In the course of an unusually brief Nov. 8 public meeting, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners quickly ran through an agenda that was lacking most of the usual components: no county manager’s report, no new or old business, no proclamations. No one rose to speak during the public-comment period, and even the consent agenda […]
Author: Cecil Bothwell
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Glorious decay
The garden season is closing out and cashing in, and frost is nipping at our heels as we tend to the cole crops we expect to nurture through the cold months. Deciduous leaves have begun to litter the lawn. It is that time again when a gardener’s heart turns to the glories of decay. Ashes […]
Buncombe County Commission
A new state law could force Buncombe County to replace its 9-year-old electronic-voting machines, Election Services Director Trena Parker reported at the Board of Commissioners’ Oct. 18 meeting. Beginning next year, voting machines used in North Carolina must create a voter-auditable paper record of each ballot cast, she said, and manufacturers have until Nov. 5 […]
Seeing berry, berry red
The garden is apt to look a little bleak at this time of year as most of the summer crops quit or tuck in. Amid the faded foliage, sparks of color remain, however — particularly from red berries — and now is the time to take note of the berries you’d like to see in […]
Making the cut
Given the wealth of contentious local issues that have caught the public eye in recent years, it might seem surprising that the turnout for the Oct. 11 primary was so low. But according to Buncombe County Board of Elections figures, a mere 16.85 percent of registered voters made it to the polls — almost the […]
Doing it by the book
It’s about 3,000 miles from Asheville to Morado K’asa, Bolivia, as the condor flies. But an unlikely partnership is bridging that distance, with a boost from several Western North Carolina businesses. Peace Corps volunteer Megan Sherar, a WNC native, arrived in Morado K’asa nearly three years ago looking for potential projects. In April of 2003, […]
Communing with bonsai
Having gazed into the boughs of a towering forest and rested in the lap of a mature tree, I was unprepared for a recent magical moment with a bonsai. Never before had I stood beside such a small, living specimen and experienced that overwhelming sense of understanding and awe. I saw the tree’s entire form […]
Road skill
Face it. You can’t get food fresher than the veggies at a roadside stand unless you grow it yourself. And at this time of year, it’s way late to figure on growing anything for current consumption — other than sprouts. (Soak seeds overnight, pour off water. Rinse daily.) So, your best bet for really fresh […]
Buncombe County Commission
The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners convened at the Crest Center in Leicester on Oct. 4 to wrap up their unfinished Sept. 27 formal session and hold a lengthy retreat. The board had its January retreat in the same place, and both times the acoustics and visibility were wretched and the temperature apparently unregulatable, leaving […]
A certain slant of light
The history of history is a tale of revision, with the certitudes of one era constantly giving way to new discovery and deeper understanding of the past. For most of us, the story of European incursion in the Americas is a set piece — explorers from Norway, Spain, England, France and Portugal sailed to a […]
Growing ‘shrooms with a view
Gardeners grow through their gardening experiences. Most of us start out with annuals — the miraculous trip from a little envelope of seeds to plants that sprawl halfway across the yard, bearing flowers or fruit, before they finally succumb to frost. Gradually we begin to see the benefit of perennial flowers, in terms of hours […]
Buncombe County Commission
In its first meeting since Aug. 16, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners considered and then postponed voting on amendments that would increase the number of public-comment sessions scheduled during regular meetings. The matter will be reconsidered during the board’s upcoming retreat in West Asheville’s Kress Conference Center (at press time, the retreat was scheduled […]
For me mum, my mum, your mum
By almost any measure, garden chrysanthemums (Chrysanthemum x morifolium) are garden winners. Mums are easygoing, beautiful, fresh-scented, hardy and happily transplanted while in full bloom. They come in a mix of colors, shapes and heights. Some variety is in bloom from the end of August through November, and the flowers hold up well when cut. […]
Asheville City Council
The Asheville Civic Center got a lot of attention at City Council’s mammoth seven-hour Sept. 20 work session, whether the topic was hurricane preparedness and relief or a proposal for a performing-arts center. But as has happened so often in the past, there was little sign of progress. In a special report spurred by the […]
Dig the harried potter
As the garden season yields to chillier nights and we tip into post-equinoctial darkness, breaking up is hard to do. The tiny seedlings we so tenderly defended from slug, caterpillar, aphid, bunny, woodchuck, drought and flood have become robust, even rank, and any day now they’ll be history. Frost’s leaden grip is slipping down the […]
Secrecy nation
Many critics have argued that secrecy, at the federal level, has skyrocketed during the Bush administration. But what, exactly, does that mean? And how can citizens gauge the degree of secrecy their government practices? One relatively new measuring stick designed to answer both questions is OpenTheGovernment.org, a broad, Web-based coalition of public-interest and professional organizations […]
All the trimmings
The dormant season, a time for transplants and pruning, is fast upon us. It’s a good time for remembering that comedians are the best source of garden wisdom (as they are for pretty much everything else worth doing). Woody Allen’s dictum that “Eighty percent of success is showing up,” for example, is a generalized version […]
The First Amendment is not a suggestion
In an era of increasing governmental secrecy (see “Secrecy Nation”), Haywood County Board of Commissioners Chairman Mark Swanger is a maverick. His guiding principle is openness: open meetings, open documents, open government, period. During the past year, Asheville and Buncombe County have held secret meetings involving selected City Council and Board of Commissioners members — […]
Planting in the fall
What is harvest time for most veggie crops is planting time for a few, and none is more timely right now than garlic. With Halloween and its horde of vampires just around the corner, garlic should be on everyone’s mind (not to mention breath). But what about next Halloween? Hmmm? Will you be suitably armed […]
A bramble ramble
Seeds, thorns, thickets, bugs and all the people and bears who got to the crop first give blackberry lovers a lot to complain about. But for some of us, summer just isn’t summer if we haven’t picked enough of the juicy, too-tender fruits to make a pie or a couple of pints of jam. With […]
Bigger party, smaller pie
“Evidence of Yesterday” is the theme for this year’s North Carolina Apple Festival, an almost too-telling label for the 59th celebration of the annual event. In some ways, apple culture itself is a relic of the region’s past — a relic with an uncertain future. Textile and heavy manufacturing aren’t the only jobs leaving North […]