Loose Leaf Notes

Wordless Wednesday Floyd Public Art Installation by Barb Gillespie via the Jacksonville Center for the Arts.

It’s that time of year again. We’ll not really. There are fires and droughts in California, record breaking heat in the Southwest and other severe weather events consistently being reported. Here in Virginia, the seasonal wildflowers and fruits are almost a month early. There was a time when we picked apples in October. Our latest […]

I drive by horses everyday, or at least on the days I go to town. I see those grazing horses in the pasture right after I pass a small bridge that crosses over a winding creek and before the paved road turns to dirt and heads up a hill.  At the peak of that incline, […]

I can’t believe someone would pay me to take pictures of five-year-old kindergarteners on the first day of school.  That’s what I thought to myself as I drove out to Indian Valley Elementary School today to do that for the local paper.   It’s a dream assignment that always restores my faith in humanity, seeing all […]

Short Circuit Circus Christmas on Mars A Fairy’s New Year’s Eve Party Urgent Sea Urchin Ferris Bueller’s Ferris Wheel An Octopus’s Garden Blue Lagoon Boom Your DNA on Fireworks Thanks to everyone who helps make the Floyd County Fireworks possible. Look for a photo spread of the celebration in this week’s Floyd Press. _______Our World Tuesday

And this is how much fun we have in Floyd. The band was Annabelle’s Curse, headlining the start of the Crooked Road’s week of Mountains of Music Homecoming in Floyd and our town’s 3-day Artisan Trail Studio Tour.  It was also Friday Night Jamboree and the streets and music venues were packed for the festivities. Building […]

My Ten-year-old home-schooled niece Catherine is braver than me when it comes to catching chickens. She can speak German and Latin and write her name in Korean. She may win contests for Irish step dancing and solve math equations that I can not. But I can still beat her at hula-hooping! ___Our World Tuesday

Some graduates also wore flips flops at Sunday’s 2015 Floyd County High School Graduation. Many painted sparkling art scenes on the back of their graduation caps.  At the parking lot reception some cans of colored string were sprayed and gunpowder poppers went off in celebration. Graduations remind me of weddings. Everyone is dressed in their Sunday […]

Putting the new floor on the straw bale coop with a little help from our friends.  _______Shadow Shot Sunday / Our World Tuesday

When I take a series of photos and know I’ve got a good one, I like to say, “That’s the album cover.” The above photo is one I took for an upcoming story on the founders of Floyd Yoga Jam. It’s due to come out in About HER (a regional magazine news insert) in April.  The […]

There was a Sweet Melissa in the crowd and someone called out “Play Freebird” (wrong song but right spirit). Michael, who looks a lot like his Rock-and-Roll Hall of Famed dad, Gregg, and sounds like him too, jumped off the stage and came into the audience to dance and sing among us. He was taken […]

Look for a story and photos in this week’s Floyd Press about Saturday night’s Dylan tribute concert at the Floyd Country Store, performed by a host of talented Floyd musicians. In the meantime, feel free to sing-along or get up and dance to these video clips.