Plateau Magazine June-July 2023

midsummer
Summer Solstice
Sweet Nostalgia in the Southern Appalachians
By KRISTIN E. LANDFIELD
IT’S JUNE 2021, IN MACON COUNTY, NC, AND I CRUNCH ALONG MY GRAVEL DRIVEWAY AT NIGHT,
dogs in tow, cold drink in hand and the tiny green eyes of spiders twinkling low in the woods. It was after 10:00 p.m.,
late enough for the sun to have finally bid goodnight from the long summer day, but not so late that the unseen life of
the woods had hushed its warm-weather cacophony. By then, the lightning bugs had been glowing their hellos to me
for several weeks, so my appreciation had softened to that of a fond smile and nod to a friendly neighbor, rather than
excitement for a new guest. It was more than a year into the pandemic, and I recognized the distinct sense of freedom I felt
in the mountains, with the endless gulps of clean fresh air and plenty of coveted space for social distancing. I realized that
my sense of autonomy was similar to that of a child in June, where the very word “summer” is tantamount to freedom and
possibility, even while the earth spins on its axis, determined and unfaltering, and even though “lockdown” and “quarantine”
had become common words in a new collective lexicon.
Tis moonlight, summer moonlight,
All soft and still and fair;
The solemn hour of midnight
Breathes sweet thoughts everywhere,
But most where trees are sending
Their breezy boughs on high,
Or stooping low are lending
A shelter from the sky…
—Emily Bronte, from “Moonlight, Summer
Moonlight”
On clear nights such as those, with the
real warmth of the summer season settling
into the atmosphere, the night sky
in the mountains feels close—like a low
canopy overhead—then endless, as it pulls
the eye and the imagination out towards a
dizzying eternity.
It's now high summer in the southern
Appalachians—the peak season here
on the plateau, with celebratory events
every week and ever-growing numbers of
fresh-air seekers enjoying the cool summer
nights and lush vegetation of the Nantahala
and Pisgah National Forests. The Appalachian
Mountains are among the oldest
in the world. There is a settled quality that
captures the topography, its perennial
rhythms made manifest with the passing
of the seasons. The noisy frogs on our evening
strolls, the quick-growing pace of grass
in our lawns, or the early lavender light
that warms alongside our morning coffee—they
are all tiny threads intricately
woven to the fabric of the cosmos. They’re
PHOTO FER GREGORY
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