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Category Archives: Stokes history

Planting pumpkins

I’ve written here previously about the nearby farm where I’m buying most of my summer vegetables this year. They sell the vegetables for $1.50 a pound (mix and match) from the shade of an old barn right beside the fields. You can see in the upper right of the photo that the corn will be […]

Ken writes about Doomsday at the abbey

Ken, who has been a featured author at the Wigtown Book Festival in Scotland for several years, has written a piece for the festival’s web site about being stuck here at the abbey during the Pandemic. Regular readers of this blog will recognize the characters. Please think of it as an interpretation of the American […]

I return to the Mystery House

Somehow I knew that only special people could live in that old house. There were many clues: The complete absence of no-trespassing signs; the horse tracks; the lace curtains in the upstairs windows; the smoke from the kitchen chimney; the unpretentious elegance of the clutter; the not giving a hoot what people think; not living […]

A tour of Vade Mecum

Most of the readers of this blog are not from Stokes County, or even from North Carolina, so I need to explain what Vade Mecum is and why people in Stokes County are so concerned about it. A hundred years ago and longer, Stokes County was a tourist destination. People would come into Walnut Cove […]

Christmas in Danbury

Carolers Carolers at the Arts Council reception Moravian star in front of the old Stokes County courthouse The old Stokes County courthouse Charlie’s surrey Charlie Inside the Stokes museum Mantel in the museum Inside the Stokes museum

Stokes Stomp

Click on images for high-res version The Stokes Stomp is Stokes County’s biggest annual party. It happens every September in Danbury. I was there today to work in the No Fracking in Stokes booth and to take some pictures.

Promontories

Ken Ilgunas on Pilot Mountain. Click on image for larger version. Ken has been here for much of the summer. His next adventure will be to the British Isles and Ireland, starting in September. Those of us who live in Stokes County like to remind people that Stokes County has its own little mountain range […]

Priddy's store was hopping today…

Ron Taylor in Priddy’s store with some of his products that Priddy’s sells Coming home from the post office at Danbury, I stopped at Priddy’s General Store today to pick up a few things. There were a lot of customers, but in between ringing up customers Jane Priddy still found time to talk with me […]

Ida

The Dan River three miles downstream from Danbury in Stokes County Moisture brought up from the Gulf of Mexico by Hurricane Ida left four inches or more of rain this week. This was one of the nicest rains in years in these parts. The rain is also bringing up the groundwater, which has never really […]

The sky is so hard to photograph

I’ve mentioned before how difficult it is to photograph the sky. Conditions have to be just right, and better equipment than I have really helps. But the color of the light at yesterday’s sunset was so unusual that I at least had to try to capture it. There had been storms all around before sunset, […]