Erika Howsare, Author at C-VILLE Weekly

Gathering swarm: Local beekeepers reflect on an unusual spring

While we humans have been preoccupied this spring, with pandemic worries and urgent national conversations, the natural world has seen other dramas unfold that most of us haven’t even noticed. Unless you’re a beekeeper, you wouldn’t know that this has been a very odd spring for honeybees. Carrie Meslar is the managing director of the […]

Erika Howsare | June 17, 2020

Living

How does your garden grow?

Outdoor options may be limited this summer, but gardening is definitely having a moment. Whether you’re a veteran dirt-lover or a total beginner, there’s never been a better time to dive in and cultivate some earth (or even a window box) near your home. Here are some ideas to spur you along. Dig in: Tips […]

Erika Howsare | May 27, 2020

C-BIZ

Tried and true: CIC volunteers translate programs for Eastern Europe

Since they moved to Bulgaria nearly four years ago, 5,000 miles have separated Nancy and Victor Schiller from their former home in Charlottesville. But some of their work in their adopted country looks remarkably similar to what they did as volunteers with the local Community Investment Collaborative. Through the America for Bulgaria Foundation, the couple […]

Erika Howsare | April 25, 2020

C-BIZ

Let’s get together: Tom Tom connects entrepreneurs to, well, everybody

Spring is coming, and so is the Tom Tom Summit & Festival. [UPDATE: Originally slated for April, Tom Tom has been rescheduled for September 21-27, 2020.] Every year, the event mixes music, community art projects, and a plethora of innovative business ideas. We caught up with Tom Tom’s executive director, Paul Beyer, for a look […]

Erika Howsare | April 25, 2020

Culture

Food that’s free: Plants to forage in this strangest spring

Years ago, in the spring, I was out for a run in a rural spot and encountered an elderly man who told me he was hunting “dryland cress”—an edible plant. I was enchanted; it was like he’d stepped from the pages of that 1973 Foxfire volume on my shelf, in which Appalachian old-timers shared secrets […]

Erika Howsare | April 25, 2020

Knife & Fork Magazines

The popular pawpaw: Native fruit comes ripe in local food and drink scene

It’s becoming the most popular fruit you’ve never tried—or have you? Pawpaws are having a moment, so if you’re the sort who likes to sample new things, you may well have gotten your taste buds on a pawpaw already. Not that pawpaws are “new.” Actually, they’re native to the Appalachians, and they have a long […]

Erika Howsare | April 10, 2020

Abode Magazines

Little big house: A Charlottesville reno grows in scope—and charm

It started small. When Brad and Cathy Coyle decided to buy a house in the Lewis Mountain neighborhood, they knew it needed some work. But they thought it would be mostly a vacation rental property, plus an occasional weekend pied-à-terre for themselves, and they figured the scope of work was minimal. “It was just a […]

Erika Howsare | April 9, 2020

Abode Magazines

Ancient future: From Google to Charlottesville, Parabola brings deep awareness to design

Inside a North Downtown live-work space called Timepiece, the groundbreaking firm Parabola Architecture is quietly tackling some of the big design questions of our time. Co-founders Carrie Meinberg Burke and Kevin Burke designed Timepiece 20 years ago as a place to house both their family and the architectural practice, envisioning the building as a “focusing […]

Erika Howsare | April 9, 2020

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