Meredith Bernard

By Meredith Bernard A dock to a lake is as necessary as peanut butter is to two pieces of white bread and Smucker’s jelly. Simply put, it’s where lake life happens. On the dock is where babies get their first feel of the water on their chubby toes, where little ones catch their first fish with Grandpa, where teenagers find ...

Agriculture Grows as it Changes in Person County Story by Meredith Bernard Photos by Lisa Rogers Calvin Whitfield has always been proud of his Person County roots. Like so many others in the area, he grew up farming tobacco with his family until the industry became more mechanized and they opted out. After leaving for college and then a twenty-five-year ...

Story and photography by Meredith Bernard Some people have the gift of making you feel like you’ve known them forever the first time you meet and some places immediately feel like home. Both of those are true of Nikki Bettis, her family and their “home away from home” at Busy Bee Coffee and Creamery Company, Yanceyville and Caswell County’s first ...

Story and photography by Meredith Bernard As a child, Hosanna Blanchard knew that her most favorite times were spent with her Grandmother crafting old treasures into new ones. What she didn’t know then is that she’d now be doing the same thing, thirty-some years later, in the same exact building her Grandmother once ran a quilt and craft shop, in ...

Story and photography by Meredith Bernard Blazing new trails, or in some cases brewing them, can be a long process, but you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who has made better progress than Ethan and Julie Brown. When Julie’s parents Marvin and Caren Jefferson harvested their first grapes from their Pittsylvania County vineyard in 2011 with the understanding they ...

By Meredith Bernard If you grew up on a farm, live on a farm or have ever visited a farm, it’s easy to understand the nostalgia, pride and joy that comes from seeing the cycle of life through crops and/or animals raised first hand. If you haven’t, it can be harder to understand, but there are farms in our area ...

Story and photography by Meredith Bernard Dreams are like seeds. Sometimes they start small, but once planted and fed they can grow into something beautiful. When Celia Spillmann visited her first flower farm, a seed was planted for a dream that seemed far out of reach, if not far-fetched, but has become an ever-evolving reality that continues to grow. Even ...

Story and photography by Meredith Bernard When Alex Sharpe and Anthony Hearn first decided to combine their love for arts, food and decorating by going into business together fifteen years ago, they didn’t know how big their potential for growth was. What began as a small gift shop in Wentworth, NC, eventually grew to serving coffee and cheesecake, followed by ...

Story by Meredith Bernard If there’s one thing we all have in common, it’s that we have roots to somewhere, from somewhere. Some are shallow and some are deep, but they exist for us all. Living and working on a farm, I’m reminded daily the importance roots have for the viability of our way of life, which causes me to ...

Story and Photos by Meredith Bernard When Peter Berry pulled down the dirt drive of his long-lost friend Chris Rebman’s Hyco Lake home on a cool March afternoon in 2012, he knew who he was looking for, but could never have foreseen all he was about to find. The last time the two college friends had seen each other was ...