caroline kettlewell

Insatiably curious, Caroline Kettlewell has written on many topics, from endurance athletes and electric cars to the delightful diversity of Virginia’s native flora and fauna. She is the author of two works of nonfiction. CarolineKettlewell.com

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Culture

Elderberry Roulette: Tonic or Toxin?

When your author was in high school, and an ardent devotee of that status-killing demographic “theatre kids,” I took part in a production of the play Arsenic and Old Lace. For those unfamiliar with this venerable comedy, it features two dotty elderly spinster sisters, Abby and Martha, who—solely out of kind-hearted compassion, they insist—murder lonely […]

Culture

American Paddlefish: The Ancient, Big-Nosed Giant of North America’s Rivers

Feel free to call the American paddlefish funny-looking. “Talk to me when you’ve been around a few more tens of millions of years,” replies the paddlefish, whose ancestors were swimming about North America with the dinosaurs when the earliest humans were still but a distant gleam in Mother Nature’s eye. Cousin to sturgeons, the American […]

Culture

Eastern Spadefoot Toads Dig Living Underground

Picture a nondescript, water-filled depression somewhere in the outdoors: a roadside ditch, the flooded low-lying sections of a fallow agricultural field, a boggy spot which will evaporate into dried mud within a few short weeks. As insignificant as they might seem, in spring and summer these fleeting and fast-drying pools can play host to a […]

Culture

Great Crested Flycatchers: Virginia’s Treetop Tyrants

If you’re fortunate enough to live within the kind of habitat that supports a lot of birds, then you know the pleasure of that morning chorus of cheeps, chips, chirps, whistles, squawks, tweets, and more that signals the fullness of summer. And within that chorus might be hiding in plain sound a bird that’s common […]

Culture

Colorful Virginia Asters Make a Fall Feast for Pollinators

What bees are these? I do not know. They feast upon my asters though. When autumn days are looming near, Bright blooms hold fast to summer’s glow. True, that’s not what Robert Frost actually wrote. But he could have. Because native North American asters certainly are worthy of a poetic tribute. A final blooming bounty […]

Culture

Stuck in One Place, Barnacles Still Manage to Get Around

Imagine spending your life standing on your head, waving your legs in the air to catch a passing meal. Such, more or less, is the fate of the barnacle. That grayish creature you’ll see adhered in crusty colonies to dock supports and bridge pilings and riprap breakwaters of Virginia’s saltwater shorelines, barnacles are both the […]

Culture

DeKay’s Brown Snake is a Friendly Garden Companion

It is a truth universally acknowledged that few people truly delight in finding a snake in their garden. Jason Gibson, however, is one who generally does. An associate professor of biology at Averett University in Danville, he is also a longtime (nearly three-decade) member of the Virginia Herpetological Society: if anyone could be called pro-snake, […]

Culture

Carpenter Bees: Virginia’s Valuable Pollinators

My introduction to carpenter bees came via a mysterious drift of sawdust on our deck. Stooping down to examine the underside of the railing, I found a perfectly round, finger-sized hole drilled neatly into the wood. When another tiny mound of sawdust appeared, then a third, I did as one does when faced with a […]

Culture

Chickadees are Easy to Recognize, Hard to Tell Apart

When it comes to birdwatching, to call myself a rank amateur would be an insult to rank amateurs. Give me something incontrovertibly identifiable—your cardinals, your blue jays, your crows and Canada geese—and I’m all swagger and self-confidence. But throw a white-breasted nuthatch or a dark-eyed junco at me, or ask me to make the call […]

Culture

A Quest to Map Virginia’s Lesser-Known Gray Fox

When you think “fox,” you might imagine your classic, straight-out-of-central-casting idea of fox: white chest and chin, russet body, white-tipped tail. Several fit the bill that I regularly encounter on early mornings in my wooded city neighborhood, nonchalantly angling their way across yards or trotting down the street. But Virginia has another fox you are […]

House + Garden

Discover Virginia’s Most Dangerous Plants with The Socrates Project

Picture the pale pink blooms of mountain laurel. Or perhaps the vibrant yellow-orange of the native flame azalea. Maybe the delicate white bells of American lily of the valley. Or the ephemeral springtime jack-in-the-pulpit and mayapple. These native plants are praised and prized. You would welcome them into your garden. And yet, as the leading […]

Culture

Barking Tree Frog

One of Virginia’s less common tree frogs has a distinctive call.

Culture

Behold the Pine Pollen Apocalypse

It’s everywhere all at once, but don’t blame it when you sneeze.

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Buc-ee’s Opens Its First Virginia Location

If you happened to be standing near the I-81 exit for Mt. Crawford in the early morning hours of this past June 30, you’d have witnessed a spectacle. Shoppers flooded into the parking lot and shuffled into block-long lines in hopes of being among the first through the doors of Virginia’s first Buc-ee’s travel station. […]

by Eric J. Wallace

All Aboard: Virginia’s Summer of Steam Celebrates America250

This summer, the legendary Norfolk & Western 611 steam locomotive is firing up her wheel—and she’s bringing history along for the ride. Built in 1950 in Roanoke, Virginia, the 611 is the last surviving member of the “J-Class” fleet, widely regarded as the pinnacle of steam technology. With her iconic bullet-shaped nose, Tuscan Red stripe, […]

by Abby Borgeson

Sail250 Virginia Brings Tall Ships From Around the World

When more than 60 tall ships and military vessels from 30 countries glide into Virginia waters this June, they’ll carry centuries of seafaring history—and usher in one of the most ambitious celebrations America has ever staged. Sail250 Virginia, the Commonwealth’s landmark commemoration of the nation’s 250th anniversary, runs June 12–23, transforming Norfolk and 11 affiliate […]

by Madeline Mayhood

caroline kettlewell

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Elderberry Roulette: Tonic or Toxin?

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Buc-ee’s Opens Its First Virginia Location

All Aboard: Virginia’s Summer of Steam Celebrates America250

Sail250 Virginia Brings Tall Ships From Around the World

caroline kettlewell

All Posts

Elderberry Roulette: Tonic or Toxin?

Current Issue

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Most Popular

Buc-ee’s Opens Its First Virginia Location

All Aboard: Virginia’s Summer of Steam Celebrates America250

Sail250 Virginia Brings Tall Ships From Around the World

Get our most popularweekly newsletter: VL Today

Get our most popular
weekly newsletter: VL Today

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weekly newsletter: VL Today