Running into 2014 at Tanglewood’s “Running of the Lights”

Abby Verchick of Pinehurst finishes 19th out of over 1,100 entrants  in Forsyth County's  (NC) Tanglewood Park's Festival of Lights,  one of the largest and most spectacular light shows in the entire southeastern United States.  This running event which begins  at midnite on New Year's Eve takes contestants through three of almost four miles of continuous whimsical displays containing more than 1 million individual lights.  The event has been described as "one of the most scenic…

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Quality of life experience …

  I subscribe to the Forsyth County (NC) Audubon daily newsletter and was intrigued by a notice yesterday of a group gathering event at Northwest Middle School in Winston-Salem (NC) to witness chimney swifts going to bed.  I had seen this before, after all we have them in our chimney and there are always a couple dead ones which fall out into the firebox when we first open the damper of the wood stove in…

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Pole vaulting down Winston-Salem’s main street …

[portfolio_slideshow] Tim Sullivan is a sports entrepreneur, a consummate advocate for the esoteric culture of pole vaulters and high jumpers. He is also a coach who has a penchant for attracting potential  All-Americans to his quiver.  Tim is in his first season at Wake Forest University having  arrived with a distinguished coaching history at West Virginia University and Oklahoma. Tim Sullivan is an all-inclusive guy, who understands how to make and keep a  sport vigoris,…

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Sharon Roggenbuck …throwing cartwheels and winning triathlons at 74

  [portfolio_slideshow] Sharon started running when she was 40; an activity which came easy to her. Her only pre-athletic activity was equestrian. She won her age group in her first race, a 10K. She was hooked and became a marathon veteran and responded to the triathlon variation when they were becoming popular in the early '80's. For her  first couple of triathlons, she used one of her kid's bikes and swam with a side stroke. Soon,…

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Ron Morris … ornithologist generous with time and knowledge

Ron Morris retired in 2006 after 32 years as a zoo curator, the last 24 years at the NC Zoological Park in Asheboro, NC.  He has led eco-safaris to many countries and traveled extensively in Africa, Australia, Europe, Latin America, the US, and Caribbean.  Ron is past-president of  Audubon Society of Forsyth County. He co-authors the Winston-Salem Journal column Bird’s Eye View with Phil Dickinson.

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Biblical rebirth! … a tent revival … a new moon … and Mt. Pisgah

Situated in the Bethel Community of Haywood County, NC   the cemetery of the Bethel United Methodist Church blankets a promontory overlooking the watershed of the upper Pigeon River valley.  The graves date from the period of the Civil War to the present day.  The fertile valley below embraces tomato and hay fields, and a budding of commercialism, which now includes a new Dollar General store.  The level terrain and geographical center of county attracted the tent…

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Ghost runner …

From a recent photography project at JDL Castle Indoor Track and Field in Winston-Salem, NC .... This photograph is taken with a "rear-synch" exposure technique ...  time exposure in which the flash fires at the end of the camera shutter having been open for 1/4 seconds.

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Lipstick … a perfect shade match

  I recently attended a workshop in Hendersonville, NC and strolled this town's beautiful main street during my lunch hour.  My time allowance was gracious enough for window shopping, which I almost never do.  As I walked by the front window of  Mike's on Main Sandwich and Soda Shop, what caught my eye was this patron's lipstick shade which was perfectly matched to  sign painted on the front window.  When could that ever happen again?…

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Heady nurseryman “Joe’s Landscaping” …

  Joe Marion's  (a.k.a. "Joe")  dad gave him a cow to bring to Winston-Salem to sell when he was a boy, but Joe never made it back to Surry County ... with the cow or the money.  He has been in Winston-Salem ever since.  Joe realized his calling was to be a landscaper / nurseryman.  For the last 50 years plus, Joe's Landscaping and Nursery has flourished and  become a visual centerpiece between the Lewisville - Williams Road…

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Easter Sunrise … God’s Acre … Old Salem

Since 1772, the traditional Moravian Easter Sunrise Service has been held annually and draws several thousand people to the Salem Square and God's Acre in the restored Moravian community of Old Salem, NC. ISO 400. 1/50 sec @ f/20

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