New Way to Celebrate Father’s Day

As I mentioned in my last post, Hubby had been looking forward to Warrenton’s Father’s Day Car Show since he first got wind of it shortly after we moved here.

Apparently he’d read about it — and seen pics from past shows — on the Internet.

I hadn’t. So I didn’t know what to expect. With Warrenton being a small town, I thought it would be a small event. I was wrong.

I was really torn about celebrating Father’s Day without visiting my Dad. We invited him to come down for the show, but my Mom has been sick. So they need to stay closer to home. After making arrangements to visit with him next weekend, I felt a little better.

Knowing how much Hubby had been anticipating this event, I couldn’t help but get excited. Plus, it would give me something interesting to blog about for a change.

Registration was from 8:00-10:00. So it should have come as no surprise to hear an intermittent cacophony of deep-bass rumbles all morning long.

While I’ve been to car shows before, I’d never been around to hear the comings and goings of quite a few high-performance machines. It was awesome.

So awesome  that I couldn’t wait until 10:00. Shortly after 9:00, I hooked the girls up and decided to take a quick stroll through town. I was amazed at how many cars were there. And they kept on coming!

Wanting Hubby to be similarly surprised, when we get home and he asked about what we’d seen, I played it down by saying, “There’s a few cars there. It’s nowhere near what I expected, though.”

It wasn’t. I was expecting small, remember? There had to be over a hundred cars there. And more people than I’d ever seen in our little town at one time.

Oh, and like the previous day, the weather was perfect.

I took quite a few pictures. It was challenging, though. With so many people milling about, it was hard to get good shots of the cars without strangers in the pictures.

Really. Look how many people were there. Main Street was packed!

Not only were we amazed at the number of vehicles and people, the variety and rarity of many of the show entries was incredible. Like that 1958 Dodge Power Wagon. I thought giant four-wheel-drive vehicles were a new thing.

And check out that old Chevy Suburban (above). I forget what year that was. Hubby could tell me, but he’s not here at the moment. Sorry.

I forget what that car was called. But that’s one I’d love to drive. It was built in the early 1900s by the brother of the guy who was sitting beside the car. Who I didn’t manage to capture in the shot. I wish I had.

Isn’t that car pretty? Hubby said I shouldn’t say cars are “cute” or “pretty.” I should use adjectives more along the lines of “kick-ass.”

I still say it was pretty.

That old Hudson was another mutual favorite.

We both liked this Jaguar, too.

I tell you, the variety and quality of cars entered was quite impressive.

I forget what sort of car that was, but Betty Boop made me think of a certain friend of mine.

The event was a smashing success. I’m so glad we went.

Our love affair with this town continues. We are so glad that we purchased this house in town, even if it wasn’t what we were looking for. It’s so cool that have things like this within easy walking distance. By “easy,” I mean it was like three blocks away.

And when we were done, we walked back home and quietly enjoyed the rest of the day.

Hubby relaxing on Father's Day.

 

If you would like to see all of the pics, you can view the slideshow embedded below.

Or you can go right to my Flickr site to view the pics.

I hope your Father’s Day was similarly enjoyable.

I have a feeling we’ll be celebrating in the exact same fashion for many years to come. Hopefully next year Dad will be able to join us.

High Street Hydrangeas

In yesterday’s post, I showed you some pretty pastel Hydrangeas.

I like that picture. But, as pretty as those are, they are positively ugly compared to some others Hubby and I saw later that evening while walking the dogs.

Happy Flag Day

I promised to go back and try to get a shot of those for you, which I did. But I also captured this cool shot in town.

I love how small towns hang flags to celebrate holidays. It lends such a nostalgic ambiance of Americana.

I’ve been having a hard time keeping my days straight lately. As I was walking down Main Street, admiring all of the flags, I could not think of what occasion the flags were commemorating. The only holiday I could think of was Father’s Day. But that’s still days away.

I know there’s a special Father’s Day car show on Sunday, which Hubby has been looking forward to since practically the day we moved in, so I figured maybe they were making a weekend of it.

Then, when I got back to my office, I noticed the calendar said Flag Day.

