by Charman Driver photograph by Scott Sharpe If every cloud has a silver lining, then it’s fair to say that former Carolina Ballet dancer Margot Martin has gone a step further, striking gold with her innovative form of exercise known…
by P. Gaye Tapp photographs by Jerry Blow Near the corner of Glenwood Avenue and Harvey Street, a stately Georgian-style house seems far removed from the traffic running along Raleigh’s busy main artery. Brian Wordsworth says he chose the house…
text and photograph by John Rosenthal Last summer, on a hot August afternoon, I drove around the grounds of Dorothea Dix Hospital and came upon the old asylum cemetery. Most of the grave markers – hundreds of them – were…
by Doug Glanville illustration by Laura Frankstone When my wife and I moved from Philadelphia to Chicago in the winter of 2005, we also had Charlotte, Asheville, and Raleigh on the tips of our tongues. Without children at the time,…
by Liza Roberts photographs by Lissa Gotwals When magnolia farmer and luxury wreath-maker Erin Weston inherited 30 acres in Garner from her uncle a decade ago, she was busy pursuing a publishing career in New York. Becoming a farmer had…
by Larry Wheeler director, North Carolina Museum of Art At the North Carolina Museum of Art’s annual art auction, Marion Church of Raleigh won a weekend in New York with me. So the long-anticipated adventure – a three-day weekend of…
by Charles Upchurch The converts, they say, are always the worst. A couple of years ago, my wife had never even tried eggnog. Then everything changed. Soon, there were telltale signs of a love affair. Once a week became once…
by Lewis Beale photographs by Shawn Rocco It’s not that N.C. State men’s basketball coach Mark Gottfried hasn’t tasted winning in the past. He was an assistant the last time UCLA won a national championship, head coached a tournament-worthy team…
by Liza Roberts photographs by Leslie Baker Charles Winston Jr. is a self-described ice cream nut. The owner of North Raleigh’s Winston’s Grille, he loves it so much he took himself to ice cream school at Penn State a few…
by Noel Crook He lies still, breath clouding the slate tiles between his paws. Only the occasional twitch of an ear mars his perfect vigil. He has grown old following the girl, his only lamb; has watched her …
by Betty Adcock Begin with a box. Imagine it made of ordinary and exotic woods: yellow pine and rosewood, mahogany and oak, hickory and ebony, mixed every which way: mosaics, shape-shifting inlays. It can expand to hold a sunset,…
by Chelsea Jones Every summer, I spend the month of July with my family in the Northern Michigan town where I grew up. It’s an amazing place, never too hot, always cool enough for a campfire at night, with clear,…
by Tony Avent illustration by Ippy Patterson Certain plants, like the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield, never get the respect they deserve. A classic example is our native scrub palm, Sabal minor, also known as the dwarf or bush palmetto. Perhaps its ubiquitous…
by Charman Driver I’ve always been impressed with the lean and agile bodies of competitive boxers and mixed martial artists – think Muhammad Ali and Bruce Lee in their prime. Their super-toned physiques seemed to move with such ease and…