Spring has finally arrived. I’ll admit, we didn’t have a cold winter here in Charlotte, but it’s still good to see the flowers starting to bloom. I planted these hellebores about three years ago and they finally grew enough to bloom this year. The name hellebores sound like a mythological creature, which is one of […]

We’re just now getting rain from Florence here in Charlotte.  It’s supposed to keep falling until Monday or Tuesday as this storm meanders through South Carolina.  Luckily, it is now a tropical storm, so we don’t have to deal with the high winds. I saw a news show on the local television station yesterday that […]

There are so many interesting places to visit in the Smokey Mountains.  I was just at Sugar Mountain, and now here I go again.  This time we visited Lake Lure for a couple of days to meet up with some friends.  Lake Lure is about two hours west of Charlotte and is named one of […]

I’ve been practicing my ostrich impression for the last week or so — burying my head in the sand to avoid writing and other people.  It’s not that I’m unsociable,  it’s more like I needed time to recharge. I don’t really get extroverts.  Supposedly they feel recharged when interacting with people.  How is that even […]

I ran across an article a couple of months ago about a new species of rat discovered in the Solomon Islands.  This rat can weigh more than two pounds and grow up to a foot and a half in length.  Apparently, it lives in trees and eats coconuts.  Not only eats them, but cracks open […]

When I was a young man (and quite a bit more antisocial than I am now) I thought it would be cool to be one of those hermits living on a mountain top.  You know, meditating and contemplating the meaning of the universe with no one around to bother you.  It sounded kinda cool, but […]

So I’m sitting up on Sugar Mountain looking for inspiration.  The wife and I came up for the weekend, and I stayed for the rest of the week to try to finish the draft of my latest novel. We had a good time traipsing about over the weekend.  The highlight was hiking to the overlook […]

I walked outside the other day to check on my garden and this is what I saw.   He was actually closer when I walked up on him, but I didn’t have my glasses on and it took me a bit to find the camera button on my phone.  Even then, I wasn’t sure I […]