Boy did I feel dumb. I was already feeling rather stupid at that point. Because I’d gone out with my camera specifically to take flower pictures. And I shot about 20 before I decided to pay attention to the flashing error message in my viewfinder.

The one that said “NO CF CARD.” Which meant my camera was operating without a memory.

So there was one wasted lunchtime stroll!

Idiot…

But I went back later, with the memory card inserted in the camera this time, to get some more shots for you.

Ready?

Multi-colored Hydrangeas

Aren’t they gorgeous?

I have never seen one Hydrangea bush with such a wide variety of colors. And they were some of the richest colors I have ever seen.

Click on the picture and you’ll get a bigger image to view.

Multi-colored Hydrangeas
My Favorite Shot
The Richest Colors Ever

The house is on High Street at the corner of High and Liberty. This bush is actually on the side of the house on Liberty Street.

That is seriously the prettiest Hydrangea I think I have ever seen.

Here’s another interesting shot from another yard on High Street. This one features Purple Coneflowers.

Purple Coneflowers

At least I think they are Purple Coneflowers. Though I have never seen those in white, yellow, and orange.

Maybe there’s something weird about the soil?

I’ve always heard that you can change the color of your Hydrangeas from blue to pink or vice versa. But I’ve never heard of or seen bushes with white, pink, blue, and purple flowers.

Have you ever seen Hydrangeas like that?

Around and About

I haven’t done a “look how cute our town is” post for a long time.

Honestly, I haven’t been doing a whole lot of shooting lately.

But the weather was so gorgeous today, I just HAD to get outside. So I went for a lunchtime ride.

That’s when I spotted these horses I thought y’all might like to see, too.

Horses in Pasture from Cannonball Gate Road

 

Yesterday, I had to walk to the post office, so I took my camera along.

 

Butterfly Weed

The Butterfly Weed is actually one of the plants I installed in our front yard. Isn’t it cool looking? I wish I’d bought more than one plant!

Hydrangeas

The Hydrangeas are beside the courthouse here in town.

Hubby and I actually saw some really unique-looking ones last night that I just remembered.

Perhaps I’ll go snag a shot of those tomorrow.

The Mural Building

That building is really called The Mural Building. It sits on a parking lot south of Main Street between Fourth and Fifth Streets.

Here are some other shots from different angles.

The Mural Building

 

The Mural Building

 

The Mural Building

 

The Mural Building

The sky was quite blue today since the humidity was pretty low. It was really a perfect late-Spring day.

With Summer just around the corner, I figured I’d better get out there and enjoy it while I had the chance.

Quaint Corner

 

Main Street Stroll

 

Barn

 

I hope you got outside today, too!

A Very Creative Landscape Upgrade

There’s been a lot going on around here lately. I swear, it was just the middle of May, and now we’re almost a full week into June!

My last couple of posts were about Memorial Day weekend. Tuesday through Friday of that week, I was working a bunch of hours to get a job done.

This past Saturday was picture-perfect weather-wise. It would have been a great day for a motorcycle ride. And a wedding shower. That’s what we were supposed to do. But I wasn’t feeling well. So I laid around, indoors. All. Day. Long.

That is so not me. What a waste of a beautiful Saturday!

Sunday, I was feeling better. Still not great, but well enough to do some planting. Which is good.  That planting was important. Because Monday the landscape crew was scheduled to finish up at our place. I needed to get the plants into the ground before the mulch was spread.

See? I was so busy last week, I didn’t even tell y’all the landscapers were coming. Or that they had started.

They actually began work on Wednesday. We had them convert our backyard, clay-based, mud pit into a peaceful retreat. They also tore all of the grass out of our side yard, where there was a small but treacherous hill, and built a wall to make a planting bed. While they were here, they weeded and mulched all of our existing planting areas, too. They also planted two bushes I’d bought months ago from another nursery, but didn’t have a place for, other than beside the house.

Wanna see some pics?

The Side Yard - BEFORE

I had planned on shooting specific “before” shots on Tuesday. But then I ended up working until after dark. Luckily I have some pictures from a month or so ago after the fence went up.

The Side Yard - BEFORE - looking in from the back gate.
The Other Side Yard - BEFORE

Those stepping stones helped with the mud somewhat. But it was still always a mess back through there.

