Now we know the purple weed is Lamium amplexicaule!

Can’t wait to get your spring garden going?  Carolina Cones on Main Street in Cornelius starts its spring plant sale today (Thursday).  Lots of early flowers like pansies and begonias are already available at the large home improvement stores.  What else do we see sprouting near our garden plots?  Fences!  Seems like the critters are enjoying our produce before we do.  Ideas on how to combat them?  Do let us know.

Around Davidson today tells of savvy gardeners, Elaine McArn and Ann Melton, who knew what the purple weed was.  We also celebrate spring in our town’s ETJ with new livestock at the Tevepaughs and Armstrongs. Read the full story

Ah, Spring!

Spring arrived last Sunday evening and aren’t we glad!  Walking around town you are sure to be showered with pear and cherry blossoms as the March winds blow.  Great weather for laundry on the line but hard on young seedlings so in need of a shower of rain.  And how about those NCAA basketball brackets?  Anyone in town choose the right teams for the Sweet Sixteen?  Do let us know.  (Afraid most of the millions of entries went into the “circular file” when Louisville and Pittsburgh lost.)

Around Davidson today visits with recently honored poet Lynn Dausman.  There is also news of this past weekend’s tour of The Copeland House with the Davidson Historical Society.  D.G. Martin sends a note about his Tar Heel Town visit on UNC-TV and we include a quiz for readers of this column who are savvy horticulturists. Read the full story

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  Hope each of you is sporting a wee bit of green so you don’t get pinched!  Perfect weather for any outdoor activity or even lounging indoors looking out at the budding trees and sprouting dandelions.

Happy news today about Peter and Boo Hess’s first visit to their granddaughter as well as happy smiles for Clara Gerdes as she performs at the piano in Greenville and Sanford, N.C.  In addition there is a report of a road trip to Amelia Island by a few Davidsonians and a note about an upcoming golf tournament honoring Dick Sanderson. Read the full story

What an exciting ACC basketball tournament weekend.  Hope all our readers have joined the 40 million others and filled out brackets for March Madness.  First games begin today.  Final four?  Perhaps a vote for Carolina or Duke?  Won’t the next few weeks be fun as we watch the games on our laptops, iPods or televisions?

Between games, it’s important to take a few minutes to check DavidsonNews.net for all our local news and Around Davidson twice a week for special notes on your neighbors. (And now we have CorneliusNews.net, too!)  Today we share travel news to Cancun, Mexico, with the Molineks and to Louisville, Ky., with Cole Rasenberger and his environmental team.  There is also an item about an award for Libby Appel’s granddaughter and another Noteworthy Note about books. Read the full story

Time to “spring forward” one hour this weekend!  We will wake up to darker mornings but oh, how much we will love the extra hour of sunshine in the evening.

Lots of fun today in Around Davidson as we introduce Pat McCall and Pat McCall, two very energetic ladies with the same name who live barely two blocks apart.  There are also notes from Shari Bankhead and Cynthia Lawing and a reminder about 50 years of Herb Jackson on view at Davidson College. Read the full story

Spreading the news about our new site were David Boraks and Lyndsay Kibiloski

March did come in “like a lamb” but now is dousing us with welcome rains.  We already hear the buzz of lawn mowers and leaf blowers.  The next two weekends usher in Daylight Savings Time and spring.  What a beautiful time of year!  Hope some of our readers visited the Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce Business Expo last week at Belk Arena on the Davidson College campus.  Fun to schmooze with a number of our local merchants and of course spend time talking with David and Lyndsay at our very own DavidsonNews.net/CorneliusNews.net booth. (See our Friday, March 4, story and photos.)

Advertising is the “life blood” of any news media.  Noting that Sam James is promoting his funeral services on our website caught your correspondent’s eye and resulted in an interesting interview with this young man.  Also Around Davidson has news of a group traveling to Hilton Head and a report on a young artist, Ali Stenhouse. Read the full story

Welcome rain brings forth delicate flowers between blades of grass

Almost an inch of rain and perhaps more due this weekend.  Hooray!  Already the lawns and pastures are seeing wonderful shades of green not noticed since early last fall (unless your lawn service has been fertilizing recently and you have been watering).

Thinking about gardens, Around Davidson recaps this week’s Horticultural Symposium, drops in on a well known gardener in our town, Leonard McRee, and reports on beautiful botanical gardens visited by Bill and Margo Williams. Read the full story

Lenten rose blooms add beauty to a winter landscape

A lot of big wind gusts, some much needed rain and now March blows in like a lamb.   These wonderful warm days bring many of us outside to grab a shovel and hoe and start preparing the garden patch.  Be mindful, however, that the last frost date for our area is mid-April.

Lots of fun today in Around Davidson to report on Bill Morrison’s lampshade, Connie Beach’s five-star tour of Japan, Verna Case’s sons, Jeff and Jordan, and a last note about a very accomplished young lady, Caroline Sumner. Read the full story