Topics Related to Mountain Musings

March is National Crafts Month and a good time to examine the history of handcrafts in Western North Carolina and the schools that still teach them. Long before Europeans arrived in the southern Appalachians, Indigenous people used the mountains’ rich natural resources to create objects they

I’ve been a library lover since my Aunt Ercelle introduced me to the Henderson County Public Library when I was 11 years old. My most prized possession is still a library card. And like Belle in Beauty and the Beast, I’ve been known to swoon over a stately room with book-filled shelves.

What makes millions worldwide watch a huge, lighted ball slide down a pole in New York City’s Times Square at midnight on New Year’s Eve? Call it tradition or pure craziness, but it’s been happening since 1907.

Outside my office window, the black walnut trees are dropping their fruit.