By Mary Ann Anderson From Tribune News Service Blairsville—Spring had come to the Blue Ridge Mountains. The rhododendron and mountain laurel were popping out in unreal shades of pink, and the massive hardwoods of birch and maple only recently bare-leafed in winter had begun their seasonal metamorphoses with emerald-green new growth. Somewhere in those forest-covered…

Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains dazzle in fall. The hillsides billow with ribbons of red, yellow, and rust-colored leaves, and roads lead past fields edged by fiery crimson and bright orange thickets of trees. To explore Nelson County, Virginia, we based ourselves at the Wintergreen Resort, a ski resort that sprawls on nearly 11,000 acres. The…

Charles Carroll of Carrollton might well have been the Elon Musk of his day. The last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence was certainly an influencer. Carroll sponsored advances in agriculture, and, encouraged by his partnership with John, George, and Andrew Ellicott, Carroll promoted the use of crop rotation and pulverized limestone on his…