Mama brought her fawns for a quiet feast.
I love it here.
FLOW
Fawns Eating Apples
Uncategorized
Midwife of the Mountains
I have been researching the Blue Ridge Parkway by the miles. I have used several books and maps. I call this kind of hunting “following a paper trail” because one book leads to another book or map until I find what I am looking for. I do this quite a bit.
I am looking for interesting spots to visit and write about. The location at the top of my list is in Virginia. It is located at milemarker 189.9. The signs say the cabin belonged to a famous midwife, Orlean Puckett, from Groundhog Mountain but that is not true. This cabin belonged to her sister-in-law, Betty, which was moved there from Cherry Ridge to be near Orlean and John because Betty was deathly scared of thunderstorms.
The real Puckett cabin was torn down by Orlean’s great nephew Coy. He refused to give the Parkway the house because they took Orlean’s land. She died three weeks after moving out of her homeplace. This was a sad end to a great life of serving others. She was 102 at the time, so I cannot lay all the blame of her demise on the Parkway people.
The tale of Orlean Puckett’s life is one of hardship and survival. She lost 24 babies of her own to early death or miscarrage. The theory is the deaths were due to blood Rh-factor incompatibility. It is speculated that Orlean was Rh- and John was Rh+. This meant that poor Orlean’s blood antibodies attacked all her Rh+ babies, except the first one, Julia. Orlean’s body attacked her fetuses as foreign. This disease is called erythroblastosis fetalis, if you want to look it up. Women with Rh- blood get RhoGAM shots now, so this does not happen.
Blood typing was not done at the time Orlean was having such troubles. It is heart-breaking to think of she and John experiencing such sorrow 24 times. Some folks even blamed them for the deaths.
Orlean became a midwife out of necessity at the age of 45. It seems a baby was about to be born without assistance, so her husband fetched Orlean out of desparation. I guess he figured all those stillbirths was more practice than anybody else available had.
When Orlean caught that first baby boy, she experienced such joy that she felt called to continue. Doctors were scarce and expensive. Orlean was handy and took almost any barter item as her payment. She is said to have delivered over 1000 babies throughout the mountains.
Other information about her life is fascinating. Karen Cecil Smith did a thorough job of researching the Hawks and Puckett family. The book Orlean Puckett: The Life of a Mountain Midwife is a great resource on many aspects of mountain life during the mid-1800s and on the construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
If you happen to be riding along the Parkway, the cabin at mile 189.9 is just one of many fascinating stops. Stay tuned folks. There’s more to come.
FLOW
Naming Colors
I found this book on a bench in an art museum: The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St.Clair.
I have always felt that my color vocabulary was lacking. This little treasure should help.
The side of the book looks like a rainbow. Each color section has various hues listed.
Who knew there were so many purples. Each one has several pages of history and descriptions in how the hue was made.
I will be ready to better describe my next red flower, now that Kassia has provided the accurate term for it.
I will post on rocks in the art museum next.
FLOW
Three Raccoons in the Fig Tree
We have some new visitors in the yard. We have been enjoying watching them picking figs from our big fig tree. We can see the show from our deck.
The baby raccoon did not stop picking and eating while I stood below taking photos.
The two larger raccoons climbed as high as they could when they saw us coming. One climbed over into the dogwood.
The other was in the top of the fig peeking around at me.
I look forward to watching these three acrobats eating figs every evening until they are all gone.
FLOW
Cobwebs Catching Clouds
I have spent today in the clouds. There have been times when I could not see the houses across the street.
It is misty and cool. I sit on the porch hearing birds I cannot see. I hear water dropping from the trees. It may be rain or just leaves dripping.
There is something cozy about being socked in with sights veiled and sounds muffled.
The webs are full of diamonds from the clouds.
What a gorgeous day!
FLOW
When I Meet Me
When I meet me again
I will know me by my smile
and the glint in my eye
as I look at myself.
No matter the hair nor the clothing.
Old goes, new comes
but I will remain true
to who I was
and what I loved.
It will be me I see
whole and free.
FLOW
Seeing Ghosts
I spotted these ghostly wildflowers during my wanderings in the mountains. They are tiny white parasites. They look like fungi, but are really non-photosynthetic plants.
Indian Pipes do not contain chlorophyll, so they must mooch off fungi that mooch off of tree roots. They are waxy white and do look ghostly.
There were many groups of Monotropa uniflora in the shade under some trees. They grow where the fungus and tree roots grow that supporr them. I am glad I spotted these unusual wildflowers.
FLOW
Only Thorns: No Blooms nor Fruit
Does this sound like a shrub you could love?
I have grown two small trees/shrubs of Poncirius trifoliata from seeds. I purloined the fruit from a Chinese bitter orange tree during a trip to Charleston years ago.
I did not covet it for its fruit nor its blooms. It was its thorns that captivated me.
Here is a little tree that can take care of itself. No forager is going to steal its fruit!
I know it can be invasive. I know it is a touch-me-not plant. I do not care if it ever blooms or produces fuzzy, little bitter oranges. I would never make marmalade anyway!
I love it because it has unmistakable, impenetrable, unapologetic bounderies. This plant screams DO NOT MESS WITH ME!
That is why I love it.
FLOW
TEN YEARS
floweralley 