Abode Magazines

Creating community

Dorothy Batten has traveled to some of the world’s most iconic places: the Galapagos Islands, Africa, New Zealand, and Indonesia. And everywhere she found that wildlife, ecosystems, and ways of life were endangered. But she’s taken to heart the dictum to start with your own backyard. Batten is turning Oakencroft Farm and Vineyard in Albemarle […]

Carol Diggs | December 13, 2023

Knife & Fork Magazines

Renewing a tradition

Andrew Pearson is Virginia born and bred, and always thought he would return to his home state one day. When the COVID shutdown found him and his family quarantined in Birmingham, Alabama, he decided it was time. “I’ve always had my Virginia bag packed,” he says, and soon the family had bought a farm between […]

Carol Diggs | December 13, 2023

434 Magazines

The spirit of the back country

Ken Farmer has made both his careers out of doing what he loves. Whether he’s appraising on PBS’s popular and long-running “Antiques Roadshow,” or performing on a local stage as Ken Farmer and the Authenticators, his knowledge of and love for the arts, crafts, and music of southwest Virginia shines through. Farmer’s roots in the […]

Carol Diggs | December 13, 2023

434 Magazines

Caring through the end

Nancy Littlefield is a fourth-generation nurse, so it’s not surprising that she describes caring for people as “my calling.” What may be surprising is that her work as an ICU nurse, helping the sick and their families to heal and recover, led her to palliative care, helping the dying and their families through life’s last […]

Carol Diggs | December 13, 2023

434 Magazines

New kids in town

Charlottesville is known as a restaurant town, but it’s also a lively retail place that attracts new ventures. And with an eclectic population—traditional and trendy, students and tourists, third-generation and newbies—it’s not surprising the offerings are eclectic too.  Airea Garland took the plunge with lifestyle store Mac and Mae, just off the Downtown Mall on […]

Carol Diggs | December 13, 2023

News

Helping hands in hospice 

It’s a conversation starter you might throw out with a group of friends hanging out at a winery, or after a large informal family supper: “What would you like to do before you die?” The answers are probably interesting, intriguing, even surprising. The discussion could inspire someone in the group to make those dreams happen. […]

Carol Diggs | December 13, 2023

Abode Magazines

Blank slate

How do you create a new house? Do you restore, renovate, update (or demolish) an existing structure? Does the lot determine where the house has to go (as in, not in the stream bed or the septic field)? Is there a street, a sewer hookup, a close neighbor, or a cell tower you have to […]

Carol Diggs | November 9, 2023

News

Stepping up

The community of people who have served in our country’s military is a tight fellowship. So when University of Virginia grads Jim and Gina Mallon (Jim was in the Marines, Gina in the Air Force) got the call for a program called We Honor Veterans, they stepped up. The call came from Robert Dewberry, whom […]

Carol Diggs | November 8, 2023

News

Keeping us covered

A recent study by the Chesapeake Bay Program found that in the four years from 2013-14 to 2017-18, the bay’s watershed lost over 25,000 acres of tree canopy, while the amount of impervious surface (like buildings, roads, driveways, and parking lots) increased by over 50,000 acres. That’s disturbing news for folks living there—meaning us. Charlottesville […]

Carol Diggs | October 4, 2023

2023 Best of C-VILLE Staff Picks

The full Monticello

Monticello’s “Behind the Scenes” tour offers a fuller picture of life at Jefferson’s iconic home. See the first floor (TJ’s rooms and the public spaces), then take the narrow spiral staircase up to the rooms used by daughter Martha Randolph and her family, guests, and enslaved workers. A highlight is the light-filled circular Dome Room […]

Carol Diggs | August 23, 2023