We Are All Local - Family

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Justin, PawPaw, Madison County, NC 2018

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Kate, PawPaw, Madison County, NC 2018

Going to visit these two in California tomorrow.
YAY!

We Are All Local

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Polly Bullman, Sodom, Madison County, NC 1976.

An early image from my time in Sodom that did not make it into Sodom Laurel Album.

We Are All Local - Little Worlds

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Morris Norton Dancing at the Sodom Music Festival, with Inez Chandler watching, Madison County, NC 1975.

We Are All Local - Winter Studies

In these times of turmoil, when pure evil seems to reign, I look out my studio door for a measure of peace, serenity, and regeneration.

We Are All Local - Little Worlds

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Robert Peebles, PawPaw, Madison County, NC 1983

Another March. Another March Madness.
But this year has special resonance as
It's the 35th Anniversary of NC State winning the championship.
Our friends Robert and Jane are diehard Wolfpack fans,
And their boys are in the tournament again this year.
So, here's to NC State and Lorenzo Charles.
May they be victorious.
And may it happen quickly.
So the rest of us can change the channel.

We Are All Local - Marshall 1983

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Daisy Worley Black (left) and Ruby Roberts at Roberts Pharmacy, Marshall, Madison County, NC 1983
- Thank you Cynthia Niles

This was a stressful period of time in my life. I won't go into the gory details except to say I had just opened a studio in the empty warehouse space on the third floor of the Flow Building. It would prove to be a cold and hot place to work. On most cold mornings I would wander down to Doc Niles's place, Roberts Pharmacy. They had an old fashioned counter with a soda fountain and would serve breakfast and lunch. Invariably, I would order biscuits and gravy, two eggs, sausage and coffee. Enough carbs and warm playfulness to keep me going all day.  

We Are All Local - Little Worlds There Remain

UNCLE SAM WANTS YOU TO. . . 

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Sprinkle Branch, Madison County, NC 2014
- Thanks Matt Hess

HEAD TO THE HILLS WITH HIM

 "Folks, things is bad and getting worse." He was heard to say.
       "We best lay low for a time and gather our strength."

We Are All Local - Preaching

This isn't the first time I've posted about litter and
trash dumps.
It could be an ongoing and regular feature.
There are many differences of opinion in Madison County.
But I've always thought our point in common is
our love of the mountains.
They are sacred to all of us.
We call our place The Jewel of the Blue Ridge.

Yet I wonder. 

This dump site, less than a mile from our house, 
never ceases to amaze me as I pass by it on my walk.
This is but a small piece of the entire dump. 
Placed judiciously along the creek in the hope that
high water will take at least some of it away.
It appears to be the remnants of an entire house
with a couple of vehicles added for good measure.

People will say, "Aw, who cares,
you won't even notice it in a couple of years."
Or, "I had to get rid of it and can't afford a dump card."
Or, the best, "Well, we've always done it that way."

As I get older I'm finding I have less patience
for people's stupidity.
It exhausts me.
Yet, here I am, still talking about it.
Witnessing so to speak.
Not expecting change.
Venting.

We Are All Local - Cold

HOSTA

Frozen time and again.
Pissed on by dog and man. 
Looking like nothing you'd want in your yard.
But patiently waiting for spring and
a return to its former glory.

We Are All Local - Feliz

MERRY CHRISTMAS

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Marshall Bypass, Madison County, NC 2017

We Are All Local - Purple for Poachers

I'm not sure what to say about this.
On the one hand I want to believe that no one owns the land.
That it belongs to all of us and
we should all have access to it. 
On the other hand I believe that we DO own our piece of land.
And with that ownership comes rights and responsibilities
that we try our best to attend to. 

One of those rights is being able to decide who can and cannot hunt on our property..
And for twenty years we've let a friend and his sons hunt on our land.
No one else. 
The reasoning is simple.
It's about safety.
It's about respect.
It's about stewardship. 

I often hear there are fewer and fewer places where one can hunt.
That nowadays the majority of landowners have posted their property.
"That's not how we used to do it," some say.
"That land never used to be posted.
It ain't fair.
I've been walkin' and huntin' up there my whole life."

I would argue that many people new to the community don't understand
the existing culture and its relationship to the environment.
Others just love the deer and don't want them shot.
And others, perhaps like us, would simply
like to have our rights respected for our safety and
the safety of the hunters who steward our forests with us.

We Are All Local - Mallory, Weeks Before Waylon

"There is nothing as beautiful as the body of a pregnant woman," he said,
as they went to the garden to make the photograph.
"Well," she said. "Do you want me to whip it out?"