Loose Leaf Notes

Without Love, Where Would We Be Now 1 HERE.

We rang in the New Year with a sold-out dance party at Dogtown Roadhouse last night. There were lights, glitter, songs and champagne. We got down on the dance floor like a Times Square ball drop. We took a cup of kindness with old friends and new for auld lang syne. There goes 2022. Here […]

The following 2021 review was done by excerpting the first line or few in one post from each month last year. You can click on the name of the month for a full accounting. January: The snow we got at the New Year was like frosting that covered everything and made me wonder where the […]

The Yankee Swap referee. The family portrait. Let the Catan games begin! The band. Everyone has their eye on that yard of Twix. Some are Yankee Swap spectators. What time is it? Christmas morning. Mother and son time. Is it another yard of twix? Maybe something for golf? Santa is the ultimate referee. He says […]

As a young girl, I was intrigued by the story of Hansel and Gretel, especially the part when they came across the gingerbread house of candy. Although the story turned dark, I never forgot my delight over that fairytale house. So, it’s no surprise that every year, I am drawn to the Floyd Country Store’s […]

Home for the Holidays, a Virginia Blue Ridge Music Festival classical music concert with Maestro David Wiley and friends, received a warm and cheerful reception at the Floyd Event Center on Sunday. Wiley on piano shared the stage with soprano Adelaide Muir and violinist Kevin Matheson. “The spirit of this is family and friends around […]

We went to a “Christmas Office party.” It just happened to be a Floydfest party for the festival team of workers. We got a top-notch 4-wheel tour of the new Floydfest site. There was an inaugural “On-the-Rise” Cookie Competition. The spread included some “Bad Ass” cookies. Not to be confused with the “Good as Shi*” […]

I went to see Santa! He’s an old friend. The real Santa, I’m convinced. The spirit of St. Nick incarnate. He brought the kid out in me. I raised my hand like the other kids and most of the adults when he asked, ‘who’s on the list?’“ The naughty list?” he joked. And I sang […]

He mentioned the idea of hiring The KIND, one of our longtime favorite local bands who play mostly Grateful Dead music, for his 60th birthday. I’m one who is not good at hosting or planning events. The idea overwhelmed me and was unlikely to happen, but then the perfect line-up fell into our laps when […]

We all went down the dark road heading out of town with Stephen Jenkinson and the band because these are the times we live in and Jenkinson is a truth teller and literary spell maker. It was a grand shamanistic ritual of altered proportions, a Grandin Theater performance of poetry, storytelling, rock and roll and […]

Some jam with that? All the way from Mississippi. Whether the memorable sound of The Dead or Pink Floyd or their originals sandwiched in between, The Royal Horses were thoroughly entertaining. I got a merchandise pin, pinned on by the band’s drummer in thanks for all my dancing. Joe says, “If they’re not on your […]