Today's Features

Ongoing

Oak Island Art Guild exhibit, Oak Island Recreation Center, 3001 Oak Island Drive, 6:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday. Exhibit renewed every 60 days. For more information, call exhibit coordinator Miriam Pinkerton at 278-5562.

Ongoing through Aug. 3

Robert Delford Brown, “Meat, Maps and Militant Metaphysics,” Cameron Art Museum, Wilmington. This is the artist’s first solo museum exhibition. For more information, call 395-5999 or visit www.cameronartmuseum.com.

Every first Friday through December

Everyone knows mulch is a great thing to add to newly planted trees and shrubs. It helps conserve moisture, keeps the soil cooler and helps control weeds.

As we do applied research and learn more about how plants respond to various practices, we often find out “what everyone knows” isn’t necessarily correct. Information generated by Dr. Ed Gilman at the University of Florida over the last few years is changing the way we think about using mulches.

A July 9 press release from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services mentions the death of a Wilkes County resident is likely due to Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF).

As noted by Dr. Leah Devlin, the state health director, North Carolina had 665 cases of RMSF reported in 2007. We are likely to see an upsurge of queries about ticks and tick-borne diseases.

There are no magic fixes to tick problems but there are measures (both chemical and non-chemical) people can use to reduce tick infestations around their property and to protect themselves and family:

Thanks to the consideration of a dear friend, I received an e-mail suggesting I log onto a Web site that would give me information regarding an issue with which I have been dealing for a while.

It was an article by David Brooks entitled, “The Great Forgetting.” My laughter was already bubbling up from a great humorous deep.

Brooks gave a wonderful tongue-in-cheek description: