Loose Leaf Notes

The brick installations at the Old Marshall Jail feature bricks made by my Asheville Potter son Josh’s mobile brick factory, stamped with stories that he took from interviews and by everyday people in the Marshall community and beyond. Their readings by Josh were recorded during my recent visit. I think they read like spoken word […]

1. Who ya gonna call? Someone who makes sense or someone who talks nonsense? 2. Trump’s fake tan make-up is starting to look more like a light version of black-face. 3. That’s my 12-year-old grandson Bryce shooting his daddy’s crossbow. He started with THIS.  4. Is surge the mutant plural of urge? 5. When Joe […]

– A trip to Marshall isn’t complete without a visit to my son Josh’s property, a complex really with three kilns, pottery studios, a brick pizza party plaza, a labyrinth garden and more. Check out the family barn-raising of the building pictured above HERE.  / Our World Tuesday

We played nice in the sandbox at the Blind Pig’s End of Season Cajun Blues Fest. I really thought the vintage car was a prop for the tiki bar red, until a  couple got up from their table and drove off in it. Product placement? There were crab legs, shrimp, corn on the cob, lobster […]

A poem is like the sun that you can only take in doses that you can’t look at directly or force to shine It’s a gold star charm A bright idea to follow Flashing rainbows and casting shadows as its good luck comes and goes _________Colleen Redman / Poets and Storytellers United 

-The following appeared in The Floyd Press on October 14, 2020. “Fearless, “inspiring,” a force of nature,” and “that was a Grammy award winning performance” were some of the reactions to Katie Wells’ recent performance of Love Letters to Humanity, her hour-long, one-woman show that blends dance and theatre, improv and comedy, spoken word and […]

1. We called them black widow spiders when we came across them in the blackberry patch. But they’re really black and yellow garden spiders. They’re beneficial to the garden and are NOT poisonous to humans. This one lives at my daughter-in-law’s flower farm HERE. 2. I was recently struggling to cut a plastic bag for […]

Marshall NC is a mountain town somewhat like Floyd but with two stoplights. Like it’s neighboring Madison County town, Hot Springs, it has a red railway car in it, trains going by and the ancient French Broad River, along with some cool shops (including my son’s wife’s Carolina Flowers Mercantile), an old-time dance hall, a […]

My son’s wife Emily is a flower farmer, florist and store owner. She, the founder of Carolina Flowers, had three weddings on Saturday to pick, arrange and deliver flowers for. October is their busiest month for weddings, but as busy as she was, we managed to squeeze in some weekend visit time, enjoying the flower […]

That’s what I heard Joe say to a Hot Springs NC street vending palm reader as we whizzed by on our bicycles on the way for a tub. Our therapeutic hot mineral soak overlooking the river was divine. Hot Springs Resort & Spa was popular in the 1800s. At one time it was part of […]

Hold on tight to its rocky boat when the world is spinning out of control All hands on deck to make a careful twist Not too far right Not too far left __________Colleen Redman / Poets and Storytellers United