I’ve lived in the Rose Hill neighborhood for over a decade–and the only thing I’ve ever known about it is that it was annexed to the city in the ’30s from property that might have been a plantation named Rose…
Earthwise
Signs of spring
by goddessofgumbo • • 0 Comments
After I took his picture, the snake booked. Not a surprising outcome, you might be thinking. But I had spotted drops of blood on his shining ecru underbelly. And he was looped into such an intricate curlicue–of shock? of self-defense?–that…
In the 'Ville
Aliens and strangers … at Trader Joe’s
by goddessofgumbo • • 0 Comments
I’ve had mixed feelings about the opening of the first Trader Joe’s in Charlottesville. It’s hard to imagine what we’ve done to deserve it—we are, after all, a town of fewer than 40,000 people, though the county surrounding us is…
The Potslinger
“Once you get started …”
by goddessofgumbo • • 0 Comments
“Oh, it’s hard to stop.” (I’m channeling Chaka Khan in that hit song I loved from the ’70s here). “When you get dow-owwn, y’all, ain’t no turning ba-ack, ohhh!” Of course, I don’t think she was talking about canning. I…
True Grits
That can do spirit…
by goddessofgumbo • • 3 Comments
My body’s in the kitchen at Leni Sorensen’s, taking a canning class, but my mind is far, far away. There’s a memory nibbling at the corners of my consciousness so part of me is blanching and peeling peaches and making…
Earthwise
Midsummer blues
by goddessofgumbo • • 0 Comments
It’s midsummer 2012: a July, according to the weathermen, of epic drought. Every day smothering waves of heat and humidity break over and around our heads. Sane people–whether in central Virginia, in the mid-Atlantic, throughout the South and the…