I have lived in Western North Carolina for more than 21 years. At first, I never saw any black bears. Then they were everywhere I looked, including my back yard. If you’re local, you have accepted that this land we call home is not really ours. It belongs instead to every bit of Nature that traipses through it. Wild turkeys, deer, opossums, foxes…but mostly bears. I’m talking about them this week in a sizable article at SleuthSayers, the group mystery blog that I write for. I’ve wanted to write something about them for a while now. The fact that the weather is starting to cool, and the bears are packing on weight for their presumed hibernation is…

When visitors come from out of town, we ALWAYS take them to Hole Doughnuts. They create beautiful hand-made doughnuts that are imperfect, delicious works of art. Every time I go, I spend a lot of time photographing the whole scene, but until now I’ve resisted compiling an ultimate post on the experience. But when Hole took the No. 2 spot on Yelp’s Top 100 US Donut Shops list for 2023, I realized I had to take the time to put my photos in one place.

Why go?

• Because you’ve have never had a doughnut as strange and as gorgeous as what’s about to hit your face…