PineStraw Magazine

09/25/2025

Every picture tells a story and Sandhills travelers have a lot of tales to tell. We want to know where in the world you’ve been. Email us your travel photos at [email protected].
This one is from Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, photo by Tobé Saskor.

09/24/2025

Fall means football but every other September, it means Ryder Cup drama, too.

SOUTHWORDS Home The Cup Runneth Over By Jim Moriarty Fall is always football, but every other September, it’s the Ryder Cup, too. My first Ryder Cup was 1983 at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens. With a nod to the South Florida heat index, that one was played in mid-October, though since then, ev...

09/24/2025

Making shroom for a new method of farming. This regular farmers market vendor has turned her farm indoors growing mushrooms. The benefits, they say, are endless.

09/23/2025

From hearing Big Star on the car radio to shaping the sound of R.E.M. and Let’s Active, Mitch Easter turned garage tapes into timeless records.

Easter, a portrait of the artist as an older man, will turn 71 in November. “It’s funny about music,” he says. “You’ve got a long trajectory of possibilities.

More on PineStrawmag.com

09/13/2025

Check out what the Sandhills Photography club has been capturing:

SANDHILLS PHOTO CLUB Home Old Barns & Buildings The Sandhills Photography Club was started in 1983 to provide a means of improving members’ photographic skills and technical knowledge, for the exchange of information, and, by club activity, to develop membership potential and public interest in th...

09/06/2025

Mitch Easter remembers the moment Big Star hit the airwaves and how everything changed. It sparked a journey from a Winston-Salem garage to producing R.E.M.'s debut and building a lasting legacy in indie rock. A beautiful story of inspiration, studios, and the long arc of a musical life.

NC SURROUND SOUND Home A Musical Life Creating space for art to thrive By Tom Maxwell Seminal producer, songwriter and musician Mitch Easter remembers the intersection where he was stopped when Big Star’s power pop masterpiece “When My Baby’s Beside Me” came on his car radio in the 1970s. .....

09/05/2025

On a sweltering Labor Day dove hunt, a group of longtime friends escapes the heat for shade, cold drinks, and a conversation about the rise and fall of the newspaper business — and a reason to still have hope. Read the full column below:

SPORTING LIFE Home Beating the Heat A conversation in the shade By Tom Bryant The sun seemed to be stuck, hanging right at the top of the tree line as if to say, “You think it’s hot now? Wait, there’s another three hours of daylight, and I’m gonna make it a smoker.” Shadows had moved […]

09/05/2025

Plan your month with the help of our monthly Pine Pitches:

PINEPITCH Home PinePitch September 2025 Hop & Sing When American painter Edward Hopper felt blocked he would devour pulp crime novels and private eye stories or spend entire days at the cinema watching film noir. In partnership with the Arts Council of Moore County, the Exhibition on the Screen seri...

09/02/2025

The fall home and garden issue is out now just in time for the perfect fall weather!

08/30/2025

Latte macchiato-style ice pops are the recipe you need to wrap up summer.

FOCUS ON FOOD Home Percolate This! Latte macchiato-style ice pops Story and Photograph by Rose Shewey If it takes more than a splash of milk and a spoonful of sugar to enjoy your coffee, I’m afraid you may be among those who like coffee-flavored drinks rather than actual coffee. A little bit of...

08/26/2025

Breathing life into a contemporary villa

Embarking on a second career in retirement is nothing new: Lawyers become clergyman; bank tellers resurface as hairstylists; farmers write novels. But a retired Army physician renovating high-end residences? Well, why not?

Retired Lt. Col. Teresa Pearce, M.D., a public health specialist with a master’s degree in epidemiology, and her husband, Dr. Tony Freiler, M.D., a retired Lt. Col. Army radiologist practicing locally, found Pinehurst perfect for work and family. With two sons, 8 and 12, Teresa thought about renovating a house large enough for several generations to live communally. “I’m very big on family,” she says. She found a candidate in an estimated 7,200-square-foot manse built in 2001, with detached garage/apartment and pool on 5 acres overlooking a Country Club of North Carolina golf course. The multi-generational living plan didn’t materialize but, oh, what a venue for honing interior design skills and showcasing good taste.

Although the property does not conform to any off-the-shelf architectural mode — try contemporary Italianate villa — its wings spread over a section of CCNC where land parcels are of similar size. Teresa’s method was simple: Find something to make your own and get to work. Upgrades took about a year.

See more in your August magazine.

📸: John Gessner

08/21/2025

Sometimes it really is about the destination, not the journey...

SOUTHWORDS Home Sleeping It Off When in doubt, hit snooze By Emilee Phillips “What did I miss?” I ask through a yawn and a stretch. This is a common refrain from me. I can sleep on any and every mode of transportation. From the outside it may look like sleeping just about anywhere, just about [....