Shushi Crossing the Cumberlands: Awoke drenched with mountain-mist, which made a grand show, as it moved away before the hot sun. Passed Montgomery, a shabby village at the head of the east slope of the Cumberland Mountains. Obtained breakfast in a clean house and began the descent of the mountains. Obtained fine views of a wide, […]
Monthly Archives: April 2014
John Muir.
30-Apr-14Being Pro-Life In Tennessee.
30-Apr-14Sittard When I was a child of maybe ten or eleven, I remember hearing a bunch of teenagers talking about a recent camping trip they had been on. There was a stream by their campsite, and they walked up the stream, catching every frog they could, and then smashing them. “We musta gotten fifty frogs!” they […]
Knocking on Heaven’s Door.
29-Apr-14We woke up in Sevierville and walked over to a pancake breakfast place. It was indicative of this area of Tennessee: the entire approach to Great Smoky Mountains National Park is lined with tourist-themed businesses, motels and restaurants and putt-putt golf places, in a profusion that I could hardly believe. Many people complain of the […]
Redbuds.
29-Apr-14Driving along the highway from Kentucky into Tennessee, I was astonished by the redbud trees, which were in peak bloom at the time. I had never seen them in such numbers before, and in this area they grow up as weed trees right along the highway and in other edge habitat. Their deep purple colors […]
More Disasters.
28-Apr-14I had prepared for this moment for days, by going to the ATM machine bit by bit: my account does not let me draw more than five hundred dollars out on any day, and I don’t have a credit card, so for large expenditures like this I have to pay cash and draw the account […]
Port Royal, Kentucky.
26-Apr-14I love the enchantment that love sheds over the world. It is the best companion for an adventure: the unknown is no match for it, the same way you do not fear to hear the worst things about a person you truly love: you love them so much anyway, knowledge can only add to the […]
Scholarly Orthodoxy.
25-Apr-14I found this on Andrew Sullivan’s blog today, and thought it was worth commenting on: The truths of this book that only the neurotic or defensive Christian will deny are the following: Jesus was not the only first-century figure who was deemed to have a virgin birth, martyrdom and resurrection. In fact, these were quite […]
Some Wendell Berry.
25-Apr-14“However destructive may be the policies of the government and the methods and products of the corporations, the root of the problem is always to be found in private life. We must learn to see that every problem that concerns us as conservationists always leads straight to the question of how we live. The world […]
In the Footsteps of Clay.
28-Apr-14The next dawn came and I was still stuck in Lexington. I had arrived on Monday, and now it was Thursday. I asked if there was a problem. “Salways trouble with these Foward Rangers. It takes forayver to blade ‘em out. Say, whayn you chenge a clutch you gotta blade ‘em, to get the bubbles […]