Back to Flowers

I've been cleaning, painting and thinking about painting and making things with zucchini.  I've discovered among other things that the painted woodwork has white latex paint, painted over oil paint (probably in 1976) and probably not primed since it comes off with a good dose of cleaning.. Now I have a dining room with off-white woodwork with celery highlights. The good thing is that where it looked like some of the woodwork was splitting,  it looks like it was just the latex paint with cracks in it, not the wood itself.  Unfortunately in the upstairs bath, I painted with latex and some of that is peeling already, especially where it had been not painted completely/well before.  So my painting "career" has momentarily stopped in favor of getting ready for company on Thursday. The pink bathroom will remain pink for a while.
The flowers in bloom change each month and July is alomst over! So here's a sampling of the pretty July blooms. The sweet Pea tries to take over now, so I need to get out there and pull some of it out along with other weeds taller than I am. Besides these of course, the vegies (more precisely, some of them) are coming in fast and furious. Will be canning more relish today.

Butterfly bush

Anise Hyssop (in back)

Bittersweet Nightshade

Mint - catnip I think

Rose of Sharon and I can't remember

Turks Head Lily - my favorite

Yellow Day Lily with Sweet Pea

A day in the "city"

After making and canning some relish, I decided to take the rest of the day for myself and go to Abingdon. This is not the same place as Abington where I grew up - it's much closer than that to Rural Retreat. Compared to Rural Retreat this is a big city. And they are in the midst of the Highlands Festival - a wonderful 2 week event that includes arts and crafts, theater, music, and historical events. It's also got lots of wonderful shopping - consignment antique and other treasures.

Abingdon is home of the Barter Theater. Originally built as a church, this is one of the oldest theaters in America; The first play took place in 1876. The building was used for various non-theatrical purposes over the years. During the depression, a struggling actor, Rober Porterfield, established it as the Barter Theater promoting attendance with the motto "exchanging Ham for Hamlet." Cost to attend was 35 cents or the equivalent in victuals to feed the actors. 3 out of 4 people brought food (sometimes live chickens or pigs who could be heard clucking/squealing during the play) to see the plays. Per their website, at the end of the first year, "the Barter Company cleared $4.35 in cash, two barrels of jelly, and a collective weight gain of over 300 pounds." Famous alumna of the Barter Theater include Gregory Peck, Patricia Neal, Ernest Borgnine, Larry Linville (TV Mash), James Burrows (creator of Cheers and writer for Friends, Will & Grace) to name a few.  Porterfield's famous saying, repeated at every performance today goes something like, "if you loved it tell everyone; if not, keep your mouth shut."  Nelson and I have attended quite  few plays there and we've liked them all.

In the 1960's, the Barter obtained another building across  (also built as a church) the street from and opened the 167 seat Barter Theater II. Many of the plays we've seen have been put on there - you are right in the action.  During the Highlands festival, the Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights also takes place. Readings from various plays are done, and at least one of those plays will be produced by the theater in a subsequent season.

Next to this theater is the Martha Washington Inn and Spa, formerly Martha Washington College. My grandmother was one of many young ladies of the late 1800's who attended this college, though she dropped out to get married.  It is certainly a lovely setting. There are several buildings - these being these being the biggest two. You can tour the building and they have pictures in the hallways of many of the classes and activities from its college days.

The Art and Crafts Festival for the Highlands Festival used to be held on the grounds of this and the Barter Theater II, but this was moved last year and the Inn thought it was too much for their guests.  I'll be back at the festival again next week, so will show pictures of that then. I'm sure I didn't really get to appreciate all of it the first time. An then there were the stores.. fun day for me!

Lest you think I left the country for a day, let me show you pictures of the festival parade. I didn't get the fire truck, or the parade marshal car, but you get the idea. It went by fast!

yes, chickens are alive

That's the entire band

The Garden

Been so busy inside that I haven't spent much time in the garden of late. Just a few (LOL) weeds have come up since my last visit.  Lots of growth of everything.  

A friend of mine gave me some spiderflower (Cleome) seeds last year and I planted a few this year but didn't think they had come up.  In the garden (not where I thought I put the seeds a plant came up that looked interesting but I wasn't sure what it was until just this week. And it's these spiderflowers. They are about to bloom so look for a new picture soon - the flower is beautiful. I planted some in another garden too, but they are way behind this one.


