Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Colors of Coker Creek

Coker Creek has been fabulously fall-colored for the past week, but it’s been raining for most of that time. I’m afraid that we’ll have no leaves on the trees when our Louisiana and Mississippi friends come in another week. All won’t be lost, however, as the leaves down the mountain are just beginning to turn. If our friends haven’t done enough leaf-peeping on their own, with a short drive, we’ll find fall.

Josie suggested that we take Jack’s book to a bookstore in Murphy, North Carolina. Richard and I got lost looking for Josie’s house, and ended up taking a leaf tour of one of the most beautiful vistas in the area. Duckett Ridge, which leads to Coker Creek Falls, sports several uninterrupted miles of forested mountainside scenery. Sometimes getting lost is a gift.

The drive to Murphy is lovely at any time of year, with Murphy as a quaint mountain town destination. And just outside Murphy Josie and I stopped at the world-famous John C. Campbell Folk School where mountain methods are taught in everything from basket making to blacksmithing to food preparation. Their gift shop has some of the finest crafts available in the area, and their craft fairs are second to none.

Richard is interested in doing a work-study program at the school. This is a neat program where you can trade two weeks of labor for one week of classes while living in the beautiful North Carolina Mountains. Sounds like a deal to me -- Rubbing elbows with fine artists and craftspeople while playing at pottery making.

Before Hurricane Katrina, we had a wonderful collection of art: pottery, paintings, glass work, stone sculpture. Some of it was given to us by the artists as gifts. Almost all of it was done by artists that I had met. Some of the artists were good friends. Now the mermaids have all that artwork, except for a portion of a pottery bowl and a seventy-five pound sculpted head that was too heavy to float away. Like New Orleans, Coker Creek is an artists Mecca. When I become very wealthy, I’m going to fill my life and home with original pottery, innumerable paintings, and fine artworks by people I know.

Richard is more interested in taking classes than I am. My brain is as spastic as my body, so I never “get it” when everybody else in the class does. I get to a certain point and my brain goes into hibernation just long enough for me to miss a couple of steps in the lesson. Raising my hand for a repeat gets me in all kinds of trouble -- with the teacher and the good students. I end up becoming the class clown, and then nobody learns anything. I wish I could say I’ve outgrown this tendency, but I don’t think so. As Richard would say, I’m probably “hard-wired” that way.

Now, teaching would be another thing entirely. Being a clown then can help people enjoy the lesson. I could still rub elbows with all the artists and audit some of their classes. I’ve taught adults before. Maybe we could start our own artist’s colony – eventually.