could plant to spur future growth. He gathered up the red fruit with seeds inside and sowed them in a new spot. Seeds need 18+ months to...
by Sarah Loudin Thomas | Aug 9, 2018 | Appalachian, Food, Nature
No, it’s not a pet name for your grandfather. September is when pawpaws–also known as Appalachian bananas–are getting ripe. A pawpaw is a large, greenish oval that’s the largest, edible native fruit in the U.S. Folks say it tastes like a cross...
