News

The Big Picture

The top of the Water Street Garage was a popular spot on Monday, April 8, when residents gathered a little before 3pm to see the partial (about 86 percent) eclipse, when the moon blocked a large part of the sun from view. If you missed it, you’ll have to wait a while for a similar […]

Susan Sorensen | April 10, 2024

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Back to nature

When it comes to burying our dearly departed, most of us know what to expect: embalming chemicals, expensive coffins, concrete vaults, and other things that may not be so good for the environment.  But is all that really necessary? If you ask Stephanie Bonney, the answer’s a hard no. Green burial is “a more responsible way […]

Susan Sorensen | August 23, 2023

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Sew fine

It was a few days before prom, and a Charlottesville  High School senior was worried. The full-length, midnight-blue dress she ordered online had finally arrived—and, even with three-inch heels, it dragged on the ground. So her mom reached out to her regular tailor, “and they told me I was too late, that there was no […]

Susan Sorensen | August 23, 2023

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Into the woods

Lily Casteen was 7 years old when her parents enrolled her in ARCNatural History Day Camp, on the back acres of Panorama Farms in Earlysville. Now in her 20s and a wildlife conservation major at Virginia Tech, Casteen says the summers she spent at “mud camp,” first as a camper and then for seven years […]

Susan Sorensen | August 23, 2023

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All the pretty horses

Talk about a gift that keeps on giving: In 2006, local philanthropist Fred Scott donated an antique carousel to the Virginia Discovery Museum, which oversaw its installation on the Downtown Mall. After 15 years and millions of rotations by seven horses (the VDM estimates that more than 100,000 children ride the carousel every year!), the […]

Susan Sorensen | August 24, 2022

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The marrying kind

It takes a lot to surprise Sarah Fay Waller. No, she’s not a spy. Nor is she a volcanologist or a roller coaster designer or an underwater welder. She’s a wedding planner, and when she says she’s seen and heard it all (say, a bride who dreamed of synchronized swimmers performing during the cocktail hour), […]

Susan Sorensen | August 24, 2022

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All you need is kimchi

Jennifer Naylor, affectionately known as Mama Bird to those who frequent her Sussex Farm stall at area farmers’ markets, serves up a wide variety of Korean kimchi. It changes with the season, from cabbage or cucumber to apple or radish (to name just a few), and Naylor swears by what she grows on her farm: […]

Susan Sorensen | August 25, 2021

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Color her successful

“One to two to three to two to one, and now two. And I’m never going back to three.” That’s Suzannah Fischer, eyes closed, recounting the number of O’Suzannah shops she’s owned at one time since she first opened her eclectic boutique in 1996 on the Downtown Mall. Before going out on her own, Fischer […]

Susan Sorensen | August 25, 2021