January PineStraw 2018 by PineStraw Magazine

CONTINUING CARE REDEFINED! NEW! REFRESHED! LARGER!

Custom Designed Garden Apartments

Pick Your Own Colors and Flooring

Can Accommodate Most Requests

Moving from a larger home but don’t want to scale down too much? Want to pick your own colors and flooring? Come see what Quail Haven Village has to offer in spacious garden apartments. Enjoy the independence of your own home with the convenience of nearby services, activities, our Clubhouse and access to a full continuum of care. We handle the maintenance and upkeep of your home, as well as the housekeeping … so you can do the things you love.

Call Lynn at 910-295-2294

To Learn More and Schedule A Visitor visit QuailHavenVillage.com Hours: Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. | 155 Blake Blvd. • Pinehurst

95 Quail Hollow, Pinehurst

134 Lawrence Overlook, West End

2335 Midland Road, Pinehurst

CCNC water and golf front. Handsomely designed with elegance, this Stagaard and Chao masterpiece features exceptional craftsmanship and architecture. 4 bedrooms, 4/3 bathrooms.

Seven Lakes West. Lakefront home with optional Pinehurst Country Club membership. Home has 2-acres, gym, workshop, and guest quarters with kitchen. 5 bedrooms, 6/1 bathrooms.

High Peaks Cottage. Charming historical cottage with superb location; totally renovated with a 4-car garage and 2 lots; magnificent curb appeal. 3 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms.

220 Merry Way, Southern Pines

805 South Diamondhead Drive, Pinehurst

810 Lake Dornoch Drive, Pinehurst

17-acre private equine retreat in the heart of horse country. Over 3,500sf, barn rolling pastures, generator. 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms.

Luxurious custom home with Lake Pinehurst views. 4,800sf with a chef’s Kitchen, 2 wood burning fireplaces, multiple decks & patios. 4 bedrooms, 3/1 bathrooms.

CCNC Great views from this 5-acre home; open floor plan with elegant ceiling design, gourmet kitchen, master with his & her baths, library, and 2 guest suites. 3 bedrooms, 4/2 bathrooms.

105 Gordon Point, West End

240 Frye Road, Pinehurst

29 Devon Drive, Pinehurst

Seven Lakes West. Unique lakefront home designed to captivate the lake views scenery. Spacious living, 2 fireplaces, aluminum roof, maintenance free exterior. 3 bedrooms, 4/1 bathrooms.

Close to The Village of Pinehurst this home is compact on the outside and expansive on the inside. Beautifully landscaped with a koi-filled pond and waterfall. 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms.

Pinewild. Timeless custom-built golf front home . Large bonus room, workshop, 3-car garage, open kitchen, screened porch. 3 bedrooms, 3/1 bathrooms.

20 Linville Drive, Pinehurst

4 Royal Dornoch Lane, Pinehurst

33 Stoneykirk Drive, Pinehurst

CCNC custom-built brick home with large family room, white kitchen open to family room, hardwoods, pool, patio, and built-in grill. 3 bedrooms, 2/1 bathrooms.

CCNC overlooking 11th green of Dogwood, updated villa. Kitchen with granite, stainless, plantation shutters, 2 fireplaces, generator, covered slate porch. 2 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms.

Pinewild. 1.5-acre lakefront home features 3,000sf designed to take advantage of the water views. Private dock, gardens and water feature. 3 bedrooms, 3/1 bathrooms.

$2,700,000 MLS 183960 Scarlett Allison 910-603-0359

$1,725,000 MLS 182888 Linda Criswell 910-783-7374

$1,250,000 MLS 184086 Deb Darby 910-783-5193

$975,000 MLS 184183 Marie O’Brien 910-528-5669

$665,500 MLS 185313 Linda Criswell 910-783-7374

$895,000 MLS 175008 Scarlett Allison 910-603-0359

$595,000 MLS 178697 Kay Beran 910-315-3322

$485,000 MLS 185126 Carolyn Hallett 910-986-2319

Pinehurst Office

$1,250,000 MLS 184063 Scarlett Allison 910-603-0359

$544,000 MLS 184587 Kay Beran 910-315-3322

$475,000 MLS 183367 Carolyn Hallett 910-986-2319

•

42 Chinquapin Road •

Pinehurst, NC 28374

$465,000 MLS 182436 Kay Beran 910-315-3322

•

910–295–5504

140 Cochrane Castle Circle, Pinehurst

103 Lewis Point, West End

75 Lake Forest Drive, Pinehurst

Pinehurst National 9. Luxury golf cottage on the 8th green. Optional fulltime or seasonal residence. Open floor plan, room with fireplace and high ceilings, 3 ensuite bedrooms and more.

Seven Lakes West. Waterfront lot on Lake Auman with 2 boat docks, boat lift, swim ladder. Wonderful cul-de-sac location for a dream waterfront home.

Short drive or easy walk to the Carolina Hotel and the Village. Vaulted ceilings, open floorplan, double sided fireplace. Outdoor deck, paved driveway. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms.

188 North Erfie Drive, Pinebluff

6 Country Club Boulevard, Whispering Pines

230 Adams Circle, Pinehurst

Immaculate home with over 3,000sf of living space including a finished lower level. Heated workshop, large entertainment area with firepit. 3 bedrooms, 2/1 bathrooms.

Golf front single level home with 2 master suites. Beautifully landscaped yard, large closets, hardwoods, plantation shutters, kitchen overlooks family room. 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms.

Village Acres. Better than new home, fenced backyard, hardwoods, granite counters, vaulted ceiling, cozy loft area. 4 bedrooms, 2/1 bathrooms.

202 Starland Lane, Southern Pines

10 Rutledge Lane, Pinehurst

285 Sugar Gum Lane 32, Pinehurst

Longleaf. Golf front end unit with stunning views. Hardwood floors, plantation shutters, window seat in dining room, new carpet, granite counter, trex deck. 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms.

Village Acres. Custom-built single level home. Kitchen with granite & stainless, sunroom, new roof installed August 2017, rear fencing for privacy. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms.

Tucked away condo with club access via golf cart. Pinehurst Country Club membership available, new carpet, stunning countertops. 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms.

$380,000 MLS 185261 Scarlett Allison 910-603-0359

$275,000 MLS 184224 Deb Darby 910-783-5193

$259,000 MLS 185478 Jennifer Nguyen 910-585-2099

$309,000 MLS 182042 Linda Criswell 910-783-7374

$308,000 MLS 183881 Kay Beran 910-315-3322

$275,000 MLS 184201 Bill Brock 910-639-1148

$229,800 MLS 183054 Carolyn Hallett 910-986-2319

$265,900 MLS 185406 Pam O’Hara 910-315-3093

$219,000 MLS 185242 Deb Darby 910-783-5193

Find your new home from the comfort of your couch. BHHSPRG.com Southern Pines Office

• 105 West Illinois Avenue

•

Southern Pines, NC 28387

•

910–692–2635

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices and the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices symbol are registered service marks of HomeServices of America, Inc.® Equal Housing Opportunity.

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L I N G E R I LEI N G E R I E S L E E P W E SA L ERE P W E A R L O U N G E WL E O UAN R G E W E A R M E N S

W E MAE NRS

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www.knickers-lingerie.com www.knickers-lingerie.com 910-725-2346 910-725-2346 Open Tuesday Open - Friday Tuesday11-5:00 - Friday 11-5:00 Saturday 11-4. Saturday 11-4. Sunday and Monday Sunday andclosed. Monday closed. 165 E. New Hampshire 165 E. New Hampshire Avenue Avenue Southern Pines, Southern NC Pines, 28387 NC 28387

January 2018 Departments 15 Simple Life By Jim Dodson

20 PinePitch 23 Good Natured By Karen Frye

25 Instagram Winners 27 The Omnivorous Reader By Stephen E. Smith

31 Bookshelf 35 Hometown By Bill Fields

37 A Writer’s Life By Wiley Cash

41 In the Spirit

45 The Kitchen Garden

49 Food for Thought

By Tony Cross

By Jan Leitschuh By Jane Lear

Features 67 About Magic

Poetry by Ry Southard

53 Papadaddy

68 From Eagle Springs to Antarctica

By Clyde Edgerton

By Jim Moriarty Todd Pusser’s magical photos are a portrait of our wild and endangered world

55 Out of the Blue

By Deborah Salomon

57 Birdwatch

78 Queen of the Air

By Susan Campbell

By Bill Case Amelia Earhart, George Putnam and their high-flying love affair

59 Sporting Life By Tom Bryant

63 Golftown Journal By Lisa D. Mickey

92 103 109

Arts & Entertainment Calendar SandhillSeen PineNeedler By Mart Dickerson

82 Portrait of the Artist’s Home

By Deborah Salomon A place where nothing matches but everything belongs

91 Almanac

By Ash Alder The Quadrantids, ginger tea and wassail

111 The Accidental Astrologer By Astrid Stellanova

112 SouthWords By Susan Kelly

Cover photograph and photograph this page by Todd Pusser 6

January 2018 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

Opulence of Southern Pines and DUXIANA at The Mews, 280 NW Broad Street, Downtown Southern Pines, NC 910.692.2744

at Cameron Village, 400 Daniels Street, Raleigh, NC 919.467.1781

at Sawgrass Village, 310 Front Street Suite 815 Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32082 904.834.7280

www.OpulenceOfSouthernPines.com

Serving the Carolinas & More for Over 20 Years â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Financing Available

StunninG Golf fRont PeRfection

in Forest Creek

M A G A Z I N E Volume 14, No. 1 David Woronoff, Publisher Jim Dodson, Editor

910.693.2506 • jim@pinestrawmag.com

Andie Stuart Rose, Creative Director

910.693.2467 • andie@pinestrawmag.com

Jim Moriarty, Senior Editor

910.692.7915 • jjmpinestraw@gmail.com

Lauren M. Coffey, Graphic Designer

910.693.2469 • lauren@pinestrawmag.com

Alyssa Rocherolle, Graphic Designer

910.693.2508 • alyssa@pinestrawmag.com Contributing Editors

Deborah Salomon, Staff Writer Mary Novitsky, Sara King, Proofreaders Contributing Photographers

John Gessner, Laura Gingerich, Tim Sayer

Contributors Tom Allen, Harry Blair, Tom Bryant, Susan Campbell, Bill Case, Wiley Cash, Tony Cross, Al Daniels, Annette Daniels, Mart Dickerson, Clyde Edgerton, Bill Fields, Jane Lear, Jan Leitschuh, Meridith Martens, D.G. Martin, Diane McKay, Lee Pace, Jeanne Paine, Romey Petite, Renee Phile, Joyce Reehling, Stephen E. Smith, Astrid Stellanova, Angie Tally, Ashley Wahl, Janet Wheaton

PS Advertising Sales

Pat Taylor, Advertising Director Ginny Trigg, PineStraw Advertising Director 910.693.2481 • ginny@thepilot.com

49 Chestertown Drive ~ Pinehurst Perfectly sited for stunning golf vistas, the residence at 49 Chestertown overlooks the 3rd Hole of Forest Creek’s South Course. Constructed by Huntley Design Build in 2010, the superbly built home gives new meaning to the concept of quality construction. Highlights include an entry with barrel vaulted ceiling embedded with crystals, an 1,100 sq ft veranda with a towering stone fireplace and ceiling of pines milled from the site, 2,000 sq ft of walk-in attic (expansion space) on second floor, ground floor level rooms with a golf simulator and 900 bottle wine cellar, and 3 stop hydraulic elevator. The more than spacious kitchen has a surprise walk-in pantry with second refrigerator and opens to a family room with beamed ceiling and fireplace. Offered at $1,999,000.

To view more photos, take a virtual tour or schedule a showing, go to:

Deborah Fernsell, 910.693.2516 Terry Hartsell, 910.693.2513 Perry Loflin, 910.693.2514 Darlene McNeil-Smith, 910.693.2519 Patty Thompson, 910.693.3576 Johnsie Tipton, 910.693.2515 Advertising Graphic Design

Mechelle Butler Brad Beard, Scott Yancey, Trintin Rollins

PS Darlene Stark, Circulation Director 910.693.2488 Douglas Turner, Finance Director 910.693.2497

www.clarkpropertiesnc.com

Maureen Clark when experience matters

Pinehurst • Southern Pines BHHS Pinehurst Realty Group • 910.315.1080

145 W. Pennsylvania Avenue, Southern Pines, NC 28387 pinestraw@thepilot.com • www.pinestrawmag.com

January 2018P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

285 N Bethesda Road

140 Pinegrove Road

Enchanting 1920’s country home in a garden setting on 4.09 acres. 4 BR, 4.5 BA with a guest cottage. Exquisite master wing, updated kitchen, 3 fireplaces. $998,000.

Exceptional renovated cottage in premier location. Beautifully designed in character with original architecture. 4BR, 3.5BA. $798,000.

101 Kirkhill Court

85 Lake Dornoch

70 Cypress Point Drive

310 Crest Road

120 N Highland

44 Royal County Down

New Listing. 5 acres overlooking the 9th Fairway of the “Homewood’’ is a landmark Southern Pines estate Cardinal Course in CCNC, a testament to fine taste in a on 7.4 acres of the most beautifully landscaped Southern setting. 5BR, 5 full BA, 3 half BA. $2,775,000. gardens in the state. 6BR, 7.5BA $1,675,000.

The best of everything in Pinehurst #9, National. Golf front CCNC with lake view. 4023 main Delightful Colonial Revival was designed by Aymar Embury A premier golf from setting on 11th hole of Pinehurst Spacious light-filled rooms, antique heart pine floors house, 763 guest house addition. One floor, #9 completes the perfection of this beautifully II for the Boyd family in the 1920’s. Slate roof, 5 fireplaces, on three levels, 6BR, 6BA, 2 half BA. $785,000. 3 BR, 3.5 BA main, 1 BR, 1 BA guest. $995,000. conceived and executed golf retreat. $669,000. hardwood floors, charming guest house. $889,000.

Maureen Clark

910.315.1080 • www.clarkproperties.com

110 N Highland Road

91 W McKenzie Road

60 Manigault Place

177 Cross Country

25 Maple Road

920 E. Massachusetts

30’s Dutch Colonial, restored in ’06 adding two The 100 year old Rambler Cottage has a premier Historic Southern Pines 1920’s Colonial Revival Charming cottage in the woods offers the ultimate on 1.91 acres inWeymouth Heights. 6 BR, 5.5 BA, in a private location in Old Town. 3 BR, 2 BA, location in the Village with an endearing garden. Exudes wings. 4 BR, 3.5 BA, walled patio with courtyard, guest house, main floor master. $790,000. hardwood floors throughout. $380,000. signature Pinehurst charm. 4BR, 3.5BA. $795,000. 5227 sq ft. Slate roof,3 fireplaces. $898,000.

Private Horse Country estate on 16.7 acres This desirable 3BR, 3BA home located in Middleton Place is perfection on one level. Backing up to a large woodland area is very including lovely lake. Faulk designed 4BR, 4.5BA, 5640 sq ft home built in 1970. $1,425,000. quiet and a choice location in the walled community. $358,000.

230 Inverrary Road

A bit of golf heaven offering exceptional one-floor living on a premier golf front location. 3BR, 3BA. $610,000.

124 W Chelsea Court

New Listing. Living made simple in a beautifully designed villa in Mid South Club. Two spacious light-filled bedrooms each have generous bathrooms with double sinks. 2BR, 2BA. $278,000.

Berkshire Hathaway HomeSercies and the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices symbol are registered service marks of HomeServices of America, Inc.® Equal Housing Opportunity.Housing Opportunity.

Martha Gentry’s H o m e

S e l l i n g

T e a m

Moore County’s Most Trusted Real Estate Team!

Din

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Pinehurst • $480,000

22 stoneykirk Drive Lovely all brick 4 BR / 3.5 BA home located on .9 acres on a quiet street in nice, private setting. The master suite features tray ceiling, a sitting room w/deck access and over 200 square feet of closet space while the main level features beautiful updated kitchen.

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104 sunrise Point Gorgeous 4 BR / 3.5 BA home sits high w/breathtaking views of Lake Auman. Interior is bright and open with lake views from almost every room. Family room features corner fireplace and window walls and opens to the kitchen and informal breakfast area.

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915 rays BriDge roaD Beautifully renovated 3 BR / 2.5 BA lakefront home featuring oversized living room w/fireplace and French doors to the spacious deck as well as gourmet kitchen w/marble countertops and stainless steel appliances. Charming gazebo and private lake…a must see!

Pinehurst • $429,000

30 WaLnut creek roaD Lovely 4 BR / 3 BA brick and stucco home located on quiet, wooded street in Fairwoods on 7. Open interior features large dining and living combination w/ two sided fireplace. The kitchen opens to the family room as well as onto a private screened porch.

Pinehurst • $369,000

southern Pines • $350,000

360 FairWay Drive Unique 5 BR / 3.5 BA Cape Cod style home in desirable Knollwood. Main living area has wood burning fireplace and flows nicely as natural light pours in. This home offers lots of space and is truly one of a kind. Just minutes from downtown Southern Pines!

seven Lakes West • $375,000

Pinehurst • $379,000

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Pinehurst • $399,000

80 DaLrymPLe roaD Spacious 3 BR / 3 BA home w/wonderful flow. Living room features hardwood floors and crown molding. Kitchen has recessed lighting, Corian countertops, a center island and pantry. Enjoy the private, fenced backyard from the patio in this classic home!

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26 LassWaDe Drive Appealing 3 BR / 2.5 BA home on the 16th fairway of Magnolia course at Pinewild CC. Split bedroom plan offers gas fireplace, built-in book cases and vaulted ceilings. Kitchen has granite countertops and eating area that opens to the great room.

105 LeeWooD court Beautifully maintained 4 BR / 4.5 BA home located in the gated community of Seven Lakes West. Perfect for a large family, this home offers a bright and open floorplan w/a great kitchen, sunny Carolina Room and an abundance of living space.

10 Pomeroy Drive Alluring 4 BR / 3.5 BA brick home on the 1st and 9th hole of the Holly course of Pinewild CC. Interior offers great kitchen, oversized living/dining room combo w/windows looking out to spacious screened porch. Pinewild CC membership available.

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Pinehurst • $448,000

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seven Lakes West • $449,000

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WhisPering Pines • $440,000

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14 scioto Lane Classic 3 BR / 2.5 BA home on the 18th fairway of Pinehurst #6. Interior has spacious living room w/entrance to the covered patio area, formal dining room and nice in ground pool! Enjoy great golf course views in this private location.

Pinehurst • $339,000

60 horse creek run Attractive 3 BR / 2.5 BA home on 1.6 beautifully landscaped acres in Clarendon Gardens. The home speaks of quality throughout w/split bedroom plan, smooth ceilings, custom built-ins, and private backyard w/brick patio. Tons of curb appeal!

West enD • $498,000

637 mcLenDon hiLLs Drive Lovely 3 BR / 3.5 BA lakefront home in McLendon Hills. The kitchen features a large island, custom cabinets and huge walk-in pantry. Upstairs there are two add’l bedrooms and bonus room. Great home in gated community w/access to stables and riding trails!

IN MOORE COUNTY REAL ESTATE FOR OVER 20 YEARS!

Luxury Properties maRTHa genTRY’S Home Selling Team

Moore County’s Most Trusted Real Estate Team!

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seven Lakes West • $689,000

122 mccracken Drive Gorgeous 3 BR / 3.5 BA lakefront home on Lake Auman. The floorplan is very open with great views from almost every room. The kitchen features custom cabinets, granite countertops, walk in pantry and a butler prep area; a wonderful place to relax and enjoy lake views!

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Pinehurst • $599,000

11 Village lane Appealing 4 BR / 3.5 BA Old Town Home complete with white picket fencing and fully fenced back yard. The interior is light and bright with an open living plan and an upstairs that flows beautifully. PCC membership option available for transfer.

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Pinehurst • $515,000

205 nationaL Drive Gorgeous all brick 3 BR / 2 BA home w/views of the 7th and 8th holes of Pinehurst #9. The home features split bedroom plan, private den/office off the foyer, lots of living space and centrally located close to shopping and dining….a must see!

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Pinehurst • $949,000

seven Lakes West • $850,000

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Pinehurst • $615,000

80 Braemar roaD Incredible golf front home in Fairwoods on 7. This beautiful 4 BR / 5.5 BA home features top of the line finishes, mouldings, marble and hard-wood slate flooring. Wow guests with the gourmet kitchen, luxurious bedroom suites, wine cellar or cascading terrace overlooking the 15th green.

106 cook Point Gorgeous 3 BR / 3.5 BA waterfront home on Lake Auman, located on a point lot at the end of a private cul-de-sac. Beautiful panoramic views on three sides of the property and great orientation to the sun insures optimum enjoyment of morning sunrises and evening sunsets!

175 miDLanD roaD Private 4 BR / 3.5 BA cottage across the street from Pinehurst #2 and within walking distance to the historic Village of Pinehurst. This home has timeless beauty and is designed for casual yet elegant entertaining. The spacious living room opens to a sun-filled Carolina room overlooking the gorgeous in ground pool. A must see!

Pinehurst • $698,500

West enD • $625,000

Pinehurst • $589,000

85 aBBottsForD Drive Marvelous contemporary 4 BR / 2.5 BA home was honored as home of the year in 2006 in their price bracket. Located on the 13th green of the Holly Course, this is one of the most beautiful home sites in Pinewild, overlooking both golf and water with long views.

106 racheLs Point Drop dead gorgeous 4 BR / 3.5 BA Bob Timberlake design located on 1.8 beautifully landscaped acres that slopes gently to the water and includes an outdoor kitchen on the patio, a private dock and beach with a fireplace. A must see in McLendon Hills.

55 gLasgoW Drive Alluring 3 BR / 3.5 BA gem located in the gated community of Pinewild CC w/beautiful views of the 3rd hole of the challenge course. This home offers beautiful floorplan w/ soaring ceilings, cozy living area complete w/fireplace and designer kitchen.

Pinehurst • $695,000

Pinehurst • $649,000

Pinehurst • $598,000

28 kiLBerry Drive Grand 4 BR / 5.5 BA golf front home in beautiful Pinewild CC overlooking two greens, a tee and a natural pond. The French Country style home offers a spacious interior w/gourmet kitchen, Carolina Room overlooking a hillside water feature w/waterfalls, 2 pools and a guest suite w/private bath.

537 FoxFire roaD Stunning 3 BR / 5 BA country home on 3.64 acres just minutes from the Village of Pinehurst. The expansive floorplan is light and open and features a custom designed fireplace and lots of windows overlooking the rear of the property.

19 mcmichaeL Drive Custom all brick 4 BR / 4.5 BA home w/lovely views of the scenic pond as well as the golf course. The gourmet kitchen has custom cabinets, granite countertops, tile backsplash, built-in desk area and a walk-in pantry. This is a wonderful home.

Re/Max Prime Properties, 5 Chinquapin Rd., Pinehurst, NC 910-295-7100 • 800-214-9007

MARThAGENTRY.COM • 910-295-7100 • Re/Max Prime Properties 5 Chinquapin Rd., Pinehurst, NC

simple life

The Road to Greatness

Along a historic American highway, the heart and soul of a nation is revealed

By Jim Dodson

Photographs from the Memorial Illumination at Antietam National Battlefield

Over the past few months I’ve been travel-

ing the Great Wagon Road, researching a book about the 18th-century route that brought generations of ScotchIrish, English and German immigrants to the American South, including both branches of my family.

