Virginia – Page 5 – ToadMama.com

August 23, 2016August 23, 2016

The Rosiest Gal I Know

I have met some really cool people since moving to Virginia in 2011. It’s hard to believe it has already been five years! Well, not officially five until September 30/October 1, but that’s close enough. Sometimes it still feels so new…

But, back to me having met COOL people. One of the interesting localish ladies I’ve befriended is Connie Stevens Hilker. Some of you may remember her from this 2014 post of mine. According to the bio on Connie’s blog…

…I started Hartwood Roses, an educational rose garden in Virginia that specializes in rare and unusual antique roses. I know a lot about roses, old houses, carpentry and remodeling, and am an expert day dreamer. You will often find me working in the garden, planning a home project, building something, or hanging out in a cemetery …all of this has come in handy as my husband and I restore our historic home (built in 1848) renovate the outbuildings, and design the gardens.

She loves animals, too. She’s a supporter of dog rescue. She paints furniture. She’s just a really fun gal. And she’s married to a guy named, Steve, an artist who also seems like a cool chap. Here’s a recent pic of the two of them from Connie’s blog…

Aren’t they a cute couple? They’re grandparents, too.

Now for the point of this post… Connie and Steve hosted an open house/walking garden tour this past May. It’s an annual thing, I think. After seeing all of their preparations online, I thought it would be fun to go.

9_Walking_Garden_Tour_Map — Illustrated Map of the Property

There was a map and everything. If you click on any of the images in this post, a larger version will open so you can see details.

Hartwood Manor – photo courtesy of Connie

Hartwood_collage — There were LOTS of different rose varieties.

I hadn’t told Connie I was coming. She was a little surprised to see me, but I think Steve was more surprised to see this granny pull into his yard on a motorcycle. I hadn’t met Steve before that day. Of course, I felt like I knew him to some degree through Connie and her social media posts.

3_Tour_Guide_IMG_0168 — That’s Connie on the left chatting-up some other visitors.

It’s a big yard with a lot of different gardens and planting areas.

1_BEDS_IMG_0132 — Front Hybrid Tea Rose beds, laid out English-garden-style.

4_Outbuildings_IMG_0177 — Rear outbuildings; L-R, Carriage House Garage, The Shack, and the Greenhouse.

5_Miniature Garden_IMG_0197 — There’s the large Miniature Garden behind the outbuildings.

7_Barn_and_Cottage_IMG_0228 — The Barn and Cottage toward the rear of the property.

6_The Barn_IMG_0220 — English Rose garden near The Barn

8_Rose_Tree_IMG_0235 — Rose Tree (a climbing rose went crazy, resulting in this happy accident)

That’s an overview of the property. Isn’t it delightful?

Now for a bunch of pictures of their gorgeous roses.

This flower is a unique shade of dusty lavender; the pic doesn’t do it justice.

IMG_0156_GWash1860 — This is a George Washington cabbage rose that dates back to 1860!

Connie did a post back in June — she’s FAR more timely than me — with pics where she labeled a lot of the roses.

If you’d like to read more about their old house, check out the “home” section of Connie’s blog. WARNING: you may fall in love with these peeps if you read all about how they restored that beautiful old barn.

Impressive, right?

August 21, 2016

Mountains Are Cool

Hubby and I drove out to Shenandoah National Park (SNP) last weekend. It’s been pretty hot here, so I haven’t been on my bike in weeks.

It was about 93 degrees and humid when we left the house on Sunday. The heat index — what it feels like with the humidity — was probably about 105. It was gross.

As is typical on hot, muggy days like that, there were thunderstorms forecast for the afternoon. I told Mike we’d probably see some pretty cool skies from Skyline Drive. He wasn’t excited.

It was about 75 degrees when we reached Skyline Drive. It was still humid, but it felt much better than the temps back down on the Piedmont.

Check out this awesome quilt that was on display at the Visitor’s Center.

