A Beautiful 2nd Anniversary & Camping Trip

July 7th, 2009 was Eddie's and my two year anniversary. :-)

Unfortunately, I had to work in the morning, but the rest of our day was spectacular.

We had planned to go camping and had even talked about going down to Mt. Rogers, but that was almost 6 hours away and for goodness' sake, we live at the foot of the Shennandoah mountains.

I got off work and began to prepare our dinner for the evening; which consisted of tasty baked chicken with bar-b-q sauce and rosemary (SO YUMMY!) and a cold rossini and tomato and cucumber pasta salad. We were preparing to live it up even though we were camping, so we brewed our favorite coffee from Central Roasters and baked a banana bread to take along with us for breakfast the next morning.

The day before, Brynn was still out staying with us, and the three of us went berry picking in the morning. Between the three of us, I think we gathered about 6 pounds or more of raspberries! Naturally, we took a bunch of those with us as well to go with the banana bread. :-)

We were off!

Camping gear, blankets, food coolers and the two dogs loaded up in the Explorer and head out to Skyline Drive. We made all the way, a daunting 7 miles, to the entrance of the park, when smoke began to pour out of our hood! The ranger in the booth then informed us that we were gushing fluids and best pull off straight away.

Nice.

Eddie and I watched as every drop of coolant fluid cascaded all over the parking lot of the National Park. Of course, cell phones don't work there. We decided to wait about half an hour, then dumped tons of water in the reservoir and said a prayer that we could get back down the mountain to the garage without anything happening. But we couldn't just drop off the truck with the dogs and all our gear in it. So much for a romantic evening.

We then kept going and went home. The truck didn't appear to be leaking anymore, wouldn't you know, so we decided to take two cars and go camp out at Riversong, my family's cabin in the woods, not far from us and very secluded.

A view of the place's namesake

At first we were going to just sleep out on the back porch of the cabin, but once we got there we realized that there were about five hornet nests scattered under the furniture out there. Not terribly inviting.

We were starting to run out of daylight, so we set up our tent in the the little meadow by the river surrounded by forrest. It was so wonderful!

Our little home for the night

Time for dinner!

We settled down on the ledges in the river to watch the sunset and enjoy our hot chicken and cold pasta with our Lake Anna wine, which was the wine from the winery that we met at some 3 years ago. I must admit I was a little disappointed at first that we wouldn't be camping up in the park, but once we got to Riversong, I was even more excited and it turned out to be SO much better than had we actually made it into the park! Where else could we have such pristine beauty and not see a soul, and drink our wine in peace from the legality of ABC laws??


Eddie looking mighty content

Yummmmm.......


Enjoying the wine


Lake Anna Wine, Sunset

After dark, we settled into our cozy little tent expecting it to be much warmer than we had planned for. The weather we have been having in Virginia has just been amazing. We were actually cold in the middle of the night! There was a full moon out, and clear skies so we left the fly off of our tent and lay watching the moon and stars through the blanked of black leaves against the sky.

The next morning, we woke early and were surprised to find that our coffee was still warm! We sat in the lawn chairs by the river for hours sipping coffee and eating banana bread and our fresh picked berries.

It was heaven. I was with the man I am crazy in love with in such a beautiful and peaceful setting. I couldn't have asked for a better anniversary. Thank God!

Changing Seasons at Red Oak Mountain

We were surprised with a beautiful early Spring snowfall that covered the blooming dafodils and all the other blossoms just a couple of weeks past. It was very pretty while it lasted.
Then, in total contrast to that weather, Spring arrived, and I have already begun arranging our front garden and it's now time to get the two rear gardens ready for the season. 

Welcome Spring!

There are leeks, strawberries, rosemary, dafodils, and phlox so far...
soon to have sunflowers, basil, cosmos, etc. :-)

My little plot o' land in the front yard...
Looking Irish against our stone foundation.

Looking out the spare room into our bedroom on the other side of the house


Looking out the window of the spare bedroom...

Our next-door neighbor's cabin

Meet Tubby :-)

I was on my way home from work one cold and rainy morning, and this little guy darted in front of me on the highway. Me being me of course, I pulled over and went to make sure he was ok. He was a bit freaked out, not hurt at all thank goodness. He had a collar, but we were out in the middle of nowhere on a busy road so I scooped him up and took him home to call his folks. 
No one answered. 
Oh well, he was so cute and sweet, I didn't mind him hanging out with me all day. In fact, he pretty much just stayed on our couch for four hours. I eventually got a hold of his people later that evening and took him home. He was so cute!

Apology

I honestly had no idea that anyone actually read this blog, and I deeply appreciate everyone's concern, though I can't help but feel completely embarrassed about so vehemently ranting. I am OK. Really. Yes, I have been fighting some issues, but who doesn't go through this at some point in life or marriage?
Things will work out.

Change of seasons

The weather is just gorgeous this time of year, and the leaves to match. Although, much of the pretty leaves have already changed into their winter attire, and so much change in only one week.
Regretfully, we have misplaced our camera charger....this is the best time to take pictures!
Along with the change in leaves, has come a change in temperature, and seemingly fast too! For the past week we have been waking up to a frost covering the ground around our house and in the surrounding fields. The house has been pretty chilly as well, and today I finally fired up the woodstove. Woohoo! It's soooo cozy in here. I've started a couple of small new knitting projects...after having lost interest in such things for a little while. (And quite a few other things, as well.)
My tea is done boiling, and I better get back to taking care of things around this house...while I have a day off work. Huray for Fridays! Looking forward to a rainy and chilly Saturday tomorrow.
Peace.

Resemblence? I think so...

Recently, I did a photo shoot for boutique clothing store in Culpeper, VA. While going through the photos that we took, there was one of me that stood out in my memory and reminded me of an old photograph of my maternal grandma. I then tracked down the photo of my grandma and opened them both in Photoshop, fusing the two spans of generations. I believe Grandma Ethel was close to my age now (24) in this photo.
She passed on in Feburary of 2000, and had she still been living, would have just seen her birthday on August 19, 2008.

Meaghan Elise Deakins-Fuller 2008 (L) &
Ethel Mae Betit 1944 (R)

Old Artwork

I've been doing some cleaning lately and came across many interesting old things, including some of my old drawings from when I was a teenager...back when I could actually hold a pencil and create things that is.


Rohan Sketch - Lord of the Rings

A View From Hobbiton


Ceilidh (my dog)













Velvet (our pet rabbit)

Kitten with Milk