Roughly following the so-called Great Warrior’s Path that lay along the eastern slopes of the Appalachian mountains from Pennsylvania to Georgia, used for millennia by native American peoples for hunting and warfare, the Great Wagon Road stretched more than 800 miles from Philadelphia to Augusta, Georgia, and was said to be the most traveled road in Colonial America. Thomas Jefferson’s daddy mapped and named it, and a young George Washington cut his teeth scouting and fighting Indians along it. Dan’l Boone traveled the Road from North Carolina to the unexplored frontiers of Kentucky and Ohio, while three major wars that shaped our national identity were conducted along it: the French and Indian War followed by the American Revolution, and a dozen critical battles of the American Civil War, most notably the bloodbaths at Antietam and Gettysburg. By my rough count at least three presidents and more than a dozen colleges and universities grew up along the Great Road, as I first heard a Salem College history professor call it 40 years ago, not to mention a dozen of Eastern America’s most important towns and cities, home to social visionaries and inventors who created everything from the Conestoga wagon to Texas Pete hot sauce and Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Most of the early Quakers who populated Guilford and Alamance counties also made their way to a new life in these parts by traveling the Great Wagon Road, a branch of which was called the Carolina Road that took others (including my English and Scottish forebears) to Hillsborough and the coast. Though I’m not yet halfway on my travels from Philadelphia to Georgia, thus far it has been a trip full of rewarding surprises, unexpected turns, fresh

insights and inspiring encounters. In my quest to know more about where we collectively came from — and how this remarkable road shaped the nation we inhabit today — I’ve already traversed a dozen major battlefields and museums, attended lectures and church services, hung at the elbows of area historians and academic scholars, spent hours in local archives, historical associations and historic sites, investigated iconic forefathers and forgotten heroes, unapologetically played tourist everywhere I could, checked out the hokiest roadside attractions and sampled local cooking every chance I got. What a simple pleasure this project has been — not to mention a refresher course on the power of American democracy during one of the most divisive years in memory. For perspective, try Googling “What Americans Know About Their Own History” and you may be deeply alarmed to learn what we collectively don’t know about our past and how our democracy was designed to work. Various polls over the past decade have shown, for example, that 67 percent of Americans have no idea what the purpose of the U.S. Constitution is for — or what exactly an “amendment” means. Another recent poll indicated more than half of high school graduates thought the 4th of July celebrated the end of the Civil War, another that the majority of Americans couldn’t simply name the three main branches of American government. The estimated half million frontier settlers who came down America’s first great “highway” beginning in the early 18th century — Ulster Scots, German Lutherans, Moravian bretheren, Amish and Menonite farmers, Presbyterian and Anglican preachers, and Eastern Jews — had no prescient awareness of the diverse nation they were collectively creating. The vast majority were simply ordinary folks who’d crossed oceans to seek a fresh start, religious freedom and a piece of the New World they could claim as home. In the process, the native peoples of North America were largely marginalized and exterminated, a tale as old as the hills, and an entire race was enslaved — mistakes we are still struggling to come to terms with and compensate for today. For this and other reasons, my desire to travel the “Road that made America,” as a prominent Pennsylvania historian called it during a long lunch conversation, has been building in me for at least two decades.

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . January 2018

simple life

TWO VALENTINE WEEKENDS for COASTAL LOVEBIRDS

Birds of a Feather Join us Feb 10-12 or Feb 17-19 Celebrate at our beautiful coast with a cozy room, a waterfront view, creative cuisine, and a scenic cruise. This gift for your favorite “fine feathered friend” is really something to chirp about! Photo courtesy of Wilmington resident Jeffrey P. Karnes, named by audubon.org as one of 15 Awesome Instagram Accounts for Beautiful Bird Photos.

blockade-runner.com 16

That’s why my travels along the Great Wagon Road have been such a soulstirring pleasure — a much-needed reminder of why America has always been great and simply needs to get back in touch with the values and principles that drew our forebears to a wilderness in the first place. In Philadelphia, I dined at the historic City Tavern where the Sons of Liberty plotted the birth of a nation. I sat for a golden hour in a sunlit pew at Christ Church where Washington, Franklin and Betsy Ross worshipped, chatting with a fellow who lives and breathes the values of Benjamin Franklin, American's first true Renaissance man At Lancaster, I dove deep into Amish culture and found myself trying to eat my way through the nation’s oldest farmers’ market and discovering the origins of the revolutionary Conestoga wagon that carried pioneer Americans across the continent. Just down the road in York, where in 1778 the Second Continental Congress signed the Articles of Confederation (a prelude to our Constitution), I sat in on a delightful night of local historians spinning tales about a town where the American Industrial Revolution essentially began. On a cold morning in late November, I attended the 154th reading of Abe Lincoln’s extraordinary Gettysburg Address with a distinguished Lincoln biographer, standing on the very spot in the National Cemetery where Lincoln gave the most inspiring speech in American history. Afterwards, I lunched with the nation’s leading Lincoln impersonator — a biology teacher from Illinois — who told me that “playing Lincoln” had profoundly changed his life in a dozen different ways. The next morning, I walked the famous battlefield at dawn where the course of the Civil War changed over three days in July of 1983. I could swear I heard drums. Two weekends later, my wife and I joined a slow-moving line of cars inching across five miles of soulful Potomac countryside simply to drive — sans headlights — through the annual illumination of the Antietam National Battlefield, the 29th year that more than 1,500 area Scouts and volunteers have placed 23,000 luminaries on the tranquil killing ground where more Americans died on a single day than in any other battle. The next morning, we attended services at the oldest Episcopal church in West Virginia, just across the river in Shepherdstown, a gorgeous little Potomac town where the wounded of Antietam shared Trinity Church on alternate weeks going forward — the Union wounded one week, the wounded boys in butternut and gray the next. In Hagerstown, Maryland, where the German wing of my family got off the GWR to head west to a new life in Cumberland and West Virginia, we attended a wonderful German Christmas market and spent an hour learning about the Colonial origins of Christmas in America during a walking tour of town-founder Jonathan Hager’s original stone house. Our guide was a retired career military man named Max Gross whose love of local history was flat-out contagious. “We are a blend of so many diverse cultures and people in America,” he said, explaining how various aspects of Christmas traditions really came from a dozen different cultures ranging from Poland to Turkey. “We think of these traditions as uniquely ours, but we are the splendid sum of so many cultures and people who came together in a wilderness to form the greatest democracy in history.” I could go on indefinitely about the diverse and lovely Americans I’ve met on my little odyssey through time and history, the sacred places I’ve walked, the many surprising things I’ve managed to learn, and even the hokey tourist traps I’ve explored with boyish glee. For this correspondent, the year ahead holds the promise of more spiritually enriching encounters with people from all walks of American life, a lesson of civic renewal among people who love their towns and communities with a passion that is palpable, a devotion that is true. Despite our present differences, their Great Road ancestors, I suspect, would be proud of how far they — and we — have come. PS Contact Editor Jim Dodson at jim@thepilot.com.

January 2018P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

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The Montagues and Capulets en Pointe On Sunday, Jan. 21, the Sunrise Theater will present the Bolshoi Ballet, captured in HD live from Moscow as they perform the company’s premiere of “Romeo and Juliet.” With choreographer Alexei Ratmansky’s dramatic urgency and Prokofiev’s romantic and cinematic score, this production of Shakespeare’s beloved story of the two starcrossed lovers who defy their feuding families to be together is both fresh and timeless. This is classical ballet at its finest. The show begins at 12:55 p.m. and runs for 2 1/2 delightful, if heart-wrenching, hours. Tickets are $25. Sunrise Theater is located at 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. For more information, call (910) 692-8501 or visit sunrisetheater.com.

Begin your New Year with two of the most celebrated orchestral masterworks of all time: Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Schubert’s Unfinished Symphonies. Beethoven’s “knock of fate” — the most famous four notes in Western civilization — begins an epic journey of transformation that ends in renewal and triumph. Schubert’s Unfinished Symphonies are haunting and uplifting; and the mystery of what prevented him from finishing his most immortal work remains as great today as when the notes first flowed from his quill. Join Maestro David Michael Wolff on Wednesday, Jan. 10, as he leads the Carolina Philharmonic in an unforgettable concert, beginning at 7:30 p.m. at Owens Auditorium, Sandhills Community College, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Tickets range from $30 to $60, and military and student discounts are offered. For more information, call (910) 6870287 or visit www.carolinaphil.org.

Meet the Author A.J. Tata is an author of nine novels; a speaker; a national security expert; and a retired brigadier general of the U.S. Army, who commanded nearly 25,000 troops on his last combat tour in Afghanistan. You can meet Gen. Tata at The Country Bookshop on Saturday, Jan. 13, at 12 p.m. and hear him talk about his latest thriller, Direct Fire, in which Capt. Jake Mahegan is fighting the war on terror in America — right here in North Carolina. The Country Bookshop is located at 140 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. For more information, call (910) 692-3211.

Chamber Music at Weymouth On Sunday, Jan. 7, the popular, Durham-based Mallarmé Chamber Players are coming to Southern Pines as part of the Weymouth Chamber Music Series. These flexible and innovative professional musicians celebrate diversity and innovation in their programs, which often include new or rarely heard works. The evening’s ensemble will feature Elizabeth Phelps on violin, Suzanne Russo on viola, Nate Leyland on cello and Jeremy Thompson on piano — all of whom you will have the opportunity to meet at the reception following the concert. Tickets are $10 for Weymouth members and $20 for non-members and are available at the Weymouth Center office, in person or by phone, 10 a.m.–2 p.m., Monday-Friday; or at the door on the day of the performance. The concert will take place from 3–5 p.m. at the Weymouth Center for the Arts, located at 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. For more information, call (910) 692-6261 or visit www.weymouthcenter.org.

January 2018P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

A Walk in the Winter Woods The towering longleaf pines of the Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve rise up majestically over expanses of wiregrass, ferns and other native plants, providing a habitat for many rare and intriguing creatures. On Saturday, Jan. 6, join a park ranger at 8 a.m. for a 2-mile walk along easy trails to look for dark-eyed juncos, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, ruby-crowned kinglets and other birds visiting North Carolina over the winter. Or just enjoy the glimpse into the past — when longleaf pine forests like this one covered millions of acres in North Carolina and the southeastern U.S. Bring binoculars and field guides if you have them, and dress warmly. The Preserve is located at 1024 Fort Bragg Road in Southern Pines. Call (910) 692-2167 for more information.

Stitches and Clay The Arts Council of Moore County invite you to attend the opening of ACMC’s January exhibit, “Stitches & Clay,” at the Campbell House Galleries on Friday, Jan. 5, from 6 to 8 p.m. The exhibit showcases works by Judy Foushee of Freeman Pottery (miniatures), Rita Ragan (needlework miniatures) and the Sandhills Quilters Guild. Come meet the artists and enjoy light refreshments as well as quilting and sewing demonstrations. Hosts for opening night reception are Anne Jorgensen of Raven Pottery, the Sandhills Quilters Guild, Robin Smith and Dotty Starling. The reception is free and open to the public, and the exhibition will run through Jan. 26. The Campbell House Galleries are located at 482 E. Connecticut Ave. in Southern Pines. For more information, call (910) 692-2787.

The Rooster’s Wife Friday, Jan. 5: Farmer and Adele bring Texas swing, and a whole lot more. $10. Sunday, Jan. 7: The Gibson Brothers, two-time International Bluegrass Music Association EntertainersoftheYear,maketheirannualstandat the Spot in a matinee and evening performance. Doors open at 11:59 a.m. for a 12:45 p.m. brunch and show for $40, or $33 without brunch. The evening performance at 6:45 p.m. includes dinner for $42, or $33 without dinner. Sunday,Jan.14:LouiseMosrieandCliffEberhardt,with insightandlamentations,joyandsorrow,singsongsthatget right to the heart of what matters. $15. Friday, Jan. 19: Ben and Joe (Hunter and Seamons) perform acoustic blues, ragtime and folk music of the Northwest. $10. Sunday, Jan. 21: The Contenders, with their infectious rhythms and sublime two-part harmonies, bring amazing songs to life. With special guest Randy Hughes opening. $15. Friday, Jan. 26: Graymatter plays your favorites and some new songs that will be your favorites at this dance party. $10. Sunday, Jan. 28: Chicago-bred banjo and fiddle player Rachel BaimanbringshernewprojecttotheSpot:songswithamessage, and chops to match. $15. Doors open at 6 p.m. (11:59 a.m. for Jan. 7 brunch performance) and music begins at 6:46 at the Poplar Knight Spot, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Prices given above are advance sale. For more information, call (910) 944-7502 or visit www.theroosterswife.org for tickets.

Musical Depictions and Cheerful Notes On Thursday, Jan. 11, the North Carolina Symphony performs at Lee Auditorium. Rune Bergmann will conduct the evening’s program, which pairs Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” a poignant and thrilling tribute to the composer’s artist friend, with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4, a cheerful and sunny composition. Prior to the 8 p.m. performance, you are invited to meet the musicians in the Band Room, starting at 7 p.m. Tickets cost from $18 to $49 and are available at the door or in advance through the N.C. Symphony Box Office, The Country Bookshop, or the Arts Council of Moore County (Campbell House). Lee Auditorium is located at Pinecrest High School, 250 Voit Gilmore Lane, Southern Pines. For more information, call (877) 627-6724 or visit www.ncsymphony.org.

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New Year, New You Time to ditch the toxins

By Karen Frye

The human body is remarkable.

When you realize how much is going on inside — the synchronicity of the organ functions and systems — you’ll see everything works together like a well-oiled machine.

The body renews itself entirely every seven years. Some of the organs, such as the liver, renew themselves every four to five months. Our skin renews every seven days. New cells are formed to replace the old ones. Our bodies are capable of healing and renewing with no effort on our part, though our world today makes the work a lot more challenging. Environmental toxins, herbicides, chemicals in water, caffeine, alcohol and prescription medications contribute to toxic overloads. Detoxing is not a recent fad. People have been doing various forms of detoxifying for hundreds of years. There are many methods. It is good to find a health care professional to guide you, and if you are on medications, discuss your plans with your health care provider first. There are changes you can make in your life that will give beneficial results with a little effort and willpower. It is best to change your bad habits permanently into better ones, which may take time. You might just notice that you are feeling so much better through the detox process that you may keep some changes as part of your daily lifestyle. Prepare yourself for your detox: Set your mind to succeed. You won’t starve, and your body will appreciate the attention you are devoting to being healthier. Create a journal and record your thoughts and feelings so you can go back and read them later. Clear your kitchen of the foods you want to avoid so you aren’t tempted. Remove all processed foods, sweets, soft drinks, etc. Stock your pantry and refrigerator with seasonal fruits and vegetables, preferably organic. Have berries in the freezer to make smoothies. Plan your schedule so you can get to bed at a reasonable time, and get

enough sleep. Sleeping well helps your organs recharge, and assists the elimination of toxins. Set aside a little time to exercise. Sweat is the body’s way of releasing toxins from the cells. I love Bikram yoga. Not only do you sweat, but the postures stimulate the glands and organs so they function optimally. Drink lemon water with a pinch of Celtic or Himalayan salt upon rising. Use fresh squeezed lemon juice with warm or hot water. This is something that you might consider doing every day even after you finish your detox. And while we are talking about water, you must increase your water intake to at least 90 ounces. One of the most important functions of drinking a lot of water is how it helps the kidneys and liver do their job flushing toxins. Replace your morning coffee with a cup of green tea. Matcha green tea contains the highest amount of antioxidants, and is more flavorful than typical green tea. Drink herbal teas throughout the day; dandelion and red clover are my recommendations. Eliminate red meat, and if you must eat animal protein, choose freerange chicken, or wild salmon (in moderation). Try to eat mostly fruits and vegetables, especially dark, leafy green salads. Fiber is important to keep things moving. Chia seeds are an excellent source. They are not only high in fiber, but loaded with omega-3 fatty acid and high in antioxidants. You can add chia seeds to almost anything. There are “detox kits” that contain herbs to help your body in the process. Please keep in mind that you can do a lot on your own by cleaning up your diet. You can design your detox for a week or longer. You might find that you really like the way you feel. Often you will sleep better, and have more energy and stamina throughout the day. Your skin will become radiant, and your eyes will be clearer. Digestion will be improved, and your immune system will be stronger. Whatever you do this year, set yourself up for success. Think healthy thoughts, eat healthy foods, exercise, and most of all, be happy PS Karen Frye is the owner and founder of Nature’s Own and teaches yoga at the Bikram Yoga Studio.

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T h e O m n i v oro u s R e ad e r

Wrestling Prose

An iconic insider on the art of writing well

By Stephen E. Smith

In his latest book, Draft No. 4: On the

Writing Process, John McPhee deconstructs the process he’s spent a lifetime perfecting: writing on obscure subjects and delighting a discerning readership with technical explanations, entertaining narratives, and meticulous description, all of it couched in impeccable prose.

He begins by analyzing the most complex component of the writing process: structure. Using as an example his New Yorker article on the Pine Barrens, McPhee admits to spending two weeks lying on a picnic table in his backyard staring up into the branches and leaves and “fighting fear and panic” because he couldn’t visualize a structure for the material he’d assembled. Years of extensive research — interviews, articles, books, personal observations, etc., all of it cataloged on coded note cards — had gone into the project, but he couldn’t overcome the dread of banging out that first sentence and arranging the material in a readable form. Eventually, he overcame his writer’s block and produced an article that morphed into the bestselling book, but the experience was painful — and instructive. In an attempt to convey the intricacies of the process, McPhee employs a series of drawings and diagrams that, unfortunately, do little to untangle the complexities of problems he’d confronted. But readers shouldn’t be

deterred. As with many of McPhee’s books, there’s a preliminary learning curve to overcome before landing on the safe side of abstraction. In “Editors and Publishers,” McPhee delves into the internal workings of The New Yorker and the publishing house of Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. His insider anecdotes are informative and humorous and include character sketches of the editors and editorial staff, affectionately detailing their eccentricities. “Mr. Shawn [editor of The New Yorker] actually seemed philosophical about its [an obscenity] presence in the language, but not in his periodical. My young daughters, evidently, were in no sense burdened as he was.” He also contributes an anecdote concerning Shawn’s objection to writers turning in copy about locations that were cold, such as Alaska or Newfoundland: “If he had an aversion to cold places it was as nothing beside his squeamishness in the virtual or actual presence of uncommon food” — although Shawn approved a McPhee proposal to write about eating road kill in rural Georgia. In “Elicitation,” he dispenses useful advice on the art of interviewing, citing as an example his experience with comedian Jackie Gleason. His description of “The Great One,” bits and pieces of relevant detail — Gleason called everyone “pal” — creates a living and breathing facsimile of the comedian, and older readers will find themselves transported back to The Honeymooners and the loveable peccadilloes of the irascible Ralph Kramden. In a Time cover story on Sophia Loren, irony functions as description, succinctly capturing Loren’s appeal: “Her feet are too big. Her nose is too long. Her teeth are uneven. She has the neck, as one of her rivals has put it, of ‘a Neapolitan giraffe.’ Her waist seems to begin in the middle of her thighs, and she has big, half-bushel hips. She runs like a

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fullback. Her hands are huge. Her forehead is low. Her mouth too large. And, mamma mia, she is absolutely gorgeous.” Gleason and Loren notwithstanding, McPhee devotes an entire chapter to a discussion of “frame of reference,” pieces of common knowledge that a writer employs to enhance a subject’s comprehensibility. He cautions against using allusions that don’t possess durability, warning that writers should never assume that anyone has seen a movie that might be used as an allusion. “In the archives of ersatz reference,” he writes, “that one [movies] is among the fattest folders.” He notes that popular culture changes with such rapidity that it’s dangerous for a writer to conclude that any allusion carries the weight of meaning necessary to elucidate a subject. To prove his point, McPhee polled his Princeton students using references such as Paul Newman, Fort Knox, Cassius Clay, Rupert Murdoch and discovered that the majority of his undergrads registered a low degree of recognition — and when it came to identifying Peckham Rye, Churchill Downs, Jack Dempsey, George Plimpton, and Mort Sahl, his students were blissfully ignorant. In his final chapter, McPhee again confronts writer’s block. In a note written to a frustrated student, he suggests a remedy: “Sometimes in a nervous frenzy I just fling words as if I were flinging mud at a wall. Blurt out, heave out, babble out something — anything — as a first draft. With that you’ve achieved a sort of nucleus. Then, as you work it over and alter it, you begin to shape sentences that score higher with eye and ear.” If there’s a fault with McPhee’s writing, and it’s difficult to find even the smallest gaffe, it’s an occasional touch of the dictionary disease: demonym, multiguously, bibulation, horripilation, etc. — words that will force the reader to touch his index finger to the Kindle screen, or God forbid, crack open a dictionary. McPhee is straightforward, practical, and illustrative, detailing the struggles serious writers endure on a daily basis and pointing out, finally, that creativity is the product of what the writer chooses to write about, how he approaches the subject and arranges the material, the skill he demonstrates in describing characters, the kinetic energy of the prose, and the extent to which the reader can visualize the characters and story. As always, he writes with grace and charm, and Draft No. 4 earns a niche on the bookshelf next to Strunk and White’s Elements of Style, the Harbrace College Handbook, Writing Down the Bones, Roget’s International Thesaurus, and the OED. PS Stephen E. Smith is a retired professor and the author of seven books of poetry and prose. He’s the recipient of the Poetry Northwest Young Poet’s Prize, the Zoe Kincaid Brockman Prize for poetry and four North Carolina Press awards.

January 2018P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

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January Books FICTION

Direct Fire, by A.J. Tata

A thriller that cuts to the heart of our cyber-security threat. When Jake Mahegan receives a distress call from Gen. Savage in North Carolina, he rushes to the commander’s home — and walks right into an ambush. Joining forces with Savage’s combat JAG officer, Mahegan follows the trail to a killer, a Syrian refugee-turned-terrorist who vows to avenge the bombing of a Syrian wedding by killing as many Americans as possible. Terrorist cells are gathering in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Hackers are emptying the nation’s banks of millions of dollars. And their final act of vengeance will bring the whole world to its knees.

Munich: A Novel, by Robert Harris

Hugh Legat is a rising star of the British diplomatic service, serving at 10 Downing Street as private secretary to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Rikard von Holz is on the staff of the German Foreign Office — and secretly a member of the anti-Hitler resistance. The two men were friends at Oxford in the 1920s, but have not been in contact since. Now, when Legat flies with Chamberlain from London to Munich, and von Holz travels on Hitler’s train overnight from Berlin, their paths are set on a disastrous collision course. Robert Harris, author of Conspirator: A Novel of Ancient Rome, places characters of historical importance — Hitler, Chamberlain, Mussolini, Daladier — at the heart of an electrifying, novel you can't put down.

The Woman in the Window, by A.J. Finn

With captivating prose Finn crafts a novel about a woman who watches her neighbors through the telephoto lens of her camera. After witnessing a brutal attack, her attempts to contact the authorities turn her life into a nightmare. A fantastic thriller where nothing is as it seems.

Need to Know, by Karen Cleveland

A gripping novel by a CIA insider about an agent tasked with identifying Russian spies living in plain sight. After accessing the computer of a potential Russian operative, Vivian stumbles on a secret dossier of deep-cover agents within America’s borders. A few clicks later, everything that matters to her — her job, her husband, even her four children — is threatened. Vivian becomes torn between loyalty and betrayal, allegiance and treason, love and suspicion. A frightening glimpse into what may be happening today.

The Chalk Man, by C.J. Tudor

In 1986, Eddie and his friends are just kids on the verge of adolescence in a sleepy little English village. The chalk men are their secret code — little chalk stick figures they leave for one another as messages only they can understand. But then a mysterious chalk man leads them to a dismembered body, and nothing is ever the same. In 2016, Eddie gets a letter in the mail, containing a single chalk stick figure. When it turns out that his childhood friends get the same message, they think it could be a prank . . . until

one of them turns up dead. This is a suspense novel of the highest rank where every character is wonderfully compelling, where every mystery has a satisfying payoff, and where the twists will shock even the savviest reader.

The Black Painting, by Neil Olson

There are four cousins in the Morse family, long fractured by the loss of a cursed Goya painting, when their grandfather summons them to his mansion at Owl’s Point. The family finds the old man dead, his horrified gaze pinned on the spot where the painting once hung. As suspects mount in this literary mystery, cousin Teresa hopes to solve the puzzle of the painting and her grandfather’s death, but to do so she must uncover ugly family secrets, and confront those who would keep them hidden.

Green, by Sam Graham-Felsen

Boston, 1992: “House of Pain” is on the radio, Arsenio Hall is on TV, and Bill Clinton is in the White House. The city’s school system is largely segregated and former workingclass neighborhoods are in the early stages of gentrification. Dave (or, as he longs to be called, Green) is the white boy at the mostly black Martin Luther King Middle School, where he is lonely, constantly taunted, and desperate to fit in. Dave’s life takes a sudden turn for the better when he befriends Marlon, who lives in the public housing around the corner from Dave’s own gentrified block. Marlon confounds Dave’s assumptions about black culture: He’s nerdy, neurotic and a Celtics fan whose favorite player is the white, skinny Larry Bird. Together, the two boys seem almost able to resist the contradictory personas forced on them by the outside world. But as the school year progresses, challenges arise in the form of girls and bullies, family secrets and national violence, and Marlon and Dave struggle not to betray themselves or each other in this coming-of-age novel.

Fire Sermon, by Jamie Quarto

A daring debut novel of obsession, lust and salvation by the highly lauded author of the story collection I Want To Show You More, Qurto charts with bold intimacy and immersive sensuality the life of a married woman entirely devoted to her husband, Thomas, their two beautiful children, and to God. Devoted, that is, until what begins as a platonic intellectual and spiritual exchange between writer Maggie and poet James transforms into an erotically charged bond that challenges Maggie’s sense of loyalty and morality, drawing her deeper into the darkness of desire. NONFICTION

Jackie, Janet & Lee: The Secret Lives of Janet Auchincloss and Her Daughters Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill, by J. Randy Taraborrelli

If the Bouvier women personified beauty, style and fashion, it was their lust for money and status that drove them to seek out powerful men, no matter what the cost to themselves or to those they stepped on in their relentless climb to the top. Based on hundreds of new interviews with friends and family of the Bouviers, among them their own half-brother, as well as letters

B oo k s h e l f

and journals, Taraborrelli paints an extraordinary psychological portrait of two famous sisters and their ferociously ambitious mother.

