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Cat Warren's avatar

Love the analogy and the reality of volunteers. And the notion that ground that seems fallow at one moment will be teeming with unexpected and tender starts.

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Belle Boggs & Beatrice Allen's avatar

Thank you, Cat! Really hoping that is true.

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Sheila Allen's avatar

Your garden looks wonderful, Belle. It's a good thing you are vegetarian. BTW I've gotten 4 Ball jars from food that friends gave us recently. May I send them to you via Richard?

Sheila

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Belle Boggs & Beatrice Allen's avatar

Thank you, Sheila! It's a good thing I love tomatoes! Yes, we can always use Ball jars!

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Isa's avatar

Thanks for sharing all this! Currently listening to Frog Trouble and it's so cute! I've never heard of Sandra Boynton before, I'll have to share this with my niece and nephews. Found your substack through watching the Hometown Holler (met Daniel through homeschooling and 4H). Cheering you on from Asheville!

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Belle Boggs & Beatrice Allen's avatar

Welcome, Isa! I love Hometown Holler! And that Sandra Boynton album was a favorite when the girls were little.

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Isa's avatar

I believe it!! I’ll be playing it for my niece and nephews lol

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Magpie Hollow Farm's avatar

This is the gentrification we talk about. Bynum used to be just local eccentrics. Now it's totally different - colonized by uber affluent normies from elsewhere. It's heartbreaking to see Belle post about these places since she and other rich people like her have driven out all the locals from places like the "Bynum General Store" (as she calls it), and yet she's claiming some kind of authenticity for her posts. It's just so sad. This is gentrification at work - colonialism of the small towns and rural areas by privileged outsiders, pricing out the locals...

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Belle Boggs & Beatrice Allen's avatar

I've never been called an affluent normie before. I feel so seen.

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Magpie Hollow Farm's avatar

Yeah, you're seen alright. You are an invader. You have no knowledge or respect for what was here before you and your progressive affluent friends showed up five minutes ago taking advantage of the comparatively lower property values and cost of living compared with Park Slope or Seattle or Boulder. You have no knowledge of what you have displaced...

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Belle Boggs & Beatrice Allen's avatar

I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been sarcastic. I moved here, 19 years ago, for the public schools and the trees, which I've tried my best to respect and preserve. I can't be from here because I'm from rural Virginia. I understand what you're saying about rural gentrification--it's a big problem for the land and culture of Chatham County--but I also think that there are still amazing things happening here. Like Donna Washington, another longtime NC resident and educator, telling stories in Bynum. It was free, full of people, and a good chance for connection.

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Magpie Hollow Farm's avatar

"I moved here, 19 years ago, for the public schools and the trees," ...so you know what it was like in the before times?

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Magpie Hollow Farm's avatar

What was wrong with the rural Virginia place that you were from?

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Richard Allen's avatar

Is this you?

"They played lots of gigs as The Magpies Duo and The Magpies & Friends and backed up singer-songwriter types out west and in the southeast after moving to North Carolina."

Moving to North Carolina? Some mention of Colorado?

Three weeks ago you, or someone using your account, also posted an entry saying you lived in Wilkes County. If so, you're surprisingly possessive with regard to a community you live 120 miles away from.

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Magpie Hollow Farm's avatar

So you have no point, apparently...

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Magpie Hollow Farm's avatar

What's your point Richard

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