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Highlands Christmas Parade

The annual Highlands Olde Mountain Christmas Parade – a celebration winding its way down Main Street, with virtually every Highlander either

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Winter Wonderland

The Village Green and surrounding shops and businesses in Cashiers will be a Glittering Wonderland throughout the grey days and dark, dark nights

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Behold the Mighty Hawk!

September offers great hawk watching opportunities. Broad-wing Hawks (Buteo platypterus) are smallish hawks, recognizable while soaring by their full wing span and tail bands. Hawks generally are highly intelligent, defining and measuring intelligence as innovativeness in feeding habits. Their visual acuity, sharpness of vision, is astounding owing to the density of photoreceptors in their retina being five times greater than …

Toad Abodes and Frog Bogs

That smorgasbord of seeds, berries, nuts and fruit bushes and trees you planted in your backyard attract a variety of critters for your enjoyment.  But a few other species need a little more enticement, especially if much of their habitat were rearranged for the sake of peonies and petunias. These guests are often overlooked, but they are an integral part …

Beautiful Medicine

If you haven’t heard of this flower by her common name, maybe you’ve heard of her professional name – Echinacea purpurea. She’s a star during her life as a summer blooming member of the daisy family, but long after she’s gone, she may be seen in a teapot helping people ward off the severity of cold and flu season. Purple …


It’s Fly Time

As we get closer to the heart of fall, a lot of folks will be looking to take their first Fly Fishing trip.  Perhaps a father looking to get a son interested in the sport, or maybe a recently retired woman looking to add a hobby. Lots of people have fly fishing on their list of things to try, but …

A “Wanderful” Experience

Panthertown Valley has been called the Yosemite of the East. I prefer to compare it to those Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books I used to read as a kid. Paintertown, as it’s sometimes called, offers everything from grand mountain vistas to burbling creeks that turn into stunning waterfalls. My favorite thing, though, is the wide variety of ecosystems, particularly the muffled pine grove …

Who Writes This Stuff?

Fortune Cookie Day is September 13th. We are already lucky. The 13th isn’t a Friday. When dining out, fortune cookies are an essential benediction to an Asian meal. While these confections are associated with Chinese restaurants, they probably were the creation of Makoto Hagiwara at the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco in 1914. Other sources suggest that David Jung, …


A Dine-Asty at Wolfgang’s

While the Highlands Food & Wine Festival, November 9-12, is filled with exciting special events and music, the exclusive wine dinners held at premier local restaurants are not to be missed.  Of special note, is “Generations,” an evening with Caymus Vineyards and Wagner Family Wines at Wolfgang’s Restaurant and Wine Bistro, with guest chef Dickie Brennan on Saturday, November 11. …

A Peach of a Pie

As the daughter of a soda shop owner, (Bill’s Soda Shop 1939-1972), Betty Holt was introduced to sweets early in life.  She and her mother, Anne Holt of Anne’s Beauty Salon, shared a love of desserts, but Holt says, “Unfortunately, for me, they just make me fat, so I leave them alone most of the time.”  However, one of her …

Perfect Pairing

Last month, after a day of running errands and assembling deck furniture, I thought I would indulge myself. I bought some fried chicken from Rosewood Market. The wine selection at Rosewood shows that they have a clear understanding of wine and food pairing.  So I was not surprised to find one of my favorite wines, The Domaine Larue, Saint Aubin. …


Do Good. Eat Well.

A hint of fall is in the air and Laura Huerta and her staff at Lakeside Restaurant are bringing the richness of the season into their fresh and innovative food and drink menus.    Changes are in the air, but one thing that remains constant at Lakeside are the Wednesday night “Evenings at Lakeside,” which they set aside for area non-profits …

Ristorante Paoletti

Four years ago, I reviewed Ristorante Paoletti in these pages.  That’s a challenge in itself. It’s been a Main Street Highlands institution for 33 years. It’s earned its stellar reputation through its exquisite menu, impeccable service and a wine selection that reads like a domestic offshoot of the Milestii Mici collection.  (About that selection – I know someone who comes …

Art for the Garden

In celebration of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Highlands Biological Station, a unique project involving the intersection of art and science has been quietly taking place at the station, which now includes the Nature Center and the Botanical Gardens.  A conversation between artist Rosemary Stiefel and Jim Costa, Director of HBS, led to musings about the sometimes …