A visit with history in the Piedmont

On Saturday we decided to take a day trip down the Piedmont to visit Montpelier, the home of James Madison, the fourth President of the USA. It was a beautiful spring day; the air was full of pollen and we had Rolo, the wonder dog, with us so the outing was not without challenge. But we did enjoy our trip.

James Madison spent almost all his life living in this beautiful part of Virginia. Below you can see his home; as a nine year old child he moved into the newly built central portion. Over the years he added to the home and today's visitors see this view which is a restoration of the property to how it would have looked at the time of Madison's later years (he died here in 1836). Today the property is a National Trust Historic Site administered by the Montpelier foundation. The estate was donated to the National Trust by the DuPont family and after a remarkable five year renovation, the home was opened to the public in 2008.


Who wouldn't like this to be the view from their front entrance porch? Casey and Rolo take in the view to the west of the Blue Ridge mountains, some 20 miles distant.
This structure was referred to as Mr Madison's Temple - it was built over the ice house about 1810. Couldn't we all do with a refrigerator that looked like this one?
And I couldn't resist taking this photo (for obvious reasons to those who know us) on the road outside the estate. That green and white paint color scheme seemed to be on many of the estate buildings - aside that is from the main residence.

Wild flowers on a spring walk

This morning Casey and I took a quick stroll along the side of the Potomac River in Riverbend Park. Our reason was to look for the display of Virginia bluebells that I had heard were at their peak. And we were not disappointed. What a stunning display of the beauty of nature.

The wildflowers are growing in profusion along the rivers edge.

Both sides of the trail have the flowers. The morning was brilliantly sunny - perhaps a little too bright to capture the exquisite blue color of the flowers.
We saw more than bluebells. But if I wait to identify these other ones I'll never get this posting done.
It wasn't until I got home and looked at my photos on the computer that I noticed the redbud tree in full bloom in the background of the photo above. And those are the beautiful bluebells in the foreground.
We needed to keep a careful eye out so we did not inadvertently stand on such little treasures as these violets.
And these flowers are really dainty. There are not so many of them but they did have the bonus of being right by the parking lot and were easy to find.

I wish we had had the entire morning to spend enjoying this display.

An all together better S word

This post is to say Happy Easter. The winter weather has finally left and I wanted to share some of my spring photos with you. And firstly, the zero calorie Easter Bunny!

The forsythia does not look as overflowing as many I see around here but it was the first spring bloom in my garden this year. And this clump of daffodils were the first bulbs to bloom.
A spring shot in my front garden. The lawn had it's first cut of the season yesterday and with the blue sky the landscape is looking satisfyingly spectacular.
Compare these two photos of the same location. Below, was how things looked on February 11. Those are very feisty pansies; planted back in October they survived the winter burial of snow.

And now for storm number 4

To get ready for storm number four, my lead shovelman and I have spent hours each day moving snow around. Storm # 3 was Saturday and even allowing for the stuff to settle down and lose some of its fluffiness, here is the pile by the letterbox on late Tuesday afternoon as we prepared for the arrival of storm # 4.
This fellow seems quite inscrutable despite his surroundings. He came all the way from Bendigo, Australia where I doubt he ever had to deal with the likes of this!
The wind is blowing so I had to resort to taking this through the front window. Now keep in mind the front porch is somewhat protected by both the wall you see at the back and the roof. But with blowing snow, even this will need shoveling out.
And here on the deck you can see the effects of the wind driven snow. Ordinarily the wind comes from the opposite direction and this door is protected. Not this time.
Looking out the front window I can barely see that the snow plow did come down the street just before dawn. I'm not sure how long we'll have to wait until it comes again. Looking further over to the main road we were watching the unusual sight of three large pay loaders with back hoes; the buckets are being used to scoop up snow and then dump it over the guard rail into the median area. There is just too much snow to continue plowing it because the piles become too large and dangerous.

I think we will wait until tomorrow to work on our snow removal - we utilise the low tech method of snow shovel and snow blower. With the wind blowing the windchill is around 0 F even as the air temperature is 25 F. And I'm told that even if we move it the wind will blow it back so I guess we'll wait and do a huge job tomorrow.

The sewing machine is calling me and I think I'll answer it's call.

This one's for you, Milde!

