by Byron Ballard | Nov 25, 2016
It may be that celebrating the harvest was always a complicated matter. After spending months in the anxiety and hard work of planting, tending, harvesting and preserving the crops, we were exhausted, worn out. We faced a winter that was uncertain as to its duration...
by Byron Ballard | Oct 26, 2016
carved turnips There’s a big holiday at the end of the month–ghosts and candy, pumpkins and witches. We’ve come to call this now-secular holiday of Irish immigrants Hallowe’en.There is another celebration at the end of October –of the...
by ashevillewitch | May 25, 2015
The Dead are always with us. The whiff of scent, the echo of voice. We in the West are slowly returning to a more intentional veneration of our Beloved Dead, our Forebears, our Ancestors. And today is set aside on our ragged national calendar to remember those who...
by ashevillewitch | Mar 28, 2015
Came into Rainelle from Beckley about noon and have settled into a pretty b&b. We went into Lewisburg with our hosts and had a good lunch and a walk around town. We settled in for the evening with a livingroomful of people, with a good pie and tales. If you are...
by ashevillewitch | Mar 24, 2015
This trip to West Virginia is opening up all sorts of thoughts in my head. I posted this over on Facebook a few minutes ago– Such dreams. I woke feeling I’d worked the night shift. Preparing for this trip and doing all the usual lists. But...