The herbs and vegetables are all doing well. My lavendar has thrived though won't bloom until next year unfortunately. Corn looks like it may be edible soon.  Nelson didn't have much luck with watermelon this year, but planted it again.. It is running amuck (see picture on left), taking over the world. There are a few small watermelons showing up. We'll see if they ever get big or ripe this year. I'm going to cut it back if it threatens my green beans. No sign of cantelopes, though a few plants have flowers.
Green beans are starting to produce and we had some for dinner last night. Lots of hot peppers; and as usual only one person (not me) who will eat them. There are some small green peppers showing up and hopefully they will grow some. No sign of the red peppers though.  We've had a few ripe tomatoes and there are many, many green ones. Zucchini's have slowed down fortunately, though still some forming.  Cucumbers wern't coming up so we kept replanting and now we have a lot of plants (too many); one has started to produce fruit, so there will be relish and pickles this year afterall.  Farmer Jones signing off!

The house

Pending guests forced me to actually undertake cleaning of the house. One dead mouse and the dust bunnies are gone, as are most of the spider webs, though they have a way of eluding notice and/or being rebuilt in no time flat! But with cleaning comes seeing close up the peeling paint, the spot on the ceiling where water must have come in once (hopefully before the metal roof) and the fact that most of the non-paneled walls were last painted in 1987 and there are cracks in some walls and in the trim paint.  How do I know this? - My aunt had this wonderful book that tells everything that was done to her house starting from 1955, when done, who did it and what it cost. Of course the house is much older than this, so there are still many mysteries! 

 I decided to start out small with my redecorating - Brother John put down some new vinyl flooring in the upstairs bathroom last fall. To the right, you can see a little of the trim I painted, the new flooring and the old flooring - yes, there's still a piece of it under the pink hallway carpet.  Most people including me didn't know what flooring was in there as there. There used to be a very old green wall-to-wall bathroom rug on top of this flooring. That rug was falling apart and could no longer be cleaned so I had to remove it last year. There is actually an unfinished hardwood floor under the old linoleum, but John felt we needed to cover that since it's a bathroom afterall. He's so practical!  This new vinyl floor is sort of padded - feels good to stand on and didn't need to be glued down, so no damage to the wood floor. To replace floor, he had to take out the trim and put it back. So I said I'd paint the trim. This bathroom is built in the eaves of the house (see picture to the left)  and so there is maybe a 3 foot section of the room in which one can stand.  Much of trim painting had to be done with my right hand - not easy for someone who is a lefty! I am now even more convinced not to take on painting much else in this house myself.

So last night got an estimate to do some painting and some redoing of some other walls (more on that another day). Mid August the painters will come to do a few rooms. Then I will have to decide if doing more. But I did finish the trim painting and now trying to decide if I can paint over the faux tile (pink - think Pepto Bismol) and make it look a little better!

This guest room will be the first room to be painted by a professional, but not until August when many of this years' guess will already be gone. Yes, that's also pink.. think it needs some updating? 

Church Day

Today I went to two church services. The first was at my normal little rural church when I'm here in Virginia, Marvin UMC. But it wasn't a normal Sunday. The church was filled because the Hounshell family had their annual reunion this weekend.  The United Methodist Women (and some Hounshells) then provided a huge lunch for all those people in the "Greever-McIntire Fellowship Hall."   I took potato salad, deviled eggs, zucchini casserole, and salt and pepper shakers for all the tables.  By the time I got home, I had more food than I had left with - and I thought I had taken a lot with me to church! Fortunately some of it could be frozen! Best of all - no need to cook dinner tonight.

Then I went to a second service, a Service of Leave led by the Va. Synod Bishop,  across the road from my house at the Corinth Lutheran Church.  Per the local paper, ""When Corinth Lutheran Church organized in the Black Lick community more than 119 years ago, its members were small family farmers. The congregation like the farms dwindled through the years forcing the center of the community to close its doors. With great reluctance but with practical sensibility, the six remaining members of Corinth Lutheran Church agreed to cease services. They found they could no longer bear the financial responsibility of maintaining the operation."

I'd never been to this church before, though I've used it as a landmark in giving directions to my house over and over again. It was a very moving service and many people I have met over the years were there, including some distant relatives. I think most of the past ministers were there as well. Three members of my Aunt Elaine's choir from Marvin Church (who still attend Marvin) participated in the choir at this last service.  Jody Brown, now living in Iowa, grew up in this church and his sister's husband was one of the former pastors. Jody played this historic 1896 pump organ beautifully.

