Blue Ridge Country January/February 2021 - 20

COUNTRY ROADS

A STORY IN WOOD AND PAINT

BARN QUILTS
A rural Virginia county gains an artistic awareness of itself.

live in the smallest, most rural county in Virginia. The scenery of Highland County's five
high Appalachian valleys is so stunning that I
try to remind myself every day to stop and appreciate it as if I were a visitor. Not only is the
view a beautiful part of where I live, the continued line of generational knowledge makes us
unique. Many families here can trace their lineage back to the original pioneers who crossed
the mountains in the 1700s.
The beauty and heritage of this place came
together in 2011 when Highland launched the
first Barn Quilt trail in Virginia. That trail has
grown to include over 60 wooden quilt squares
displayed on barns in all five valleys, and the
chamber of commerce just released a new brochure which makes finding them a delight. Perhaps the most interesting part of the brochure
is that each square is introduced with a story explaining
how a family chose its pattern.
My own barn sports a square based on the pattern
" Eight Hands Around " because at the time that I painted
it, my children were still living at home and there were
eight hands working our farm. I'll have to pull it down
and replace it with one that represents the new hands

that have joined us as our family grows. Many of the barn
quilts here represent generational stories and generational
stewardship of the land. We hope you'll visit and see for
yourself the beauty and mountain heritage that we are
proud to share. You can find more information here:
highlandcounty.org/barn-quilt-trail
-GINNY NEIL

Book Notes
" Gap Creek " by Robert Morgan.
326 pp. Algonquin Books of
Chapel Hill, 1999

obert Morgan's " Gap Creek " was
an Oprah's Book Club selection 20
years ago and as such, sold more than
a million copies. It's the center novel
in a trilogy that includes " The Truest
Vine " (1995) and " The Road from Gap
Creek " (2013). And it's a close, hard
look at Appalachian mountain life at
the turn of the 19th century, with all
the necessary elements of a page-

BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM

turning read.
Bookended by two deaths, the
novel doesn't shy away from much of
anything: backbreaking work, floods
and fires, drunks and grifters, deep
hunger, literal pennilessness, loneliness,
homelessness. Yet it's a curiously
optimistic story, told by a clear-eyed
17-year-old girl/woman used to hard
work, loss, and most of all, survival.
There are times when Morgan's
first-person female narration goes a
little off-track-but you never doubt his
affection and respect for his heroine,

nor for his native
mountains.
" Gap Creek "
is a good read if
you're looking for
a way to put your
own hard times in
perspective. There's lots to be
learned from Julie Harmon, even if you
don't live on Gap Creek. And the last
line is one to remember when the way
seems hard:
We started walking again.
-JOAN VANNORSDALL

http://www.highlandcounty.org/barn-quilt-trail http://www.BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM

Blue Ridge Country January/February 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country January/February 2021