Merry Christmas Friends!

Hello Friends,  it's been a long time since posting here.  Life has been busy for us but very good.  As we are getting older now it's quite interesting to decorate and bake and get ready for family visits.  Grayden and I are team workers for all of our current jobs even though we learned recently that we are elderly!   

On a recent visit to our very young medical provider she mentioned that she recommended to her elderly patients, like us, something I can't even remember now.  All I heard was elderly!  Yes, I know we are, but I don't think of us that way.  I know we are but I still think of us as being young-that is until my knee reminds me!

 We are thankful to be spending another Christmas together with our family.  Our daughter and son-in-law will arrive on Sunday morning after traveling here from New England by train.  The station is close to our home so Samuel will be picking up his parents early morning.  

Our son and grandsons will be joining us Christmas Eve and then spending Christmas with us.

The turkey is thawing in the refrigerator and the ham has been bought.  There is hardly any room left in our new refrigerator.  Our old one certainly had a larger capacity that I really miss as I play Tetris each time I place something inside.  We are blessed with abundance to be able to buy what we need.  

This morning Samuel and I baked chocolate chip cookies as they are family favorites.

Our daughter and I eat low carb so I made a large batch of low carb peanut butter fudge for us to enjoy.  I also made a simple treat of sugar free chocolate chips and peanuts for us to munch on.  Our daughter's birthday is Christmas day so I will be baking a low carb cheesecake for her birthday.

There is comfort in the traditions we have as a family.  Come to think of it we are blessed to have children and grandchildren come to join us as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior.  I pray you have a wonderful Christmas friends!

October Celebrations

Acknowledging birthdays and anniversaries are important.  I take none of them for granted.  I know being married for 57 years is one of my greatest blessings.  Grayden and I both have always set aside time to recognize these milestones.  We both also have birthdays during October.   Some years we are able to get away for a few days.  This year we went to a favorite place that both of us love, Colonial Williamsburg.  If you have visited here before you are aware we visit often.

Being close to home it never gets old for us to visit.  Going in Autumn is always a treat.  This year we enjoyed beautiful weather.  A few of the days it was quite warm,  but always great for walking.  Since I've had knee issues I was especially happy to be able to walk relatively pain free daily in this lovely town.

I have many favorite spots in this lovely town, but this Compton Oak is at the top of my list!

The day before we left home a lovely flower arrangement came for me.  Our daughter that lives in New England sent it to me for my birthday.  Since it was a week later she had asked the florist to deliver it on my birthday.  Luckily they delivered it a week early!

So I was able to take it with me to the place we were staying in Williamsburg.  I enjoyed it so much so thank you Punkin!

Noel was not happy to hear they had delivered it early, but I told her no worries I would take them with me to Williamsburg.  A lucky mistake in my opinion.  Otherwise they would have been older by the time we returned home.

We always like visiting the gardens that are behind or beside most of the homes.  This one was loaded with color and many pollinators!

The lovely Gomphrena is a genus of plants in the family of  Amaranthaceae.  You may know them as Globe Amaranths.

Notice the sign about the home and the garden has quite a history even though the home is reconstructed.

As most of you are aware Colonial Williamsburg is a living history museum.  They are working on projects to present history in more meaningful ways.  An archeology museum is under construction near the Abby Aldrich Museum.  It's really coming along.

The Campbell Archeology Center will benefit scholars and visitors to some of the artifacts that have shaped the understanding of Williamsburg.

On our anniversary and my birthday we enjoyed a lovely dinner at Shield's Tavern.

On other days we had car picnics.  We prefer eating outdoors, but the yellow jackets were quite bad this year.  We've even had them in our front yard this year.  They made their home in the stump of an old tree. It's made for interesting mowing by Samuel and Grayden!  Both of them were stung this year by them!  Yellow Jackets love to be where there is food.  That is certainly why we observed them at food stands in Williamsburg.

Bumblebees were enjoying the Cockscomb and certainly aren't aggressive.

It was fun identifying this Common Checkered Skipper!  He certainly appears to be one.

It's always thrilling to see a monarch!  He was in the garden with all the pollinators in the garden behind the St. George Tucker home.

Considering we've been coming here all of our lives, we had never visited behind this home.  I'm so happy we did as it was quiet and full of surprises in the garden! 

I'll stop my photos here and hopefully will share more.  Thank you for coming along to Colonial Williamsburg with us!

What's Happening in My Garden and Beyond

 It's exciting to us to see variety of all things nature in our garden.  I believe the more variety you entice to your garden the healthier it is.  All wildlife is welcome here and we intentionally don't use chemicals that would harm if at all possible.  

I don't know about you, but my camera is usually in the opposite room when I wish to take a photo.  This was the case when I saw a Black-capped Chickadee on the dogwood.  By the time I reached my camera and returned to the front window I was surprised to find an Eastern Buebird in its place!

One afternoon I spotted a Silver-Spotted Skipper on the geranium blossom on the patio.  He obliged my desire to take his photo.