The Meaning of Birds,

Contemporary • traditional • HandWrougHt

by Simon Barnes One of our most eloquent nature writers explores how birds achieve the miracle of flight; why birds sing; what they tell us about the seasons of the year; and what their presence tells us about the places they inhabit. The Meaning of Birds muses on the uses of feathers, the drama of raptors, the slaughter of pheasants, the infidelities of geese, and the strangeness of feeling sentimental about blue tits while enjoying a chicken sandwich. Barnes explores both the intrinsic wonder of what it is to be a bird and the myriad ways in which birds can help us understand the meaning of life.

Stirring the Pot with Benjamin Franklin: A Founding Father’s Culinary Adventures, by Rae Katherine

Eighmey In this remarkable work, Eighmey presents Franklin’s delight and experimentation with food throughout his life. At 16, he began dabbling in vegetarianism. In his early 20s, he convinced his printing press colleagues to forgo their breakfast of beer and bread for porridge. He applied his scientific discoveries to the kitchen and ate with curiosity in France and England on his diplomatic missions. Franklin saw food as key to understanding the developing culture of the United States, penning essays presenting maize as the defining grain of America. Stirring the Pot conveys all of this Founding Father’s culinary adventures, demonstrating that his love of food shaped not only his life but also the character of the young nation he helped build.

The Monk of Mokha, by

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Dave Eggers From the best-selling author of The Circle and What Is the What, a heart-pounding true story that weaves together the history of coffee, the struggles of everyday Yemenis living through civil war, and the courageous journey of a young man — a Muslim and U.S. citizen — following the most American of dreams.

January 2018P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

B oo k s h e l f

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

Dear Girl, by Amy Krouse

Rosenthal Sometimes you feel pink and sparkly; sometimes you feel just the opposite. Sometimes you want to ask: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? Sometimes you want to make your room awesome (and sometimes I wish you would just want to make your bed!). Sometimes you are brave and sometimes you are tentative, but whatever you are, you are awesome. From the author of Uni the Unicorn, in this celebration of girl power no obstacle is too high, no dream too big, and no wish too grand for a strong woman. (All ages.)

when you need us... we’re right here.

I Am Harriet Tubman, by Brad Meltzer, illustrated by Chris Elipoulos A few years ago, best-selling author and History Channel host Brad Meltzer, motivated by his own experience raising three children, decided to offer them a different kind of hero. He was tired of the princesses and reality stars that people looked up to, and knew from his love of history that there were incredible real world heroes that children would be fascinated by and look up to. The Ordinary People Change the World series was born as a way to give today’s kids the right role models and to encourage them to live heroically. Harriet Tubman, the newest addition to the series, is an American hero who had a pivotal role in the fight against slavery and will become the first African-American woman to have her face appear on American currency when the $20 bill is revamped in 2020. (Available January 16. Ages 6-10.) Upside-Down Magic: Dragon Overnight, by Sarah Mlynowski,

Emily Jenkins and Lauren Myracle Nory, Elliott, Andres and Bax are classmates in Dunwiddle Magic School’s Upside-Down Magic class. In a classroom in which students all have magical abilities, lessons are unconventional, students are unpredictable, and magic has a tendency to turn wonky at the worst possible moment. Dragon Overnight, will be published Jan. 30 and is the fourth book in the fun Upside-Down Magic series. Meet the authors Friday, Feb. 2 at 4 p.m. at The Country Bookshop. This event is free and open to the public. (Ages 7-10.) PS

Seeking a hospital to care for your family? Choose one with quality that’s verified by trusted outside sources. You won’t find another health system from the Triangle to the coast with the quality and scope of services offered at Cape Fear Valley. And you won’t find one as committed to your family’s health.

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Compiled by Kimberly Daniels Taws and Angie Tally. PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

January 2018

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Ho m e town

By Any Other Name It still feels like home

By Bill Fields

Not long ago, to go with an application

and prove that I am who I said I am, I had to retrieve my birth certificate. There are no surprises on it, mind you. I was born at what was then called Moore Memorial Hospital on a May morning much longer ago than seems possible. But my birth year isn’t as jarring as my footprints on the reverse side, which are so tiny they can’t possibly belong to someone who has gotten his money’s worth on shoe leather since high school. Although the legal paperwork of my coming into the world clearly notes that it happened in Pinehurst, sometimes I don’t know where I’m from. Let me explain. I have lived nearly six decades telling folks: “I was born in Pinehurst.” “I was born in Pinehurst but grew up about five miles away.” “I was born in Pinehurst and grew up in Southern Pines.” “I grew up in Southern Pines.” “I grew up around Pinehurst.” “I come from a town about 70 miles south of Raleigh.” “Moore County.” “Between the mountains and the beach.” I suspect I’m not the only person to go through this geographical twister because what is a hometown? Is it where you were born? Where you were raised? Where you currently live? The tagline for this monthly column states that I am a native of Southern Pines, but am I really? My first days were in the 28374 not the 28387 and, for six months after graduating from college, I rented above what is now Dugan’s Pub a small apartment with factory-office carpeting and radiators that hissed an angry song on cold nights. A few years later, I lived in a cottage in Aberdeen that was lovely notwithstanding the electrical fire that started late on a November Saturday night and made me nostalgic for the vocal — but safe — heat in my

$150-a-month home above the bar. If I am talking to golfers about my roots, “Pinehurst” is my go-to because they know where it is. Occasionally I elaborate and say I was born a couple of par-5s away from Course No. 2. But until I entered my teens, Pinehurst might as well have been Pittsburgh, so rarely did I visit. The village was what we skirted en route to my grandmother’s house in Jackson Springs on Sunday afternoons, an opponent for the Southern Pines Blue Knights and a bit of a mystery to someone who rarely ventured farther west than Knollwood Fairways on Midland Road. Pinehurst felt a little less foreign when I found out about “Fields Road,” a street named for a family with some connections to my dad. The road sign would have been a great backdrop for a selfie if there had been such a thing back then, but discovering it didn’t shake my identity as a kid from Southern Pines. Arriving at Pinecrest reinforced how cloistered each town in the southern part of the county was. In those early weeks of sophomore year, I met — and became friends with — students who lived only a handful of miles from me: farm-strong football players from West End; Pinehurst folks who knew the quiet of a locals-only summer; a boy who had been the “Red Devil” mascot for Aberdeen High. The way the area has grown over the last couple of decades, town-limit markers don’t mean much on the commercial strips as franchise yields to franchise where U.S. 1 turned the corner onto Highway 15-501 and so much development seemed to follow. The core areas of the distinct dots on a map remain, certainly changed but recognizable, like the passport photos over one’s lifetime. For the last three decades, during which New England has been home but not home, I have an out when it comes to an explanation: “I live in Connecticut but am originally from North Carolina.” Many times, though, I can’t resist making the finer distinction as well, pointing out that where I was born is not where I was raised. I didn’t need my name on my street to know it was mine. PS Southern Pines native Bill Fields, who writes about golf and other things, moved north in 1986 but hasn’t lost his accent.

January 2018

a WRITER'S LIFE

How to Survive a Book Tour Patience, planning and a sense of serenity

By Wiley Cash

I have been

Illustration by Romey Petite

fortunate to publish three novels in the past five years, and I have been even more fortunate that my publisher has sponsored national book tours for each of my books. After the years it takes to write and publish a novel — much of that time spent in solitude and self-doubt — it is very rewarding to visit a bookstore, library or college campus and meet people who have read your work. I love hitting the road to answer questions, sign books and learn what readers are reading when they are not reading my books. When I first sat down to write my debut novel, I never imagined I would be so fortunate.

For my most recent tour in support of The Last Ballad, I spent almost two full months on the road, most of it alone. The wonderful time spent with readers is only a fraction of what you do when you are on book tour. The vast majority of your time is spent running through airports, eating fast food late at night, lying awake in hotel rooms, missing your family and wondering if — in the end — the grind of the road helps book sales. This essay is about how to survive those many long, lonely moments. Here are a few steps you can take to overcome the perils of the book tour. I ask you to keep in mind that this is what has worked for me. Because of many factors, a book tour is not the same experience for everyone; this is based only on mine. Gear: If you will be taking any flights longer than an hour, consider getting a neck pillow. Yes, they are awkward to pack and you will look silly carrying it through the airport, but nothing is more awkward or silly than your head lolling against your seatmate’s shoulder or your chin bouncing against your chest while you fight sleep in midair. A vacuum-sealed, stainless-steel thermos also comes in handy: It will keep water cool and coffee hot for hours while you travel. You may also want to invest in an extra phone charger with a long cord. Outlets in hotels are often located behind the headboard or bedside table, and a long cord makes it

easy to charge your phone and use it as an alarm clock without moving furniture in your room. Finally, take a book, and make sure to take a book you actually want to read instead of a book you think you should be reading. Airport: Always check your bag if your host or publisher is paying for your travel because book tours can be long, and a day off from lugging your luggage is a gift. Otherwise, find a carry-on bag that holds a lot of stuff and is easy to transport. After checking your bag, empty your pockets before security and put everything except your ID and boarding pass into one of the small, zippered compartments on your carry-on luggage. There is nothing more annoying than standing at security while people empty their pockets before going through the metal detector. The same people will hold up the line on the other side of security while spending even longer putting everything back into their pockets. Do not be that person. For the same reason, wear shoes that are easy to slip off and on, and go ahead and take your laptop out of your bag. If you find yourself holding up the security line for any reason, do not be cute about it. The security line is not an open mic. There is nothing cute or funny about wasting people’s time when they are rushing to catch a flight. Food: Except for in a few cities, the food is irredeemably bad at most airports. There is no way around this. I have no suggestions to make about airport food except to avoid it if you can. Once you arrive at your destination, spend a few minutes scouting around online for good food that is nearby. When eating on the road, I walk a fine line between finding something convenient and fast while also wanting to have a distinct culinary experience. If I am in Austin I want to have the best barbecue. If I am in New Orleans I want to have the best gumbo. If I am in New England I want to have the best clam chowder. Keep in mind that “the best” does not always mean the “most famous.” Trust the people at the bookstore and hotel when it comes to food. They are locals. They know. There is also no judgment, at least not from me, for eating cheap pizza or a quick sandwich. You will often find yourself short on time, and settling on something simple is an easy way to make quick decisions. A book tour is not a vacation, and you cannot plan to eat like you are on vacation. Hotel: I have a particular routine when I check into hotels. I like to feel settled, so if I am staying for more than one night I unpack the necessary clothes and place them in drawers, and then I put my shaving kit on the bathroom counter before stashing my luggage in the closet. Then I turn on the television (CNN or ESPN) and iron the shirts and pants I plan to wear. I always iron during leisure time because there is nothing more hectic than ironing as you are preparing to rush out to a bookstore or catch a taxi to the airport. Clothes unpacked and ironed, I unplug the alarm clock by the bed. If you do not do this you can plan on it going off at 5:00 a.m. and being unable to figure out how to stop it. Go ahead and unplug it and set the alarm on your cellphone. No outlets close to the bedside table? Thank goodness you have your extra-long cord for the charger. Are you a coffee drinker? Most hotels have in-room coffee makers with coffee available. Some hotels have free coffee in the lobby. No matter what the setup, avoid

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Styrofoam cups because coffee served in Styrofoam cups is an offense to humanity that cannot be forgiven. I know of a few writers who pack their favorite mugs along with fresh coffee and French presses. This is not a bad idea. Family: I have traveled with my family, and I have traveled without my family. It is easier to travel without my family, especially if we are staying in one hotel room, but it is also very lonely. To offset said loneliness I will often FaceTime with my wife and our girls. This inevitably ends with one child or another wanting to hold the phone while the other child gets upset, which inevitably ends with the phone being dropped or hung up or repossessed by my wife. Everyone gets off the phone feeling a little sadder and more frustrated than before the call. Sometimes I find it better to have my wife text me photos of herself with our daughters, and she posts many of these on Instagram so I can flip through them before bed. But I always go to bed feeling a little sad. I often wonder if it would be easier and less frustrating just to hear their voices instead of seeing their faces. For me, the easiest part of book tour is standing in front of a group of readers and discussing my book. The hardest parts are being away from my family and the constant feeling that I am running late for the next thing, whether that thing is a flight, a reservation, an interview or ride. But a book tour can also feature pleasant surprises that masquerade as disappointments. At the end of the most recent tour I was on the way home from out west when I missed a flight in Salt Lake City due to fog. It was noon, and the next flight that could get me home to Wilmington would not leave until midnight, and I would have to connect in Atlanta and would not arrive home until late the following morning. After getting my new tickets I had two options: sulk in the airport all day or go out and see something of Salt Lake City, a place I had never visited before. I caught a cab into the city and had an incredible day. I visited the King’s English, one of the most iconic bookstores in the country. I had lunch and a beer at a local brewery. I visited the Mormon Temple downtown, and I ended the day with an impromptu decision to catch a Utah Jazz game before catching the train back to the airport. It was an exhausting day that had begun with great disappointment, but it ended in joy and the certainty that despite how long I had been away and how far I was from North Carolina, I was headed back to my wife and children. I unzipped my backpack, removed my neck pillow, and settled in for the long flight(s) home. PS Wiley Cash lives in Wilmington with his wife and their two daughters. His new novel The Last Ballad is available wherever books are sold.

January 2018P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

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I n T he S pirit

Hot Toddies

Warming up your winter cocktail repertoire

By Tony Cross

Photograph by Tony Cross

Maybe it’s just me, but I think whiskey

carries over better with folks during the colder months. I drink it year-round and definitely had my share of Boulevardiers over the summer, but I tend to drink whisky and whiskey straight more so during this time of year. However, at the end of the night, I usually prefer to mix myself a hot toddy of some sort. Toddies are simple drinks to make, with hardly any ingredients to grab from your kitchen. I desire them during certain late nights because they are soothing, and don’t pack the punch of imbibing it straight. I usually like to mess around with different ratios, bitters, and liqueurs to put a spin on the classics, and the toddy is no different. A good hot cocktail can put aches and pains at bay, even if it’s only for a few hours.

The first mention of a whiskey toddy is written in Jerry Thomas’s 1862 book The Bar-Tenders Guide, , but it’s referred to as an Irish Whiskey Punch: “This is the genuine Irish beverage. It is generally made with one-third pure whiskey, two-thirds boiling water, in which the sugar has been dissolved. If lemon punch, the rind is rubbed on the sugar, and a small proportion of juice is added before the whiskey is poured in.” Let’s break that down. One-third of Irish whiskey can be 2 ounces, and the hot water should be 4. The “lemon punch” is nothing more than an oleo-saccharum (oil-sugar). To do this, take

the peel from one lemon (avoiding the pith, as it will add bitterness) and place it into a small cup-sized container. Add half a cup of baker’s sugar on top of the peels, and seal. Let sit for at least four hours. This will extract the oils from the lemon peels into the sugar. In a small pot, add 4 ounces of water and put it on medium-high heat. Add the lemon-sugar, and stir until the sugar has dissolved. The amount of oleo-saccharum to add to your toddy is up to you; I recommend starting out with 1/2 ounce. Renowned bartender Jim Meehan has his version of a hot whiskey in his newly published book, Meehan’s Bartender Manual. In it, he mixes Thomas’s Irish Whiskey Punch and Whiskey Skin. Thomas’s Whiskey Skin is whiskey, boiling water and a lemon peel. Meehan recalls his first hot whiskey when he visited Ireland for the first time in 1997: “I was no stranger to hot toddies, but I’d never tasted one with a clove-studded lemon wedge, which serves the same steam- and heat-mitigating function as the head on an Irish Coffee. Since alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water, if you combine boiling hot water with alcohol, heady fumes will evaporate from the glass, repelling all but the most intrepid imbibers.” That first whiff of a hot toddy might send you into a coughing frenzy. Meehan’s recipe is also simple:

Hot Whiskey (Meehan’s Bartender Manual, 2017) 4 ounces hot water 1 1/2 ounces Powers Irish Whiskey (Jameson will work, too) 1 ounce honey syrup Garnish with 1 lemon wedge studded with 3 cloves Honey Syrup (Makes 16 ounces) 8 ounces filtered water 12 ounces honey

PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . January 2018

I n T he S pirit

THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF ANYTHING YOU WANT.

Simmer the water and honey in a pot over medium heat (approximately 180˚ F) until the honey dissolves. Cool and bottle. I’m sure you can see how making a traditional Whiskey Skin wouldn’t be the least bit interesting if you ordered one at the bar, or if you made one at home. I’m not saying it wouldn’t do the trick, I’m just saying. That’s why myriad barmen implement their own spin on today’s toddy. I’ll admit, I usually keep mine simple: bourbon or cognac with a rich demerara syrup, aromatic bitters and a squeeze of lemon. One week when under the weather, I did whip together something healthy and tasty. Maybe it wasn’t healthy, but I felt better afterwards. Just as with any other classic drink, learn the basics and why it works. I chose High West’s American Prairie Bourbon. Why? Because it was the bourbon whiskey closest to my hand on the shelf. I used echinacea tea — this particular tea helped soothe my throat when I was sick the year prior — added fresh lemon for the citrus, and a local honey and ginger syrup for the sugar. For spice, I threw in a few dashes of Teapot Bitters from Adam Elmegirab (available online; flavors of vanilla, tea and baking spices). Easy to make, and really good going down. If you start with the basics, and learn why the specs work, it will become easier to play with other ingredients and make your own specialty toddy.

Hard Day’s Night 1 1/2 ounces bourbon (I used High West American Prairie) 4 ounces (boiling hot) Traditional Medicinal Throat Coat Echinacea Tea (available at Nature’s Own) 1/2 ounce honey-ginger syrup 1/4 ounces fresh lemon 3 dashes Dr. Adam Elmegirab Teapot Bitters Preheat a coffee mug with hot water. Add all ingredients into heated mug and stir lightly for a few revolutions. Add a twist of lemon.

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Honey-ginger syrup In a small pot, combine 1/2 cup honey (depending where you buy your honey, it will taste different; store bought — not local — will taste very sweet) 1/2 cup of water and 1 ounce fresh ginger juice (if you don’t have a juicer, grate organic ginger into a cheesecloth or nut milk bag and squeeze the juice into a container). Place over medium-high heat, and stir for a few minutes until all three ingredients have married. PS Tony Cross is a bartender who runs cocktail catering company Reverie Cocktails in Southern Pines.

January 2018P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

The Carolina Philharmonic presents

Symphonic Masterworks: Beethoven’s Fifth and Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphonies

Triumphant & Exhilarating Wednesday, January 10, 2018 at 7:30 pm

Owens Auditorium at Sandhills Community College Begin your New Year with two of the most celebrated orchestral masterworks of all time: BEETHOVEN’S “FIFTH” AND SCHUBERT’S “UNFINISHED” SYMPHONIES. Join MAESTRO WOLFF as he leads THE CAROLINA PHILHARMONIC in an unforgettable concert. Photo by John Gessner

Wednesday, February 7, 2018 at 7:30pm

The Carolina Philharmonic presents

A Night at the Opera Owens Auditorium at Sandhills Community College FOUR GUEST OPERATIC SOLOISTS will regale you with some of your favorite arias, duets, trios, and quartets from the world of opera. DAVID MICHAEL WOLFF leads THE CAROLINA PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA in one of our most dramatic and acclaimed concerts of the year.

GET TICKETS Starting at $30 general with discounts for students and active military

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T he k it c he n g arde n

Cuppa Your Own

Tea is a natural in the Sandhills

By Jan Leitschuh

Dark, wet days brighten

considerably with a “cuppa,” warding off chilly winds and damp spirits. The Brits have long known the restorative power of tea.

I had a chance to hike the Great Glen Way in Scotland a few years back — we did it in a civilized fashion, stopping at bed-and-breakfasts for the night. Always, waiting for us, was a tea setup in the room, and always, we made a cup after a long day of walking. The tea never failed to work its magic reviving tired hikers. While we associate tea with the United Kingdom, it actually originated in the Far East, as in “all the tea in China.” Few realize the tea plant also grows well in many parts of North Carolina. Old plantations in South Carolina are often found to have a few old plants. The gardens here at Weymouth sport a healthy specimen, too. Surprised? Yet no one is surprised that camellias live in the Sandhills. Tea does indeed come from a camellia plant, and that variety is Camellia sinensis, the tea camellia. Seems like a kitchen gardener could have a little fun with tea. A few years back I bought a plant on a visit to Charleston, South Carolina, and installed it in my yard. When I had the good fortune to meet enthusiast and prominent North Carolina tea grower Christine Parks last month, I pumped her for further instructions. The owner of the garden club mecca Camellia Forest Tea Gardens, Parks grows her artisanal teas near Chapel Hill. Delving in after first exposure, the more Parks learned, the more she was hooked. She was seized with the notion of teas, and growing the tea plants. Here, she thought, “was a passion that would keep me learning for the rest of my life, growing the plant, processing the leaves, the history and culture. More importantly, I just love working with the leaf, the aromas of the leaf — from the plants warming in the sunshine and the leaves drying.” Popular in springtime for tours, Camellia Forest Tea Gardens has about half an acre in tea, “with hundreds of plants and many different varieties collected from all over the world, especially cold-hardy varieties that do well in our climate and throughout the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states,” says Parks. A prominent North Carolina tea expert, Parks offers hands-on workshops. “(Husband) David’s family has been growing tea in their Chapel Hill garden for more than 35 years,” she says. “We started this current garden in 2006 to test new varieties and to provide a resource for gardeners who were interested in growing tea.” No bright, showy blooms for the tea camellia. While its flowers are pale,

small and not particularly showy, its green matter is highly valued. A bushy evergreen shrub, sometimes even a small tree, this plant’s leaves and leaf buds are harvested to produce tea. From this species of camellia comes white tea, green tea, oolong, black and pu-erh teas. The plant matter is processed differently to produce varying levels of oxidation, which gives us those different types of tea to drink. Camellias prefer Zones 7-9, and here in the Sandhills, we are 8a. Tea plants are best in semishade, though commercial growers use full sun and drip irrigation. A half-day of sun is probably ideal. They love sandy, slightly acid soil — sound like any place we know? — with lots of organic matter, similar to azaleas. Mulch and regular water are essential to helping a new plant get started. Fifty inches of rainfall a year, or more, with a little help in dry times, is preferred. The shrubs make screens or background plants, and the plant is mildly resistant to damage by deer. They grow a strong taproot, and are unaffected by strong winds. The small flowers are a useful source of pollen to support bees over the winter. Tea plants will grow into a tree if left undisturbed, but cultivated plants are pruned to waist height for ease of plucking. Fertilize lightly in spring with a balanced fertilizer, but if more growth is desired, don’t over-fertilize — more water will bring on new growth. Skip harvest the first few years to give the plant a chance to establish itself. The young spring growth that the bush produces in “flushes” is prized for tea, and this is the season that draws the garden clubs and other visitors to Parks’ tiny tea farm. These “flushes” are harvested for processing. Plucking stimulates new growth in a few weeks. Fresh leaves contain about 4 percent caffeine, as well as other mildly stimulating compounds, including theobromine. The young, light green leaves are harvested for tea production — look for the short white hairs on the underside. Home gardeners picking for the first time might aim for the first two leaves and the unopened bud at the end of a twig. Older leaves are deeper green. Different leaf ages produce different tea qualities, since their chemical compositions are different. Usually, the tip (bud) and the first two to three leaves are harvested for processing. A palm-full of fresh shoots should yield a cup of tea, when dried. It takes many shoots to make a pound of tea. White tea may be the easiest to start with, since it is the least processed. Harvest one bud, or a leaf and a bud. Choose an area with good circulation, warm temperatures and about 65 percent humidity, explains Parks’ informative website, teaflowergardens.com. Let the leaves wither in the shade, until they look like they are starting to dry out, then complete the drying in an oven

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with very low temperatures — 170-200 degrees. This might take 15-20 minutes, so stay close. Store in an airtight container for up to a year. Green tea is also worth trying. “The least oxidized tea, leaves are heated to inactivate enzymes that transform tea catechins into theaflavins and thearubigins. These components are part of what contribute to the unique flavors of green versus black and oolong,” according to teaflowergardens. com. Harvest two leaves and a bud in the morning, and spread out on a tray with good circulation. Heat the leaves for about 3-5 minutes using either steam (a vegetable steamer will do) or by stirring the fresh leaves in a dry pan until they are moist and hot. Depending on how much you have, roll the leaves in a clean cloth (or your hands for smaller amounts) to release the juices. Dry in an oven at a low temperature, as with white tea. Parks still finds the process captivating: “I was hooked by the aromas of the leaf — fresh in the sunshine and as it went through processing to tea.” Processing the tea leaf promotes the development of new chemical compounds which alter its taste as well as its properties. It can be difficult to generalize by type of tea as to the health benefits of each, and there is some overlap. Over 4,000 years ago, tea was drunk strictly as medicine, to both stimulate and detoxify. Gradually, it became popular as a delicious, bitter beverage consumed for its own sake. The health benefits still exist, with today’s science validating its original use. Besides comfort, the leaves have been used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat asthma, acting as a bronchodilator. Due to its antioxidant powers, tea is being investigated for benefits in relation to cancer prevention, weight loss, strengthening the immune system, preventing cell mutations and in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. The best time to visit the garden, says Parks, is when tea is growing from early May through October. With a nominal charge for tea tastings, along with more formal workshops by request, Camellia Forest Tea Gardens offers tours by appointment for groups and individuals. Two popular free open house events in late May and October highlight the tea garden. “We love to learn, and share our experiences growing tea in North Carolina,” says Parks. PS Parks can be reached by email at teaflowergardens@ gmail.com, through the website at www.teaflowergardens.com or on Facebook (Camellia Forest Tea Gardens). To order tea plants, contact the nursery directly at www.camforest.com. Jan Leitschuh is a local gardener, avid eater of fresh produce and co-founder of the Sandhills Farm to Table Cooperative.

