The Nelson County Planning Commission approved a plan for the second phase of construction to be completed at the Virginia Distillery Co. on Eades Lane near Lovingston, at a Feb. 24 meeting.

The first eater at the Piney River Volunteer Fire Department’s annual chitterling dinner fundraiser arrived about 9 a.m. Saturday, well ahead of the traditional noon starting time that heralds a six-hour feast.

The James River Bluegrass Association is sponsoring a benefit concert on Sunday for Bob Langstaff, general manager of Amherst’s WAMV radio station (AM 1420), who was hospitalized for several weeks.

The Amherst Presbyterian Church preschool’s ninth annual chili cookoff is 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, the major benefit for the school.

The James River Bluegrass Association is sponsoring a benefit concert for Bob Lang-staff, general manager of Amherst’s WAMV radio station (AM 1420), who has been hospitalized for about three months.

After a first-place Seminole District win in the fall, the theater program at Amherst County High School is preparing to stage productions over several days this month.

Major local bluegrass bands will play for the annual Amherst County Habitat for Humanity fundraising concert this weekend at Sweet Briar College.

The first car Maryland Johnson ever bought cost $35. He was 19. The lifelong Lynchburg resident said that, back then, he could slap a quarter down at the local bakery and leave with enough bread to feed his family for weeks. Of course, that was then. And for Johnson, who turns 100 years old Friday, there have been a lot of “thens.”

Amherst County Dixie Youth Baseball board members sold Brunswick stew on Saturday and Sunday to help raise money for the baseball program.

The Ray Puckett Amherst Lions Christmas Parade persevered over snow and sleet for a second straight year Saturday night, delighting children and, unbeknownst to many, featured a tribute to a local hero.

Amherst County High School’s Relay for Life team, Lancers Against Cancer will hold a Christmas bazaar from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 28 at the school cafeteria.

Amherst County High School’s Relay for Life team, Lancers Against Cancer, will hold a Christmas bazaar from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 28 at the school cafeteria.

Amherst County will celebrate the 45th anniversary of its first library on Saturday, which was heralded back in the day with a 1,000-strong audience and 1,000 books checked out from among the 14,000 volumes.

They gaze curiously, approach slowly and nuzzle lovingly — dozens of miniature donkeys that have been raised and doted on behind a nondescript white-brick home beside U.S. 29 north of Amherst.

The 39th edition of the Amherst County Apple Harvest Festival is all day Saturday and on Sunday afternoon, featuring dozens of crafters, a variety of foods and apples galore, organizers say.

A famous singer, Jimmy Fortune, will appear when the Amherst County Sheriff’s Office holds a fundraiser for the Amherst Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, or D.A.R.E., on Oct. 23 at the Clifford Baptist Church on Virginia 610 off of Virginia 151 in Amherst County, at 619 Fletcher’s Level Road, Amherst.

A rare public event will unfold this month at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, an international center for artists in residence tucked into the pastoral Mt. San Angelo grounds beside U.S. 29 in Amherst.

A musical recording by Virginia Schweninger, of Faber, has been recognized as one of the top solo instrumental CDs of the year by Just Plain Folks, a group that bills itself as “the world’s largest grassroots music organization.”

Amherst County Relay for Life is already preparing for next year with a fundraising event later this month at Sweet Briar College.

When photographer Medford Taylor returned a call to Sweet Briar’s college relations office one afternoon in July, the first thing he did was apologize. “Sorry I didn’t call you back earlier,” he said. “I was in a swamp in North Carolina, collecting chiggers.”

Amelon, like many schools, has a mascot. We’re the Bulldogs. This emblem has adorned our school walls and letterheads, and is now on our new Web site. While the symbol itself is not unique to Amelon, we do have the benefit of having something special: Our mascot is alive.

After sitting empty for more than half a year, the old Arrington railroad station has had new life breathed into it yet again, this time in the form of a coffee shop.

One picture in Mary Ennis’s living room shows her on stage with Rhonda Vincent & the Rage.

An art exhibition of works by students in the Sweet Briar College studio arts senior seminar runs through May 16 in Pannell Gallery.

A couple of years ago, with a semester of Ballet 101 under his belt, Sweet Briar College Chaplain Adam White started pestering dance professor Mark Magruder about performing in one of his upcoming dance concerts.

Sweet Briar College will present the comic opera “The Pirates of Penzance” at 7:30 p.m. May 1 and May 2 in Murchison Lane Auditorium at Babcock Fine Arts Center. Admission is free.

The Jefferson Choral Society will present “Love Me Tender,” a pops concert featuring great love songs of the 20 th century, at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 13 and 4 p.m. Feb.15 in the Joy and Lynch Christian Warehouse Theater at Fifth and Commerce streets,

Near the corner of Court and Main streets in downtown Amherst, two parking meters stand out from the row of others, now defunct and faded to a nondescript bluish-green.

Sweet Briar College’s Book Shop Café will be renovated during the winter break, reopening when students return to campus in mid-January as Daisy’s Café, an upscale coffee shop named for the daughter of College founder Indiana Fletcher Williams.

Christmas Eve 1948 brought the threat of snow to Tobacco Row Mountain. The next day, it snowed a good inch on Hannon Rucker’s farm. Despite the cold, Santa was good to the family.