The Side Yard - BEFORE

It’s hard to tell in pictures just how steep that little hill is. And it gets steeper toward the back. It was very difficult to walk on. And Hubby had a heck of a time mowing the grass.

Back Yard - BEFORE

I don’t have any decent before shots of the back yard because it really was an ugly mud pit. The patio was okay, except it was all uneven. There just wasn’t a lot to brag about, know what I’m sayin’?

Not that I am bragging per se, just showing y’all what a difference a really good landscaper can make.

Side Yard - DURING

Hubby had been complaining that the patio was dirty. I’d never given much thought to how dirty. Or what a difference power-washing would make.

Patio during power-washing.

Hubby didn’t just clean it to make the surface look nice. One of the issues with this house, which we were aware of at purchase, was that the patio and stupidly designed back steps had settled into the ground. The patio was rather wavy and water, instead of draining away from the house, settled in pools.

That was one of the landscaper’s big projects. Remove all of the pavers four feet out from the house, re-level the ground, re-install the pavers and replace the sand between the joints with special polymeric sand that is designed to lock the pavers in place and keep water from penetrating. Hubby had to wash all of the old sand away to make room for the new stuff, which looks like sand, but feels more like brick mortar.

Meg was not thrilled with the pile of stones in her path.

That was the scene on Thursday evening. The crew from Creative Design Landscapes, based in Bealeton, was a hard-working bunch. There were five laborers that did all of this work in four days. Three and a half, really, when you consider that they only got about half a day in on Friday because of the crazy storms that blew through.

Look closely at the top of the wall toward the left of that last frame and you can see the mortar they used to keep the stones from moving around. It looks like a dry-stack stone wall, the mortar just helps keep the stones from shifting.

Anxious to see the after shots? Here ya go…

The Side Yard - AFTER - from just inside the back gate.

We love the way the walls turned out. They used 4 1/2 pallets of stone in the side yard and 1 1/2 pallets in the back. I am so glad we didn’t have to move all that rock ourselves!

Stepping stones in pea-gravel base. No more treacherous grass mowing required.
Steppers going up the back hill.

And no more slippin’ and slidin’ to get up that back hill!

Planting bed.
View from the opposite direction.
Side yard as seen from just outside the front gate.

Isn’t the neighbors’ hydrangea gorgeous?

Freshly weeded and mulched flower beds.

There were lots of plantings here at the house, but everything was overgrown. The original owners of this house had a green thumb. The previous owners were either clueless or just didn’t care enough to maintain the stuff.

Front beds, different angle.

Oh, and we finally moved the birdbath to the front yard. It had been sitting on the back patio, pretty much where the movers left it, since October.

K looking at the birdbath.

One of our next project will be removing that tree with the dead ivy all over it. It’s a mulberry tree, which makes quite a mess. Even when the dogs spend hours picking up the berries for us!

Ignore those brown patches in the lawn, okay? Three girl dogs have that affect on grass, especially when coupled with weed eradication.

The other side yard - AFTER. No more muddy path!
It looks so much brighter over there.

Now we’re getting to the best part. The back yard. Are you ready?

Clean and flattened patio.
Flagstone paver patio expansion and stone retaining wall.

Chris Bergen, the man who owns the landscaping company, explained that there was polymeric sand used on the flagstones, too. The surfaces will look a bit lighter than usual for a couple of weeks until the slight surface film is worn away.

Flagstone patio with hammock, bench, and dog in place.

I had to ride up to the nursery on Monday afternoon to select plants. Chris had planned a variety of stuff to be planted, but I wanted to change a few of his selections to add a bit more color. Those pink and red flowers with green leaves in front of Belle are astilbe. Originally they were going to be white. Also in front of Belle are some coral bells, which I chose for the red foliage. Chris had also planned for hosta, as seen behind Belle and in front of the hammock, but I opted for the smaller, blue-leaf variety.

New porch (still in progress)

We didn’t have a porch before. There were three steps leading right up to the door. Which made it very hard to open the door. And the steps had not only settled into the ground with the rest of the patio, they’d also pulled away from the building.

New porch (still in progress)

Once Hubby adds that final board and paints over the primer, I’ll post another pic.