January 2018P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

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F ood for tho u g ht

Winter Stews

On a cold winter’s night, wrap your hands around a bowl and you will begin to understand why these hearty one-pot meals have sustained people in the South for centuries

By Jane Lear

A stew, with its deep,

Illustration by laurel holden

soulful flavor and intoxicating aroma, is a stellar example of what can happen when household economy meets benign neglect. The main ingredient is often an inexpensive cut of meat, and it is perfectly comfortable on a back burner while you tend to other things. A stew offers comfort and sustenance, makes a great party dish since it’s at its best when prepared ahead, and ranges from homey (chicken and dumplings) to haute (boeuf bourguignon).

The term stew, by the way, generally refers to a mixture simmered until it makes its own thick sauce. The technique is an unhurried, transformative one that results in a spoon-friendly meal that is far more than the sum of its parts. Beyond that, though, things get murky. It’s difficult to separate stews from bogs, burgoos, chowders, gumbos, hashes, muddles, mulls and purloos, and frankly, I don’t want to even try. What distinguishes them all in my book is that they are thoughtful, unpretentious and highly adaptable to seasonal ingredients or the contents of your larder. And given our increased appetite for global flavors, the Persian chicken stew called fesenjan (with walnuts and pomegranate seeds), a Mexican posole (pork, hominy, and chiles), a Moroccan tagine (lamb, prunes and apricots), or a Brazilian feijoada (black beans, bacon and chorizo) are well within the reach of any home cook with access to a good supermarket. One of the most famous Southern contributions to the genre is Brunswick stew. The standard line is that it originated in Brunswick County,

Virginia, on a hunting trip in 1828, when Dr. Creed Haskins’s black camp cook, Jimmy Matthews, made a squirrel stew bolstered with onions, stale bread and seasonings. This provenance is hotly debated among aficionados in Brunswick County, Georgia, and Brunswick County, North Carolina. And let’s face it, it seems reasonable to presume that Native Americans in the region were concocting stews of wild game long before anyone else arrived on the scene. “In that sense,” wrote John Egerton in his masterful Southern Food: At Home, on the Road, in History, “there was Brunswick stew before there was a Brunswick.” These days, the squirrel in Brunswick stew has been displaced by chicken or other domesticated meats, and additions include a highly peppered melange of vegetables such as onions, potatoes, tomatoes, butter beans and corn. I tend to prefer it with rabbit or chicken, and even though the meat is traditionally shredded into long strands, keeping it in bite-size chunks makes a nice contrast with the tender vegetables. There are many other renowned stews to be found in the South, including the burgoo of Kentucky (similar to Brunswick, it’s unique in its use of mutton or lamb); the terrapin stew of Maryland and the Eastern Shore of Virginia; oyster stew, which you’ll find all along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts; and Pine Bark Stew, which is said to have originated along the Pee Dee River near Florence, South Carolina, in the 1700s. The true origin of the name is lost in the mists of time — there are as many hypotheses as there are recipes — but the dark brown stew incorporates freshwater fish such as bass, trout or bream into a flavorful slurry of bacon, potatoes, onions, tomatoes (sometimes in the form of canned soup and/or catsup) and often curry powder. And then there is the Frogmore stew of South Carolina and Georgia. Named after an old sea island settlement and sometimes called Beaufort stew or a seafood or Lowcountry boil, this crowd-pleasing jumble of shrimp, spicy smoked link sausage, corn on the cob, and often crab and potatoes is at home anywhere on the southeast Atlantic coast. Frogmore stew is eaten differently

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than other stews: After the ingredients are boiled, they’re drained before being heaped on a large platter and typically served outside on newspapercovered tables, with an abundant supply of beer and wine. In other words, what is not to love? A favorite stew of mine is one that does not have a Southern provenance, but it sure is good, and can be easily cobbled together for a weeknight supper or casual evening with friends. The star of the show is escarole, a type of endive that at first glance looks much like a loose head of lettuce. Although the leaves turn a bit drab in color when cooked, don’t let that deter you. They also become supple and succulent, and their pleasant bitterness plays beautifully with two humble, often unsung ingredients: white beans and Italian sausage. This stew is a happy reminder that the word thrift is often a synonym for delicious. And if you’ve been wanting to incorporate more beans and greens into your diet, it’s a great place to start. Escarole, White Bean and Sausage Stew Serves 4 to 6 (the recipe can easily be doubled) Like so much of my culinary repertoire, this stew hearkens back to my years at Gourmet magazine, where it was a staff favorite. The recipe was originally from American Brasserie, a cookbook by Chicago chefs Rick Tramonto and Gale Gand, and the only embellishments you need are a loaf of crusty bread and, for after, a crunchy green salad. If I can’t find escarole for some reason, I stir in leftover cooked kale, collards or other pot greens. And although diced plum tomatoes add freshness, color and a hit of acidity, if you can’t find good ones, then leave them out. If you’re fortunate enough to have leftovers, a spoonful or two makes a good topping for crostini. 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling over finished stew 1 pound bulk Italian sausage (sweet and/or hot), broken into bite-size pieces About 5 large garlic cloves, minced 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste 1 head escarole, washed, trimmed, and cut into 2-inch pieces 3 cups cooked or canned white beans such as great northern or navy (drained and rinsed if canned) 3 cups chicken broth 1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into a few pieces 1/2 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more for sprinkling over finished stew 2 plum tomatoes, diced 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley Coarse salt and freshly ground fresh pepper Heat the oil in a deep large skillet or other heavy wide pot over moderately high heat until hot. Brown the sausage, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes, then cook, stirring, just until garlic is softened, a minute or so. Add the escarole and cook, turning with tongs, until wilted. (You can add the escarole in batches if necessary, depending on the size and depth of your pot.) Add the beans and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Add the broth and bring to a gentle boil. (You can make the stew ahead up to this point. Let it cool completely, uncovered, before refrigerating, covered. Then reheat before continuing.) Stir in the butter, tomatoes, and about half the parsley, then cook, stirring, until the butter is melted and the stew is hot. Season with salt and pepper. Ladle the stew into warmed bowls and sprinkle with remaining parsley. Serve with olive oil and Parmesan. PS The former senior articles editor at Gourmet magazine, food writer Jane Lear has been based in New York for 30-odd years. There are some relatives in Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia who believe she is still going through a phase after college.

January 2018P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

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January 2018P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

P appadaddy

A Grave Conversation

Technically speaking, it’s a different world up there

By Clyde Edgerton

My parents were born in 1902

Illustration by Harry Blair

and 1904 into homes without electricity. That kind of describes a starting point regarding my relationship to modern technology.

I remember an old Model T truck we kept in our backyard when I was a child. To start the engine, you inserted a crank into a hole below the radiator in the front grill. Then with the ignition turned on (after you’d primed the engine with the choke) you turned the crank until the engine started. Our truck was equipped with a wooden trough across the back end of the truck bed — where the tailgate goes. At the end of the trough was a circular saw. You could jack up the back of the truck, place a saw-belt around a tire or axle, the belt would turn the saw, and you could cut firewood from logs. My grandfather (born 1870) used to cutting wood with an ax, thought the contraption was unnecessary. Once, when he saw a neighbor cooking on a grill, he said, “We used to cook inside and go to the bathroom outside. Now they’re turning that around.” After automobile electric windows, air conditioning and automatic transmissions came along in the ’40s and ’50s, my father and mother would have nothing to do with them (until the ’70s). Now, on many days, I think about sitting by my father’s grave in Durham and having a conversation with him. He died in 1980. “Daddy, how’s it going?” I would say. “Nothing much happening on my end. How’s it going up there?” “Right much happening on the technology end,” I’d say. “I figured that might be coming. What about on the morality end?” “Not much there . . . that seems to stay kind of constant. But on the technology part, I was just thinking about how when you bought a car for the family you always wanted the windows that were rolled up with a handle, no air conditioning and a straight transmission.” “Oh yeah, I didn’t like the extras. But go ahead and feed me some new facts about technology, maybe politics, economics.”

“Let’s stay with technology,” I’d say. “No, wait a minute. On the politics: Do you remember Garland Fushee? The man who lived next to Tee Rawlings, service station?” “Of course. How could anybody forget Garland Fushee?” “Well, think about Garland being president,” I’d say. “Garland Fushee?” “Yes sir. Remember about how much Garland loved golf, and how much he would have loved to tweet about people he didn’t like?” “Garland wasn’t a bird,” Daddy would say. “Oh, that’s right. Sorry. Tweeting is something people do now. It’s connected in a roundabout way to technology. Connected to advances since the computer.” “Computer? I remember that computer on campus at Chapel Hill back in 1971. Remember when we went in that building for a drink of water and you showed it to me. It filled up a room.” “I do remember that. By the way, here in Wilmington, we buy water now — those who can afford it.” “You buy water? What in the world?” Daddy would say. “Long story,” I’d say. “It gets us over into economics, always connected to politics. Turns out our water problems are good for business.” “How so?” “Bottled-water business is looking up. And an upriver business releases chemicals into the water and a bunch of downriver businesses benefit: funeral homes, cremation services, pharmacies, hospitals, tombstone makers, florists.” “Oh, I see. Hmmmm. Sounds like they’re finally backing off on regulations.” “That’s the idea.” “All in all, looks like I may have checked out at about the right time.” “You could say that, Daddy. We’ll chat again in a few years. See how things are going.” “Let’s do that, Son. See you then.” And then I’d hop in my car and drive it back to Wilmington. In less than a decade it may be driving me. A lot of technology in a couple of lifetimes. PS Clyde Edgerton is the author of 10 novels, a memoir and most recently, Papadaddy’s Book for New Fathers. He is the Thomas S. Kenan III Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at UNCW.

THe 2018

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O u t o f th e B l u e

Lucky Takes a Hike The Kitty Chronicles, Chapter 4

By Deborah Salomon

Hello, January. Hello, annual kitty

column. Don’t groan . . . my kitties provide enough material to fill a page every month. But, try as I may, I can’t convince the world how intriguing cats are. Also, that you don’t have to be crazy to tune in.

Recap: After a lifetime of rescuing and adopting animals, I had retired. Then, six years ago a coal-black kitty came to my door, friendly and hungry. Black cats are so special, needy and mournful. I fed him outside for months before letting him into my home and my life, later learning that he — a neutered male with front claws removed — had been abandoned when his family moved away. I named him Lucky because any animal I adopt is. Then I noticed another cat — mottled grey and white, cross-eyed, lumpy and grumpy — sitting on various porches. Neighbors called her “everybody’s” because she begged more than enough food. Her clipped ear indicated a spayed feral. I added Fancy Feast to the mix. One day she showed up with a bloody paw. I opened the door and that was that — except for her disposition, which prompted the name Hissy. Hisses quickly turned to purrs. Now, she’s Missy, Lucky’s devoted companion who mothers him, fusses over him, wrestles him and pushes into his food bowl. Whereas Lucky possesses keen intelligence, deductive reasoning, powerful persuasion and the sweetest disposition I have ever encountered in an animal, Hissy’s a dingbat, always underfoot, forever wanting something. Missy makes me laugh. I adore Lucky. Both go out, but not far. They are content to luxuriate on porch chairs, and under the bushes. A few months ago, Lucky developed a worrisome habit: disappearing for 12 hours, sometimes longer. The first disappearance happened when a dog got loose and chased him down the hill and into the woods. I frantically combed the area with a flashlight, then made myself a chair bed near the window where he cries to be let in. Morning dawned, no Lucky. He did not appear until suppertime, tired and limping. Since then, he’s been on several jaunts. Could he be looking to retaliate against the dog? Has he found a second home? When he returns Missy goes into a frenzy of licking and rubbing against him. Something’s going on. What is he telling her? Cats meow only to communicate with people; they speak to each other silently, with scents and gestures. Lucky also speaks with his eyes, which are more expressive than Kate Winslet’s. Sometimes, they look worried, frightened. Other times, content. I’ll

never forget the look when I opened the door on a possum. “What the . . . ?” When Lucky wants something he will find me, paw my leg, speak plaintively and lead me to the kitchen, or the door or the sofa. Lucky seldom goes out in cool weather. Instead, he has reclaimed the heating pad. I have severe arthritis in both shoulders. Sleeping on a heating pad helps. Last winter I bought a nice new one covered in flannel. Hmmm, Lucky thought, as he settled down by my shoulder. This feels nice. By morning, there was more of Lucky on the pad than of me. Soon, we were a two-heating-pad family. He loves the warmth so much that he naps there during the day, in a state of bliss. What about poor Missy? Far as I can tell, Lucky has established an invisible wall around the pad, which she dares not cross, even when he is elsewhere. Trump could use his skills. Having argued feline intelligence, I must now dispute the aloofness myth. I never met an aloof cat, which suggests the complainant is aloof, not the kitty. The minute I sit down mine come running for my lap. They nuzzle, they purr, they lick and “knead.” Pinned down, unable to move, I pet, rub and scratch under their chins. I have watched an entire Duke basketball game wedged between two happy cats. Their personalities amaze more than anything else. Lucky is a sedate gentleman of late middle age who walks rather than scampers, eats slowly, then repairs to his spring-ball toy where I sprinkle catnip, which he enjoys like an after-dinner cigar. He comes when called, welcomes visitors whether they appreciate his attention or not. Missy is a scaredy-cat. She dives under the bed when the doorbell rings or the lawn mower passes by. She’d rather chase her tail than an expensive toy. Occasionally, she lumbers after squirrels, while Lucky assumes a sphinx pose and watches through halfclosed eyes. But since she loves lapping my homemade chicken soup I forgive everything. Cats, obviously, are like snowflakes — complex, no two the same. In my foundlings I see the intelligence of a border collie combined with the devotion of a golden retriever and the loyalty of a German shepherd. But you have to sit still, observe and respond. Now, if only I could find one of those “My Cat is Smarter than Your Honor Student” bumper stickers. PS Deborah Salomon is a staff writer for PineStraw and The Pilot. She may be reached at debsalomon@nc.rr.com.

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January 2018P��PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

B i r d wat c h

Waterlogged

Look for the charismatic, aquatic Pied-billed Grebe in winter

By Susan Campbell

Here in North Carolina, winter

is the season for spotting waterfowl. Inland, in addition to Canada geese, birdwatchers have a shot at seeing more than a dozen species of ducks on local lakes and ponds. If you are looking closely, you may notice a very small swimmer, one that is often solitary in its habits. This would be the charismatic pied-billed grebe. It is the pied-billed that has the largest range of five grebes found across North America.

The pied-billed grebe is a compact waterbird in a family of birds that are expert swimmers and divers. In fact, you will never see a grebe on land. Their legs are placed so far back on their bodies that walking is very difficult. Not surprisingly the word “grebe” means literally “feet at the buttocks.” But these birds can readily dive to great depths to forage for aquatic invertebrates such as crayfish as well as chase down small fish. However, they are not the strongest fliers, having relatively small, rounded wings. I find it amazing that our wintering individuals come from as far away as the upper Midwest or even central Canada. The pied-billed grebe is smaller than a football with shades of gray and a white underside. Pied is defined “as having two or more different colors.” As its name implies, this bird has a silvery gray bill with a black band. It is very stout. The jaws of these birds are also very strong, and more than compensate for what they lack

in bill length. Cracking the exoskeletons of insects, shrimps and clams is no problem for this beautiful swimmer, as is hanging onto slippery minnows. Another interesting detail of this bird’s anatomy is that it has an extremely short tail with bright white, undertail coverts that make it possible to identify this bird at a distance. These little birds have some interesting behavioral adaptations that are well worth watching for. For one, they have the capability to sink below the surface if the situation warrants. Somehow, they are able to control the buoyancy of their plumage and so can readily absorb water to increase their weight and quickly disappear from sight. Likewise they can swim with their heads just below the surface so as to not be seen. And they can even employ a “crash dive” to evade predators, pushing themselves downward with their wings and kicking hard with their feet. One other well-known trait of pied-billeds is that they eat large quantities of their own feathers. It is thought that they create a large but porous plug in the gut that traps dangerous fragments of certain food items from entering the intestine. They even feed feathers to their young. You can look for pied-billed grebes on any body of still or slow-moving water. Larger creeks, marshy ponds or even larger lakes in our area may host these little birds from October through March. However, individuals may give themselves away by the long, loud series of variable chatters, bleats or coos that they make in late winter or when advertising their territory to the occasional interloper. Either way, these birds sure deserve a good look any time, even though they are not that large — or very colorful. PS Susan would love to receive your wildlife observations and photographs at susan@ncaves.com.

January 2018P��PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

S po r t i n g L i f e

Old Friends And a shared passion for the outdoors

By Tom Bryant

Jim Dean passed away peacefully in his sleep right

before last Thanksgiving. I wrote this column a couple of years after he retired from his job as editor of Wildlife in North Carolina. The piece was to appear in an outdoor-related supplement to Business North Carolina. The supplement never ran, and I’ve held the story until now. Jim was my good friend and fellow sportsman.

“Let’s see, Tom, favorite trip. Man, that’s going to be hard. There’ve been hundreds of ‘em.” Jim was standing in front of his antique oak filing cabinet when I asked him to tell me about what he thought was his favorite adventure. “But there was one.” He hesitated and his eyes glowed as he began talking in a low voice. You could hear the longing for those old friends and the excitement of the trip. “It was 1970 and my first time fishing out west. We did it right, Henry’s Fork on the Snake River. A. J. Johnson, his son, Alvin, and Reid Bahnson were with me. I remember it like yesterday. I prayed for days before the trip that if the plane had to crash, it would crash on the way home, not on the way out there. You know, I still remember the price of that plane ticket; and ironically, it cost more then than it does now, $742 round trip. The last time I flew out to Yellowstone, the fare was around $500 or so. “What a time we had. We’d fish till 10:00 in the evening and be back at ‘em by 5:30 the next morning. We were indeed fortunate because during the 10 days that we were there, the Feds opened Lewis River in Yellowstone Park for fishing. We motored in on the Madison River and then rowed for miles up the shallow Lewis to catch fish like never before.” Jim was indeed in the heart of trout territory. The Madison provides some of the finest fishing for wild rainbow and large brown trout in the country. And the Lewis River that flows south out of Lewis Lake into the Snake also has trout in abundance. I can only imagine the fish that were caught on a fly-fishing adventure of a lifetime. Jim Dean and I go way back. We both broke into the newspaper business at

the same property, The Times-News in Burlington. Jim later moved to Raleigh, and after a time, took over the helm of Wildlife in North Carolina. During his tenure with the magazine, he also became famous for his articles in such magazines as Field & Stream, Sports Afield, and Gray’s Sporting Journal. We were in Jim’s den, which any outdoorsman would give his last bamboo rod to own, reminiscing. “I was real lucky when I started at the Times-News,” Jim said. “Bill Hunter hired me and I couldn’t even type.” In those days, the newspaper industry was famous for its writers. Most were individuals who had their own little idiosyncrasies, to say the least, and Bill Hunter fit the mold. “My first assignment was to cover, I think for a Sunday paper, a girls’ softball team. It took me all morning to write a 6-inch story. In the meantime, Bill had put together a feature, two pages of sports, wrote the heads and sent them up to composing without proofing. He was the consummate professional, and I was indeed lucky to work for him. But you know, Tom, that whole paper was full of pros. Howard White, the editor, what a prince. You see that old filing cabinet over there? That piece came out of the Times-News. There was a bank of them against a wall, and in a modernization effort, the paper bought all new metal cabinets. Howard asked the staff if anyone wanted to buy one. I think I made 80 dollars a week when I signed on, and it took about every cent from week to week. Although back then, you could buy a week’s groceries for $20.00; but man, I wanted that cabinet. I asked Howard if I could pay for it in a week or so, and he said take it on home. “That was a different era. Howard; Jim Lasley; Conner Jones; Bill Hunter; Essie Norwood, the society editor; the composing room, remember that crowd? Reading lead type produced on linotype machines upside down and backwards. You know, Tom, I can remember those days easier than I can remember last week.” I watched as Jim got up to make another cup of coffee. “I’ve had a great life,” he said over his shoulder. “I’ve always seemed to be in the right place at the right time.” Jim Dean had a varied and exciting life. He was born at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia in 1940. His father, William Dean was from Roanoke Rapids; and his mother, Margaret Geneva Brown Dean, was from Woodland, North Carolina. Jim lived at West Point as a youngster while his father, a West Point graduate, taught math there until he went overseas in 1943. Jim graduated from Roanoke Rapids High School and received a B.A. in

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English from the Virginia Military Institute. He then attended the University of North Carolina as a special student in journalism. “You know, while I was at Carolina, I gained what was the equivalent of a journalism degree in a couple of semesters. I don’t believe they have that program any longer.” Early on, Jim joined the army and was stationed at the Pentagon in Washington and later at Ft. Holabird in Baltimore. It was while he was stationed in Baltimore that the fly-fishing bug bit and he began writing about his experiences. “My hero was Joe Brooks, the fishing editor of Outdoor Life,” Jim said as he sat back down with a full cup of coffee. “I’ve probably read everything that gentleman has written.” “When I was 20 years old, I called Joe and told him that I was interested in outdoor writing and wondered if he could give me some advice on how to get started. He invited me to his house! “I spent the day with that gentleman, and he opened a lot of doors for me. He taught me a ton, and I kept up with him for years.” All this experience worked for Jim. When he was named editor of Wildlife in North Carolina in 1978, he wrote regularly for the publication, collaborating with associate editor Larry Earley to produce a book titled Wildlife in North Carolina, which featured articles, photographs and artwork published during the magazine’s 50-year history. In 1995, UNC Press also published a collection of his “Our Natural Heritage” columns titled Dogs that Point, Fish That Bite. In 2000, Jim also published The Secret Lives of Fishermen, a second collection of columns. Jim has been a regular contributor to various outdoor magazines. In 2001 he was named contributing editor to Field & Stream where he wrote a regular bimonthly column entitled “Out There.” “Tom, I’ve learned a lot about writing for these magazines. When I got started, not many people were doing what I aspired to do and that was to be a regular writer for a national publication. With the help of my old buddy Joe from Outdoor Life, I soon figured out that most magazine editors live on the edge of desperation. They are looking for a story to fill space. It doesn’t have to be artsy, just good. And if the editor asks for 2500 words, give him 2500 words, not 2600. And better yet, give him art! I became an accomplished photographer pretty early in my career. If you send an editor a complete package, edit plus photos and it’s halfway good, he’ll use it. Come on back here and check out my office.” Jim’s office was outfitted just like you would expect. Old girly calendars from the ‘60s hung on the walls. “I got these calendars out of A.J. Johnson’s country store up in the mountains.” Jim said. “They were hanging in my cabin up on Wilson’s creek, but I moved them down here when I gave up that place.”