And with yet another snow day before me, how to keep busy? Actually, I've got plenty of things I'd like to be doing, just so long as the electricity stays on. But mindful that we could lose it and because I could only buy the last bag of rolls left on the shelf at the supermarket yesterday, I thought I better get busy and make some scones this morning. That is after the electricity came back on at 9:30am or so. Tuesday night I thought I could prepare some chocolate treats, mint brownies, for Casey and I as a reward for all our efforts at snow removal.

And because I thought we might need a break from all these snow photos, I set up this vignette to make you smile Milde. I developed a new technique with the blueberries so I would not have the angst of purple scones; no, instead this time the berries seem to tumble out the side...

In January I joined a local group of artists; the greatest proportion of the members are painters and I have enjoyed seeing what they paint and how they set up still life subjects. Some of the members are photographers and I am not of course in any way trying to compete with them but rather, to learn from them. In the listing of members I appear as quiltmaker. This photo is not quite a still life but it's the thought that counts.

And remember all those cuttings of rosemary for remembrance? I fear I may have to replace all three of my rosemary bushes in the spring. Trying to hedge my bets I have three different varieties planted in three different areas. But they are all looking mightily beaten up by this winter weather we have been having. At least in this shot, taken only five days ago, you can see the rosemary bush. Now it is totally obliterated by the blizzard conditions we have today.

Yes, more snowy photos

And, lo, a tree hatches in the front yard! I just happened to be out and about at the right moment to capture this image on Sunday morning after the big snow event. And since there has not been a lot to do lately except deal with snow I wanted to post some more photos. Not only was there a lot of snow falling in this storm but high winds caused drifting which created some amazing snow sculptures. Below, enjoy the view out the front window. The railing height is 36" and you can see the snow is almost up to that level.


See how the snow built up on very narrow ledges like the top railing of the screen around the ac units and the framework on the top of the pergola.
Can you believe how the snow has curved around the copper roof on the bay window? Later in the afternoon it fell off - perhaps because of all the vibration as I manhandled the snowblower along the front walk.

Just look at those icicles! They do look spectacular but when the sun shines on them they melt and drip and the water falls onto the small part of the deck that is cleared of snow and becomes...a 2" thick slab of ice. I might just as well have left the snow covering the deck.
After Casey and I had spent our fifth effort of snow shoveling on this storm I took a walk up the street to see how far away the snow plow might be. Turning to look back down the street I saw this view. It would be pretty if I knew how to edit out the footprints and trails in the snow.
Finally, I needed some reminder that seasons do change so I went browsing in my old photo files. And found this shot taken on April 3, 2008 when Casey and I went into DC to the tidal basin to view the cherry blossoms. I enjoyed the serenity of this composition.

Are we almost done with this white stuff?

I am thinking you will be tiring of yet more snow photos. But I sure am taking a lot of them lately. The first one below is from my usual spot out the computer room window showing the bird bath under the dogwood tree. This was taken on the morning of Wednesday February 3 after a "light" snowfall the night before (there have been so many I have forgotten the amount of this one). But I include it for contrast with what comes next:
You may have seen the news that the mid Atlantic region got walloped by a big snowstorm beginning yesterday (another Saturday today and, so it goes, another snowstorm). It is not over yet but I am hoping the worst is past. But here is the same view taken mid afternoon today.
And now, the evidence. I leaned as far as I could out the laundry room door and plunged in the yard stick. You'll see it says there is 25" of snow but the snow banks higher behind it.

Casey and I first shoveled the driveway and the deck around 5pm Friday at which time we cleared maybe 3 - 5" of snow. Then we shoveled again from 9pm to 10:30pm but it was so heavy going then that we only got the driveway done.

At 3:00am Saturday we lost electricity. Now we were in a fix because the snow was so much that we needed to use the snow blower. But the only way I can get that monster started is with the electric key start. And without electricity I could not start the machine. The snow continued to fall. Around noon, hallelujah, the power came back on. So we went outside and struggled for almost two hours until the machine ran out of fuel. In that time I got the area in front of one garage cleared plus a wide enough space to get that one vehicle down to within 5' of the road. But since the snow plow has not been during daylight hours there is too much snow to get out onto the road anyway.

Right now we are taking a break and building up our energy and courage to make another assault on the snow around 4:30pm. It does seem as though it is tapering off. I hope so. This for sure is the record breaking storm they predicted with likely as much as 30" or more before the current storm passes over.

The advance forecast is not encouraging as it suggests more snow on Tuesday.

Glory be, enough already. I might go sew for an hour (while I have the electricity that is!) before we suit up again to go outside.