Yet another future project will be a little roof over the door and porch.

Patio and porch

You can’t appreciate how much nicer that porch is unless you have seen the original, poorly designed steps.

Here’s a before shot that comes from the house listing beside an after image.

Click on the image above and you’ll get a clearer view. Look closely and you’ll see that the pavers were raised by a couple of inches to achieve the right degree of slope needed to facilitate water runoff.

Back patio from a slightly different angle

That’s one of the anomalies about this house that we will never understand. It’s a well-designed and well-built house full of nice finishes (pocket doors, top-grade door hardware, high-end bathroom fixtures, etc.). Yet there’s also stuff like steps that look like they were built by a junior carpenter. Electrical wiring and outlet placement that makes very little sense. Hose bibs in the stupidest locations.  And so on…

For example, there’s no hose bib on the back patio. It’s on the opposite side of the house, about a third of the way up from the back corner, at the top of that crazy hill. The stupidest location ever.

Relocating the hose bibs is another project for Hubby.

We are so glad that we chose Creative Design Landscapes for the job. We were very impressed with Chris, the 33-year-old owner, and his hard-working crew. The pride and professionalism was evident from day one. They knew it was a multi-day job, but every day, they cleaned up the job site, removing trash, placing debris out of the way, sweeping the dirt off the patio, etc. And they were working independently. Yes, Chris stopped by at least once a day to check on their progress, make sure we were happy, etc. But he wasn’t standing over his crew, cracking the whip, telling them what to do, not do, etc.

We would recommend the company to anyone and would use them again in a heartbeat.

If only we had room for one of these outdoor kitchens, as seen on Chris’s web site…

I want one of these!

Oh, and a pond. A big backyard pond full of frogs. A fire pit would be cool, too.

Perhaps after we move out of the city. IF we ever move out of the city.

With a yard like this, and so many nice amenities in walking distance, we may never want to leave!

So, what do you think? Quite a difference, isn’t it?

Parade!

Who doesn’t love a parade?

I mean, really. How can you not love the spectacle of it all? Small or large. Patriotic or cause-related. As long as there’s a band, I’m happy.

I realize this post is a bit late, but it’s been a busy week. Take a normally busy five-day work week, cram it into four days, and see how hectic things become.

I’m not complaining about the short week. I’ll take a three-day weekend any time. Especially when we get to spend it with the family. A couple of the kids were missing, but it was still nice hanging out with Amy, TJ, and the grand kids.

My last post talked all about what we did on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. They left around midday on Monday. But not before we got to see the parade.

I love parades, but usually don’t go out of my way to see them. Until recently, seeing a parade would mean piling into a car, driving, fighting for parking, and then battling the post-parade traffic to get home. But now, since we live in this cute little town, we got to walk to the parade. It was all of about a four-block hike.

I don’t have a whole lot of time here, so I’ll just post my favorite pics and let the images (frantic snapshots) and their captions tell the story.

Waiting for the parade to start, we saw the cutest little bicyclist EVER.

 

And they're off, with the town police in the lead.

 

It was quite fitting to have the local ROTC group in the front.

 

They were followed by a conglomerate of adult veterans and active service members.

 

What's a parade without fancy cars?

 

And patriotic motorcyclists?

 

Proud to be an American.

 

Does this shot scream small town or what?

 

The local chapter of unicyclists. I never knew there was such a thing.

 

Love the VW! But I REALLY love that canine co-pilot.

 

And here comes the band!

 

Band mascots? The place was crawling with dogs. We even took our girls along.

 

No surprise that this is my favorite band section. I drummed a mean cadence back in the day.

 

We can't forget the Cub Scouts.

 

Or the Boy Scouts. Especially the Boy Scout on stilts.

 

Bag pipers and the Warrenton Fire Department brought up the rear.

 

It was short, but awesome.

The bagpipers reminded me of one of MANY funny kid sayings from the weekend.

Upon seeing one of the bagpipers before the parade, Joey said something like, “Why is that man wearing a skirt?”

Gaige, in his infinite eight-year-old wisdom, answered matter-of-factly with, “Because he’s a Leprechaun.”

Oh yeah, and the next funny thing came after I tried to explain how you can be Irish or Scottish, but live in the United States.