January 2018P��PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

S po r t i n g L i f e

Fly-fishing reels were all over the table, and Jim told me that they were for his trip coming up in a week or so. “Some of my old buddies from out west are going to meet me in Belize and we’re going to do a little bone fishing.” Jim also has a cabin on the family farm close to Oxford. I read about it in several of his columns in Wildlife in North Carolina. “Real primitive,” Jim said. “No running water or electricity, for that matter; but there is an old castiron wood cook stove that will put these modern inventions to shame. The farm is about 400 acres with a couple of good bass ponds. I used to bird hunt regularly; but like everywhere else, the quail have disappeared.” Along with his skills as a writer, Jim also is an accomplished painter, using watercolors as his medium. He also carves duck decoys that would rival the early masters. We walked back into the kitchen and I asked Jim about a photograph that was on the counter. It was of a pretty girl smiling into the camera as if she knew a secret about the photographer. “That’s my daughter, Susan. Believe it or not, she has two children. She looks like a child herself. Susan lives up in Evington, Virginia. I also have a son, Scott, who lives in Dayton, Ohio. He graduated from North Carolina State and is a meteorologist.” The pride that every father has for his children was evident as Jim talked. “These kids have meant everything to me. We’re great friends.” “Tommy, I’ve been real lucky and have had a super life. Good friends, a great family, and the time to do what I love, and that’s to enjoy the great outdoors.” I packed up my stuff, and we headed out on the back deck overlooking a carport that housed an old Bronco from the ‘70s, a four-wheel drive SUV, and a wrapped-up Harley Davidson motorcycle. “I love my Harley,” Jim laughed. “I think I surprised everybody when I bought that thing. Call it my late life crisis. I think I’ll take it out for a spin this afternoon.” As we were saying our good-byes, I asked Jim about his upcoming trip to Belize. “I’ve never been down there, and I can’t wait to try out the bone fishing. We’re also going after permit. It’s gonna be a great time.” And in perfect form, he ended our visit in true Jim Dean style. “I also plan on hanging around in a hammock under those palm trees and drinking something cool and tall with one of those little umbrellas sticking out the top.” PS Tom Bryant, a Southern Pines resident, is a lifelong outdoorsman and PineStraw’s Sporting Life columnist.

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January 2018P��PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

Gol f to w n J o u r nal

You Can Go Home Again Courtney Stiles makes an impact in her own backyard

By Lisa D. Mickey

There was always something about the

wind in the pines, the sandy soil and the ubiquitous pine needles that felt like home to Courtney Pomeranz Stiles.

And while golf-industry jobs took the Lee County native to different and lovely places to live and work, something was missing. She found that Florida was fine in the winter and coastal Georgia was gorgeous nearly all the time, but try as she might, Carolina was always on her mind. So when Stiles got the opportunity to return to the Pinehurst area three years ago as executive director of The First Tee of the Sandhills, out came the suitcases. It was a chance to bring her golf career back to the place where she had learned to play and an opportunity to offer guiding direction for Pinehurst-area junior golfers — just as she had experienced years ago. “It’s pretty awesome she’s stayed in golf and come back to this area,” said her first teacher, Bonnie Bell McGowan, co-owner of Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club. “She loves her home roots.” As a youngster growing up just down the road from Pinehurst and Southern Pines, Stiles found golf was an easy sport to embrace in the state’s avowed mecca of the game. Her father’s first cousin, Jay Overton, a PGA Life Member with longtime ties to Pinehurst Country Club, showed her the business of golf. And with top instruction nearby, the youngster honed her skills under the tutelage of McGowan — whose mother, legendary instructor Peggy Kirk Bell, sometimes popped in to offer her thoughts during lessons. “I ate a lot of banana pudding with Mrs. Bell at Pine Needles,” admitted Stiles, 35. “Spending time with her was never about golf tips,” she added. “(She) had a huge heart and always gave back to the game.” Stiles played college golf at North Carolina State University, where she earned a communications degree in 2004. But even as a collegiate player, she made an impression on Wolfpack coach Page Marsh, who saw valuable qualities in the young woman. Marsh called Stiles “relentless, but gracious” and

described her as “a great ambassador” of the game. Transitioning from college to professional golf, Stiles qualified for the Futures Tour (now Symetra Tour), where she played from 2005-2006. “I loved the experience because it was highly competitive,” she said. “I also learned how to handle my emotions while traveling alone on a very tight budget.” But life on the road as a touring pro was a grind for Stiles. The highway miles seemed endless, and the paychecks barely covered her expenses. Stiles also hoped to start a family in the near future. After two seasons, Stiles decided to make a change. In late 2006, she made a phone call to the PGA Tour through a contact she had made on the Futures Tour. That phone call turned into a job in new media at the PGA Tour. It was there that Stiles learned about customer service with golf fans and media research. She also worked with the Tour’s marketing campaigns. Interested in tournament operations, she was at the right place at the right time when the PGA Tour launched the McGladrey Classic. Stiles was assigned to run the event in St. Simons Island, Ga. She worked there from 2007-2010, and moved on to the Davis Love Foundation in St. Simons Island from 2010-2014. It was an easy transition for the North Carolinian, who enjoyed working with community charities and nonprofits. “We had 85 different charities at the tournament there, so I really got exposed to all of the needs of people in the community,” she said. It was actually Love who approached Stiles about starting a First Tee chapter in St. Simons. For two years, Stiles molded and guided what would become The First Tee of the Golden Isles. About the same time the First Tee program was fully chartered in St. Simons Island, another job opened that caught Stiles’ attention. The First Tee of the Sandhills was looking to replace its executive director. On one hand, she had invested massive amounts of time and energy into developing the coastal Georgia program. On the other hand, this was a job in a place she loved. Stiles applied for the position and was offered the job. And with the blessing of Love, she headed home.

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“It was a great fit to go back home, and my kids were at an age when it was just right,” said Stiles, who married PGA Professional Cole Stiles in 2007 at Pinehurst, where he currently oversees Pinehurst courses No. 6 and 8. “To be able to stay in golf, essentially in my backyard — with my home county eventually becoming a part of our chapter as we expand — is a big thing I wanted to do when I took the job,” she added. The First Tee of the Sandhills currently serves six counties in the Pinehurst area. The next step for the local chapter is to expand the program into Fayetteville and its Fort Bragg Army base — a plan that excites Stiles in an effort to include children of area military families. But her work in the Sandhills has already drawn praise from her former teacher. “Courtney has put her heart and soul into it and has already taken the First Tee program here and grown it to four times its previous size,” said McGowan. “It’s not just a job,” McGowan added. “She truly loves the game and wants to see it grow, so we’re blessed to have her here.” Marsh noted that the former college player she once guided has now come full circle to make her own mark in the game. “Courtney loves the game and is a great role model,” said Marsh. The former professional regained her amateur status in 2008, but family and career demands have limited her rounds for nearly a decade. She estimates that she played three rounds of golf in 2015, and “maybe” six rounds in 2016. When she learned there was going to be a summer qualifying tournament in the Pinehurst area for the USGA’s 2017 Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, she began practicing with a goal. She won that August qualifier at the Country Club of North Carolina to advance into the national championship — rediscovering an energized competitive spirit. “The competitive juices definitely tried to come out, and I’ve tried to push them away because I don’t want to put any expectations on myself,” she said. “The reality is, I work 60 hours a week, have two kids, a husband and a household.” But while her rounds are few, Stiles finds greater satisfaction in being back on familiar turf. She also knows it’s her turn to help teach the next generation in her home state. Fortunately for Stiles, her mentors are now her peers and are still offering to help. “I want the kids I work with to see this as a lifelong sport,” she said. “I want to show them that you can do things through hard work and perseverance.” And sometimes, all of that work finally brings you right back home to where you want to be. PS Lisa D. Mickey is a North Carolina native and Florida-based freelance golf writer.

January 2018P��PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

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From Eagle Springs to Antarctica Todd Pusser’s magical photos are a portrait of our wild and endangered world

By Jim Moriarty • Photographs by Todd Pusser

f you’re going to photograph something as low as a snake’s belly in a wagon rut, you have to get right down there with it so it’s no surprise to find Todd Pusser stretched out on his stomach somewhere in the Sonoran Desert, nose-to-nose with a snake at sun up. That may not be your idea of a good time but, to him, it’s hog — or maybe Gila monster — heaven. At its best, photography isn’t about pushing a button, it’s about pulling on heartstrings, even if the subject is a bit cold-blooded. One of the 44-year-old Pusser’s exploring buddies is Gary Williamson, a 73-year-old retired Virginia state park ranger. “I love the way he would

compose his shots,” says Williamson. “We’d see a snake stretched out and, if it was late in the day and there was a pretty sunset starting to form, he would lay right down with the sunset in the background and the snake in the foreground, whether it was a harmless snake or a venomous snake. Instead of just a close-up, he’ll have the habitat in the background. He has one of a scarlet kingsnake in burned pinewoods in South Carolina. It shows the burned ground and the tall longleaf pines and a beautiful scarlet kingsnake on a charred log. To me, those kind of photographs are far superior to just a close-up of an animal. Todd’s pictures really tell a story.”

That story begins with a paper and pencil and a bucket of glue. With their closest neighbor a mile away, the adopted son of Larry and Dayle Pusser, had a black lab named Midnight and hours to spend in the woods around their Flowers Road home in Eagle Springs. “I was always the kid flipping logs, looking for frogs or snakes. I made notes of everything I saw. I’d see a red-tailed hawk and I’d make a note of what time I saw the hawk. I was taking field notes at eight, nine years old,” he says. “I wanted to document it. I think that’s how I got into photography. I just wanted to be able to remember it.” The glue was Larry’s Carpets in West End, the family business. “My dad was a carpet man.

January 2018 P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

It was a family-run business. Mom handled the paperwork and dad did all the physical labor. He worked non-stop until he got the job done. It wasn’t 9-to-5. He’d be there at 6 a.m. and it might be midnight before he got finished. Everybody knew my father. Probably 80 percent of the homes in Pinehurst, he’s done. He had the contract for the Pinehurst Hotel, the Country Club. He did all the carpet there in the ’80s.” And Todd could have qualified for membership in the hod carriers’ union. “Mostly I was the guy who brought the tools in. He didn’t trust me to lay carpet. Occasionally, he’d let me put pad or glue down. Or a patch. I was patching artificial grass and I laid my finger open and dad was, ‘Just stick it in the bucket of glue and keep working. And don’t get blood on the carpet.’” Todd laughs. “I think he wanted me to inherit the business, but the work was just too hard.” Sharks seemed easier. Go figure. “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau is

what really got me interested in the world’s oceans,” says Pusser. He went to the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, stuck his nose into pharmacy, got it bloodied by organic chemistry, and decided being a deck hand on the Calypso (or a facsimile thereof) was preferable to filling prescriptions anywhere on dry land. When he wasn’t putting on his great pumpkin display — an Eagle Springs Halloween tradition that attracted thousands and raised money for the Cameron Boys Home — he started taking summer classes in Morehead City, majored in biology, minored in marine science and specialized in pestering whale biologists at the Smithsonian Institution in the Pacific Northwest. “Three days after graduating I was on a research vessel (the Oregon II) in the Gulf of Mexico doing contract work for the government on a marine mammal survey looking for whales and dolphins,” he says. “I started seeing things like sperm whales. I saw killer whales in the Gulf of Mexico. No one really had any idea killer whales were there at the time.

All kinds of dolphins. I was a contract worker for a lab in Mississippi and then I was doing contracts for labs in San Diego and Seattle and Miami. I was going all over the place doing these marine mammal surveys. That’s kind of how I got into the field.” All the time he was taking pictures. “I was getting photos of animals that had never really been photographed in the wild before, a lot of weird dolphin species,” he says. Other groups began hiring him, including the International Whaling Commission out of the United Kingdom. It was doing surveys in the Antarctic. Pusser figured, hey, why not? “I’ve made eight trips down there now,” he says. On the first trip for the IWC, he was surveying minke whales. That led to a position as a lecturer for a high-end tour company out of Seattle, defunct after the tourism business fell off a cliff post 9/11, called Society Expeditions. “I was lecturing on their ships taking small groups of people to remote areas of the world. We did this in the Arctic and the Antarctic,

January 2018P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

the Russian Arctic and the Bearing Sea. Obviously the photo opportunities were incredible,” he says, particularly the Antarctic. “There’s 150,000 penguins, King penguins, that stretch as far as the eye can see. Totally unafraid of people. They never had predators. It’s pretty amazing to be next to those birds.” Pusser honed his photographic skills the hard way, “trial and error, mostly error,” he says. He mastered his craft in the pre-digital, home-run-orpop-foul days of 35mm slide film. “I never took any kind of photography class,” he says. “I would study photographers I admired. At the time there was a guy who worked for National Geographic named Flip Nicklin. He was their whale photographer and I really liked his work. And there was another guy named Franz Lanting who was doing a lot of work in jungles and using flash with his photography, which was unheard of with nature photography at the time. It almost had kind of a studio feel to his photos. I really tried to emulate that with my work. I come from a biological background where you studied the behavior of animals and I think that

helps with your photography because you’re able to anticipate action or know what an animal is going to do to really kind of capture the personality of the animals, not just a quick snapshot.” Of course the switch from film to digital was inevitable and, in some cases, desirable. “I was not an easy convert,” says Pusser. “The main reason I started switching to digital was for underwater. Let’s say you’re in the Bahamas and you’re interacting with spotted dolphins — I used to do trips down there almost every year — you have 36 images on your roll of film. You’re there and you’re taking pictures and you hear that last frame and the film rewind in your camera. Get back to the boat. Get out of the water. Dry off. Open the back of your housing. Pop the camera. Pop the film canister out. Reload. You have 30 minutes invested in doing that. By then the behavior you’re trying to photograph is over. Now I stick a 64-gigabyte or 128-gig card in a camera and I’m under water all day. You miss fewer shots.” So, about those sharks. “One of my favorite shark dives is actually off the coast of North Carolina,”

says Pusser. “There are a lot of wrecks off the coast and there’s a species of shark that aggregates there called a sand tiger shark. These are big sharks, 8-10 feet long. They have really large teeth that stick out of their mouths. They’re not afraid of divers. If you sit real still they’ll come right up to you. They’re great subjects to photograph.” How close does he get? “As close as I can,” he says. “If they’re bumping my lens, I’m happy.” The subject doesn’t have to be a shark or a blue whale to pique Pusser’s interest. “I do tend to try to photograph the more obscure animals that get ignored by other wildlife photographers,” he says. In 2006 he was part of an international team doing a survey on China’s Yangtze River trying to locate an endangered dolphin. The species had been in the river for millions of years but its population had been reduced to a handful by the river’s constant cargo ship traffic and a billion people trying to eke out an existence on its banks — often employing fishing methods lethal to the dolphin. “It was a monotypic genus, meaning it was the only member

of that genus. There was nothing else like it anywhere on the planet,” he says. “We spent nearly two months going back and forth on the Yangtze River looking for this dolphin. We declared it extinct in 2006. First dolphin to go extinct at human hand.” Pusser returned last November from a similar five-week trip to Mexico surveying an endangered porpoise, the vaquita, that’s being killed as by-catch in the northern Sea of Cortez where the Colorado River flows into the Gulf of Baja. “It was kind of a Hail Mary effort by a group out of California to bring them into captivity and breed them,” he says. “There’s a fish, totoaba (a type of croaker), that gets to be like 250 pounds. The fishermen there catch this fish using gill nets and take the swim bladder. Then they send this bladder to China for medicinal purposes. The bladder sells for more than cocaine. So the vaquita, they’re mammals. They swim into a net, get tangled up and drown. The government says you can’t set a gill net but they can come out in an evening, set a net and buy a pick-up truck with a

fish bladder. I first did a survey there in ’97, again in 2008 and again in 2015. In 2015 there were like 50 left.” Pusser puts the number closer to 30 now. “The project managed to capture an adult female but unfortunately she died. The stress of captivity was just too much for her,” says Pusser. “This was a huge blow for the conservation community. I fear the vaquita will soon be added to the long and ever-growing list of species humans have wiped off the planet.” His camera and his curiosity have taken Pusser to over 30 countries and into every one of the world’s oceans. “Initially, I was only photographing aquatic subjects sharks, whales, dolphins,” he says. “I’d come back here (North Carolina) between projects. I never explored the state, outside of the Sandhills, when I was a kid or a teenager. So, I started networking.” One of the people who entered his orbit was Jeff Beane, the collection manager for herpetology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences,

who became one of Pusser’s closest friends. “He opened my eyes to a lot of things I ignored as a kid. So now I spend a lot of my time documenting biodiversity and conservation issues across the state,” says Pusser who lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia now but remains a regular contributor of both photographs and stories to Wildlife in North Carolina magazine. “We have incredible biodiversity for a temperate region. We have the highest mountains east of the Mississippi; we have a lot of rivers; we have natural lakes; we have the ocean which has the Gulf Stream and the Labrador Current; we’re on a major migration route.” And, as it turns out, he’s just as enthralled with crawfish, chubs or squirrels as blue whales. “Fox squirrels are probably Todd’s favorite mammal and for years he had never gotten satisfactory photos of one,” says Beane. It wasn’t for a lack of trying. Anytime Pusser saw a fox squirrel, he chased it. “Once he ran through the woods after one in a suit and tie and another time he ran

January 2018P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

after one in his underwear,” says Beane. The latter happened when Pusser, in the field with Beane, was trying to photograph an undescribed salamander endemic to the Sandhills and slipped down a muddy creek embankment, sinking in up to his waist. After removing his wet jeans, he saw the squirrel. “I used to say he was always either too overdressed or too underdressed to get good fox squirrel photos,” Beane says — a condition that has since been remedied. One of Pusser’s writing and photographic projects is scheduled to run as a three-part series in future issues of Wildlife in North Carolina. “There’s this really interesting fish behavior I found out about a few years go and I’ve been trying to document because it’s spectacular,” says Pusser. “In the spring we have two or three species, what are called chubs, that build these nests. If you’ve ever been fly fishing in the mountains, you walk through any creek or stream, you’ll see these mounds of rocks when the water is low. You’ll think maybe people are doing it

but these fish, the males, build these nests. They’ll entice a female. They spawn over the nest. They aerate the eggs. They move the rocks around and they guard the nest. But what’s interesting is you have all these minnows and at the right time of year, they light up. Neon yellows, florescent colors. It’s like a corral reef. People don’t associate tropical reef color with a cold mountain stream.” Another one of his passions, picked up from Williamson, is champion trees. “Each state has state champions and they might qualify for a national champion,” says Pusser. “The world’s largest longleaf pine, up until this past year, was on Highway 220 between Candor and Asheboro. It was over 12 feet in circumference and 150 feet high. It snapped during a strong thunderstorm. Now the largest longleaf is somewhere I think in Alabama or Mississippi.” The village of Pinehurst has a Darlington Oak that might be a state champion. “Come outside the Drum and Quill, turn left and you go to the next left,” says Pusser. “It was growing

there probably before Pinehurst was created.” Williamson and Pusser track down champion trees together. “One tree I showed him was a hollow yellow poplar and it’s a national champion,” says Williamson. “I got inside it and he handed me a couple of strobe lights to put on either side to give the interior a little bit of light.” Shining a little bit of light is Pusser’s specialty. “You don’t have to save the world, just try to get people to appreciate what’s in their backyard,” he says. It’s a message he enjoys spreading. “There’s a lot of joy in seeing something yourself,” says Beane, “but when you can show it to somebody else who appreciates it, that’s really special.” And there’s photographic evidence, to boot. PS For more information visit Todd Pusser’s website at: https://toddpusser.photoshelter.com/ Jim Moriarty is senior editor of PineStraw and can be reached at jjmpinestraw@gmail.com.

Queen of theAir Amelia Earhart, George Putnam and their high-flying love affair

hey called it an autogiro. This unusual flying machine was something of a hybrid between an airplane and a helicopter. Like an airplane, it possessed wings and a propeller. But the wings were so stubby, they seemed a design afterthought. While resembling a helicopter with its horizontal rotary blades whirling atop, the aircraft was powered differently. It did not fly very fast — typically 80 miles per hour — and held only enough fuel to safely fly two hours at a stretch. But, flown by a proficient pilot, it could take off and land in an area no bigger than a suburban back yard. Before November 11, 1931, it is doubtful anyone in Moore County had observed, in flight, an aircraft requiring virtually no runway for its operation. That was one reason why on an Armistice Day mid-afternoon, well over 1000 people flocked to the dirt and grass airstrip known as Knollwood Field (now Moore County Airport) to hail the arrival of an autogiro. Despite its novelty, such a sighting wouldn’t ordinarily have created such a stir that stores and schools in Pinehurst, Southern Pines, and Aberdeen would close. The pilot flying the aircraft was the one causing most of the hubbub — 34-year-old Amelia Earhart, one of the most famous women in America. It had already been a long Armistice Day for the slender Kansas native. At daybreak, she had flown out of Charlotte, piloting her ungainly aircraft two hours east before setting down in a field five miles north of Fayetteville. Wearing the leather jacket, scarf, jodhpurs, and boots she typically donned in the air, Earhart was whisked by a welcoming committee into Fayetteville’s downtown by open car. There she was feted by thousands of adoring citizens who cheered the waving pilot as she slowly passed by. At the conclusion of the parade, the soft-spoken but confident Earhart addressed an all-ears crowd at Fayetteville’s Market House, even putting in a good word for the Beech-Nut Packing Company’s chewing gum. George P. Putnam, a promotional genius who was newly wedded to Amelia, had arranged for Beech-Nut to sponsor her three 1931 hopscotching autogiro tours. The company’s emblem was prominently emblazoned on the fuselage. All the fuss in Fayetteville had put her behind schedule as the throng at Knollwood Field waited impatiently to catch sight of Earhart’s “flying windmill” on the horizon. This was the famous aviator’s first visit to Moore County, though her husband was no stranger to the Sandhills. Dorothy Binney Putnam, George’s ex-wife, had spent considerable time here. In fact, until Earhart’s recent marriage to Putnam, she and Dorothy had enjoyed a close friendship, sharing among many things their mutual love of the outdoors. Elegant and statuesque, Dorothy’s affection for the wilderness had been kindled during family vacations near Carthage where in 1901, her father Edwin Binney, the founder

and inventor of Crayola Crayons, had purchased a 1,300-acre plantation deep in the pine forest. The property featured a rambling antebellum plantation house with a second floor balcony that provided a magnificent view of the home’s surroundings. The spread was called “Binneywood.” It is uncertain why Connecticut-based Edwin selected Carthage for a vacation home though it probably had something to do with the proximity of the North Carolina mining operations that supplied raw materials for Crayola. Dorothy Putnam had regaled Earhart with tales of the wonderful times she and her two sisters had enjoyed at Binneywood. Dorothy’s diary entry during the 1908 Christmas season at Binneywood describes an eventful and festive holiday atmosphere: “Up at dawn to go wild turkey hunting. Home at nine, then chopped trees, then quail hunting-good luck. Made fudge and sipped chocolate by fire.” Despite the estate’s remoteness and their status as seasonal residents, Edwin Binney, known as Bub, and his wife became integral members of the Carthage community. They farmed, planted a peach orchard, reactivated the estate’s milling operation, and hosted country dances at Binneywood featuring rousing strains of banjoes and fiddles.

