There’s something energizing—daunting, too, and, okay, maybe a tad weighty—about embarking on a brand new year. A letting go of the old—and, for many of us, 2025 was a difficult year across the board—but a reckoning also with time. “The year is going, let him go;/Ring out the false, ring in the true,” Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote. He suggested a lot of ringing in of this and ringing out of that in the poem, “In Memoriam, [Ring out, wild bells],” but those words about letting go seem particularly poignant.
Gina Malone, Editor
We are ringing in and celebrating some new: most excitedly, a brand-new member of our Laurel family, August Castleberry Hatfield, son of associate editor Emma Castleberry and husband Joel Hatfield. Welcome to the world, dear little one! Emma is taking time off to enjoy new motherhood. She’ll be back with us—and full of delightful stories, no doubt—in March. We wish her and Joel beautiful bonding time with little August.
A new feature, “The Farmer’s Table,” debuts with this issue. Lyric East, an artist, writer and owner of Wild East Farm, in Marion, will treat us to a monthly column focusing on regional farmers and crops. This month, she writes about heirloom corn, a storage crop that has a history of nourishing Appalachian people through the lean winter months.
Among those announcing new seasons and events for 2026 are Southern Highland Craft Guild, with craft-focused exhibitions, happenings and opportunities, including the special exhibition We Still Make Things: 100 Years of Craft and Culture at the John C. Campbell Folk School; and New Morning Gallery, debuting a new series, beginning with Jewels of January, that, monthly, features the work of two gallery artists.
If you find the cold weather energizing, there are a few stories you won’t want to miss as you plan winter outings—or look forward to warmer days. Conserving Carolina has purchased the GreyRock property that completes 2,669 acres of protected wilderness adjoining Chimney Rock State Park and stretching from Lake Lure to the ridges above Hickory Nut Gorge. In Brevard, enjoy hiking and cycling the newly named Pisgah Passage, the loop route connecting multiple trails and downtown Brevard. Finally, these winter months offer training time for the Asheville Marathon & Half, set for March 21.
Here’s a little more inspiration for enjoying the time we are given, this from author and editor Marie Beynon Ray: “But we are not living in eternity. We have only the present moment, sparkling like a star in our hands—and melting like a snowflake.”
Happy 2026, dear readers!
Gina Malone can be reached at gina@thelaurelofasheville.com
