moonshineandcheerwine

[moonshineandcheerwine]

there is no 'base accent' so like all of this is entirely subjective tbc, just based on what people around you say and how you think you sound

pick whichever language you want to answer in if you're multi-lingual

#I open my mouth and you KNOW where I’m from lol #I used to try to make myself talk differently #but as soon as I got angry or stressed or upset #man #it just pops right back out #decided I had better things to do with my energy than try to sound like someone I’m not

[moonshineandcheerwine]

went on a nice long drive through west virginia today. soooo pretty. i never spent much time there.

it was really nice skitterin through small towns and seeing pride flags hangin on the front doors of businesses in these rural areas. like, more than one. *especially* because WV is one of the most heavily and harmfully stereotyped states in the region

tiny things like this show some things are really changing for the better in appalachia, and i'm tired of people pretendin they ain't just so they got more fuel for their hateful narrative about us.

when i was a teenager i never even saw that kinda thing in comparatively progressive western nc. and now here i was today, windin through the hills of west virginia with rainbows blowing everywhere

keep being loud and unapologetic, y'all. it's working

[moonshineandcheerwine]

"ew why don't you leave the south, it's so regressive and racist" that's america, my dude. you are describing all of america, and if i have to live here, i am gonna stay in the south.

i did more for my community volunteering with mutual aid organizations and putting together my own fundraiser for queer Appalachians than any enlightened yankee transplant hula-hooping on our capitol steps did. that isn't me bragging on myself, it's me saying in no uncertain terms that i know none of you give a shit about us.

everytime i make the mistake of talking about my desire to move even further out of the TN valley and go to the mountains some silicon valley motherfucker who moved here so their tech start-up could take advantage of our abysmal tax code makes a face, or warns me about the people i've grown up around my whole life. fuck you! fuck your ass, bro!

every single time i help somebody jump their shitty 2001 altima in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart in Dekalb County or wherever the fuck, wearing my binder and a trans rights bumper sticker on my car, i do more to actually change shit here than Breathanie and her "queer friendly" yoga studio that's exclusively attended by rich cis whites.

west coast libertarians gargle my balls challenge

#lgbt

[moonshineandcheerwine]

it's Appa-latch-un in this house

[moonshineandcheerwine]

Because what’s better than a farmers market and southern street food?

#chicken and fried green tomato biscuit #farmers market #road trip #blue ridge mountains #appalachain mountains #appalachia #blue ridge parkway #mountains #north carolina #virginia #tennessee #country #country girl #farm #farmcore #biscuits #street food #tomatoes

[moonshineandcheerwine]

We have about forgotten that families walked to town in the heat or cold, that old men squatted to roll their own with Prince Albert from a tin, that farm folks napped in the midday heat in the shade of trees, children played with things they made from stuff they found, little ones dug doodlebugs, folks dug bait to fish the creeks, shelled peas and beans under the shade of a tree, milked a cow every day rain or shine, canned food, and did too many things that were hard, and hoped for the day when they didn’t need to do so and lived to miss it all and 'pine for the day.

(Photo of the Harrell House in Mitchell County, North Carolina by Josh Smith, 2022)

[moonshineandcheerwine]

“I was born in these mountains. These mountains are my home. They hold me and keep me from worry and woe.” -Steve Earle

🤎Old Fort, North Carolina above Downtown

McDowell County

[moonshineandcheerwine]

“March in the Hills of Appalachia”

In the hills, March is a woodpecker drumming in a new season. It’s the liquid trill of tree frogs and the plaintive notes of peepers heralding the return of spring. It’s a time when winter lingers in the lap of spring. It’s gusty days and calm days, chill days and warm days. It’s April whispering from the ridgetops while March goes whistling down the valley. It’s song sparrows in the alders and robins strutting in the pasture. It’s a velvet-coated bumblebee hunting for a nest site and a honeybee buzzing for the first taste of pollen. March is the first daffodils making the whole world golden.

