Finding alignment on the anniversary of COVID

Many folks seem out of alignment these days, and I’ve been thinking about why that may be. The uncertainty and unpredictability of the pandemic affected us deeply and highlighted the fragility of not only our day-to-day routines and comforts but of life in general.

One hundred years and counting: Jackson County Chamber of Commerce marks milestone anniversary

  This year the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce is celebrating 100 years of work and involvement in its community — fostering both economic development and future leaders.

The next chapter: Balsam Range celebrates 15 years, looks ahead

In a year that’ll surely end on a bittersweet note, beloved Haywood County bluegrass sensation Balsam Range is not only celebrating 15 years together, the band is also saying goodbye to one of its founding members, mandolinist Darren Nicholson. 

Here’s to a great year of getting to know you!

I started seeing psychics at eighteen years of age. My mother took us to a tarot card reader named Suzanne to get a better handle on our love lives because let’s face it, that was foremost on our minds at that age. I continued to book sessions with various psychics over the years, because I appreciate having another person help me to make sense of the information I pick up on, but sometimes struggle to make heads or tails of. You might be wondering where does this information come from, and is it all hooey? 

Blue Ridge Books celebrates 15 years

In this day and age of Amazon, Kindles, big box bookstores, streaming services and social media that fight for more of our attention everyday, local, independent bookstores are in constant competition with these heavy hitters. And yet, those like Blue Ridge Books seem to weather it all. So what’s the secret?

Twenty-two years later, some things haven’t changed

Early morning, June 2, 1999. I remember exactly where I was at and what I was doing. More on that later.

Right from the source: Smoky Mountain Folk Festival celebrates 50 years

Atop a hill on the western edge of downtown Waynesville, just past the invisible line where the delicious smell of down home food stops wafting from nearby Bogart’s Restaurant & Tavern, sits a picturesque century-old home. 

With a fresh cup of coffee in hand one recent sunny morning, Joe Sam Queen sat in a rocking chair on the side patio of his serene abode and reminisced about the Smoky Mountain Folk Festival. 

One year later, Cherokee media ban still in effect

Tribal Council got off to an unusual start in April of last year when Councilmember Tommye Saunooke, of Painttown, asked Tribal Council to begin the meeting by voting on a proposal that was absent from the day’s 28-item agenda. 

“Mr. Chairman, at this time, I’d like to make a move that the only press allowed in our Cherokee chambers will be Cherokee press,” Saunooke said. 

Smoky Mountain Brass Quintet celebrates 25 years

The Sylva-based Smoky Mountain Brass Quintet will present a concert celebrating 25 years of music, travel and fun together on Sunday, Feb. 17, in the Community Room of the Jackson County Public Library.

Island of green: Exhibit commemorates 50 years of community-driven landscape at HCC

It’s a sunny day at Haywood Community College, light sparkling from the campus’s landmark mill pond and shining through the leaves still clinging to the archway of willow oaks lining the school’s entrance drive. The campus lawn is covered with leaves fallen from the towering white oaks dominating it, academic buildings nestled naturally into the folds of the landscape. 

In many ways, it looks more like a park than a campus, and that’s by design — the design of Doan Ogden, that is. Ogden, a nationally known landscape architect, designed gardens and landscapes throughout Western North Carolina after moving to teach at Warren Wilson College, and the grounds of HCC are among his accomplishments.

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