Something Fowl for Thanksgiving - Carolina Waterfowl Rescue

I stopped by a local shop called Backyard Birds a few days ago. When I got there, Carolina Waterfowl Rescue was there with chickens. I grew up on a farm, and we had chickens, but I’d not held one in years!! Living in the middle of Charlotte, NC means I am not around livestock much anymore.

The volunteers were walking around cleaning up the residual effects of having chickens in a public place. I chatted with them (the Waterfowl volunteers, not the chickens) for a few moments and found out that a percentage of the sales in the store that day would be donated to Carolina Waterfowl Rescue. They are an animal rescue and, even though their name does not mention it, they have rescued more than just waterfowl. It is my understanding they have an interspecies love affair between an emu and a donkey happening on their grounds right now. (I suppose anything is possible and who are we to judge?)

I am glad there are those who take care of the animals of the world and have compassion for them. I wish I had the ability of Dr. Doolittle and were able to talk to the animals and have them talk back to me. The stories they could be telling, I believe, I would find interesting.

As we are celebrating Thanksgiving, let us be thankful for those who take the time to care for the world around us. No one can do everything, but we can all do a little bit to make the world a kinder place.

Have a wonderful holiday!!

For more information on Carolina Waterfowl Rescue click here!

Celtic Storytelling

I went to Arizona this past weekend. I was hired to tell Celtic stories at the Tucson Celtic Festival. I had such a great time! I’d never been to Arizona before and my host, Margy, treated me so very well.

The festival was such fun. I told stories to a varied audience; all the way from tiny ones to those who had accumulated a life of wisdom. I shared about the importance of the storyteller in the Celtic tradition.

A storyteller would travel from town to town learning the news, gaining new stories, and sharing what was learned along the way. When a storyteller entered a community, they would knock on the door of a family requesting hospitality. It was a great honor to be selected by the storyteller. The family would host the storyteller giving them room and board. In the evenings the family would invite the entire community to come to their home to sit and listen to the storyteller as they would sit by the fire of the family and share stories and news. The storyteller was CNN, Netflix, and phone device all rolled into one. This was the oral tradition, the original social media.

I Saw Big Foot!!

My husband and I went to the first annual Big Foot Festival in Marion, NC. It’s a small town but A LOT of people showed up for this festival, which was great for the economy. Steven and I went because the advertisements made it look like fun and, well, I wanted a big foot tee-shirt. It seems Marion underestimated the number of people they would get at this festival. It was hot, people where shoulder to shoulder, pretty much everyone sold out of big foot tee shirts, and they needed more bathroom access. But, we had a good time. My date (my husband) was great company, we laughed as we walked from vendor to vendor on the closed-off street, we met some very interesting people, and we even saw a couple of Big Foots (or is it Big Feet?). We are actually planning on going back next year. I think there might be a story in there somewhere. 

By the way, I got my big foot tee shirt, I ordered it online!
https://www.romanticasheville.com/bigfoot-festival

Mushrooms in My Yard

I think mushrooms are really cool organisms. I don’t know much about identifying them; I just like looking at them. After lots of rain, they simply appear. You don’t know when, where, or what kind, but the spores are hanging around and the mushrooms just show up. 

I leave them in my yard when they appear because I like how they look. All sorts of varieties, shapes, and colors; it is all part of nature’s visual artwork. 

When I see these little creations of nature, it reminds me of walking through the woods at my childhood home; mushrooms would be scattered throughout the woods. There were also lots of books I read as a child with illustrations of fairies sitting on the tops of the mushrooms. 

We have had a lot of rain here in Charlotte lately and when I walk around in my yard I find mushrooms all over. I think they are lovely and when I see them they inspire stories. They remind me of legends, folktales, my youth, the woods, and my childhood home. In fact, I think there is even something spiritual about these lovely little things just appearing. 

Here are some pictures of the mushrooms that have appeared in my yard this week. One of them even has a little buddy attached to it; a snail is taking refuge under the umbrella of one of them. Can you find it? 

You can also get lots of information about mushrooms simply by searching for mushrooms. Here is one reference I found that you might find interesting. 

A-Bomb Drops in SC (really!)

I want to go to Mars Bluff, SC. As near as it is to Charlotte, I’ve never been there. I know, you are wondering... what is in Mars Bluff? Where is Mars Bluff? Why would you want to go there?

The name kind of sounds like an alien resort; it is not, of course, but what happened there is so, oh my gosh, interesting. Mars Bluff is a small community in Florence County, SC. On March 11, 1958, an Air Force Boeing B-47 was flying over the area with a nuclear bomb on board. Captain Koehler, the pilot, noted a fault light in the cockpit indicating an issue with the bomb’s harness. He notified Captain Kulka, navigator and bombardier, to check on the bomb. As Kulka was doing just that, he needed to steady himself and accidentally hit the emergency release (time for a dramatic pause)… and down, down, down went the bomb. It landed in, you guessed it, Mars Bluff.

The nuclear core was not on the bomb, but there was still enough explosive material to create a crater about 70 feet wide and 35 feet deep! There is a marker there and everything! When I read about this all I could say was, “Oh, my gosh”!! Of course there is more to the story and here is a link to additional information — check it out and you’ll say, “Oh, my gosh!” too.

Mars Bluff is on my 2018 list of things I am going to do. It is not a huge thing, or an enormous trip. I realize it might even be anticlimactic, but I want to go to Mars Bluff to see the crater where the nuclear bomb dropped in South Carolina. I’ll let you know when I get there.

Leave a comment and let me know what local thing you want to do in 2018!

 Here is a link to pictures of Mars.