Mint Color Scheme Adds Charm to Your Wedding Day
A Refreshing Wedding Color to Take Your Breath Away
Losing Weight: Float Spas
I still needed to pack and prepare myself and my two children for a trip the following day. I worried about unfinished freelance projects, and I battled unrelenting thoughts of surviving virtual school instruction once again in just a few weeks. Stressed, yes. But as crazy as it sounds, I welcomed the anxiety on this [...]
Photographer Darcy Cole Captures Virginia’s Pony Herds
Photos courtesy of DSC Photography Darcy Cole takes off down a trail on Assateague Island in Virginia’s far northeastern corner. Here, she hunts horses. And when she sees one? She starts shooting. Over and over. With a camera. This photographer captures the famous Chincoteague Ponies in pictures and promotes these ponies with calendars, an identification [...]
Local Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Weighs In on Intermittent Fasting
I recently posted on social media inquiring about friends’ experience with intermittent fasting. Having chalked the whole concept up to a fad used by celebrities and health gurus, I was floored by the responses I received. Not only had dozens of neighbors, former classmates and coworkers tried intermittent fasting, but many reaped major health benefits [...]
Hop Aboard The Nature Bus
Photos courtesy of The Nature Bus “My heart and my soul are meant to be outdoors,” says Suzanne Moss. Moss, a former elementary school teacher, wanted to share her love of nature with others, so in 2017 she started a new business, The Nature Bus. Based in Virginia Beach, and departing from the REI at [...]
Seeds of Success: Meet the Hampton Couple Behind Holistic Family Solutions
Ali Afonja and Stephanie Jackson Afonja believe a lifetime of wellness starts with planting fruitful seeds. Healthy habits that lead to forever happiness, they say, are rooted in promoting nutrition, fitness, cognition and spiritualty. The couple, with a combined 23 years of experience in the mental health industry and each with a master’s degree in [...]
Gazebo on the Point in Virginia Beach is a Retreat on Broad Bay
Photos courtesy of Dragon Photography Tucked on the tip of a seven-acre wooded peninsula in Virginia Beach is a retreat like no other. Gazebo on the Point, AKA “Paradise on the Point,” is a uniquely beautiful fusion of man-made luxury and exquisite natural resources on Broad Bay. Approachable by land or by sea, “waterfront bungalow” [...]
Living Landscape Artist: Yolima Carr
Photos by Beth Hester Since 1993, Yolima Carr has been a stalwart fixture on the local horticultural scene. From her first job pulling weeds as a gardener at the Norfolk Botanical Garden to her current position as the Elizabeth River Project’s (ERP) Conservation Landscape Curator at Paradise Creek Nature Park in Portsmouth, Carr’s passion for [...]
Requiem for a Foodie Friend: Jane Gardner
I’d love to be meeting Jane Gardner for lunch today. Alas, the extraordinary woman Coastal Virginia knew as an award-winning reporter and trailblazing female anchor (at a time when that gender-descriptor was requisite), died on July 11. That’s how I first knew her, too, mesmerized by her poised delivery on WTKR and WVEC, moved by [...]
Elizabeth River Project Establishes the Resilience Lab
It sounds counterintuitive. Deliberately constructing a groundbreaking, 6,000-square-foot building with campus along Norfolk’s busy north Colley Avenue strip is crazy, right? Not when you appreciate that the site was deliberately chosen to test resilient design and construction practices in response to rising seas and to demonstrate innovative approaches to creating the coastal community of the [...]
5 Fall Beers from Coastal Virginia Breweries
Fall ushers in cooler temperatures, amber-colored landscapes and a new season of craft beers. The light, citrusy flavors of summer IPAs transition into richer, spiced autumnal offerings from Coastal Virginia breweries. Here are five fall brews that are perfect for enjoying while carving pumpkins, watching Halloween movies or around a toasty firepit. Be sure to [...]
Cancer in the Time of COVID
Battling cancer is difficult enough without extraneous circumstances or complications. Trying to do it while there is an international pandemic going on makes the fight that much more difficult. But that’s exactly where Deanna McRae King found herself after doing after being diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) that was concentrated on her left [...]
Apple Fritters Recipe for the Fall
Photos by Kathy Keeney | Recipe by Jacqui Renager European and early versions of apple fritters in the U.S. often called for whole apple slices dipped in batter and lightly fried. The all-American staple people have come to know and crave as a deep-fried delight at state fairs and Sunday church potlucks, features chunks of [...]
A Conversation with Broadway Star and Chesapeake-native Adrienne Warren
It would be an understatement to say Adrienne Warren has come a long way from singing in the choir at her father’s church. The Chesapeake native and Tony Award-nominated actress now electrifies the Broadway stage as the titular icon in the highly acclaimed Tina: The Tina Turner Musical. Warren, a 2005 graduate of The Governor’s School [...]
Do Viruses Discriminate?
Our country ended the first quarter of 2020 entering lockdown over COVID-19—a disease to which no one was seemingly immune, but which claims Black and Latino lives at nearly twice the rate of white lives in the U.S. As the country panicked over a growing public health crisis and an ensuing economic downturn, a third [...]
Coastal Virginia Fall Arts Preview
By some estimates, 90% of the world’s museums—art, science and everything in between—were forced to close due to the coronavirus pandemic. In July, they began to open back up as governments eased restrictions, some with staff furloughed or laid off. But the loss of months of revenue from events and facility rentals hit the bottom [...]
2020 CoVa Idea House: Relax and Stay a While
Residing at the nexus of creek and bay, sea and shore, and past and present is the latest addition to Stephen Alexander Homes and Neighborhoods’ “Little Big House Collection.” Here at the Marina Cottages—the last neighborhood to be developed in Norfolk’s charming East Beach—coast and community blend seamlessly at Bar Harbor, Coastal Virginia Magazine’s Idea House 2020. Setting the tone for this [...]
A Historic Makeover for the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg
Living history, taverns and binderies, oh my! The Colonial Williamsburg that Virginians know and love has always been all that and much more. In fact, it is the world’s largest living history museum. But as of June 14, 2020, it became a whole lot more: 65,000 thousand square feet and nearly $41.7 million more raised [...]
Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Manali Patel is Up for the COVID-19 Challenge
Dr. Manali Patel’s kind nature is apparent when she speaks, with her soft voice earning a listener’s trust. Also obvious: Her penchant for hard work and proneness for heartache. “At first we were lost,” the infectious disease doctor explains about treating COVID-19 patients early in the pandemic at Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center. Recent days [...]
Brew Times Two
Some mornings call for a classic cup of joe. Then there are those days better kicked off by a silky-smooth coffee stout bursting with bright, malty, espresso-rich goodness and weighing in at “it’s 5 o’clock somewhere” 6.3% ABV. Good news: you can have your brew and get your drink on too at the new COVA [...]
