Erika Howsare, Author at C-VILLE Weekly

Culture

Bluebird man: Ivy volunteer builds houses for a beloved species

Building a bluebird box is a good project for a hobbyist woodworker, but most people don’t tackle quite as many boxes at once as Clark Walter. At certain times of the year, Walter’s woodworking shop in Ivy is packed nearly to the rafters with the parts and pieces that make up his bluebird box assembly […]

Erika Howsare | March 4, 2020

Living

Future home: Exploring the land that will become the McIntire Botanical Garden

Two years ago, I visited the northeast corner of McIntire Park for the first time, when reporting a story for this paper about the future McIntire Botanical Garden. The reporting was all about potential: the vision of this 8.5-acre piece of land as a place transformed. As the garden’s board and boosters see it, it’s […]

Erika Howsare | February 26, 2020

Living

Spring again, but when? Groundhog Day and the shifting of the seasons

Groundhog Day sounds like a joke, and it usually is. What kind of holiday is named after a rodent named after a pig? There’s little that’s noble about the groundhog, a nervous, sneaky animal that chews up the wiring in people’s cars and decimates gardens when our backs are turned. To mark a major turn […]

Erika Howsare | January 31, 2020

Knife & Fork

Chestnut dreams: In Nelson County, growers bring back a local delicacy

Bryant Farms and Nursery in Shipman doesn’t look that remarkable from the road: just acres of hillsides planted with young trees, their straight slender trunks forming a grid pattern. It’s not obvious, from a distance, what species is growing here. But following the gravel drive through the orchard, down into a ravine and up again, […]

Erika Howsare | January 8, 2020

C-BIZ

Outdoors, again: High Tor fills a local need for secondhand gear

When Erin James was pregnant with her first child, she and her husband Seth Herman were amazed by the amount of hand-me-down baby stuff that came their way. In local secondhand stores, too, the used baby gear abounded. At the time, they were looking to start a business that would set a positive example for […]

Erika Howsare | December 24, 2019

C-BIZ

Leaping forward and leaning in: Making technology a woman’s place

It can be isolating to blaze a trail. Since 2014, Charlottesville Women in Tech has been working to smooth the way for women in the local tech industry. With a mailing list of around 500, CWIT serves everyone from coders to high school STEM teachers. Current President Eileen Krepkovich gave us the lowdown on how […]

Erika Howsare | December 24, 2019

Arts

All in good fun: ‘Retrospective’ at IX spans 15 years and thousands of holidays

Two days before the opening of their joint show at Studio IX, Virginia Rieley and Eliza Evans are together in the gallery space, spreading their art multi-dimensionally throughout the room. Evans is on a ladder, hanging dried gourds that she grew in her garden and then used as portrait canvases. Rieley stands in front of […]

Erika Howsare | December 18, 2019

Arts

Culture through the restless lens of UVA’s Kevin Everson

Kevin Everson is known to be prolific, but it’s still startling when he says “I made 17 films this year.” Asked which shorts he’ll be showing at the Virginia Film Festival, the UVA professor and internationally respected filmmaker has to consult a list before answering. That’s an occupational hazard, perhaps, of creativity that never sleeps. […]

Erika Howsare | October 23, 2019

Magazines Unbound

10 things I’ve learned about homesteading: Lessons from adventures, successes, and failures on the land

I don’t claim to be an expert on anything in the homesteading realm. But my husband and I have been gardening for 18 years and raising chickens for nine, preserving foods and getting to know our local ecosystem, and we have picked up a few nuggets of knowledge along the way. Here are some of […]

Erika Howsare | October 15, 2019

C-BIZ

Riding it out: Freestyle survives 36 years of change

Remember all those specialty shops that went belly-up when the internet came along? Freestyle wasn’t one of them. Founded in 1983, the local sporting goods store is way older than online shopping—and it’s managed to stay relevant through lots of industry changes. “We want customers for life,” says store manager Don Cochrane. That’s meant operating […]

Erika Howsare | September 9, 2019