So many Yellow Tiger Swallowtails have graced our patio as well.  

I always am amazed when the Colchicum pop up in early Autumn.

Some people refer to them as Fall Crocus, but are not crocus at all.  My dear neighbor that shared these with me years ago used to call them crocus.  It's always nice to see them come up.  I understand they are poisonous as many plants are.  I'm not a fan of eating plants unless I really know they are okay to munch on!

When Grayden and I went out for our early morning walk we discovered a large Katydid perched on the door of our car.  

I'm not sure why he found the door a good perch, but we enjoyed seeing him.  He's related to the Cricket and is one of the night sounds of summer.

Maybe he thought the shadow was a potential mate. 

The next photo may not be to your liking.  So warning ahead if you don't like snakes!

I understand as I used to have quite an aversion and still can't say I'm in love with them, but they have a place on our planet.

This appears to be a Gray Rat Snake.  He is not venomous, so we don't need to be afraid.  He is defensive so we didn't bother him.  His diet is mainly rodents.  

I wanted to share another photo that I took last week in Culpeper.  Since it's not far we often visit there.

 After having lunch we enjoyed a stroll through the small town shops.  As we were walking Grayden spotted an interesting insect.

Unfortunately this is the dreaded Spotted Lanternfly.  I had heard of this invasion but had never seen one.  He is a plant hopper that prefers the Heavenly Tree (an invasive tree) as his host.  He eats grapes, stone fruits, soybeans, and apple trees causing extensive damage to crops.  Originally from China and Vietnam the lanternfly has spread to Japan, South Korea, and the United States.  Canada has intercepted Lanternflies in shipping crates in Ontario.  It's always nice to see another insect with which I'm not familiar, but this is one insect that I was very unhappy to see in Virginia! 

Thank you for taking a look at our recent observations!

"Having your head in the clouds, even for just a few minutes each day, is good for your mind, good for your body, and good for your soul."

Gavin Pretor-Pinney

 

Chatham on a Hot Afternoon

I realized I had not shared our visit to Chatham garden this summer.  It is not far from our home, just a couple of miles, and we found it the perfect spot to enjoy on a Sunday afternoon even in the heat of summer.  I have posted before about this lovely spot on the Rappahannock River overlooking Fredericksburg, Virginia.  It has a long varied history that is now owned by the National Park Service.

We were able to park our car easily and walk to the garden.  The manor interior is normally open but is now closed for maintenance of the fire suppression system. You may still visit the garden and its grounds.  If you wish to read more about this very interesting place visit -- https://www.nps.gov/frsp/learn/historyculture/chatham.htm

Lining the entrance are beautiful grape vines full of grapes!

I'd say it's been a great year for them.  

Like all of the large manor homes in Virginia the land and homes were toiled by enslaved people.  Chatham Manor was built by enslaved labors in 1771.  As much as this is disturbing, it is a fact.  

On this day we were there to view the gardens.  Rounding the gate we see lovely Chatham.

 There are many statues that are featured in these gardens.

Diana is featured in the entrance.  She was added to the garden between 1921 and 1927 at the recommendation of Ellen Biddle Shipman.  Shipman was the esteemed landscape architect who designed the gardens for Chatham's owners at the time, Daniel and Helen Devore.  John Lee Pratt and his wife were the last owners of Chatham.  They donated the statue to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in 1959.  When the museum decided to remove the statue from storage in 2017 Diana was offered to the National Park Service that owned Chatham Manor.  After $12,000 dollars was raised by the Friends of Chatham the statue was restored.  I must say she is lovely!

We have had such an oppressive summer that has made it difficult for volunteers to keep up this garden space.  Still it is a great place to come particularly when it is empty.  The garden is defined by walls along with ionic columns gracing the center.

Garden Phlox is blooming to the delight of the pollinators.

There is a water feature that had to be covered to protect the inhabitants of the small pond. We have bald eagles and hawks and cranes and herons that patrol the river for food.  If this small pond were not covered there would be no fish here.  

We both needed to find a shady spot under the wisteria on the pergolas.

We both are very aware of the invasiveness of wisteria, but it is always so lovely when in bloom.

There are many out buildings associated with Chatham.  The laundry house is quite large, but served the needs of the day.

The Summer House with the small pond in front.

We decided to walk around to the riverside of the manor and viewed more lovely statuary framed by Crepe Myrtle in bloom.

Walking along the pathway we pass the giant old Catalpas that witnessed the horrors of the Civil War when Chatham served as a field hospital.  

The National Park Service is trying its best to preserve the life of these trees, but sadly in time they will not be here.  As you can see the front of Chatham Manor faces the river. 

 

You can see the giant Catalpa trees to the left.  Because of the foliage the river is not quite visible from this view.

Though it was quite warm that day we walked up to the cupola that houses Pan.

We both enjoyed our little afternoon adventure on this very hot, humid day in Virginia.  Thank you for coming along with us!  I hope it wasn't too hot for you!