Orchard hopping: apples and peaches and family fun

At summer’s end comes fall’s bounty. Yes, it’s apple season alright – and also grape, raspberry, peach and pear season, with pumpkins on the way. Add in strawberries, blueberries and cherries, plums, apricots and nectarines, and central Virginia orchards offer something healthy and delicious year ‘round. “Apples have been grown in Albemarle County since Jefferson’s […]

Yard sales: declutter your home and earn extra cash

According to a recent University of California (UCLA) study, U.S. households have more possessions per home than any society in all of global history. Furthermore, the study reveals that clutter attributes to increased levels of stress in many American households. In fact, cleaning up the litter in your home not only provides additional space, but […]

Historic properties

What makes a home historic? Is it the age of the structure, the year it was built? Is it an historically significant architectural style, along with excellent craftsmanship that exemplifies and clarifies that style? Is it that headline-making history “was made here?” History is whatever we choose to value, but however we define it, we’re […]

The floor: your fifth wall

A home’s floor is, in many ways, the fifth wall of any room. Many people know exactly what they want on that “wall.” Case in point: Lorraine Krebs in Nelson County who had a couple non-negotiable house-hunting items. “I wanted hardwood floors,” she declares. “If there were stairs, I wanted hardwood steps. I wanted a […]

The Masked Debater: Jim Gilmore tweets into the void

Int. living room—evening A large-screen television flickers, the pale light providing the sole illumination as a thin arm reaches out and flicks ash from a dying cigarette into an empty highball glass. Camera pans back, revealing the worn back of a La-Z-Boy recliner, along with its inhabitant’s other hand, thumb working furiously at the cracked […]

Teen-biting police K-9 goes back to work

The police K-9 involved in the June attack of a 13-year-old girl on Prospect Avenue returned to duty two weeks ago, along with his handler, according to the Charlottesville Police Department. In August, police identified the K-9 as a Dutch shepherd named Ringo, and said while his handler was on administrative leave and doing unrelated […]

Cheers and fears: Locals weigh in on drones

In March 2013, Charlottesville was the first city in the United States to pass an anti-drone resolution, which declared Charlottesville a No Drone Zone. This moratorium ended July 1 and—you guessed it—the drones are here. Darren Goodbar, an unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone, pilot in the Air National Guard, served overseas in Afghanistan as an […]

So damn local: Your guide to going native

What does it take to be a true local? We think a commenter on Facebook said it best: “The truly quintessential Charlottesville experience isn’t actually available to tourists. It’s having lived here long enough that you can’t go anywhere without running into someone you know, yet still feeling like you live in a decently sized […]

Candid cameras: Albemarle police hear citizen concerns on body cams

In January, C-VILLE reported that body cams were “imminent” for Charlottesville police. Nine months later, city cops still are not sporting the cameras and the University Police Department became the first local law enforcement agency to outfit its officers. The Albemarle County Police Department is moving toward the cameras as well, and approximately 50 people […]

See Jane run

Albemarle Board of Supervisors Chair Jane Dittmar chose the front of the County Office Building to announce her run for Congress September 17 because “this was where I began my public service and where I was sworn in,” she said. That was not quite two years ago after she won a special election, and now […]