Help Tornado Victims in Appalachia

Posted in History & Culture on March 3rd, 2012 by marklynn
Help Tornado Victims in Appalachia
Photo used with permission from the American Red Cross This morning, we awoke to heart wrenching images from yesterday’s devastating tornadoes. Homes, schools, and in some instances entire towns were torn apart as damaging storms and more than 95 tornadoes tore across the Midwest and into the Appalachians. I know we’re all eager to help. Here are announcements that I’ve found for ways to donate funds, time, and other resources t Read More »


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Vote: Which Mountain House is for You?

Posted in History & Culture on January 22nd, 2012 by marklynn
Vote: Which Mountain House is for You?
I am a sucker for open houses. When I’m walking around town and see those tell-tale balloons tied to a real estate sign, I make a bee line. I will stand-up friends or be late for a meeting. It doesn’t matter; I won’t pass up a chance to nose around someone else’s place. If I open the door and find the house empty, I do a brisk walk through, maybe critique the bathroom’s tile job or admire a fireplace. I won’t Read More »


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10 Great Places to Get Appalachian Crafts

Posted in Art & Lit on December 11th, 2011 by marklynn
10 Great Places to Get Appalachian Crafts
It looks like Appalachian crafters are finally getting their due. This week, USA Today ran 10 Great Places to Shop at Craft Galleries, and not one, not two, but three of them are in the homeland. That has me feeling big waves of pride for our region’s artists, and it makes me want to tell Target, Walmart and Best Buy to lump it this season. Rather than just filling my loved one’s stockings with mass-produced doo-dads, I’m going Read More »


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Gingerbread Art: View It When You’re Full

Posted in Art & Lit, Food, History & Culture on November 13th, 2011 by marklynn
Gingerbread Art: View It When You’re Full
I am hopelessly behind. I’m just now figuring out what I’ll be cooking for Thanksgiving, and already gingerbread-themed, Christmas time events are popping up all over the region. While they’re starting on the early side for my taste, they all sound delicious. Houses in every shape and size, some complete with little streets, and even entire villages are being constructed of gingerbread rectangles and gum drops and candy canes a Read More »


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Ron Rash is Burning Bright

Posted in Art & Lit on November 6th, 2011 by marklynn
Ron Rash is Burning Bright
I don’t post about books that I’ve not finished. That’s largely because I’d hate to talk up a book only to find that it tanks after the first one hundred pages. I’m on page seventy-five of Burning Bright, and I can’t hold back any longer. I’m about to burst over Ron Rash’s collection of North Carolina stories. The first three of them, the ones that I have read, are set in a dim Appalachia, where lig Read More »


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Leaf Peeping: The Rail Way

Posted in Outdoors & Travel on October 16th, 2011 by marklynn
Leaf Peeping: The Rail Way
According to forestry and travel sites, this is the peak week for fall leaves in the southern Appalachians. If you’re not already perched on a mountainside, run, do not walk, to your car. Now is the perfect time to cruise along a ridge line, peering over the guard rail to a swaying orange and red canopy that climbs the mountains like it’s trying to reach the sky. The only thing that can make your fall mountain ride any better is not Read More »


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Pick Your Favorite Asheville Artist

Posted in Art & Lit on July 23rd, 2011 by marklynn
Pick Your Favorite Asheville Artist
When we visited Asheville a few weeks back, the work of local artists was everywhere–in galleries, in coffee shops, lining downtown sidewalks on tabletops, and even at a tailgate farmer’s market out by UNCA. We picked a few of our favorites. Now you can pick yours. Check out the below works and vote for the one you like best.   Take Our Poll   Linwood Wood Carving Just North of Asheville alongside the French Broad River Read More »


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Rising Appalachia: A Revolutionary Band

Posted in Music on June 19th, 2011 by marklynn
Rising Appalachia: A Revolutionary Band
You better watch out. Sisters Leah and Chloe Smith have turned music into a weapon. Under the moniker Rising Appalachia, they are tearing across the country and around the globe in a bio-fueled bus, schooling everyone they meet in the ways of progressive mountain music. With banjos, fiddles, and washboards in tow, they have travelled from their home base in Asheville to Italy, to Scotland, through the Caribbean, and across Latin America. Everyw Read More »


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Your Favorite Swimming Hole

Posted in Outdoors & Travel on June 12th, 2011 by marklynn
Your Favorite Swimming Hole
It was a sweltering day in North Carolina, unusually hot for May. We decided to take a break from Asheville’s buzzing downtown and look for somewhere cooler. We headed south on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I’d never driven this stretch. In fact, I’d never driven the Parkway beyond Floyd, Virginia, where I always stopped to visit my grandmother or listen to old time music at the town’s famed Friday Night Jamboree. It being Memo Read More »


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Eating Our Way Around Asheville

Posted in Food, Outdoors & Travel on May 30th, 2011 by marklynn
Eating Our Way Around Asheville
With a doggie in the backseat and an old time gospel tune on our tongues, Ryan and I drove past the long arm of DC this week and into the waiting mountains. Our destination was further afield than usual. We barreled past Harrisonburg, past Staunton, past Lexington, and into the familiar terrain of the Roanoke Valley, where we stopped long enough for big hugs from Mother. It was a quick visit–20 minutes tops–and we were back on I-81. Read More »


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