Appalachian Mountain Dreams

Snake Tails

In South Texas where my Grandpa Sewell was raised, snakes are a big deal…A really BIG deal. Western Diamondback Rattlesnakes of six feet and longer are common. In the summer and fall 0f 1972, when I lived with my grandparents, we tanned a rattlesnake skin that was over eight feet long and about eighteen inches wide at the widest point.

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Edges and Order – New York Times

From Verlyn Klinkenborg of The New York Times comes this paragraph today… Nearly every image of nature I have ever come across misses the sense of intricate confusion underfoot in the woods, the thickets of goldenrod collapsing into each other along the roadsides, the rotting tusks of fallen beeches broken against the western hillside. It almost never makes sense to

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Christmas Morning Muse

“‘Tis the morning of Christmasand all through the housenot a creature is stirringnot even my spouse” As I sit this morning drinking my coffee and enjoying the still, quiet house I can’t help but remember Christmas’ past. Back before the youngest member of this household was 16 going on 25…In those days you were up half the night helping Santa

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