The Appalachians - A Love Note

Born in the foothills of Appalachia, (I won’t tell you the exact place because you might know some family of mine) I always knew there was something about the mountains that lingered with people. And not like the smell of coffee you made this morning, like a stranger you will never forget the face of.

As a child, trees were often my friends. Navigating up their limbs to see down below, resting on their branches; I never knew they could change my perspective, both visually and mentally.

I remember glancing out across a valley where a barn, cows grazing in a field, a large pond and a stream, laid spread out like a painting with vivid detail. It was a sturdy magnolia whose giant leaves shed on rock steps leading down to the field.

Outside is where my childhood was spent. Free time of any sort was used wandering around the yard, building moss carpets, and holding caterpillars until they started to tickle my arm. However, the vastness of the outdoors never occurred to me until I was older. I stood at the top of a mountain we had hiked and overlooked a lake that stretched far and wide, nestled between mountains. No tree had to be climbed, but my perspective still changed. It was the first time I realized just how little I was, and how big this world is.

A memory that occurs to me when I think about being in trees, goes back to elementary school. A friend of mine and her neighbors would play a game in the woods between their houses. In two groups, one side would climb a fallen tree & read the messages the other group had left them. In reality, an insect had carved a tunnel on the trunk of the dead tree, but to us it was a language.

I’ve always felt at ease under trees, above them, or beside them. It’s where my inspiration has come from for many years. A thousand shades of blue and green I have seen in my short years on Earth, and yet they still fascinate me. That’s what inspired the branding and visuals for this business. With everything I do, I want to weave the outdoors in, some how.

I am thankful for the perspective. I am thankful for these mountains, and the people who make them home.