Craig County Tourism

Like everywhere else in this part of Virginia winter has dug in its heels here in Craig County and appears to be content to stick around for a while. An ice storm came through last night leaving crystallized mountain tops and slick roads closing schools once again.  But then that’s January for you especially here in the mountains.

But take heart.  Somewhere underneath all that frozen tundra spring lies dormant.  If you were out and about in New Castle yesterday you could say with conviction this rainy cold spell we’re in is for the ducks.  I had to stop my car in the middle of Main Street to let one waddle across from the Court House lawn to the front steps of Carter’s Exchange Bank.  He looked in the door but decided, however, not to go in.  I duly notified the Sheriff’s office that there was a duck on Main Street that Animal Control might want to apprehend for more reasons than one.  Fifteen minutes later I happened to pass the Court House again and there were seven ducks on the Court House lawn along with an Animal Control officer wondering t to do next.  They had come up from the creek that runs along Rt. 615 a block away, and the last time I saw them it didn’t seem like they were in a hurry to go back where they came from.  They were hunkered down on the lawn for the long haul so it seemed – hanging around for a spell just like winter I suppose.

In a small town such as New Castle you just might see most anything on the sidewalks in town.  One summer morning I went out to look at the dew on the day lilies, and there was a magnificent rooster feeding under the bird feeders.  He didn’t seem to mind at all that I was standing there.  When he was finished his breakfast he strutted on down the sidewalk that runs along Rt. 311, the town’s main thoroughfare, then suddenly he decided to cross the road in the heavy morning traffic. Fearing for his life I went out in the middle of the road slippers and all and stopped traffic because I wasn’t sure motorists would consider a rooster a pedestrian despite the signs that instructed drivers to give the right away those crossing the road.

So even in the midst of winter’s cold when it seems as though nature has frozen everything solid there are memories of summer that warm our souls.  It is nothing to see a flock of wild turkeys in the road anytime once you are off the main drag or deer grazing in a field.  And, ah, those magnificent birds that nest in the evergreens and flock to feeders year round are a blessing especially in the winter when you believe that Mother Nature may have caused every living thing to hibernate until winter passes.  Once upon a time I counted as many as 19 different kinds of birds that sought shelter in a huge old pine tree outside my kitchen window.

But even when I am unable to get out the winter sun warms the cockles of my heart. The African Violets bloom continually as do some of the so called Christmas cactus that seem to know no season. But the thing that brings a touch of summer to mind most are the beautiful salmon-colored geraniums blooming in a vase on my window sill.  They have rooted from pieces I have broken off of a plant left over from summer that had gotten scraggly looking and way too tall from the warmth of the sun shining through huge glass windows.  How exhilarating it is to look through geraniums and laced curtains to the crystal-like mountain tops that sparkle when the sun’s rays burst from behind the grey clouds of winter.  And how awesome to watch a full moon rise over the mountains casting its light on new fallen snow.  There is much to be said about living in a small mountain town where there are no stoplights and the only skyscrapers are mountain peaks.

Gwen Johnson

Freelance writer & Journalist

Back to Craig County Home Site.