I’ve been doing little stuff around the house to keep myself busy. One of those things was starting to neaten-up my side of the basement. I didn’t finish because I got sidetracked by a couple of projects.
The first project was making LOVE. Hubby helped. 😎
My town is a bit late to the Virginia LOVE program. There’s a LOVEwork outside of town at the Airlie House and Farm (that’s where Earth Day was born!), but I would really like to see one in the historic downtown. I’d heard that the Town Council quashed plans for a LOVEwork in Old Town Warrenton (OTW) so I started kicking-around the idea of making my own. Hubby had enough scrap plywood for three of the letters, but I wanted to figure out an easy way to make a different sort of “O.”
Back in July, when I was having my hair done, my hairdresser was telling me how the move to her house and unpacking was coming along when she mentioned needing to remove an old satellite dish the previous owner had left behind.
“Can I have it?” I immediately asked. She looked at me like I had a few heads and asked why I would want that. I swore her to secrecy then explained that I needed something to make the fourth letter in my own personal LOVEwork.
A couple of days later, there was an old, dirty satellite dish and hardware in my backyard, much to Hubby’s chagrin. We no longer have cable TV and are perfectly happy with analog TV and streaming other entertainment, so he had no idea why I would want or need an old satellite dish!
I outlined the letters on the scrap plywood and Hubby cut them for me. Then I painted everything and hung it on the wall in front of our house. It turned out quite cool, in my opinion.
I had a bit of fun with the thing. I even texted pics to all of the kids, saying “Look, we made love last last week and I am sharing pics!”
Other people like our LOVE, too. So much so that we made the local news. If you’d like to read the article, this link will take you to the story on FauquierNOW.
The next project was painting this old end table that’s been in the to-do queue for a long time. I decided it would make a nice table for the porch, and I added a Barn Quilt to the top. It turned out so nice, I think I may keep it in the house.
Speaking of barn quilts… a friend and I have decided to start a barn quilt trail. We are just in the planning stages now, so I can’t say much. I thought it would be fun to have one here in Fauquier County. In July, we met with the ladies behind the Blue Ridge Barn Quilt Trail in nearby Greene County. Their trail already has about 70 barn quilts in all shapes and sizes and it’s only been around for about a year and a half. The one pictured below is at the visitors’ center.
That is a barn quilt LOVEwork. How cool is that? 😊
I’ve been visiting LOVEworks, too. I’m now up to 96! My log page is not completely up-to-date since I turned in my work computer. You know, the one that belonged to my former employer. They were kind enough to let me borrow it for a couple of months so I didn’t have to conduct my job search from this tablet.
It’s been pretty hot, so we have not done much motorcycle riding. Instead, we’ve been visiting breweries in our spare time.
Visiting breweries is a much more expensive hobby. Local breweries don’t give you tours and such like big commercial brewers do, it’s really all about tasting their beer. We’ve both decided it’s fun tasting so many different beers.
Last weekend, we actually did something really different. We did a long weekend centered around bicycle riding. We drove to Farmville, Virginia, about two and a half hours south of here.
I’d been to Farmville a couple of times previously, once to see their first LOVEwork and then just passing through. I knew there was a bicycle trail there with a cool bridge and had said several times I wanted to return. So that’s what we did. They have a second LOVEwork now, too.
The High Bridge Trail State Park was the center of our visit. I pasted the description from the state park’s website below:
High Bridge Trail is 31 miles long and ideally suited for hiking, bicycling and horseback riding. Once a rail bed, the trail is wide, level and generally flat. Its finely crushed limestone surface and dimensions make it easy to enjoy. The park’s centerpiece is the majestic High Bridge, which is more than 2,400 feet long and 125 feet above the Appomattox River. It is the longest recreational bridge in Virginia and among the longest in the United States. High Bridge, a Virginia Historic Landmark, is on the National Register of Historic Places.
It’s a really nice trail, and the bridge was fun to see.
Check out out this short video from the bridge:
We visited a few breweries, too. Trapezium in Petersburg had my favorite beer, a white ale. The brewery in Farmville — Third Street Brewing — was nice, too, and in walking distance from our hotel.
Hubby was kind enough to drive about a three-hour loop on Saturday to see some more LOVEworks while we were in the area. Then Sunday, we detoured through Bedford, Virginia, on the way home to visit the National D-Day Memorial. I created a Google Photos album of the pics from the D-Day Memorial, which was even more impressive than I anticipated. Click Here if you would like to see the album.
Next week is my last week of freedom. I start a new job on September 10th. I’m excited about the opportunity, which is similar to what I’d been doing, but slightly different. It’s hot and humid here, so we’ll be playing indoors for the next couple of days. Monday, I’m off to the beach for 3-4 days with a girlfriend. Then on Sunday, September 9, I’m off to Minneapolis for a week of job training, meet-and-greets, etc. Back to reality, in other words. 😎