January 2018P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

Photograph from the Tufts Archives

By Bill Case

Photographs courtesy of Sally Putnam Chapman

Dorothy Binney and George Putnam on Yellowstone-Tetons Camping trip

A particularly splendid event happened at the old plantation during the Christmastime of 1910 when Dorothy, a Wellesley grad, and George Putnam, whom she had met during a two-month western camping trip, announced their engagement. They married the following October. The newly wedded couple spent an extended honeymoon in Central America. Like Earhart, the two adventurers reveled in experiencing exotic and unfamiliar surroundings. The trip inspired Putnam to author his first book, The Southland of North America, with his new wife eagerly collaborating. Then 24, Putnam had not yet joined the family’s renowned publishing concern, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, deciding instead to publish and edit the Bend Bulletin, a newspaper in faraway Bend, Oregon. It was an ideal place for the Putnams to begin their married life, indulging their penchant for the outdoors with horseback rides and camping trips into the recesses of the Cascade Mountains. Putnam proved to be an independent newspaperman and an advocate for progress by penning editorials urging that women be afforded the vote. He was even elected the town’s mayor. Dorothy also became a force in Bend’s civic life, raising funds for causes ranging from the Red Cross to fighting cancer. A tireless advocate for women’s suffrage, in 1912 she became the second female (after the governor’s wife) to vote in Oregon. The Putnams’ first child, David Binney Putnam, was born in 1913. Soon thereafter, they moved to Salem, Oregon’s capital, where he took a post as secretary to the state’s governor while still retaining his position as the Bulletin’s publisher. During World War I, Putnam enlisted in the army which resulted in the couple’s moving to Washington, D.C. After his father died, Putnam decided to join the family business and they relocated to Rye, New York where Dorothy bore a second son, George, Jr. (“Junie”) in 1921. Ensconced with G.P. Putnam’s Sons, George’s career skyrocketed as he became the company’s go-to spokesman. He was increasingly away on an unceasing quest to unearth new stories. Longing for adventures of her own, Dorothy seized the opportunity to travel with son David on a 10-week oceanographic expedition to the South Seas of the Pacific in 1925. She reveled in her role as a scientist on the voyage while 12-year-old David recorded a narrative of his experiences that Putnam published under the title David Goes Voyaging. The book was a surprising hit. The elder Putnam embarked on his own expedition to Greenland in 1926. “I practiced what I published,” he wrote. David tagged along with his father. The expedition proved a success and provided the fodder for the young teenager’s second book, David Goes to Greenland. A second father-son expedition to Baffin Island followed in 1927 resulting in David’s third book. When he got back, Putnam immersed himself in bagging the rights to Lindbergh’s story for G.P. Putnam’s Sons. Home in Rye, Dorothy stayed socially active, entertaining explorers such as

Admiral Richard Byrd. Will Rogers said that one “couldn’t snare an invitation [to Dorothy’s parties] unless you had conquered some uncharted territory.” But she was restless and bristling at being the one generally left behind to tend the home fires. With all the time apart, the couple increasingly led separate lives and the ties of their union began to unravel. Still vibrant at age 38, Dorothy yearned for passion in her life. She found it in 1927 in the person of George Weymouth (“GW” in Dorothy’s diary), a handsome and polished sophomore at Yale who had been tapped to tutor David at home. Though guilt-ridden by her infidelity, Dorothy nevertheless thought it unjust that men usually got a pass. “Why is it there are so many men who consider love outside the bonds of matrimony the privilege of the male only?” she asked in her diary. When Dorothy discovered evidence that her husband was also having an affair, she penned that his dalliance lightened “my sense of fidelity.” Dorothy’s affair with GW was in bloom at the time Amelia Earhart came into the Putnams’ lives. Earhart’s unlikely emergence occurred in 1928 in the wake of Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight. An American heiress, Amy Phipps Guest, made it known she was personally bankrolling the first flight across the Atlantic with a woman onboard. Guest acquired a Fokker plane and rechristened it the “Friendship.” Then she set about finding the right female to make the journey. When George Putnam got wind of Guest’s quest, he offered to take charge of the search. If Putnam could position himself as the one to choose the candidate, his publishing company would have the inside track on the woman’s story. Having already enjoyed remarkable success promoting non-fiction first-person adventures, including Byrd’s Skyward and obtaining the rights to Lingbergh’s story, the gambit was right up Putnam’s alley. Earhart was a natural candidate. She had learned to fly in 1921 while living in Los Angeles. She was particularly attracted to the challenge of achieving aviation “firsts.” Two years after her first flying lesson, Amelia established a new high altitude mark. She’d also flown in air shows. In 1923 the young pilot became the first woman granted a certificate by the aeronautics branch of the Department of Commerce, the precursor of the Federal Aviation Administration. After moving to Boston in 1928, Earhart joined the local chapter of the National Aeronautic Association. When George Putnam summoned her to New York in May 1928 for the most important interview of her life, she was leaving behind a job that had nothing whatsoever to do with flying. She was employed as a social worker at Boston’s Denison House. The attraction was nearly instantaneous. “Before I had talked to him for very long I was conscious of the brilliant mind and keen insight of the man,” wrote Earhart. Putnam knew Earhart would be perfect for the “Friendship” flight. Not merely a proficient pilot, she was a promoter’s dream. Slender, with short curly blond hair, she was attractive in a tomboyish yet feminine way. Another bonus was the young woman’s uncanny resemblance to Lindbergh —not just physically, but also because of her direct but soft-spoken manner. Soon the announcement came that Earhart had been chosen. Delayed two weeks by poor weather, the venture’s participants, chief pilot Bill Stultz, copilot Slim Gordon, Earhart, and Putnam were forced to hole up in Boston’s

Dorothy Putnam, George Weymouth and Amelia Earhart

David Putnam, Amelia Earhart and Dorothy Putnam at Manursing Island Club 1928 Copley Plaza Hotel to wait out the storm. Putnam asked his wife to join the group. He figured Dorothy’s adventurous, free-spirited personality would make her a conversational match with Amelia. His assessment proved correct. The two chatted like schoolgirls concerning their shared interests in theatre, literature, fishing, and horseback riding. Finally the weather cleared and the “Friendship” was aloft. The flight turned out to be most challenging. An engine kept cutting out and the crew lost their radio connection. “Friendship” was blown off course, and even before land was sighted the engines began sputtering as they ran short of gasoline. Though Bill Stultz thought he was landing in Cornwall, it was actually Wales, but the plane and crew had arrived safely. Though she had been little more than a passenger, the flight catapulted Earhart into stardom. It was the beginning of a life loaded with personal appearances, parades, and speeches. After celebratory tours, first in England and then America, she holed up in Rye at the Putnam home adjacent to the posh Apawamis Club’s golf course. Under George’s direction, she commenced writing the book that would be called 20 Hrs., 40 min.: Our Flight in the Friendship. Aviation’s budding superstar found time for fun in Rye. She and Dorothy shopped, swam, and attended upscale social occasions. It was Dorothy, not George, to whom Amelia dedicated 20 Hrs., 40 min. In her book Whistled Like a Bird — The Untold Story of Dorothy Putnam, George Putnam, and Amelia Earhart,” Sally Putnam Chapman, Dorothy and George’s granddaughter, wrote, “had it not been for my grandparents, Amelia would not have moved in the circles she did.” Dorothy introduced Amelia “to a glittering array of celebrities, artists, adventurers, and socialites.” With her newfound celebrity and the success of her book came financial rewards. It became abundantly clear that Earhart would never return to her previous life at Denison House. Her relationship with George Putnam was also deepening. Within a month of Earhart’s arrival in Rye, an entry in Dorothy’s diary notes, “George is absorbed in Amelia and admires and likes her. Maybe he’s in love with her.” Eventually, she became convinced that her husband and the flier were “a couple.” Putnam certainly was smitten. His later writings indicate he considered Amelia the epitome of chic. Reminiscing after her death, he wrote, “I think she really did not realize that often she was very lovely to look at.” He gushed about, “her beautifully tailored gabardine slacks,” and “the tapering loveliness of her hands [that] was almost unbelievable.” Apparently Vanity Fair agreed. The magazine shot a fashion spread of Earhart that hit the newsstands in 1932. Dorothy terminated her ongoing affair with GW in August 1928, although the two remained friendly. Nevertheless, her diary entries do not suggest she yearned to be reconciled with a husband she no longer loved. She broached the subject of divorce and, though George made an attempt to patch things up, that

effort seemed halfhearted since he remained in constant contact with Amelia. By June of 1929, after discovering another affair with Frank Upton, a flier and war hero, Putnam informed his wife that he too wished the marriage to end. Despite the fact that Earhart’s relationship with Putnam had become an open secret, Amelia invited Dorothy to accompany her in July as the first female passengers to fly coast-to-coast in a Transcontinental Air Transport commercial airplane. Pleased to be included as part of an aviation first, Dorothy accepted. She and her husband’s lover remained cordial during their trip. A week later they were together in the Galapagos Islands on a deep-sea dive. That excursion marked the end of their social time together though both women thereafter invariably professed respect and admiration for one another. After nearly getting cold feet, Dorothy obtained a Reno divorce from George on December 19, 1929. She remarked that day in her diary, “How scared and empty I feel!” She sought to remake her life with her two children and Upton, her new husband, in Fort Pierce, Florida where her father had invested in local real estate. She purged her sadness by building a Spanish-style home on an 80acre tropical wilderness. At the time, Earhart told a friend that she was fond of Dorothy and considered the divorce “a shame.” But her primary focus was on bolstering her status as America’s foremost female aviator. She cemented that position with her vagabond solo round-trip transcontinental flight in 1929. Putnam kept her busy at each stop, scheduling lectures, personal appearances, and newspaper interviews. Earhart also started an organization comprised solely of women in aviation which became known as the “Ninety Nines.” After resigning from the family business and joining another publishing company, George Putnam turned his attention to relentlessly pursuing marriage with Earhart. Reluctant to forego her independence, she turned him down at least twice. In February 1931, Earhart finally accepted his proposal, but with conditions. She wrote to him, “On our life together, I want you to understand I shall not hold you to any medieval code of faithfulness to me nor shall I consider myself so bound to you . . . I must extract a cruel promise, and that is you will let me go in a year if we find no happiness together (and this for me too).” Putnam accepted her terms. Some believe that her mention of an open marriage (as well as a suspected subsequent affair with Gene Vidal, Gore’s father) signaled that the couple’s union was more of a business arrangement than a true romance. But David Putnam later observed, “In the privacy of their home, they [his father and stepmother] were lovingly demonstrative.” Earhart’s forceful establishment of the marriage’s terms undercut the impression of some that Putnam was the puppet master in the relationship. George himself later acknowledged that often Amelia held the upper hand, writing that she was “endowed with a will of her own, [and] no phase of her life ever modified it, least of all marriage.” In any event, the newlyweds’ fledgling marriage was off to a good start as

Dorothy Putnam and Amelia Earhart after transcontinental flight 1929

January 2018 P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

Photograph from the Tufts Archives

Amelia Earhart and Lloyd Yost at Knollwood Field Amelia and her autogiro made their way into Moore County airspace. Tightly squeezed into the open cockpit of her Pitcairn PCA-2, Earhart peered through her goggles attempting to locate the airfield. As it was a pet peeve of the aviatrix that many of the new airports sprouting up like spring dandelions lacked identifying signage, Earhart was pleased to spot the word “PINEHURST” displayed in giant letters on the roof of Knollwood Field’s hanger. The gathered onlookers, including the mayor and commissioners of Southern Pines, representatives of Pinehurst, and Mrs. W.C. Arkell, wife of the Beech-Nut Packing Company vice-president, watched as she flawlessly executed her landing. Perhaps the person most gratified by Earhart’s appearance was the manager of the airport, Lloyd Yost. A celebrated pilot himself, just nine days before, he had instituted shuttle flights from Knollwood Field to Raleigh, boasting that the new shuttle cut travel time from New York to Pinehurst down to six hours. In his wildest imagination, he could never have conjured up better publicity for showcasing the service than having the world famous Earhart drop in. Yost personally greeted his fellow pilot and made certain he was photographed alongside her. Earhart apologized for keeping everyone waiting and cheerfully set about signing autographs. She did not linger long. Her stop at Knollwood was primarily for refueling with no time allotted for parades or lengthy speeches. Within a half hour she was airborne again. Amelia made good her return to Charlotte and would be back in the air the next morning destined for Spartanburg where thousands more would greet her. Not one to rest on her laurels, in May of 1932, Earhart emulated Lindbergh’s triumph by becoming the first woman to make a solo flight across the Atlantic. The wind blew against her the entire way and, running low of fuel, she was forced to abandon her planned destination of Paris, landing instead in the field of a nonplussed Irish farmer. Though Amelia’s star had never waned since her “Friendship” flight, her solo trip across the ocean propelled “The Queen of the Air” into a still higher galaxy. A busy 1933 summer beckoned, what with an upcoming meeting with Eleanor Roosevelt and a transcontinental air race, so George Putnam and his new wife, Amelia, decided to take some time for themselves. The Sandhills drew them back in March when they holidayed together in Pinehurst at the Carolina Hotel. The stay was presumably coupled with a visit to George’s mother who had taken the Schaumberg House on New York Avenue in Southern Pines for the season. One consequence of the Earhart-Putnam marriage was that George’s two sons, David and George, Jr., developed a mutual affinity with Amelia. In Whistled Like a Bird, Chapman writes, “When the boys visited, she [Amelia] made sure to set aside time for horseback riding, sailing, picnicking, and swimming.” And the Putnam boys happily returned the affection their stepmother demonstrated toward them.

Other notable flights followed for Amelia, but they paled in comparison to the imposing 29,000-mile round-the-world flight she started planning in 1936. After one jettisoned attempt, she tried another in June 1937 with mechanic Fred Noonan aboard her Electra aircraft. George, David, and his new wife Nilla saw Amelia off from Miami. After completing 22,000 miles of the journey, Earhart and Noonan spent the final layover of their lives in New Guinea. During the next leg to the Howland Islands, radio contact was lost with the airplane, and Earhart and Noonan were never heard from again. A two-week U.S. Navy search over 360,000 square miles found no trace of them. Putnam refused to give up hope, desperately enlisting psychics for assistance, all to no avail. Amelia was declared legally dead in 1939. A devastated Putnam wrote an homage to his wife entitled “The Sound of Wings.” He remarried in 1939 to his third wife Jean Marie Consigny, but it only lasted five years. He would marry one more time, to Margaret Havilland. Despite his advanced age, Putnam served in World War II in an intelligence unit. Thereafter, he and Margaret operated a resort in Indian Wells, California prior to Putnam’s passing away in 1950 at age 62. His sons, David and George, Jr., led productive lives. David flew B-29’s in World War II and enjoyed a flourishing real estate development career in Fort Pierce before dying at age 79. George, Jr. served in the Navy during the war, and survived the torpedoing of his ship. He owned construction and citrus businesses in Florida, and lived until 2013. A decade after the engagement of George Putnam to his daughter, Dorothy, Edwin Binney and his family shifted their attentions from North Carolina to Florida, and the creator of Binneywood sold it in 1920. The plantation house burned to the ground thereafter. By Way Farms now operates an equestrianrelated facility on the site. Dorothy would successfully remake her life in Fort Pierce, involving herself in organizations related to women’s rights, aviation, gardening, and conservation. She relished the serenity of her tropical home and orange grove, which she named “Immokolee.” But her marital life was anything but serene. Upton suffered from a serious drinking problem resulting in a rapid end to that union. A third marriage also failed. She finally found contentment in her fourth marriage with Lew Palmer, the orange grove’s manager. She died at age 93 in 1982, but not before sharing with granddaughter, Sally Chapman, the diary of her turbulent but fascinating life. Sally now resides at the cherished Immokolee. She too has a Moore County connection as she is the wife of John Chapman, son of Pinehurst golf great Dick Chapman. The exceedingly remote possibility that Earhart somehow survived a crash and lived on in the South Pacific is just one of the more recent theories that have kept the lost pilot frozen in time in our minds. Captured in smiling black and white photographs and newsreels, she remains the tousle-haired, rail-slim, modest but fiercely independent heroine who flew over the pine trees into Knollwood Field 86 years ago. PS Pinehurst resident Bill Case is PineStraw’s history man. He can be reached at Bill.Case@thompsonhine.com.

Binneywood

S t o r y Of A H o u se

Portrait of the Artist’s Home A place where nothing matches but everything belongs By Deborah Salomon • Photographs by John Gessner

here’s something about Jessie Mackay’s house . . . Outside, distressed bricks melt into the wooded 2-acre lot rather than jumping out onto the road that winds through Country Club of North Carolina. Its contents — fewer heirlooms than souvenirs of a life welltraveled — begin their story in the soaring front hall, where hats hang on a coat tree: “I wore the pith helmet when we rode horseback across Malawi into Zambia,” Jessie begins. Beneath the hats stand boots; Wellingtons speak of her life on a farm in the Cotswolds. On a campaign chest are arranged antique watch faces and a pipe picked up in France, a carved box from Hong Kong and cavalry spurs used by an ancestor. In the corner, a weathered Old Glory leans beside a Union Jack, affirming her dual citizenship. Although fascinating, these artifacts pale beside the paintings — everywhere: her own, those of friends, family members and fellow artists. Some, like a vibrant

purple abstract by an Ecuadorian painter positioned on the upstairs gallery wall, attracted her purely for its color. Jessie grew up in Westport, Connecticut, bordering Manhattan art and culture. She recalls attending a Van Gogh exhibit at the Guggenheim every day, “until (the staff) didn’t want to charge me admission.” Her British parents were casual painters. Jessie might have felt an inclination but, instead, followed a career in consultant management, which included measuring behaviors and results to enhance the workplace environment. Well, Gauguin sailed with the merchant marines and Cézanne studied law. Jessie dabbled a bit in high school. “After getting married I wanted something on the walls.” Her first inspiration came watching laborers in a British steel mill, admiring their physicality. The result, hanging in the living room, recalls grim early 20th century factory scenes immortalized by American artist Thomas Hart Benton. Otherwise, Jessie identifies with Fauvism (think Matisse, its practitioner),

January 2018P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

defined, in part, as color existing as an independent element — intense blobs of it, rather than within finely drawn lines. “I felt painting was an outlet, a meditative thing,” she says. Not until early middle age did she make art her career. Her first show in Atlanta sold out. Her debut at Campbell House Galleries in Southern Pines moved 13 paintings, more than double the average.

ife, marriages, careers, activism took Jessie to various houses in many countries. In 2008 she was alone in Pinehurst, looking to downsize. Her first impression of the CCNC saltbox built in 1982: “Brick, ugly roof, sad, a mess inside.” Yet its bones and cross-hall two-story layout reminded her of New England while her design skills promised improvement. She and builder Buddy Tunstall made plans. First, the exterior. The painter had never done peeling brick, so they tried the obvious: spray with white paint, follow immediately with a pressure washing. Jessie recalls how the workmen laughed. But it worked. So did the bright yellow door, the circular drive and informal landscaping. Back acreage, fenced for Jessie’s Jack Russell terriers, appears delightfully wild in the weak winter sun. Inside, carpet was replaced by hardwood. Bathrooms needed remodeling — one in charming green toile wallpaper with graceful bureau-turned-washstand — but the three upstairs bedrooms remained intact. Not so the main floor. Jessie decided to tear out several small rooms spanning the rear, including a dated kitchen, install an extra support beam and

repurpose the space as her studio (with bay window), a long galley kitchen and small den with wood-burning fireplace. This was accomplished without dividers. The kitchen is beyond startling, since a guest walking through might not realize its purpose. On one side, an oven, a single-width refrigerator and cooktop niche are embedded in a brick wall. A polished harvest table used as both work island and seating is positioned down the middle with cabinets, drawers, sink, another bay window crowded with plants on the opposite side. In the spring, a dogwood tree blooms just outside the bay. “It reminds me of Europe — a lot of stuff, a lot going on,” Jessie explains. The brick provides a textured background for paintings, including the portrait of a friend dominating the south-facing studio with two easels, paints, brushes, stool and a portable typewriter. Locating her workspace adjoining the kitchen made sense. “I didn’t want to allocate a bedroom for a studio.” Her office and laundry room line the hallway leading to the garage with doors not visible from the front. Jesse misses her dogs, cats, horses and other creatures from what she called The Farm of Content Animals, since none of the ducks, chickens, geese, lambs or cows entered the food chain. Bovine portraits hang over the den fireplace, flanked by English corner chairs with leather seats and open sides to accommodate the sabers worn by officers. Jessie courts a lived-in look. “Everything (these days) seems so contrived — a blanket draped just so over the couch,” she says, and points to a woolly throw in disarray on her own. “The dogs made that pile,” before falling asleep on it. Jessie found the small living room both appealing and functional — especially

January 2018 P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

after constructing bookcases across an entire wall. Half shutters on low-set windows continue the New England effect, although furnishings speak faraway tongues. The unusual high-backed sofa in Jessie’s favorite khaki is from a fine North Carolina manufacturer, but her leather-seated folding campaign chair (for easy transportation) experienced far-away battles. Facing it a plaid armchair with ottoman channels the ’60s. Each artifact on the mantel tells a story, each painting reveals a connection. Conversation never lags here. “I wanted my dining room table to be wide enough,” Jessie says, to accommodate her stepsons and grandchildren. She chose one from Ireland, of yew wood, surrounded by Windsor chairs. Paintings lean against the wall, for decoration or perhaps awaiting a buyer. Rugs throughout are, predictably, well-worn Orientals in subdued hues except for the den, where sheep gambol across a pastel background, to offset a shabby-chic white sofa.

essie admits to using the house as a supplemental gallery. “The problem for artists is that people don’t have wallspace any more,” she says. Her walls, painted gradations of white and framed by crown moldings, are covered but not saturated. Arrangements change as paintings sell. Emotional attachments don’t hinder business as with some artists: “There’s no sense of loss. Paintings are like children; when they’re 18, it’s time to go.” Sometimes she follows them. Each year, Jessie returns to Tanzania, where she and friend Tally Bandy have established empowerment programs where women earn enough by raising pigs and goats to educate their children. To this endeavor they have added solar kits made in North Carolina, which enable the women to establish charging stations for lights and mobile phones. A few paintings reflect the African project. So much life, in a moderate living space. “When I have a party we’re like puppies in a box,” the artist smiles. An elegant box, yet comfortable, inviting, with several areas to sit and chat, walls hung with oils and acrylics of varying shapes, moods, styles and expressions — even double entendre as with zebras crossing a busy thoroughfare. Indeed, there’s something about Jessie Mackay’s house . . . That something is Jessie Mackay. PS

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January 2018 P�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

January A L M A N A C

By Ash Alder

It is deep January. The sky is hard. The stalks are firmly rooted in ice.

— Wallace Stevens, “No Possum, No Sop, No Taters”

Begin Again

Perhaps it’s true that the best narratives are cyclical, taking the reader on a figurative journey that ultimately leads them back where they started, yet, through some alchemical reaction, altogether transformed. Like the fool’s journey, or the legendary ouroboros eating its own tail. Which brings us back to January. Outside, a pair of cardinals flits between the naked branches of a dogwood and the ornate rim of the pedestal birdbath. You think of the piebald gypsy cat who used to visit, how he would balance on the ledge to take a drink. Months have passed since you’ve seen him, but that drifter has charm. You’re sure he’s napping in some cozy sunroom, patiently waiting for the catkins and crocus, for the cheerily, cheer-up, cheer-up, cheerily return of the robin. The warmth of your own smile stretches across your face, and in this moment, all is well. On this first day of January, you imagine the New Year unfolding perfectly. Steam curls from your tea mug as an amalgam of flavors perfumes the air. Cinnamon bark, licorice, ginger and marshmallow root . . . Giving yourself permission to luxuriate, you reach for a favorite book of poems. “To read a poem in January is as lovely as to go for a walk in June,” said German author Jean Paul. You turn to a dog-eared page, can almost smell the honeysuckle and wild rose. You’ve read this poem many times, yet, like you, it is brand-new.

Blue Moon with Honey

Henry David Thoreau could wax poetic on “That grand old poem called Winter.” Perhaps it’s not the easiest season to weather, but from darkness comes light. Behold phloxes and hellebores, snowdrops and winter-blooming iris, and on Wednesday, Jan. 3, until the wee hours of Thursday, Jan. 4: the Quadrantids meteor shower. Named for Quadrans Muralis, a defunct constellation once found between the constellations of Boötes and Draco, near the tail of Ursa Major, the Quadrantids is one of the strongest meteor showers of the year. Although a just-full moon may compromise viewing conditions, you won’t want to miss a chance to see this celestial event. Twelfth Night (Jan. 5), the eve of Epiphany, marks the end of the Christmas season and commemorates the arrival of the Magi who honored the Infant Jesus with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Seeking a hangover

cure following this night of merrymaking and reverie? Ginger tea. And don’t be shy with the honey dipper. The natural sugar will help your body burn off what’s left of the wassail. January’s blue moon falls on the last day of the month. Reflect upon the ways you let your own light shine on this rare and energetically powerful night. Like attracts like. What are you calling in for 2018?

To Your Health!

Traditionally served in a large wooden bowl adorned with holly and ivy, wassail is a hot alcoholic cider that spells celebration. Many recipes call for port, sherry and fresh-baked apples, but here’s a simple (un-spiked) version for you. Start now and wrap your hands around a mug of hot wassail within the hour. Serves four. Ingredients 2 cups apple cider 1 cup orange juice Juice of one lemon 2 cinnamon sticks 6 cloves 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg Instructions Combine all ingredients in a large pan. Bring to simmer over medium-low heat. Reduce heat. Continue simmering for 45 minutes. Ladle into mugs and enjoy.

There are two seasonal diversions that can ease the bite of any winter. One is the January thaw. The other is the seed catalogues. — Hal Borland

Arts Entertainment C a l e n da r

Skating Under the Pines 1/

Meet the Author 1/

p.m. Opening reception. Sandhills Community College Visual Arts students are having a salon-style exhibition in the Hastings Gallery at the Boyd Library, Sandhills Community College, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 695-3879.

OUTPOST BOOK SALES. Outpost hours. The January monthly sale at the Given Book Shop features cookbooks. The author sale features Jeffery Deaver and Dan Brown. Buy one, get one free. Stop by and stock up and help support community programs. Given Outpost/Book Shop, 95 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 585-4820 or 295-6022.

Monday, January 1

Through Thursday, January 6

SKATING UNDER THE PINES. Weekdays, 4–8 p.m.; weekend, 1–8 p.m. Fifty-minute sessions start at the top of the hour on a 2,100 square-foot skating rink complete with music, lights, winter treats and drinks and a full bar. Tickets: $10/person rink side. The Carolina Hotel’s West Lawn. 80 Carolina Vista Drive, Village of Pinehurst. Info: (910) 235-8783. For group skating, private party inquiries and special requests call Josh Leap at (910) 235-8783 or josh.leap@pinehurst.com.

