The neighborhood ecosystem includes wood rats, large black snakes and myriad birds and hardwoods taller than barns. A small town still, Chapel Hill offers the charm of a past era in a county that keeps pace with the times. Development threatens to change our county. Houses are being built quickly. Urban sprawl curls its tentacles along the highway corridors.
People move here for the schools, the weather, the clean white-collar economy, all great reasons.
But I came for the simple and beautiful way of life. I hope we hold onto it. Orange County's towns are familial. When UNC Chancellor Michael Hooker died last year, the outpouring of love displayed in Chapel Hill reminded everyone that once you're a child of this place, you'll never forget it, and this place will remember you. Hillsborough, the county seat and of historical interest for both the Revolutionary and Civil wars, has become the hometown of many well-known fiction writers.