Hi, my name is Carole. Sometimes I’m known as the crone. A crone who lives with a gnome. There’s a story behind that. You can read about it by clicking “The Gnome and Crone at Home” in the Categories sidebar.
The gnome and I live on the side of a mountain in beautiful northwestern North Carolina. We’ve been here for close to forty years. That tells you something about how old we are. And yes, we are both parents and grandparents–proud ones, too, of course. But you’re not likely to find me blogging about that. Well, maybe just a little.
For decades, I worked in the public service sector in the field of workforce development, but I’ve been retired for five or so years. Now, you might indeed find me writing a bit about my retirement experience and what it’s taught me.
There’s something else: when we moved to our mountainside, all we had was a piece of newly acquired land. We camped while we built our forever home with our own four hands (and sometimes the little hands of our children, then six and nine years old). You’re likely to find a few pieces about how that went tucked into this site, too.
So, what am I doing here? Well, I’ve thought about blogging for awhile now. Apparently, even longer than I realized. As I began to set up my blogging account, I discovered I’d done that already, almost six years ago. I guess I got sidetracked by something else. That happens.
Most writers say they write because they can’t help themselves. Not me. Writing has been just as cyclical as other aspects of my life, a fact that was driven home when I came upon aborted tidbits from twenty years ago, then thirty. And when I found some very old copies of Writers’ Digest and a nonsense children’s storybook I’d begun more than forty years ago, I couldn’t ignore the fact that I’ve had writing aspirations off and on for most of my adult life. But, obviously, writing hasn’t been my all-consuming passion. Maybe that’s because I’m more of a potpourri kind of person. If not easily distracted, at least easily attracted to new and different projects.
Without a career to absorb my time and attention these days, I’m back to writing. This time it does kind of feel like I can’t help myself. No novels or short stories, though. Just as I’d rather sing jazzy numbers than listen to them, I’d much rather read fiction than try my hand at writing it. No, my writing tends toward the personal: essays, random thoughts and reflections, a little how-to, some garden lore and recipes, even poetry. Not the kind of thing that’s likely to find its way into a book (though I do have a couple of those under my belt–you can check them out on the sidebar, too). Fellow writers have suggested a blog is the perfect format for what I write. I’m ready to give it a go. Hope you’ll join me.
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Living on the Diagonal 
Carole, Sylvia Nickels with Lost State Writers Guild here. I’ve just sent a reply (so late, I’m so sorry) to your email sent via the website. I’m so enjoying reading your blog. Will be spending a lot more time on it. Really hope to meet you in the future.
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Thank you, Sylvia. I hope so, too.
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Hi Carole,
Dallas Reese here. So glad I found this blog you are doing. Don’t know if you remember but we communicated a long time ago on our mutual 4th Great Grandparents Barak and Mary Norton. Hope you are well. I’m living in Daytona Beach FL. Saw you’re doing a book on your mom’s family. Super! I’m working on a collection of mountain tunes(one of them is an ode to Barak and Mary and their grandson (and our mutual cousin) Judge Felix Alley. I recently found some music Felix had written and found recordings of a couple of his tunes from the early 1920s and am gonna try to do some updated versions of those as well. He was quite the prolific writer. And also in the early stages of developing a family history website where I hope to rest all pics/video/stories/songs etc. on our family! https://dallasreese7.wixsite.com/reese
Hope all is well. My email is: dallasreese@zoho.com and c 336-509-8009. All the best. Dallas Reese
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Hi Dallas–Yes, I remember you. Didn’t I also meet you at a Barak Norton reunion oh, so many years ago? (Red hair, right?) I’m glad you found the blog, too. I’m essentially done with ‘mom’s book’ –the writing anyway. Still scanning photographs and waiting for my husband to format it. That will take a while since he’s busy with several other projects right now. (I’m trying hard to be patient!)
Wow–an ode to Barak and Mary (and Felix)! And Felix’s recordings? How fun! I know about Kidder Cole, but that’s all. I’d love to hear your collection, so please stay in touch!. Also eager to check out your website.
Last year, I did a year-long weekly ancestor challenge on FB. I think my next writing project will be to turn that into a book. It’ll have info (and as many photos as I can find) of ancestors (including some collateral ones) on both sides of my family plus a few of Ron’s and some other, more generic material–trying to put folks’ lives into some perspective based on the times, etc., to make them seem more real. It was a lot of fun working on that.
Thanks for finding me! (I may be putting up some of those ancestor posts on this site in the future, so stay tuned.)
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Carole, I ashamed to say today is my first reading on your blog. I knew you were talented from reading “Boyhood Days.” John read even before me. I have Danielle`s copy. I just might consider continuing my book by adding the winter to my journey into my autumn. Hope to see you in April.
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Hi Bonnie, Welcome to the blog and thanks. You should definitely continue your book. You’re a talented writer, too!
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