Brianna (11) and Gaige (8) were my audience. I said to them both, “Scottish and Irish really just explains their heritage. Their ancestors were from Scotland and Ireland, so they are of Scottish and Irish descent. You know, like how you guys are Italian, but live in America?”

When Brianna exclaimed with a look of confusion and disgust, “We’re Italian!?!”, I about peed my pants. I guess no one remembered to mention to the kids that they are part Italian.

It was the look on Brianna’s face that really got me. I so wish I had captured that image to share.

When Wining is Good

Our quest to experience more of the state we relocated to this past October continued yesterday in quite a delightful fashion.

Good friends of ours, Kathy and Barry Spice, came down to visit for the day and we went on a wine tour. All that really means is we drove to several area wineries to sample the wines each offers.

I don’t know nearly as much about wine as they do, but I was responsible for planning the trip. So I based our itinerary solely on locations.

If there’s one thing I do know how to pick, it is picturesque locations.

If I do say so myself, I did a pretty darn good job of it.

According to the Virginia Wine website, there are “192 wineries and counting” in Virginia today. There are 20 wineries and vineyards in Fauquier County alone.

The map embedded below shows our itinerary.

Our first stop was Hume Vineyard. According to Google Maps, it is about 18 miles from our house.

Barn at Hume Vineyards

The vineyard is situated on a 60-acre Civil War-era farm. Which meant there’s a picturesque barn on the property.

House at Hume Vineyards

And an old house.

The tasters.

Hubby was our designated driver. For him, that wasn’t much of a sacrifice. Though he has tried over the years, he still has not acquired a taste for wine.

Tasting Notes

That was lucky for us. There were only six wines on the tasting card at Hume, but trust me when I say a lot of little sips of wine add up!

There were none that I hated, but two I particularly liked: a 2011 Viognier and a 2010 Rose. I actually bought a bottle of the latter, which I am anxious to pair with a meal.

Our next stop was Linden Vineyards. It was actually quite crowded and, from what I gathered from their web site, they cater primarily to their own “wine club.” I’m not entirely sure how that would have impacted us, as the general public is still admitted to their tasting room. But it was crowded. So we decided to skip it and move on the next stop.

Naked Mountain Vineyard

The Naked Mountain Winery and Vineyard is on Leeds Manor Road, my favorite motorcycle road in Fauquier County.

It’s been around longer than Hume Vineyards, which is only a couple of years old, and is quite popular. Popularity = crowds, unfortunately. But we made the best of it. After sampling at least nine of their wines, all of which were quite good, we each bought a glass and enjoyed our picnic lunch on their deck.

Picnic!

Kathy had prepared a couple of yummy salads.

Yummy salads prepared by Kathy Spice.

I bought some cheeses, bread, and salami.

Now THAT is a wine-tour picnic!

It may not sound like much, but it was actually quite a nice spread. We all pigged out.

Chillin' at the Naked Mountain Winery picnic.

The sky was a bit overcast, and temps were on the cool side, but it was still a great picnic.

Three Fox Vineyards

Our last winery stop was at Three Fox Vineyards. The grounds at Naked Mountain were nice, but I think Three Fox Vineyard had the nicest facility. Unfortunately, we weren’t crazy about any of the wines.

Three Fox Vineyard patio.

We weren’t sure if it was because we had just sampled too much wine throughout the day or what.

Three Fox Vineyard flower garden.

 

Three Fox Vineyard

 

Tasting room at Three Fox Vineyard.

It really was a nice facility, though. In fact, this next shot, which is my favorite for the day, was captured there.

Lawn at Three Fox Vineyard.

After that, it was time to head home. Kathy and Barry had brought their two dogs along. Max and Mocha hung out with our girls while we were away. They were quite happy to see us return.

Treating the dogs.

If there’s ever any doubt, yes, five dogs in one house is a LOT of dogs. 🙂

It really was a lovely day.

And we topped it all off with dinner at Rancho El Paso, our favorite Mexican restaurant in Warrenton.

Great friends, wonderful food, gorgeous scenery, tasty wines… does it get any better?

Just one more happy memory we’ll all be able to savor for a very long time.