Through Thursday, January 11

SALON-STYLE EXHIBITION AND RECEPTION. 3–5

Although conscientious effort is made to provide accurate and up-todate information, all events are subject to change and errors can occur! Please call to verify times, costs, status and location before planning or attending an event.

Applications are being accepted for the town of Southern Pines Citizens Academy. Five sessions will be held February–May on Tuesdays from 6–8 p.m., with a light dinner served starting at 5:30 p.m. The goal of the Citizens Academy is to demonstrate both the complexities and professionalism involved in providing town services and to promote collaboration between residents and their government. Applications are available at www.southernpines.net or at most town departments. Call (910) 692-8235 for more information.

Hot Glass Fundamentals

FIRST DAY HIKES. Start the year off right by getting outside for one or all three Weymouth Woods First Day Hikes. At 9 a.m., check out the Boyd tract on a 1-mile hike through an oldgrowth longleaf pine forest. Meet at the Weymouth Center, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. At 1 p.m., take the 2-mile Weymouth Tract hike with a ranger to see the different habitats within the longleaf pine forest. Meet at Weymouth Woods, 1024 Fort Bragg Road. At 3 p.m., hike the 2-mile Paint Hill Tract, which has more elevation change than much of the Sandhills. Meet at the Visitor Center, Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve, 1024 Fort Bragg Road, Southern Pines, to caravan/carpool to site. Info: (910) 692-2167. NATIONAL BLOODY MARY DAY. 3 p.m. until closing. Shake off last year and start your new year on the right foot. Bloody Marys will be served all day. Elliotts on Linden, 905 Linden Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 215-0775.

Monday, January 1—31

JOY OF ART STUDIO. Joy Hellman offers classes and workshops for all ages in journaling, painting, drawing, fiber and multimedia. She also holds retreats and other events for women to support, nourish and encourage creativity and personal development. Class times and prices vary. Unless otherwise stated, classes are held at Joy of Art Studio, 139 E. Pennsylvania Ave., B, Southern Pines. Call (910) 528-7283 or visit www.joyof-art.com for a complete list of events this month.

COMMUNITY GOLF DAYS. All day. Call for tee times. Southern Pines Recreation & Parks and local golf courses offer you a chance to have fun, catch some great deals and help raise funds to improve the golf facilities at Campbell House. Cost: $30 (cash only), includes an additional round on the Bottlebrush 6-hole short course. Longleaf Golf and Family Club, 10 N. Knoll Road, Southern Pines; and Hyland Golf Club, 115 Fairway Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2463 or www.southernpines.net.

Tuesday, January 2

CRAFT DAYS. All day. Get ready for the New Year. Kids and their families can participate in making a variety of fun and festive crafts. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net. DISCOVERY PLACE ROCKINGHAM TRIP. 8 a.m.–5:30 p.m. For ages K-13. Cost: $32/resident; $64/non-resident (includes admission). Meet at Train House, 482 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2463. BASIC HATHA EVENING YOGA. 5:30-6:30 p.m. (Tuesdays through Feb. 6) Instructor Darlind Davis teaches this course for adults 18+ who may have had no previous experience with yoga. Bring your own mat. Cost: $40/resident; $80/non-resident. Pinehurst Parks & Rec, 300 Kelly Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-1900 or pinehurstrec.org.

Thursday, January 4

MUSIC AND MOTION STORYTIME. 10:30 a.m. For all children, especially ages 2 through 5. This event incorporates stories and songs along with dancing, playing and games designed to foster language and motor-skill development. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.

January 2018 P��PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

ca l e n d a r THIRSTY THURSDAYS. 6:30 p.m. “Tequila Beyond the Lime.” Bartenders show off their skills, offering three tastings, complemented with a bite to enjoy from the chefs. Seating is limited. Elliotts on Linden, 905 Linden Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 215-0775. CAMEO ARTHOUSE. 7:30 p.m. (doors open 7). The Farmer and Adele. Tickets: $12. Cameo Arthouse Theatre, 225 Hay St., Fayetteville. Info: (910) 486-6633 or www.cameoarthouse.com.

Friday, January 5

NATURE STUDY PROGRAM. 10 a.m. “Feeding our Feathered Friends (For Wee Ones!).” Celebrate National Bird Day by learning how feeding birds can help them survive the winter. Activities include reading a book, and making a peanut butter pinecone bird feeder to take home. All activities geared toward 3- to 5- year-olds, with parent participation. Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve, 1024 Fort Bragg Road, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2167 or www.ncparks.gov. CHAIR YOGA. 9–10 a.m. Fridays through Feb. 9. Taught by Darlind Davis, ideal for those with chronic conditions, balance issues or lower body challenges that affect the ability to get up and down. Cost: $40/resident; $80/non-resident. Info: Pinehurst Parks & Rec, 300 Kelly Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-1900 or pinehurstrec.org. ART EXHIBIT AND OPENING. Opening reception, 6–8 p.m.; exhibit, gallery hours. “Stitches & Clay.” Showcasing works by Judy Foushee, Freeman Pottery and Rita Ragan, needlework miniatures; and Sandhills Quilters Guild. The Arts Council of Moore County, Campbell House Galleries, 482 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2787 or mooreart.org. THE ROOSTER’S WIFE. 6:46 p.m. (doors open at 6). The Farmer and Adele perform. Cost: $10 in advance. Poplar Knight Spot, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-7502 or www. theroosterswife.org.

Saturday, January 6

NATURE STUDY PROGRAM. 8 a.m. “Winter Bird Walk.” Look for dark-eyed juncos, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, rubycrowned kinglets and other winter visitors on this 2-mile walk. Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve, 1024 Fort Bragg Road, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2167 or www.ncparks.gov. GIVEN KIDS. 10 a.m.–12 p.m. January Author Birthdays, J.R.R. Tolkien (Hobbit Series) and A.A Milne (Winnie the Pooh) celebrated birthdays in January. Let’s celebrate them with great activities. Bring a friend and sign up for a free library card (no residency requirement). This event is open to the public. Given Memorial Library & Tufts Archives, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-6022.

Sunday, January 7

THE ROOSTER’S WIFE. 12:45 p.m. (Doors open 11:59 a.m.) Brunch and a show with the Gibson Brothers. Cost: $40 in advance. Matinee performance without brunch is $33. Poplar Knight Spot, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-7502 or www.theroosterswife.org.

INSTRUCTORS’ DEMO DAY. 1–4 p.m. Instructors demonstrate various mediums that they will teach this winter: acrylic, alcohol ink, calligraphy, charcoal, collage, colored pencil, drawing, encaustic wax, oil, pastel, scratchboard and watercolor. Chat with instructors, enjoy light refreshments and check out the exhibition of our instructors’ paintings (which will remain open through Thursday, Jan. 25). The Exchange Street Gallery of Fine Art, 129 Exchange St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-3979 or www. artistleague.org. NATURE STUDY PROGRAM. 3 p.m. “Winter Hummingbirds.” Join ornithologist Susan Campbell for this presentation. Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve, 1024 Fort Bragg Road, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2167 or www. ncparks.gov. BUILD COMMUNITY AT YOUR LIBRARY. 3–4 p.m. Anyone interested in turning their passion for social networking into a career should join the creators of The Sway at the Library and take an exclusive behind-the-scenes look into the making of this popular email newsletter. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235. WEYMOUTH CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES. 3–5 p.m. Mallarmé Chamber Players. Reception to meet the artists follows the concert. Tickets: $10/member; $20/non-member. Available at the Weymouth Center office, in person or by phone 10 a.m.–2 p.m., Monday-Friday; at the door on the day of the performance. Weymouth Center for Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-6261 or weymouthcenter.org. THE ROOSTER’S WIFE. 6:45 p.m. (Doors open 5:59 p.m.) Dinner and a show with the Gibson Brothers. Cost: $42 in advance. Performance without dinner is $33. Poplar Knight Spot, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-7502 or www. theroosterswife.org.

Monday, January 8

EVENING STORYTIMES. 6 p.m. Children ages 3 through 3rd grade and their whole families are invited to enjoy a session that incorporates stories and activities that foster a love of books and reading, with tips for winding down after dinner and getting the week off on the right track. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net. SANDHILLS PHOTO CLUB MEETING. 7 p.m. Club Meeting. Theater in the Hannah Center at The O’Neal School, 3300 Airport Road, Southern Pines. Info: www. sandhillsphotoclub.org. TRIVIA TOURNAMENT. 6 p.m. Tuesdays in January. The Sly Fox begins its infamous Trivia Tournament, over six weeks with the top 10 teams making it to the grand finale on week 7. This year’s tournament is based on seven Star Wars movies. The Sly Fox Pub, 795 SW Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 725-1621. REC-ING CREW SOCIAL CLUB. 4–5:30 p.m. January activity: Snack and Sketch. Light refreshments will be served. Must

TOSCA SATURDAY, JANURAY 27 AT 12PM ROMEO AND JULIET SUNDAY, JANUARY 21 AT 1PM THE LADY OF THE CAMELLIAS SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 4 AT 1PM

L’ELISIR D’AMORE SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10 AT 1PM LA BOHEME SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24 AT 12:30PM

FLIGHT CLUB. 6:30 p.m. Toscana vs. Piemonte. An all red wine showdown between two of the jewels of Italy. A flight of four tastings is accompanied by a charcuterie board. $25. Seating is limited. Elliotts on Linden, 905 Linden Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 215-0775. CAROLINA PHILHARMONIC. 7:30–9:30 p.m. Symphonic Masterworks: Beethoven’s Fifth & Schubert’s Unfinished Symphonies. Tickets: $30–$60 (call for military and student discounts). Owens Auditorium, Sandhills Community College, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 687-0287.

Thursday, January 11

GATHERING AT GIVEN. 3:30 and 7 p.m. Join Audrey Moriarty for this program about some of the area hotels, many of them little-known today, that existed in Moore County’s past. Free and open to the public. Given Memorial Library, (3:30 p.m.), 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst; and Given Outpost (7 p.m.), 95 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 585-4820 or 295-6022. THE FAYETTEVILLE SYMPHONY. 7:30–9:30 p.m. The French Connection Concert. FSO’s chamber music concert features the Fayetteville Symphony String Quartet as they perform Ravel’s String Quartet, a cornerstone composition of French Impressionism. Tickets: $28/adults, $25/seniors & military; $11/ students or children ages 6-18. Children 5 and under are free. St. John’s Episcopal Church, 302 Green St., Fayetteville. (910) 433-4690. N.C. SYMPHONY. 8–10 p.m. Mussorgsky’s “Pictures At An Exhibition” and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4. Tickets are available in advance at the N.C. Symphony Box Office, The Country Bookshop, or the Arts Council of Moore County (Campbell House); or at the door one hour before performance. Lee Auditorium, Pinecrest High School, 250 Voit Gilmore Lane, Southern Pines. Info: (877) 627-6724.

Thursday, January 11 & 12

ART CLASS. 9 a.m.–3:30 p.m. Oil Painting with Courtney, taught by Courtney Herndon. She will focus on painting wet into wet and a loose, impressionistic style. Using a limited number of paints, you will learn to mix colors, and concentrate on value and composition. $110. Artists League of the Sandhills, 129 Exchange St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-3979 or artistleague.org.

Thursday, January 11—21

Tuesday, January 9, 16, 23, & 30

Wednesday, January 10

pay club dues in advance to participate. Dues payment covers all six sessions. Cost: $15/resident; $30/non-resident. Recreation Room, 300 Kelly Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-1900 or pinehurstrec.org.

TEMPLE THEATRE. Classic Nashville Roadshow, Part II: The Sequined Sequel. Starring Jason Petty and Katie Deal, featuring renowned duets, poignant tunes and gospel tradition. Call for times and ticket prices. Temple Theatre, 120 Carthage St., Sanford. Info: (919) 774-4155.

Friday, January 12

FUN FRIDAYS. 5–7 p.m. Pinehurst Parks and Rec’s monthly group outing for ages 14+. This month: dinner and games at

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Saturday, January 13

EQUESTRIAN EVENT. 8 a.m.–5 p.m. Pipe Opener I CT. Divisions: CT: Green as Grass-Adv. Dressage Test of Choice: Any. Carolina Horse Park, 2814 Montrose Road, Raeford. Info: (910) 875-2074. MEET THE AUTHOR. 12 p.m. A.J. Tata discusses his new book, Direct Fire, a Jake Mahegan thriller. The Country Bookshop, 140 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-3211.

Sunday, January 14

SUNDAY FILM SERIES. 2:30 p.m. This film for adults is an adaptation of The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235. NATURE STUDY PROGRAM. 3 p.m. “Backyard Bird Feeding 101.” Learn what to feed birds in your own backyard in this discussion on seed and suet varieties, feeder types, solutions for dealing with those pesky squirrels and raccoons. Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve, 1024 Fort Bragg Road, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2167 or www.ncparks.gov. THE ROOSTER’S WIFE. 6:46 p.m. (doors open at 6). Louise Mosrie and Cliff Eberhart perform. Cost: $15 in advance. Poplar Knight Spot, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-7502 or www.theroosterswife.org.

Monday, January 15

WOMEN OF WEYMOUTH LECTURE AND MEETING. 9:30 a.m. Coffee followed by presentation and meeting. Ann

Lambrecht, senior risk specialist, will speak on medical identity theft. Free and open to the public. Weymouth Center for Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-6261 or www.weymouthcenter.org. SIP & PAINT WITH JANE. 5–7 p.m. Join local artist Jane Casnellie for a fun painting class suitable for all levels, including beginners. No experience necessary and all materials included, as well as your wine. Take home your own masterpiece. Cost: $35. Call Jane at (910) 639-4823 to sign up. Hollyhocks Art Gallery, at 905 Linden Road, Pinehurst. www.janecasnellie.com.

Monday, January 15, 22, 29; and February 5, 12 & 19 ART CLASS (DRAWING). 1–4 p.m. Drawing Series, taught by Betty DiBartelomeo. Learn basic drawing skills in this sixweek series and grow as an artist. Will require some homework. Cost: $180. Artists League of the Sandhills, 129 Exchange St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-3979 or artistleague.org.

Tuesday, January 16

COMMUNITY GOLF DAYS AT MID PINES. All day. Call for tee times. Southern Pines Recreation & Parks and local golf courses offer you a chance to have fun, catch some great deals and help raise funds to improve the golf facilities at Campbell House. $30 (cash only). 1010 Midland Road, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2463 or www.southernpines.net. GENTLE FLOW YOGA. 10:30–11:30 a.m. (Tuesdays through Feb. 20) Instructor Carol Wallace leads this class for individuals who have some familiarity with basic yoga poses. This class focuses on alignment, balance, posture and body awareness. Cost: $40/resident; $80/non-resident. Pinehurst Parks & Rec, 300 Kelly Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-1900 or www. pinehurstrec.org.

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF MOORE COUNTY. 11:30 a.m. Luncheon and meeting. Annual planning meeting and Advocacy Training event. Everyone welcome. Cost: $13. Reservations required. Little River Resort, 500 Little River Farm Blvd., Carthage. Info: (910) 944-9611 or owegeecoach@ gmail.com. MEET THE AUTHOR. 5 p.m. Jodi Barth discusses her book, CSI Old School, about a trail-blazing woman’s journey into the oftentimes-dark world of crime scene investigation The Country Bookshop, 140 NW Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-3211. JAMES BOYD BOOK CLUB. 2 p.m. On Press, by Tom Wicker. Free and open to the public. Weymouth Center for Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-6261 or www.weymouthcenter.org.

Wednesday, January 17

EQUESTRIAN EVENT. 10 a.m.–2 p.m. Winter Schooling Day (SJ & D). Winter Schooling Days offer Dressage, Hunter Ring, and Jumper Ring schooling only. Carolina Horse Park, 2814 Montrose Road, Raeford. Info: (910) 875-2074. WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE READING. 5:30 p.m. Belle Boggs will read from her memoir, The Act of Waiting: On Fertility, Medicine and Motherhood. A wine and cheese reception to meet the author follows. Sponsored by St. Joseph of the Pines, this event is free and open to the public. Weymouth Center for Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-6261 or www.weymouthcenter.org.

Thursday, January 18

MUSIC AND MOTION STORYTIME. 10:30 a.m. For all children, especially ages 2 through 5. This event incorporates stories and songs along with dancing, playing and games designed

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January 2018P��PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

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y 2ours: Februar Gallery H 3 pm t e e tr S e Exchang Saturday Noon to Monday -

Instructors’ Demonstration Day Instructors of the Artists League of the Sandhills demonstrate their techniques. Sunday, 7 January 2018 • 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Sign up for 2018 Workshops Conquering the Mystery of Color: A Workshop with Laine Francis • March 5-7, 2018 Figures with Watercolor and Gouache: A Workshop with Kate Worm • March 26-28, 2018

Dvořák Serenade for Strings THUR, FEB 1 | 8PM LEE AUDITORIUM, PINECREST HIGH SCHOOL, SOUTHERN PINES

Grant Llewellyn, conductor

Leonid Finkelshteyn, bass

Explore the beauty and depth of expression in music for string orchestra, including Dvořák’s joyful Serenade for Strings and the world premiere of a new concerto by composer and longtime NCS musician Terry Mizesko.

Oil Painting with Courtney Courtney Herndon – January 11, 12 9:00 – 3:30 Drawing Series/6 Mondays Betty DiBartelomeo – January 15, 22, 29, February 5, 12, 19 1:00 – 4:00 Background Possibilities Betty DiBartelomeo – January 17 9:00 – 3:00 Acylics Pat McMahon – January 23, 24 10:00 – 12:00 Finger Paint – A wall, a window & a flower box (Acrylic) Magda Sondervan – January 25 12:30 – 3:30 Go with the Flow/Beginning Ink Pam Griner – January 26 12:30 – 3:30 Colorful Watercolor Series/4 Tuesdays Sandy Scott – January 30, February 6, 13, 20 1:00 – 4:00 Beginning Colored Pencil Betty Hendrix – January 31 10:00 – 3:00 Getting Your Values Right Betty DiBartelomeo – February 1, 2 10:00 – 3:00 Oil Painting with Courtney Courtney Herndon – February 7, 8 9:00 – 3:30 Open Studio Life Drawing – February 9 9:30 – 12:30 Soft Pastel-Dramatic Lighting Pastel Paintings Betty Hendrix – February 14 10:00 – 4:00 The Mystery of Mediums Harry Neely – February 17, 24 10:00 – 3:00 Portraiture 1 and 2 Betty DiBartelomeo – February 21, 22 10:00 – 4:00 Watercolor on Rice Paper Pat McMahon – February 27, 28 10:00 – 12:00 Access our website to see the entire Winter schedule.

Contact the League for details and to register!

Tickets start at just $18!* Tickets also available at: Campbell House | 482 E. Connecticut Avenue The Country Bookshop | 140 NW Broad Street

ncsymphony.org 877.627.6724

www.artistleague.org Like Us!

Exchange Street Gallery 12:00PM-3:00PM Mon-Sat

*Price does not include tax.

ca l e n d a r to foster language and motor-skill development. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net. DOUGLASS CENTER BOOK CLUB. 10:30 a.m. This month’s book can be picked up at the Southern Pines Public Library or at the Center. Meetings are held at the Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376 or (910) 692-8235. CHEF’S ART OF COOKING SERIES. 6:30 p.m. Shellfish. Learn how to prepare and cook and then enjoy a four-course dinner afterward. Cost: $38. Reservations required. Elliotts on Linden, 905 Linden Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 215-0775.

Thursday, January 18 & 19

ART CLASS. 9 a.m.–3 p.m. Background Possibilities, taught by Betty DiBartelomeo. Learn and explore all options and create more interesting backgrounds. Cost: $50. Artists League of the Sandhills, 129 Exchange St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-3979 or artistleague.org.

Friday, January 19

JAZZY FRIDAYS. 6–10 p.m. Enjoy a bottle of wine and dancing with friends under the tent with live jazz music, provided by The Sand Band. Cost: $15/person. Ages 21 and older. Reservations and pre-payment recommended for parties of 8 or more. Food vendor on site. Cypress Bend Vineyards, 21904 Riverton Road, Wagram. Info: (910) 369-0411 or www.cypressbendvineyards.com. THE ROOSTER’S WIFE. 6:46 p.m. (doors open at 6). Ben and Joe perform. Cost: $10 in advance. Poplar Knight Spot, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-7502 or www.theroosterswife.org.

Saturday, January 20

STEAM SATURDAY. All day (science, technology, engineer-

ing, art and math). This program is for children grades K–5. Experiment and craft tables will be out all day. From 11 a.m. to noon, join the Library staff for a special Snowman Science event. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net. PRUNING WORKSHOP. 10 a.m.–12 p.m. Moore County Extension agent Taylor Williams covers pruning basics and provides an outside demonstration of how it is done. This workshop is free, but reservations are necessary. Sandhills Horticultural Gardens-Ball Visitors Center, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 695-3882. HOT GLASS FUNDAMENTALS. 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Learn how to gather and manipulate molten glass and apply color as you create a paperweight, glass feather and other solid glass objects. If time allows, participants will begin to learn the blowing process. No experience necessary. Fee: $125. Participants may want to bring lunch. STARworks Center for Creative Enterprise, 100 Russell Drive, Star. Info and registration: (910) 428-9001 or www.starworksnc.org/education/glass-workshops. ARTISTS MEETUP. 2–4 p.m. The Arts Council of Moore County presents this event, featuring coffee and Yum Yum Chocolates. Hosted by Design Market. All artists are welcome. This is a free event. 3086 N.C. 5, Aberdeen. Info: (910) 6922787 or visit MooreArt.org/ArtistsMeetup or Meetup.com/ ACMC-Art-Meetup. THE ROOSTER’S WIFE. 6:46 p.m. (doors open at 6). Ben and Joe perform. Cost: $10 in advance. Poplar Knight Spot, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-7502 or www.theroosterswife.org. BALLROOM DANCING. 7–10 p.m. Cape Fear Ballroom Dancers. Cost: $10/members; $15/guests. Roland’s Dance Studio, 310 Hope Mills Road, Fayetteville. Info: (910) 987-4420 or www.capefearballroomdancers.org.

Sunday, January 21

TRADITIONAL ENGLISH CARVERY. 11:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m. Cost: $21.95. The Sly Fox Pub, 795 SW Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 725-1621. BOLSHOI BALLET LIVE FROM LONDON IN HD. 12:55 p.m. Romeo and Juliet. A classical ballet about two star-crossed lovers, set to Prokofiev’s romantic score and staged by Alexei Ratmansky, former artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet. Tickets: $25. Sunrise Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8501 or 692-3611 or sunrisetheater.com. SUNDAY KIDS MOVIE. 2:30 p.m. Enjoy a free showing of The Emoji Movie. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235. NATURE STUDY PROGRAM. 3 p.m. “Squirrels of the Sandhills.” Join a ranger for a short presentation and hike to learn about the three types of squirrels that live in the Sandhills. Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve, 1024 Fort Bragg Road, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2167 or www.ncparks.gov. MOVIE NIGHT. 5–7 p.m. All the President’s Men. Popcorn and drinks available. Entry fee is a donation to Given Tufts. The Given Outpost, 95 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 5854820 or 295-7002. THE ROOSTER’S WIFE. 6:46 p.m. (doors open at 6). The Contenders perform, with special guest Randy Hughes. Cost: $15 in advance. Poplar Knight Spot, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-7502 or www.theroosterswife.org.

Monday, January 22

EVENING STORYTIMES. 6 p.m. Children ages 3 through 3rd grade and their whole families are invited to enjoy a session that incorporates stories and activities that foster a love

CYBER WARFARE: THE INTERNET OF THINGS January 13 • Noon at The Country Bookshop

Brigadier General A.J. Tata

Direct Fire

Direct Fire delivers a story as exciting and adrenaline-charged as it is alarming. With stunning authenticity, General Tata explores the potentials and damage of sophisticated cyberwarfare coupled with terrorist ground forces on American soil as an ISIS cell gathers in the North Carolina mountains to avenge an American strike in Syria—known as Operation Groomsman.

Starring Delfeayo Marsalis Quintet February 10 @ 8 pm • Carolina Hotel Tickets: 910.692.2787 or MooreArt.org

General Tata served 28 years in the US Army, and his last combat tour was as the Deputy Commanding General of the Allied and Joint Task Force in Afghanistan where he earned the combat Action Badge and the Bronze Star. Currently, he is the National Security Expert for One American News Network on Tipping Point. He also appears frequently as a guest commentator on Fox News, the NBC Today Show, the CBS Early Show, and CNN. His novel Besieged, was a national bestseller, and his novel, Foreign & Domestic, was a finalist for the Barry Award for best thriller.