- From “These Storied Mountains” written by John Parris. It’s been many years since Parris wrote the quote above. I’m glad to say that it’s still what March is like in the mountains of Western North Carolina.

🌼Pictured is Daffodil Flats in the Linville Gorge in Burke County, NC. March 2023

[moonshineandcheerwine]

Almost camping season again - getting ready by cooking outside and doing some hiking along the Blue Ridge Parkway!

#appalachain mountains #appalachia #blue ridge mountains #blue ridge parkway #north carolina #camping #hiking #campfire cooking #campfire aesthetic #outdoors #mountains #mountain girl

[moonshineandcheerwine]

up some holler in red jacket, west virginia

[moonshineandcheerwine]

'and a tree', by Kate Wakeling

and a tree is a promise safe-kept by a seed, and a tree is a dance that is swung by the breeze, and a tree is an engine spinning only on air and water and light; nothing lost, nothing spare, and a tree is a king who is topped with a crown, (and a tree never once loses touch with the ground) and a tree is a home with numberless doors, and a tree is a world for an ant to explore, and a tree is a gift (for a tree is a lung) and a tree is a song that is whispered and sung by the bees and the birds, and in rustles and creaks, yes, a tree is a song that is sung without words, and a tree is a lesson in the meaning of roots, and how out of the mud swell the sweetest of fruits, and a tree is a story of hope and repair, or perhaps more a question; a wish or a prayer, for a tree (plus a tree) shows us how we might share, and when we should grow and when we should sleep and what we could lose and what we must keep.

[moonshineandcheerwine]

Trail markers in Shenandoah Valley

#shenandoah #appalachain mountains #appalachia #appalachain trail #mountain photography #mountains #virginia #blue ridge parkway #blue ridge mountains

[moonshineandcheerwine]

Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia

#blue ridge mountains #blue ridge parkway #appalachain mountains #appalachia #road trip #mountains #mountain photography #mountain range #mountain road #north carolina #virginia

[moonshineandcheerwine]

“Here's the thing about wildflowers - they take root wherever they are, grow strong through the wind, rain, pain, sunshine, blue skies and starless nights. They dance, even when it seems there is nothing worth dancing for. They bloom, with or without you.”

-

#wildflowers #flowers #flower photography #appalachia #appalachain mountains #north carolina #virginia #Alisha Christensen #quote

[moonshineandcheerwine]

Sometimes it really hits me that I’m trapped here. That no matter how badly I want to get out, I never will.

One day, I’ll realize I’m old and tired and still living in the same zip code I grew up in.

But I can’t leave, because I’m so deeply rooted here that even trying would rip me to shreds and I’d never feel whole again.

[moonshineandcheerwine]

An autumn evening.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

[moonshineandcheerwine]

Lost Child

Sometimes I dream I’m headed back south,

With cold mountain air and cinders in my mouth.

Then I wake and it fades away.

I’ve traveled far and I’ve traveled wide,

With an old guitar and a suitcase by my side.

They’re wearing thinner every day.

Wearing clothes all patched and ripped, 

With the taste of cold cream soda on my lips.

Til we heard that whistle blow,

Then running barefoot through the rye,

We were slinging rocks at the boxcars rolling by,

Seeing how far we could throw.

I miss my home and ones I knew,

I miss those misty mountains draped in blue,

And darling I miss you.

I wonder where those friends have gone,

I haven’t heard their laughter in so long,

And they don’t know where I’ve been.

I wonder if they’d recognize

My weathered face, with teardrops in my eyes.

Saying I’ve come home again.

My heart is tired, it’s sore and bruised,

And if I stay here much longer I might lose

My courage or my mind.

It’s time to find that railroad track,

And get aboard a train to take me back,

Lord, get me there on time.

I miss my home and ones I knew,

I miss those misty mountains draped in blue,

And darling I miss you.

-G.E.C