The SNP Facebook page said…

Shenandoah National Park has a lot of exciting plans to celebrate the 100th year of the National Park Service! This past winter, Shenandoah staff and volunteers created a quilt representing Parks across the nation. The quilt is currently displayed at Byrd Visitor Center. Other quilt related events can also be found on our special events page. Visit our website to learn more about the hikes, programs and festivities at Shenandoah as we celebrate our 100th Birthday! https://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisit/special_events.htm.

We were surprised to see a very large storm cloud approaching the lodge complex from the other side of the drive.

Hubby watches large storm cloud rolling in.

The sky looked clearer north of the Visitor’s Center.

Pretty flower, but I have no idea what it is.

The cluster of flowers was oddly waxy-feeling.

Storms were definitely starting to pop up in various places.

I did say we’d see some interesting skies, right?

Seeing such heavy, localized rain intrigued me.

A little while later, heading north, we saw a bear beside the road. I had to turn around and circle back for a better view. Buy then, he’d gone into the brush, so I didn’t get a decent picture.

You folks out West will probably laugh at me for sharing a picture of a Raven, but we don’t see them often. We have far more American Crows than Ravens. So, yes, I get excited when I see a Raven.

And that was our excitement last Sunday.

It’s supposed to be cooler this week. Here’s hoping the weather folks are right. I am really, really tired of being in the house.

July 4, 2016

I May Need a 12-Step Program

Hi, my name is Kathy, and I am a photoholic. I take pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. But, even worse, I am a photo hoarder.

That flower image is one of hundreds of gigabytes of images that I don’t need to keep. I mean, it’s pretty, but why do I need to keep it? Like, for years? I don’t. I really need to concentrate on keeping only those images that mean something to me.

Unlike many people, I don’t store the images on my camera and/or phone forever, I actually upload them to my hard drive in a pretty timely fashion. That’s where they tend to sit. For like a year or more.

Recently, over the past six months or so, I have noticed my computer getting slower and slower. I’m not really inclined to buy a new one at the moment, so I just grit my teeth, do what I have to do on the pokey-ass thing, and then get off of it.

That slowness is probably one of the reasons you haven’t seen much of me lately.

The weather this holiday weekend has been rather wet. So I spent the day on Sunday deleting and moving image files. I think it has helped. Yay!

All is well here. I haven’t been riding as much as I’d like, but other stuff — good stuff — has been keeping me busy.

Remember my quest for LOVE? I haven’t given up. Even though I am chasing a moving target — more LOVEworks keep getting added — I really enjoy getting out and see the sculptures.

Guess how many I have captured so far? Forty-six! That’s a lot, right? This is a big state!

Unfortunately, the Virginia tourism folks don’t keep the master list up-to-date, so I don’t know how many there currently are. Whatever… who really cares about statistics? I like looking for LOVE. LOL.

Here are my latest captures…

Early Mountain UNK — LOVEwork in Madison, Virginia

I’m not sure if the Madison LOVE is official or not. It’s not listed on the web site, so I have no idea who it belongs to. I suspect, however, that it might be on the Early Mountain Vineyard property. I captured that image from Wolftown-Hood Road (VA-230).

The last image is just a few minutes from my house. I guess Airlie is technically in Warrenton, but it’s not in the downtown area where I live. It’s less than four miles away, though, which is cool.

And it’s actually a pretty place. I should go there more often.

I’ll try to catch y’all up on what’s been happening ’round here. The exciting stuff, anyway. Like visits with grand kids, a trip to my friend’s rose showcase, a few rides we’ve done, etc. Oh, and a few craft projects. Another reason I’ve been away from the pokey computer.

Yes, that stuff is exciting to me. I’m getting old.

TTFN, peeps!

January 26, 2016January 26, 2016

Snowpocalypsemageddon Part 2, Pictures

As promised, I sorted through the gazillion pictures I took over the weekend — what else was I supposed to do? — and selected a few to share with you. Okay, maybe more than a few. So I created a handy-dandy slideshow for you. With music.

Be sure to mute your speakers if you’re viewing on the sly instead of doing what you should be doing.

Here’s the slideshow. I hope you enjoy.

For the record, neighbors, I have no control over the image YouTube selects as the cover.

