Blue Ridge Nature Journal:: Reflections on the Appalachian Mountains in Essays and Art (Natural History)

In this enthralling collection of essays and full-color paintings, George and Elizabeth Ellison call upon a lifetime of outdoor experiences to illuminate the extraordinary natural history of the Blue Ridge mountains. George's absorbing essays offer insight into the region's geologic origins, plants, animals and related Cherokee and settler lore while Elizabeth's artwork provides an evocative journey through the natural heart of this celebrated region.

Gathered into two broad sections--Flora and Fauna--Blue Ridge Nature Journal is a masterful tribute to the natural wonder that permeates the Blue Ridge. In the first section, readers will learn why Jack-in-the-pulpit plants periodically change sexes, the defining characteristics of the mountain forests and how early settlers made bee hives and rabbit traps from hollow black gum trees. The second section includes details about the natural origins of the great Mythic Hawk and Mythic Serpent of the Cherokees, the demise of the timber wolf and the amusing spotted skunk, who does a handstand and looks between its legs before spraying an intruder.

George Ellison is the author of Mountain Passages: Natural and Cultural History of Western North Carolina and the Great Smoky Mountains. He lectures and conducts workshops about the natural and human history of the Blue Ridge. Elizabeth Ellison has exhibited and sold widely throughout the United States for more than thirty years, and her pen-and-ink drawings and watercolor washes have graced numerous publications.