Today's Features

"Blessed are the piecemakers."
— Anonymous

A quilt is an uncommonly generous article.
In the making it provides companionship and purpose and relaxation. In the giving it imparts warmth and comfort and a bond between souls. In the using it’s a thing of enduring beauty that gives ease to all the senses. In Evergreen, it’s the province of People Comforters, a kindly patchwork of local ladies sewn together with threads of friendship and compassion.

Editor’s note: The Courier profiled Kristen Moeller and David Cottrell, who lost their home in the Lower North Fork Fire, at the beginning of April. We have checked on their progress six months after the disaster.

One step forward and two steps back.

That’s the best way to describe the past six months for Kristen Moeller and David Cottrell, who lost their home in the Lower North Fork Fire. Moeller says they still have good and bad days after the devastating fire, which started six months ago today.

Favored with a vast store of infallible opinions and skin of purest alabaster, I don’t get out of the hermitage that often. But if my prudent seclusion helps ensure a creamier complexion and more temperate foothills social climate, it tends to leave me in the dark about many of my neighbors’ diverse and interesting activities.

Elk Creek firefighters spent two days recently practicing rope rescues in anticipation of the October opening of Staunton State Park.

The park will be home to several rock-climbing routes near Staunton Rocks, and firefighters anticipate calls from park users, said Alex Parks, the department’s technical rescue coordinator and a firefighter/EMT. Crews have been familiarizing themselves with the park’s layout over the last two years, including at the Aug. 18-19 training session.