The Country Bookshop 96

140 NW Broad St, Southern Pines, NC 910.692.3211 Shop Online at: www.thecountrybookshop.biz thecountrybookshop

January 2018 P��PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

Miniature needlework and hands of Rita Ragan Photo: Tim Sayer from the June, 2017 issue of PineStraw

STITCHES & CLAY

Showcasing miniature pottery by Judy Foushee & Freeman Pottery; miniature needlework by Rita Ragan; and quilts by Sandhills Quilters Guild members January 5-26, 2018 | Campbell House

Upcoming Events JAN 20 Artists Meetup MEETUP

2-4 pm, Design Market on Hwy. 5 in Aberdeen

FEB 2-23 Art show showcasing work by Constance Pappalardo, ART

Madonna Phillips, and Marjorie Pierson Campbell House Galleries

FEB 10 Heart ‘n Soul of Jazz 2018 JAZZ

Starring Delfeayo Marsalis Quintet 8 pm, Carolina Hotel at Pinehurst Resort

FEB 26 Escher String Quartet MUSIC

8 pm, Sunrise Theater

Become an Arts Council member today. It’s an easy way of meeting other arts lovers. Join now at MooreArt.org or call us at 910.692.ARTS (2787).

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January 2018 P��PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

ca l e n d a r of books and reading, with tips for winding down after dinner and getting the week off on the right track. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net.

Tuesday, January 23

LIT WITS. 5:30 p.m. Join the Library’s newest book club, the Lit Wits, for 11- to 15-year-olds. You can check out your copy of the book, Amina’s Voice, by Hena Khan at the Library from Jan. 2–22. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net. GLOBAL CUISINE SERIES. 6:30 p.m. Provence, France. From January till the end of March, Elliotts will be featuring the foods of iconic regions. Chefs will be preparing a four-course dining experience for the palate. $30. Seating is limited, so please make reservations. Elliotts on Linden, 905 Linden Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 215-0775.

Tuesday, January 23 & 24

ART CLASS (PAINTING). 10 a.m.–12 p.m. Enhanced Acrylics, taught by Pat McMahon. This class will emphasize the development and use of incredibly rich textured surfaces. Cost: $40. Artists League of the Sandhills, 129 Exchange St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-3979 or artistleague.org.

Thursday, January 25

ART CLASS (PAINTING). 12:30–3:30 p.m. Finger Paint — A wall, a window and a flower box (acrylic), taught by Magda Sondervan, for beginners. Cost: $40. Artists League of the Sandhills, 129 Exchange St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-3979 or artistleague.org. THE FAYETTEVILLE SYMPHONY. 7:30–9:30 p.m. “Music of the New World.” This FSO chamber music concert features the Fayetteville Symphony Brass and Woodwind Quintets

performing American works, including ones by Foster, Gershwin and Bernstein. Tickets: $28/adults; $25/seniors & military; $11/students or children ages 6-18. Children 5 and under are free. St. John’s Episcopal Church, 302 Green St., Fayetteville. (910) 433-4690.

Friday, January 26

ART CLASS (INK). 12:30–3:30 p.m. Go with the Flow/ Beginning Ink, taught by Pam Griner. You will learn about the different brands of ink, the paper that works best with the medium, and how to create abstract and landscape paintings. Cost: $40 (supplies included). Artists League of the Sandhills, 129 Exchange St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-3979 or artistleague.org. JAZZY FRIDAYS. 6–10 p.m. Enjoy a bottle of wine and dancing with friends under the tent with live jazz music, provided by Gary Lowder and Smokin’ Hot. Cost: $15. Ages 21 and older. Reservations and pre-payment recommended for parties of 8 or more. Food vendor on site. Cypress Bend Vineyards, 21904 Riverton Road, Wagram. Info: (910) 369-0411 or www.cypressbendvineyards.com. THE ROOSTER’S WIFE. 6:46 p.m. (doors open at 6). Graymatter performs. Cost: $10 in advance. Poplar Knight Spot, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-7502 or www. theroosterswife.org.

Saturday, January 27

EQUESTRIAN EVENT. 10 a.m.–2 p.m. Winter Schooling Day (SJ & D). Winter Schooling Days offer Dressage, Hunter Ring, and Jumper Ring schooling only. Carolina Horse Park, 2814 Montrose Road, Raeford. Info: (910) 875-2074. THE MET OPERA: LIVE IN HD. 12:55 p.m. Tosca. Puccini’s dramatic tragedy, performed via satellite live from Lincoln Center, is conducted by Andris Nelsons and stars Kristine Opolais, Jonas Kaufmann and Bryn Terfelas. Cost: $27. Sunrise

Theater, 250 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 6928501 or sunrisetheater.com. TRAIL. 3 p.m. All 6th–10th graders are invited to get active in the New Year at this class led by Brandi Martin as part of the Teens Reading and Investigating Life series. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net. NATURE STUDY PROGRAM. 10 a.m. “Wildlings: Adventure Maps!” In this program (for 6- to 10-year-olds) adventurers will each get a blank map to fill in and customize, creating a personalized map of Weymouth Woods. Weymouth WoodsSandhills Nature Preserve, 1024 Fort Bragg Road, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2167 or www.ncparks.gov.

Sunday, January 28

NATURE STUDY PROGRAM. 3 p.m. “Staying Warm in Winter.” Enjoy a brisk 2-mile hike and learn how the native animals beat the cold during this chilly time of year. Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve, 1024 Fort Bragg Road, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-2167 or www.ncparks.gov. THE ROOSTER’S WIFE. 6:46 p.m. (doors open at 6). Rachel Baiman perform. Cost: $15 in advance. Poplar Knight Spot, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-7502 or www. theroosterswife.org.

Monday, January 29

ART & WINE APPRECIATION. 5:30-7:30 p.m. “Exploring Art Through Observation and Conversation VII.” Join art educator and local artist Ellen Burke for a presentation on “Compassion, Courage and the Creative Spirit.” Cost: $20, including wine. Proceeds to benefit The Moore Free and Charitable Clinic. Hollyhocks Art Gallery, 905 Linden Road, Pinehurst. Info and registration: Ellen at (603) 966-6567or Jane at (910) 639-4823.

IT’S TIME TO EAT OUT

Karaoke every Fri. & Sat. 8pm-Midnight To a d v e r t i s e , c a l l 910-692-7271

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Tuesday, January 30

YOUNG AFFILIATE MEETING. 6 p.m. Sounds on the Grounds planning. Come enjoy meeting young professionals and working on this fun project. Everyone welcome. Weymouth Center for Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-6261 or www.weymouthcenter.org. MUSICIANS JAM SESSION. 7 p.m. Bring your instrument and your beverage, or just come to enjoy. Free and open to the public. Library, Weymouth Center for Arts & Humanities, 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-6261 or www.weymouthcenter.org.

Tuesday, January 30 and February 6, 13 & 20

ART CLASS (PAINTING). 1–4 p.m. Colorful Watercolor Series, taught by Sandy Scott. This class will introduce the student to simple and selective brush strokes the use of watercolor mediums and the unusual effects of how they interact with the paint to create florals and landscapes. Cost: $120. Artists League of the Sandhills, 129 Exchange St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-3979 or artistleague.org.

Wednesday, January 31

ART CLASS (COLORED PENCIL). 10 a.m.–3 p.m. Beginning Colored Pencil, taught by Betty Hendrix. This class will be an opportunity to learn about the supplies and techniques. Cost: $120. Artists League of the Sandhills, 129 Exchange St., Aberdeen. Info: (910) 944-3979 or artistleague.org.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Thursday, February 1. FIRESIDE COLLECTIVE AT THE CAMEO. 7:30 p.m. (doors open at 7) Tickets: $12 (in advance). Cameo Arthouse Theater, 225 Hay St, Fayetteville. (910) 486-6633 or www.cameoarthouse.com.

Thursday, February 1. NORTH CAROLINA SYMPHONY. Dvorak’s Serenade for Strings. Info and tickets: (877) 627-6724 or www.ncsymphony.org. Thursday, February 1 & 2. ART CLASS. 10 a.m.–3 p.m. Getting Your Values Right, taught by Betty DiBartelomeo. $64/$72/$80. Artists League of the Sandhills. Info: (910) 9443979 or artistleague.org. Tuesday, February 13. The Holly and Ivy Dinner Celebrates Mardi Gras at Holly Inn, Pinehurst. Save the date!

WEEKLY EVENTS Sundays—Saturdays

PRIVATE AND GROUP COOKING CLASSES. 6:30 p.m. (most classes). Private classes available Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Group classes held Wednesdays through Saturdays, providing hands-on instruction for pasta, Moroccan, ravioli, sweet potato gnocchi, sushi, eggplant parmesan, pierogis and charcuterie and knife skills. Vegetarian, vegan, or gluten-free options. Brunch classes (from eggs Benedict to French toast) on Saturdays. See website for specific menus and prices. Reservations and pre-payment required. Prices: $45–$55/ person, includes meal, instruction and recipes. Brunch: $35. The Flavor Exchange, 115 E. New Hampshire Ave., Southern Pines. Info and menus: (910) 725-1345 or www.theflavorexchange.com.

Mondays

BRIDGE. 1–4:30 p.m. A card game played by four people in two partnerships, in which “trump” is determined by bidding. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376.

Tuesdays

BABY BUNNIES STORYTIME. 10:30 and 11 a.m. (two

sessions) This storytime, reserved for ages birth to 18 months, will engage parents and children in early literacy brain-building practices. Programs will be offered Jan. 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30. Limited to 20 babies per session. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235 or www.sppl.net. BROWN BAG LUNCH/GAME DAY. 11:30 a.m. Bring your lunch and enjoy fellowship and activities, including card games, board games and the Wii. The Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. TAI CHI FOR HEALTH. 10–11:30 a.m. Practice this flowing Eastern exercise with instructor Rich Martin. Cost per class: $15/ member; $17/non-member. Monthly rates available. No refunds or transfers. Cape Fear Botanical Garden, 536 N. Eastern Blvd., Fayetteville. Info and registration: (910) 486-0221.

Wednesdays

YOGA IN THE GARDEN. 6–7 p.m. Improve flexibility, build strength, ease tension and relax through posture and breathing techniques for beginners and experts alike. Free for CFBG and YMCA members, $5/non-members. Cape Fear Botanical Garden, 536 N. Eastern Blvd., Fayetteville. Info and registration: (910) 486-0221 ex. 36 or capefearbg.org. (Must register one day prior). Email questions to mzimmerman@capefearbg.org. BRIDGE. 1–4:30 p.m. A card game played by four people in two partnerships, in which “trump” is determined by bidding. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. READ TO YOUR BUNNY PRESCHOOL STORYTIME. 3:30–4 p.m. Especially for children ages 2–5, this storytime focuses on stories, songs and fun, with a special emphasis on activities that build language and socialization skills to prepare for

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ca l e n d a r Kindergarten. Dates this month are Jan. 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31. Stay for playtime. Southern Pines Public Library, 170 W. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-8235.

Thursdays

MOORE COUNTY FARMERS MARKET. 9 a.m.–1 p.m. Fruits, vegetables, meats, crafts, flowers, plants, baked goods and more. Armory Sports Complex, 604 W. Morganton Road, Southern Pines. Info: (910) 947-3752 or www.moorecountync.gov or www.localharvest.org. GIVEN STORY TIME. 10:30–11:30 a.m. For ages 3 to 5. Wonderful volunteers read to children, and everyone makes a craft. Free and open to the public. Given Memorial Library, 150 Cherokee Road, Pinehurst. Info: (910) 295-6022. MAHJONG (Chinese version). 1–3 p.m. A game played by four people involving skill, strategy and calculation. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W.. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. CHESS. 1–3 p.m. Don Hammerman instructs all levels of players. You need a chess set to participate. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. TAI CHI FOR HEALTH. 6–7:30 p.m. Practice this flowing Eastern exercise with instructor Rich Martin. Cost for single class: $15/member; $17/non-member. Monthly rates available. No refunds or transfers. Cape Fear Botanical Garden, 536 N. Eastern Blvd., Fayetteville. Info and registration: (910) 486-0221.

Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays

HISTORY OF PINEHURST TOUR. 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. (1 hour & 15 minutes each). Also by request. Experience the

Home of American Golf on a guided windshield tour with Kirk Tours and learn about Mr. Tufts and some of Pinehurst’s celebrity patrons. Cost: $20/person. Departs from Pinehurst Historic Theatre, 90 Cherokee Road. Info and registration: (910) 295-2257 or kirktours.com.

Fridays

PRESCHOOL STORYTIME. 10:30 a.m. Reading selections are

taken from the shop’s inventory of children’s literature, from the classics to modern day. The Country Bookshop, 140 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-3211. BRIDGE. 1–4:30 p.m. A card game played by four people in two partnerships, in which “trump” is determined by bidding. Douglass Community Center, 1185 W. Pennsylvania Ave., Southern Pines. Info: (910) 692-7376. PS

December PineNeedler Answers from page 109

B A G D A D

O R I O L E

S C A M P I

S P K I I N B T A A L O L

R E N D E R E D

S O N T H O S M T A E S W P O O G I E E S

S A P O R M O D E R N D A Y

T E A S E T L O S S E G O

I R S S O P N D A T C O N E W H E S E A S H U T I O N P I T O L S U M F I R E R R I N A I N U S E

A T B A Y

P R E T E E K N N S E E A P P G E N A U R

S E N S A T E

E K E R A W

S H E R P A

T I N S E L

6 4 1 9 8 2 7 3 5

2 8 3 5 4 7 6 9 1

9 5 7 6 3 1 4 2 8

1 9 5 7 6 3 2 8 4

3 6 2 4 9 8 1 5 7

4 7 8 2 1 5 3 6 9

8 1 9 3 2 4 5 7 6

5 3 4 8 7 6 9 1 2

7 2 6 1 5 9 8 4 3

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A Seasonal Start

January PineNeedler Across

1. CEO, for example

By Mart Dickerson

ACROSS 1. CEO, for example 5. Mixes up, as batter 10. Church altar area 14. Gas station company 15. Fables author 16. Arduous journey 17. Large Chinese bear (2 words) 19. Nota ____, take notice. 20. American actor, comedian ____ DeLuise 21. Emcee 22. Layers of paint 24. Matterhorn, e.g. 25. Mine yield DOWN 1. Town in CA, AZ and FL (and misspelled capital of Iraq.) 2. Baltimore teammate 3. Garlicky shrimp dish 4. Dad and Mom’s boy 5. Flavor, savory, tartness 6. Afternoon service (2 words) 7. “___ It Romantic?” 8. Fishing pole 9. Alien aircraft 10. Keep ___ ___, hold back 11. Ages after early childhood Puzzle answers on page 101

26. 1st part of seasonal 10. Church 53. altar Totalarea notion. . . 14. Gas55. station ___company Beta Kappa 28. Godly belief 15. Fables 56. author 3rd part of seasonal 30. Not those 16. Arduousnotion journey. . . 32. In-flight info, for short 57. Ready, aim,(2____ 17. Large Chinese bear 33. Scottish cap wds) 58. Ballpoint, e.g. 35. ___ Wednesday Shipping container 19. Nota59. ____, take notice. 36. Had the answer to 20. Americanweight actor,American pistols 60. Short 37. 2nd part of notion. . .comedian ____ DeLuise 63. On the safe side, at sea 40. Erupt, as lava 21. Emcee 64. Final part of seasonal 42. Put on, as clothes 22. Layers ifnotion paint . . . ! 43. Pecan, apple, key lime, 65. Back of the neck 24. Matterhorn, e.g. e.g. 66. Cutlass auto maker, for 25. Mine yield 44. Family members short 45. Basil-based sauce 26. 1st part of seasonal 67. New Yorker’s “you 47. Smallest amount notion.... guys” 51. Where to be, in poor 28. Godly 68.belief Russian mountain weather 30. Not thoserange

56. 3rd part of seasonal

notion....from her fellow Mart Dickerson lives in Southern Pines and welcomes suggestions 57. Ready, aim, ____ puzzle masters. She can be reached at gdickerson@nc.rr.com. 58. Ballpoint, e.g.

59. Shipping container weight 60. Short american pistols 63. On the safe side, at sea

36 39

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52 56 60

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T h e A c c i d e nta l A st r o l o g e r

Dark Side of the Moon

As ironic as it is, this month’s total lunar eclipse is a highlight of 2018 By Astrid Stellanova

Oh, my, Star Children! We are in for a treat on January 31st, when there

will be a total eclipse of the full moon. If that isn’t a bang-up way to start the New Year, then I don’t know what is. Take a moon bath under the stars! Hoot and holler and raise your voices up! Star gazers say this cosmic event will bring mothers and working women into the limelight. Watch for this to be a recurring theme all year long. Ad Astra—Astrid

Capricorn (December 22–January 19) You don’t need to keep looking in the rearview mirror. All good things lie ahead, Sugar. Memory lane is closed. And what you have lying straight before you is worth focusing on. Meanwhile, there is a great opportunity for investing in yourself and a new idea in the new year. Don’t let that escape you — take the off ramp!

Leo (July 23–August 22) Yep, your little plan fell into place, which either puts you in the catbird seat or the litter box. You were cunning and scored a win. But is this a game you really want to win? Ask that question. Also, a friend from your past needs a pal. It would be good karma just to let them know you remember them.

Aquarius (January 20–February 18) Well, look at you social caterpillar! You have broken into a tough circle of friends that only took about a thousand forevers. But you were patient and they finally saw that one of you was worth ten of a lot of people. You’re well loved, Honey Bun.

Virgo (August 23–September 22) Can’t never could, Sugar, but don’t kill yourself. It is also true that flop sweat ain’t becoming. During the holidays you may be asked to step up and take on a social role that you have never especially wanted. But it will be growth for you. And a toehold inside a door that has been closed for a very long time.

Pisces (February 19–March 20) You sayin’ your Jaguar can’t make it up the driveway at your mountain place? Or you’re allergic to all metals but platinum? Sugar, that is something called a humblebrag. Nobody else has told you, so I have to. It is true you have been prosperous. And that you have especially fine taste. Just say a little bit less about it Aries (March 21–April 19) Somebody bamboozled you pretty good. Looked like you couldn’t tell a skunk from a Billy goat. Well, they reckoned wrong. You’ll get your chance to settle the score but don’t let it concern you. The view ain’t worth the climb, Honey Bunny. Taurus (April 20–May 20) There is one somebody who gets under your skin and makes you lose your ever-loving mind. You know who and when. You have got to stop the blame game, hurling insults faster than Kim Jong-un. It might be a game to them but it is bad for your constitution, Sugar. Gemini (May 21–June 20) You’ve been showing too many teeth. Makes people nervous, and that completely undermines you. Stop trying so hard to be liked. You don’t have to work that angle. If you can stand in your truth, they will admire you, anyhow. You are likeable enough, Sally Field. Cancer (June 21–July 22) Let’s get some lumbar support for you, since you’re having a lot of trouble with your backbone. The thing is, you let a situation get out of control because you felt a lot of misplaced sympathy. But what they need from you is leadership. That might require you to be a lot firmer than your Beautyrest mattress.

Libra (September 23–October 22) You speak Southern? Then you know not to look over yonder for something right under foot. Focus is all you need to find your heart’s desire. And even though you feel like you have given all you have for a mighty big goal, you have something important and don’t even recognize it. Scorpio (October 23–November 21) Hunh? Darling, you brought a cup of Ramen noodles to a knife fight? I don’t know what got into you lately, but you have had this idea that life is a spectator sport. Well, what are you planning to do with the rest of this special life? This month is a good time to ask yourself if you are going to keep chasing after unicorns. Sagittarius (November 22–December 21) It was not your fault that all the effort you made last month didn’t pan out. So move on, Sunshine and enjoy the show. There’s a whole new opportunity right before you, right this second, to become the person your Mama always knew you could be. Nobody can eclipse your bright lights this month. PS

For years, Astrid Stellanova owned and operated Curl Up and Dye Beauty Salon in the boondocks of North Carolina until arthritic fingers and her popular astrological readings provoked a new career path.

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southwords

For the Love of Nothing

By Susan S.Kelly

I speak now for that silent minority who fear to voice, confess, or admit their glad anticipation for, their deep abiding love for, their eternal gratitude for . . . January. Believe ye: there are those of us who crave every endless 31 days of a month so roundly dreaded by so many.

Bring it, baby. For quad-A overachievers, list-makers, and borderline OCD peeps like myself, January is the season of somnolence, of letting go. For over-organized souls, nothing beats a full-on month of . . . nothing. No holidays, and therefore no searching, purchasing, wrapping, hiding. No candy. No centerpieces. No costumes or cocktails. No (unspoken but acknowledged) competing for best dessert or coleslaw or fireworks or slalom or Easter basket or parade float. Personal bonus: no family birthdays. No yard work. Everything is leafless, hideous, and charmless, and with any luck, will stay that way for six more weeks. The only outdoor chore is filling the feeder. No to-dos of raking, mowing — it’s too early to even prune. Nothing needs fertilizing, watering. Even kudzu is temporarily tamed to a crinkled, wrinkled weed. I’m so thankful it’s too early to force quince or forsythia; no sense of obligation there, and if you still force narcissus, I have a collection of lovely forcing vases and trays and even the rocks that you’re welcome to. Sorry, but I need to hold on to the gin that stiffens the stems. And I love my roses, but, boy, do I love when they’re whacked off and not producing, and therefore not accusing me of leaving them to grow blowsy and frowsy rather than cutting and delivering them to someone whose life, living room, and outlook would be improved by — oh, never mind. I may be the only person you know who gets depressed when the first bulbs begin blooming. No fundraisers on PBS. This is huge. Nothing at the farmer’s market equals absolution from waking early to haul yourself there, and trying to fairly spread your vegetable benevolence to several farmers with pleading eyes. Nothing edible locally means seasonal broccoli and citrus with unknown origins are just fine. As for other aspects of eating, in January it’s practically unpatriotic not to exist on semi-solid foodstuffs straight from your Crock-Pot. Go ahead, add another packet of taco mix to

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that pork butt, onion soup mix to that chuck roast, chili mix to that ground beef. Dow, Inc. knows: Better living through chemicals. No campaigns, primaries, elections. No yard signs. No door-to-door, ’cause it’s too cold for solicitors, and if you haven’t gotten your subscriptions and wrapping paper by now, sorry. And altar guilds everywhere — Rejoice! and God rest ye merry gentlemen and women — no need for changing altar hangings and linens. Even at church, once you get past Epiphany, there’s a nice long stretch of nothing until the deprivations of Lent. As for resolutions, by mid-month they’re mostly moot, admit it. Within the narrow demographic of January adorers, there’s an even smaller contingent: the snow lovers. For those of us dreamers, hopers, prayers and devotees of white stuff, January is the month during which those fervent desires are most likely to be fulfilled. For those who disloyally decamp for sunny Southern climes, desert isles, and ski slopes, all the better. Less car and foot traffic to mar the peaceful white perfection of a snowfall. Sorry, dear, I couldn’t get to the grocery store for supper supplies. Feel free to scrape whatever’s left in the . . . Crock-Pot. It occurs to me that, were I ever to get a face-lift, January would be an opportune time. Isn’t it divine to go to the movies and catch up on all those blockbusters you missed and get just the seat you want? Because no one else is there. Plus, you’re exonerated from even going to the movies: Everybody knows nothing Oscar-worthy is released between January and March. Not that I encourage sloth, far from it. January is the month made for domestic industries, with the iPod blasting in your ears and no fear of anyone catching you atonally belting tunes with Justin Timberlake or Taylor Swift. Consolidate coupons, cull the catalogs, schedule your spanking, sparkling pristine new calendar with all the birthdays you forgot last year. Polish silver. Then, transfer your earbuds to your laptop, scoot your socked feet to the fire, and proceed to unabashedly binge Netflix, knowing you’ve earned and are entitled to The Right to Relax. Oh, poor despised, derided month, that span of gloom and chill, so scorned and shunned by humanity, I’ll be there for you, bundled and content, cheering you on. Hermits, unite. We knew what Oscar Wilde really was referring to when he uttered, “the love that dare not speak its name” — we few, we happy few, who wallow, with glee, in January. PS Susan Kelly is a blithe spirit, author of several novels, and proud new grandmother.

January 2018i�� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills

Illustration by Meridith Martens

An entire month devoted to . . . whatever

Buyer, Purveyor & APPrAiser of fine And estAte Jewellery 229 ne Broad Street • Southern PineS, nc • (910) 692-0551 Mother and daughter Leann and Whitney Parker Look ForWard to WeLcoMing you to WhitLauter.

Happy New Year Happy New home

Look for the “Mark” of a Great Builder 910-673-1929

mark@stewartcdc.com