Winter hikes, winter lights, frosty runs and outdoor ice skating will offer ample opportunity for chilly fun in celebration of the N.C. Smokies Ice Fest Weekend Jan. 26-28. 

Check out Winter Lights at the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville with a group leaving from the Waynesville Recreation Department at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 12. 

Dubbed ‘Asheville’s brightest holiday tradition,’ Winter Lights opens Friday, Nov. 17, with the brilliant display open daily 6-10 p.m. through Sunday, Dec. 31, at the N.C. Arboretum. 

Audubon North Carolina is urging residents to help keep the skies dark this fall to help birds as they migrate south.

Surprisingly, a recent column about wood-burning cookstoves attracted as much attention as anything I’ve written for years. Folks who live in The Smoky Mountain News distribution area and can pick up the print edition were the most numerous e-mail correspondents, of course. But a lot of people outside of the region must read the publication online as well because at least 10 people living in different parts of the country contacted me to reminisce about their woodstove experiences.

Although the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a protected expanse of land, all types of contamination — from air pollution to mercury contamination — manage to creep in. One of the more unusual suspects, but probably the most apparent, is light.

Ghosts, spirits, swamp gas, gnomes and car headlights — there’s no shortage of hyphotheses behind the mysterious phenomenon along the Blue Ridge Parkway. The real question is, though, have you seen the light?