Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Springtime Out On the Mountain

Oak Leaf Hydrangea on Moonlight Ridge


My Blood Kin


My cousin was named after our great-grandfather, William Theophilus Greenberry, who had been dead a long, long time when my cousin and I were born, and who had been a crazy man when he was alive. I don't know why, but it seems like our part of the country just breeds crazy people. We're from Moonlight Ridge, out on the mountain near a little town called Eden, Alabama.

Great Granddaddy W.T. Greenberry was a naturalist; he went on excursions, into the woods on Moonlight Ridge and all around Alabama, and wrote about leaves and weeds and flowers that he saw. He'd bring home specimens and try to get them to grow in his yard, and make up names for the ones he didn't know the names of. He perfectly loved a trillium! He always took a bottle of whiskey with him, and he always came home when the bottle was empty.

And Great Granddaddy W.T. Greenberry purely doted on possums!