Warrenton – Page 6 – ToadMama.com

March 24, 2013

Farm and Park Fun

This is a continuation of our visit with the grand kids, from last weekend, that I started describing in my previous post.

Knowing the kids would need to burn off some energy after spending hours in a museum, I wisely did some research in advance and found nearby Frying Pan Farm Park in Fairfax County. As explained on their web site…

…the park preserves and interprets a 1920s through 1950s farm, agricultural process, rural community life and landscape for the educational, cultural and recreational enrichment of citizens and visitors of Fairfax County.

There’s a playground, equestrian center, carousel, general store/concession stand, and critters!

The horse appears to belong to or is being boarded by people living next to the park.

I loved all the red barn buildings!

And, look. A rare shot of me with the grand kids.

Speaking of me and the grand kids… I’m not sure who was more excited about seeing the critters.

Joey hollered “Ew, it stinks!” repeatedly about 20 times before we could shut him up. They are not exactly city kids, but they are FAR from farm kids, too.

The big pig outside was cool. But the animals inside the barn were cooler.

That was the sweetest little calf ever.

Prepare yourself for some serious cuteness here.

Ready?

Even Hubby said the baby pigs were WAY off the cuteness scale. I mean, how can you not think all these happy little pigs are cute?

I think the goat was happy to see our loud crew go.

When we got home, Hubby needed a power nap, so the kids and I went for a stroll around town.

The first stop was, of course, the caboose. Joey LOVES the caboose.

They were having fun hamming it up for the camera.

I explained to them about the slave auction block near the courthouse. Gaige declared it sad and told everyone they should look sad in the next picture.

Apparently, Joey was confused about how “sad” should appear. But he redeemed himself in the next shot, which I think is quite cute.

On Sunday morning, Hubby and I walked the kids up to visit the Old Jail Museum.

Isn’t my Hubby a handsome grandfather? I sure think he is!

And that was the end of the visit. Sort of. I did feed them before packing them in to car for the return drive to Maryland.

It was a fun-filled visit that went by WAY too fast.

The next visit will have to be longer so we can squeeze more stuff in. Of course, it may need to be followed by a day or two of vacation, too, so Hubby and I can recuperate. Those kids wear us out! But they sure are fun.

March 12, 2013March 12, 2013

Better Late Than…

I’ll be honest. One of my favorite sayings is, “better late than pregnant.” But since I just found out that one of my blogging buddies in Thailand — Jade at Tasting Grace — is pregnant, and I am SUPER excited for her and her cute hubby, I just couldn’t bring myself to use that as a title for this post. She and her cute little husband are going to be the best parents.

As I was looking through pics last night, I realized just how bad I have been about posting here lately. I mean, some of these pics are from February. And we’re already very close to mid-March.

But I still thought they were worth sharing.

Another Valentine's Day display. — Another Valentine’s Day display.

I absolutely LOVE looking at the various store windows on Old Town Warrenton’s Main Street.

My buddy Janet at The Empty Nest has the most-beautiful Spring window.

I didn’t take that picture, but didn’t think she’d mind me sharing it with you.

Speaking of The Empty Nest, this is one of the adorable little items offered for sale there.

I just love that store.

This sign was in the window at Shelf Life, another gem on Main Street.

A simple message that everyone should subscribe to.

You all know how much I love this store, right?

Oh, and here are a couple of cool house and porch captures.

I really love blue houses. And I am such a sucker for red.

A blue house with TWO red doors. How can I not love that?

Funny story… while out shooting snow pics on Wednesday morning, I met a guy named Carlos (I think that was his name, anyway) who said he lived at 25 N. 6th. I didn’t realize that was this blue house. Otherwise I would have told him just how much I love his charming abode. His name might have been Ron. Or Bob. I’m awful with names.

Here’s another N. 6th Street neighbor’s place.

Is this the cutest porch or what?

And this image was captured at The Berkley Gallery.

Even buildings is slight disrepair hold some charm. The lines of this place always capture my eye.

Speaking of lines… I really like this last shot, too.

Next, I’ll have to share some of the great captures from my girlfriend getaway.

I really am trying hard to get caught up. On posting AND reading.

To all my blogging buddies who are probably feeling a bit abandoned, I have NOT forgotten you.

March 11, 2013

Life in the Snow Belt

For the second time this year, our quaint little town of Warrenton, Virginia was blanketed under snow. What’s odd is that many of our neighbors, family, and friends to the east hardly saw anything. Schools were closed in many parts of Virginia, Washington, DC, and Maryland. Most places, it just rained.

Here, we got about 11 inches of VERY heavy, wet snow.

Hubby drove to work the next day, with his truck still mostly covered (he can’t reach the top of the cap), and people looked at him like he trucked snow in from Alaska.

So, Hubby says he thinks we moved to the snow belt.

Judging by this map, I’d say he was right.

The same thing happened in February, but only with a few inches of snow that time. Fifteen minutes to the east of us, the ground was barely even wet.

Not that I’m complaining. I like snow. I was tickled to wake up to about six inches last Wednesday (March 6).

Here are some pics I captured around town that day.

The family that shovels together... — The family that shovels together…

Seeing how the snow stuck to the trees, I guess you can understand why we lost power. Trees and branches were coming down all over the place, taking out electric lines, poles, etc., as they fell.

Hubby with the snow blower about midday.

Another two to three inches of slushy snow fell after he was finished. Topped off with a layer of rain.

We were without power for almost exactly 12 hours. Lots of people went without power for a couple of days.

I met one of the neighbors on Main Street. Her name is Amy. Her Mom is Jan.

The next day was gorgeous.

And that was our big snow event.

Friday and Saturday were quite warm, so the snow melted like crazy.

And Sunday? It got up to the mid 60s. We went for a motorcycle ride. Sort of surreal with snow on the mountains and piled along the road, but awesome nonetheless. I am SO ready for riding weather. 🙂

March 10, 2013March 10, 2013

Home Improvement

Hubby made us a new coat rack yesterday.

The pegs look wonky because of the camera angle. But it’s perfect.

He’s quite handy. I’m a lucky lady in so many ways.

March 9, 2013

Interesting Visitor

We had a visitor on Thursday. He showed up right before dinnertime.

He almost became dinner.

I don’t know where it came from, but the dogs were going NUTS. They wanted that coon. Bad.

Once I got the girls in the house, I watched to see what it would do. The dumb coon climbed down the tree, walked deeper into the yard, then climbed a smaller tree. It could have easily hopped over to the fence, into the driveway, onto the roof, etc. — any number of easy escape routes — from the first tree. Instead, it climbed the smaller tree in the middle of the yard. Then it backed down that tree and walked over to climb the big one again.

Dumbest coon I ever saw.

But it sure was cute.

February 10, 2013

Call Me “Crazy” if You Must

I’m doing it again.

What? The tag sale. You can read all about my first experience here.

I’m not a glutton for punishment. Really. But I still have lots of cool stuff available.

And I still have more stuff to paint.

So, on February 15 and 16, I’ll be participating in the second Dealer Tag Sale at Shumate’s Auctions.

Now, I need to get to work creating more masterpieces to sell!