Central Virginia Blue Ridge Area
As I talks about in the weekend weathercast above, unusually warm temps are making a visit to the Central Blue Ridge area over the weekend. Valley and lower elevations can expect to see temps around the 70° mark both Saturday and Sunday, with the higher elevations along the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive even nearing 60°. Cooler temps with the possibility of a rain/snow mix reenter the forecast by the first of next week.
Enjoy it while it lasts!
Nellysford
Nelson County, VA
With just a few weeks remaining before Wintergreen Grocers in Nellysford would close, it now appears a last minute sale agreement between current owner Paul Koschara and Karen Ancarrow of Highland County, VA will keep the doors open. “About a month ago, Paul started talking about it and I listened. Then my husband thought about it but neither one of us wanted to talk to each other about it because we didn’t want to be married to a business. Finally he said it and I said no. Then I thought about it and said well, maybe. The I came in and said I will talk to Paul. I didn’t really expect it to pan out. But it did. Paul’s been really easy to work with.”
Karen’s husband has a family farm here in Nelson where they have been staying when back and forth between Nelson and Highland.
Karen tells us one of the most immediate concerns is getting gasoline for sale back at the store. They are working on that now and should have it back soon. She’s in the process of finalizing a lease with the property’s owner, F.P, Phillips. “I’ve been in here a couple of weeks. I’ve been working and dealing with Paul. We have something worked out for the night of the 15th. We close early the night of the 15th so we can do inventory. Next morning, lord willing, we’ll open on the 16th.”
Karen also tells us she will be opening a breakfast and lunch shop in the old Ambrosia Bakery & Deli. The breakfast will consist of regular breakfast food. “We’ll use as many local ingredients as we can along the way,” Karen continues. But she also tells us it will be things like real biscuits and gravy, not something from a box!
Stop by and help welcome Karen to the store!
For a long time we had the highly popular online events calendar when we were Nelson County Life Magazine. It was very popular. So much so it essentially crashed from all of the entries! No more, we have the new, and improved, Blue Ridge Life Magazine online events calendar up and running!. It’s fancy smancy and works like a top! Whether you’re having a dance, live music, festival, or whatever, this is the place to list your event.
This is way cool and a great way to let people know about your event. So get started now!
Roseland
Nelson County, VA
Get your headlamp and your trail running shoes ready! In just a little over a week the New Moon Rising Night Trail Run will kickoff at Devils Playground in Roseland on December 12th at 6PM. Back in December we told you about the Winter Warmup Fun Run 5 & 10K. BRLM Publisher Yvette Stafford ran in that race as did BRLM Photographer Hayley Osborne. Blue Ridge Life Magazine is one of several sponsors for the January 2013 race.
“Definitely an amazing turnout and a great time at our last Trail Run
event back in December! Our next event here on the Festival Grounds will be the New Moon Rising Night Trail Run, on Saturday January 12th. Two new sections of wooded trail have been added! Your registration for the 5K or 10K run (with a 10K Relay option) also includes a post-race event featuring award-winning DB beers with tasty & fun Food (for this one, we’ll be cooking up tacos with spicy rice & beans and some more surprises). After it all wraps up, kick back at DB and take in some Island Style rockin with the John Wyant Band. Start time – 6:00pm /
Headlamps required.”
says Woody Elliot of Richmond on the race event Facebook site. Woody is the organizer of the racing events held on the various trails.
There’s still time to sign up, just head on over to the New Moon Rising Night Trail Run registration website by clicking here. Online registrations are accepted until January 9th. There wil be race day registrations available, but organizers say it’s best to sign up before then.
See you on the 12th!
Wintergreen Resort
Nelson County, VA
Some people in the area thought it was thunder late night December 31, 2012. Wasn’t thunder but a spectacular fireworks display put on at Wintergreen to ring in the new year.
Beautiful start to the New Year!
Wintergreen
Nelson County, VA
It took a bit longer for mother nature to cooperate this ski season, but once she did, it didn’t take long for Wintergreen Resort to get the slopes open. The week between Christmas 2012 and New Year’s 2013 had thousands upon thousands hitting the slopes.
According to Wintergreen’s Mountain Message website dated January 1, 2013:
“Our Snowmaking and Grooming team are putting in long yours and huge effort, Upper Diamond Hill and Loggers Alley trails open today.
We will be open from 9am until 9pm skiing and riding on 16 trails with 5 lifts running. Conditions are fantastic with an average base of 20-30 inches. A little natural snow is on the way with total daytime snow accumulation should be 1-2 inches.
The Plunge is open with seesions from 10am-9pm. Ridgely’s Fun Park is open with sessions from 11am-4pm.”
Which meant almost all of the slopes were up and running on New Year’s day.
To check on the current status of the slopes at Wintergreen you can click here.
Greenfield
Nelson County, VA
You’re seeing a duplicate our final post from the NelsonCountyLife.com website. From here on everything has now migrated to our new rebranded site, BlueRidgeLife.com. Saying so long to that old friend is bittersweet. For years and years we covered news, events and happenings there on the NCL website. Some good. Some not so good. But always with the intention of keeping our readers up to date on what was happening in Nelson. Whether it was a blizzard or a derecho, or sadly something even worse, we tried our best to let people know.
