Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

A question for you, friends. Are you familiar with the gaillardia, the flower? I surely wasn’t.

Well, at least by that name. How about Joe Bell flowers. They grow on parts of the Outer Banks and were better known as paint brushes or Indian blanket flowers.

These flowers were originally from the northwestern parts of North America.

Why, you may be asking, is old Bartow telling us about this.

I’ll tell you, then. The seeds were brought to Ocracoke by Joseph Nash Bell, Jr.

And so? He was a native of Washington, N.C. The story goes that he settled in Ocracoke by 1920, after years of adventure and wandering.

A popular legend says that he moved to Ocracoke to mend a broken heart. The truth is, however, that he brought the red and gold flowers to Ocracoke from California, being a man who appreciated natural beauty. So. I read that anyone who has ever planted gaillardia is familiar with the self-seeding flower and how easily they grow in sandy soil.

This esoterica about the Joe Bell flowers I gleaned from Robin Holt’s manuscript for “My Daily Bounded Realm.”

Just think, folks, if you hadn’t perused today’s “Write Again” you might never have learned so much about Joe Bell flowers. Now, wouldn’t that have been a cotton-pickin shame?

Now, because I’m feeling expansive, let me share a bit more “must know” morsels from Robin’s book.

How about another recipe or two? You can get all that from her book. There is a very interesting piece about the Gulf Shoal Lifesaving Station, and a photo of the courageous men, circa 1900.

Truth to tell, the book is crammed full of a diverse range of subjects about life on Hatteras Island those many years ago.

Let me wrap up today’s literary gem by saying, as I often do, “Thanks for being a reader.”