Zucchini Day

Yesterday was zucchini day (after a little morning tennis).  You probably didn't know there was such a day, probably because it was only at my house!  I made zucchini bread (new recipe with lemon, lighter than my normal one but very yummy too), and zucchini casserole, and also zucchini corn bread, The breads were a hit; the casserole tolerated by my husband, but for someone who rarely eats vegetables, that's good. I plan to make it again for a luncheon at church on Sunday.  Oh and don't tell N, but zucchini is always in our salad too.  I made zucchini relish last week but haven't tasted yet. Next I'm thinking the chocolate zucchin cake recipe- really don't tell him about that one; he'll just have to try it..

Started this morning with paint! Started to paint some trim and quickly realized I wasn't prepared to do that.. So got the caulk gun out instead and didn't some much needed caulking. Tommorrow I will buy some painter's tape and more caulk since I ran out; I cannot really get the edges without painting the floor too so the tape is a must. I'm really waiting for a painter to call me back, but thought I'd try to clean up the trim in upstairs bath before company comes on Monday.  There's much painting here to be done.

This afternoon we went to the Barter Theater to see Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps. Very cleverly done with only 4 actors playing a lot of different people and also bringing the limited props with them on stage. Very ingenious clothing changes, different facial expressions and sometimes accents to show which character they were! Think secret agents with a little Monty Python and vaudville thrown in.. It was very, very funny.  We really enjoyed.

Reminder- when you take your camera with you, be sure to have extra batteries. I'm disappointed to have no pictures today because I didn't follow that rule!  This is a very cute town the theater is in, but I'll be there again so will try next time.

Back in Va.

There have been no blogs for a few days as I was back in Florida to play in the USTA 3.5 Ladies Tampabay Regional Championships in Tampa with my wonderful USTA team! It was quite a fight; every match came down to one court with an 11-13 tiebreaker deciding the winner! We prevailed one more time than the other team and are now the champs! Next we go to Sectionals in Daytona in August for a three-day tournament.

Today I am back in Virginia. I see there are some huge zuchinni (happens if you don't get to them everyday), some green beans and snow peas (not sure if enough of either yet for a meal, but soon), and some cucumbers showing up too. I see another ripe tomato as well.

Camping Cut Short

We headed out to New River State Park for two nights of camping, but ended up coming home after just one night. First night was pleasant; took a walk on the New River bike-hike-horse trail from the camping area to the Shot Tower with a park "greeter."

I've seen the Tower numerous times before, but this time got a history lesson as well as a look inside.

Then just a night at campsite and short walks to see ducks and people playing in the water - Hard to get a fire going but finally did it!

Then this morning a nice paddle on the New River in a calm area; we rushed back when it started to drizzle.

By the time we got back, it had poured and our campsite was under water. We decided at that point to just grab everything and put it in the Jeep and dry it all out at home. Still working on that!

Quiet Day

Saturday was just pretty quiet. One of our neighbors came in yesterday. There are 3 houses in a triangle (not too close to eachother) that are all owned by out-of-towners. They'll be here 3 weeks. Visited with them a little; we all spend a lot of time working on our yards and houses.. Hmm.. why are we here? Oh yeah, the views.

Here are some pictures from my mile+ walk with Max. Up and down hills on a stone-dirt road.

Second picture is actually a cow pasture; no cows there yet; but this is where the dairy cows that have recently had babies go for "vacation." You can see the owner has stored feed there for them. The other two pictures are just part of another neighbor's farm (this one is 1/2 mile away from ours). HJ raises cattle, horses, and breeds & trains award-winning mules. The picture shows one horse and one mule.. usually he's training the ones in that coral or nursing them if sick.. they look okay so hopefully training.

The last picture is pink chicory; first picture showed the more normal blue chickory with Max; there are couple of patches of the pink on my walk.

Busy Day

18 holes of golf - two pars for the day. We didn't keep score so not sure about the total, but didn't play too bad considering it was the first time in a year. Then we played a little tennis and Nelson helped me practice volleys and serves.

Then a little shopping and home for lunch.
Followed this by working in the yard. Watched cows across the street for a while. A guy puts food out for the cows, and the herd comes one after another in a line to eat; they are very well behaved, no rushing to be first.
See before and after pictures of the yard cleanup project for today below: