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“For me a strong work of art is the result of a powerful experience. I am attracted to everyday sensations and find myself responsive towards the subtle beauty of things, the hours when there is tranquility of light, the rhythms of nature,” says painter Luke Steadman.

We are all more popular when walking with our dogs in tow. People smile at us and sometimes stop to chat. While it can be delightful to take a stroll with your furry best friend, some of our pint-sized darlings lunge and bark like crazed banshees when they see an unfamiliar face or, heaven forbid, an interloping dog in their neighborhood. I recently addressed this problem with a pretty 18-month-old Jack Russell terrier appropriately named Zippy. Zippy’s habit is to intimidate visitors to her opulent home by barking and leaping with all the menace that her 12-pound body can muster. She has, when the spirit moved her, nipped several visitors and workmen.

Writing is usually a solitary pursuit. Most writers chain themselves to a desk, a club chair, a kitchen table or the corner of a tearoom like J. K. Rowling, who finished Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone on an old manual typewriter. They perform this act of self-immolation for a variety of reasons. Seeing their name in print is the least of these. No writer I have ever known writes to see his name in print, principally because they already know their name and second, writing is difficult and frustrating work. If you want your name in print, shoplifting is an easier way to do it.

In the autumn of 1992, members of the Garden Club of Indian River County gathered to create a series of Christmas ornaments illustrating Vero Beach icons, with proceeds funding the Garden Club’s many programs.

Citrus Grillhouse is getting recognized – for its food, style and, of course, for its spectacular view.

Bob and Diane Macgowan grew up in families that reached out to help people in need, and together they’ve quietly but enthusiastically continued the tradition. For years the couple contacted everyone they knew to man the Red Kettle and ring a bell for the Salvation Army outside the beachside post office during the holiday season.

Many life-long friendships have begun at the Community Church Preschool, but perhaps none are as famous as that of Mardy Fish and Jake Owen. Imagine the two rough-and-tumble boys, champions of the playground, never knowing the brilliant future that lay ahead.

It is 6:30 p.m. on a humid evening in September, and here, sitting in an air-conditioned auditorium at the Sheriff’s Office headquarters on 41st Street, 47 of us are awaiting the start of a free “Citizen’s Academy.”

The United Way Campaign for 2011-2012 is underway, and Chris Loftus and her husband Don are chairing the community-wide fund drive to support the human services needs of Indian River County’s citizens. Their goal of $2.5 million is indeed a challenging one, yet Chris and Don, along with an army of dedicated volunteers, are confident it can be met if everyone who is able to give makes a contribution.

Sometime next year, successive waves of archeologists, paleontologists and volunteer worker bees will start descending the banks of the Main Relief Canal behind the county administrative complex for an exacting, mostly teaspoon-by-teaspoon dig in the dirt. The quest: to find fossils and artifacts to complement a dispersed collection of earlier findings from the Old Vero Site – most notably, human bones found alongside remains of extinct Ice Age animals in an excavation conducted nearly a century ago.

Room F was dubbed the “lost souls” area of Chicago Animal Control by the few who ventured in. Unlucky canines awaiting court cases, dogs labeled as prisoners’ property, biters, and scarred fighting victims sharply voiced their frustrations or just sat resigned, awaiting their fate. I walked this oppressively hot room with the assistant director, Tom. He had fallen in love with a three-time returnee named Bella.

It’s not every day that someone knows they’ve found the perfect house within minutes of walking through the front door, yet that’s what happened to John Miller three years ago. After a quick tour of the first floor he took the stairs two at a time to the second, where he counted the number of bedrooms and knew the oceanfront property was just what he had been looking for.

Celebrating winter with tropical style.

I grew up in South Florida at a time before hurricanes were named and no one evacuated anyone anywhere. It was when grownups talked in somber voices of the hurricane of Labor Day 1935, the strongest hurricane ever recorded, with winds at 200 m.p.h. That was the time when World War I veterans, working in three CCC camps, were swept off the Florida Keys along with a rescue train that was blown off the tracks.

In hundreds of households across town, Christmas is as much about dancing snowflakes and the Sugar Plum Fairy as tree decorating and frenzied gift-buying. The holiday season annually unfolds onstage by dancers on their toes retelling the rather bizarre story of a broken wooden nutcracker, saved from the Mouse King by a tenderhearted Clara and magically transformed into a handsome prince.

And so it begins…November marks the start of the season for Vero Beach’s main charity events. Diamonds, dancing and elegant gourmet dinners abound throughout the next seven months, providing an excellent opportunity for artistic formal wear and exquisite jewelry.

“We have to be careful how we tell the prom story.” Knowing giggles ensue. The humorist is Cornelia Perez, but the friends having a laugh first knew her as Cornelia Auxier, daughter of Herschel and Lucy Auxier, one of the early Vero Beach families.

Penny Odiorne can’t wait for the evening of November 20. Circled in red on her calendar the date marks the Indian River Symphonic Association’s season-opening concert. The woman who spearheaded the drive to bring quality symphonic performances to the community 17 years ago wouldn’t miss it for the world.

As twilight descends on the Haitian border village of Tilori, a number of weary residents who have toiled since dawn on a reforestation project designed to sustain the production of food, fuel and building materials, were smiling, knowing their efforts will lead to a better future for themselves and inspire other communities to follow their lead.

In a brilliant blend of circles, dots and lines – straight, curved or quirky – Beatriz Milhazes’ favorite colors leap to life, forming the spirited patterns that captivate her viewers.