I look at it as a happy coincidence. 🙂

January 12, 2016

Out and About

I’ve been sticking pretty close to the home front lately.

Well, “close” is a bit of an understatement. I’ve been staying inside. A lot. No special reason other than it being winter and my having some craft projects to complete.

All is well otherwise.

I actually got out and walked the dogs during the day on Sunday. I took my camera along and thought I’d share some of the pics I captured.

That dog looks like a horse! Oh wait, it IS a horse.

That’s all. I hope you enjoyed the virtual visit.

December 1, 2015December 1, 2015

Burke’s Garden

Hubby and I ended up in the coolest place while looking for the LOVEwork listed as being in Tazewell, which is really in Burke’s Garden, about 15 miles east of Tazewell.

The Garden, as residents call it, isn’t just a town, it’s a mountain valley (the highest mountain valley in Virginia at about 3,000 feet or 915 m above sea level) surrounded by one very large mountain. How does a valley get surrounded by one mountain? According to geologists, the mountain, mostly composed of limestone with a sandstone cap, was once 6,500 feet (1,981 m) tall. Over time, the center of the sandstone cap eroded, exposing the softer, underlying limestone to the weather. Then, as the limestone eroded, the mountain basically collapsed. The softer rock formed the valley, while the edges of the cap formed ridges.

It doesn’t sound like a huge deal until you see it from above, as shown in this aerial photo from Lost World Ranch (located in Burke’s Garden, the ranch raises Bactrian Camels and Llamas). The ranch has an interesting history piece on the Garden if you’re interested.

There’s also a good article from Virginia Living on Burke’s Garden, which reads…

…Burke’s Garden is a beautiful land that, to a certain degree, time forgot. The place is completely off the grid of modern life: There is no newspaper delivery in the town, and no cable television; no stoplights and no working post office. And no cell phone service. Many of the residents are retired, a few of them farm, and lots drive out to work in nearby towns, constantly challenged by often-sketchy road conditions leading in and out of Burke’s Garden.

Not only did they have my new favorite LOVEwork, there were also quite a few barn quilts, interesting road signs, and plenty of beautiful scenery.

Here are my favorite captures from the Garden.

This building reportedly serves as the unofficial post office.

The Most-interesting Wayfinding Signs Ever (there were several)

We happened upon that little gal, who didn’t want to give up the road. We followed her slowly as she trotted along, finally exiting to the left after rounding that far bend in the background.

View from the southern end of Burke’s Garden.

When I mapped the route, which Hubby later put into his GPS, I had intended for us to enter the valley from the north and exit on a very curvy road to the south. The GPS software apparently didn’t like that idea, and made us turn left, looping around the Burke’s Garden valley instead. It was a lucky detour that gave us the opportunity to see more of the lovely place. But I wanted to take the curvy route out of the valley.

Burke’s Garden isn’t an easy place to reach. The route into the valley from the north is the only paved road. Hubby had apparently had the mapping software set to avoid gravel roads when he entered the route.

Google Maps doesn’t like the curvy gravel road either. It wanted to send me along the loop shown.

The GPS didn't like the curvy road! — The GPS didn’t like the curvy road!

VA-623 heading into the valley from the north.

VA-623 exiting the valley from the southern end.

Yes, the road was as narrow, steep, and curvy as it looks.

Look at all the Rhododendron! — Look at all the rhododendron!

Hubby and I were divided on whether or not we’d want to revisit the road in the Spring. I’d love to see the rhododendron in bloom, but that’s definitely NOT a road for his big Victory. There are quite a few very tight turns and even a few hairpins, all very narrow.

If any of you would like to visit Burke’s Garden, I recommend driving in from the north. The southern portion can be treacherous during Winter, with icy patches lingering into late Spring. Followed by mud. It took us about an hour to cover the 10 or so miles (~16 km) of gravel road, not because conditions were bad, but because we were enjoying the scenery. 🙂

It’s definitely a nice place to visit and is well worth the trip if you like pretty scenery. And especially if you like barn quilts.