Spring chicken If you want to feed yourself and your family, reduce the number of bugs in your yard, and find a good home for your food scraps, consider the humble chicken as a backyard pet. Chickens have been domesticated for thousands of years, and whether bred for meat or for egg production, they […]
Spring chicken If you want to feed yourself and your family, reduce the number of bugs in your yard, and find a good home for your food scraps, consider the humble chicken as a backyard pet. Chickens have been domesticated for thousands of years, and whether bred for meat or for egg production, they […]
Summer’s easy Now that daffodils have faded we are faced with the telling dilemma of what to do with all that lush foliage. Whack it down immediately? Twist and tie it into cunning little braids or loops? (Gardening personality hint: If you have the time and patience for this, you might also enjoy training […]
When Elizabeth Birdsall was a young girl, growing up in Florida, she would spend summers in a cabin on family land in western Albemarle. It’s a lush spot along a small river—a leafy contrast to the more settled area where she lived the rest of the year. She and her sister used to spend hours […]
For situations like the current credit crisis, there are always two stories. You’ve got your long story of the economic drivers and credit-market discombobulations, one that recently took NPR’s “This American Life” an entire hour to explain. Then there’s the short story: I’ve got a mortgage that—very soon—I will be unable to afford. People who […]
In 1975, Nellysford native Frederick Pershing Phillips began work on a tiny shopping center right off Rte. 151 where he once ran a fruit stand, selling bushels of apples for $3. “I dug the foundation with a roto-tiller,” he says. “My uncle and I built the cinder-block, I helped a neighbor do the plumbing.” Four […]
You’ve probably seen this house; it begs to be noticed by drivers coming down the steep bend on W. High Street. The stucco exterior is a break from your more typical brick and vinyl, and it gives the place a slightly Old World vibe. (Prosecco, anyone?) Everything stands out here—from the carefully groomed plantings to […]
Friend of ABODE reveals how to go green around here: Better World Betty green living made easier in the Charlottesville area
A change of speed, a change of style, a change of scene, with no regrets,” Joy Division’s Ian Curtis once sang. The Dawning, Charlottesville’s long-running local goth and industrial dance night, might take those words as a motto, since it will be joining Satellite Ballroom and 214 Community Arts Center in the search for a […]
There’s a type of dream that certain city folk have. For some, it’s a Canadian backwoods scenario. For others, it’s an Appalachia vibe they’re looking for. For a lot of people, it’s a California escape (Route 1, anyone?) But that quintessential American dream of riding off into the sunset involves a notion of the Wild […]
One of the things I find most fascinating about wine is the disconnect between how it is generally perceived and marketed and how it is actually made.