Though we’ve been in print for nearly 8 years, that NCL website launched with this first test post back on March 28, 2007 Two days after, our first breaking story on the new site was a large fire at Wintergreen Resort’s Copper Mine Restaurant. Today you’d never know anything happened. That was nearly 6 years ago now.
Not to worry, all of this web content is safe and you’ll be able to find it online with a simple search in the box to the upper right. We’re arent taking that site down anytime in the near future, we just won’t be updating it with anything new. And, we took care of taking all of that with us over to the new website here at BlueRidgeLife.com So if it appeared there, it will be here as well.
While Yvette does the layout and design of the print magazine, I have pretty much been the one handling the website daily. That will still be the case on this BRL site as well. I’ve met many of you here online and had the great fortune of meeting many of you in person. It’s been wonderful and the best is just beginning!
For the Nelson friends we’ve made over time, we’re not leaving Nelson. Not a chance! We love this county and it’s our home. But we are expanding our reach as far as the story territory, and we’ll slowly be adding new distribution locations in the coming months of 2013 into 2014. It’s a slow process, but we’ll be showing up over time in more and more spots. And yes, we will still be doing Nelson stories too!
So as the New Year begins, let’s get started here on BlueRidgeLife.com!
Wintergreen Resort
Nelson County, VA
After the clouds cleared from the most recent snow, a beautiful landscape appeared at Wintergreen Resort. Longtime Devils Knob resident John Taylor sent us some photos from up top Thursday morning. Just beautiful!
With temps predicted to stay below freezing for the next several days, Wintergreen has been able to make snow round the clock with more slopes estimated to open as the New Year’s weekend gets underway. More natural snow is predicted to fall late Friday night into Saturday.
Nelson County & The Virginia Blue Ridge
As Tommy forecasted in his daily audio weather, a nasty mix of freezing rain, sleet, and some snow hit a large part of the Central Virginia area from as far south as Roanoke north toward the DC area. In the immediate area of Nelson County and the BRP, about 1-2 inches of the wintry mix fell creating all sorts of travel problems across the area. The Virginia State Police along with local agencies report dozens upon dozens of wrecks as a result of the bad weather.
Some wintry weather is stil possible overnight Wednesday into Thursday, but will generally end in the early morning hours Thursday. Sunshine with very windy conditions arrive on Thursday. Sun continues Friday before another winter storm makes its way to the Blue Ridge by Saturday.
Nelson County has Winter Weather Advisory in effect. To see other specific county information click on the map image above.
WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM WEDNESDAY TO 6 AM EST THURSDAY
URGENT – WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC
229 PM EST TUE DEC 25 2012
VAZ025-026-036>038-504-WVZ506-260330-
/O.UPG.KLWX.WS.A.0007.121226T0600Z-121227T1100Z/
/O.NEW.KLWX.WW.Y.0020.121226T0600Z-121227T1100Z/
AUGUSTA-ROCKINGHAM-NELSON-ALBEMARLE-GREENE-EASTERN HIGHLAND-
EASTERN PENDLETON-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF…STAUNTON…WAYNESBORO…HARRISONBURG…
CHARLOTTESVILLE…MONTEREY…FRANKLIN
229 PM EST TUE DEC 25 2012
…WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM WEDNESDAY TO 6 AM
EST THURSDAY…
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON HAS
ISSUED A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR A MIX OF SNOW…SLEET AND
FREEZING RAIN… WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM WEDNESDAY TO 6 AM EST
THURSDAY. THE WINTER STORM WATCH IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT.
* PRECIPITATION TYPE…A WINTRY MIX OF SNOW…SLEET AND FREEZING RAIN.
* ACCUMULATIONS…SNOW AND SLEET ACCUMULATIONS OF 1 TO 3 INCHES.
ICE ACCUMULATIONS OF ONE TO TWO TENTHS OF AN INCH.
* TIMING…SNOW AND SLEET WILL BEGIN TO OVERSPREAD THE REGION
OVERNIGHT AND WEDNESDAY MORNING. THE SNOW AND SLEET MIXTURE IS
EXPECTED TO TRANSITION TO ALL FREEZING RAIN BY THE LATE
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON AND END BY EARLY THURSDAY MORNING.
* TEMPERATURES…LOWS IN THE MIDDLE TO UPPER 20S. HIGHS IN THE
LOWER 30S.
* WINDS…NORTHEAST 10 TO 20 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 30 MPH.
* IMPACTS…TREACHEROUS TRAVEL CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED DUE TO A WINTRY MIX
OF SNOW AND ICE.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY MEANS THAT PERIODS OF SNOW…SLEET…OR
FREEZING RAIN WILL CAUSE TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES. BE PREPARED FOR
SLIPPERY ROADS AND LIMITED VISIBILITIES…AND USE CAUTION WHILE
DRIVING.
