A Fall Day in Charlottesville

On Veterans Day Walt and I decided to take a road trip to Charlottesville for the day, since we were both off for the holiday. It was a beautiful day, maybe one of our last gorgeous fall days. We love Charlottesville, love walking the grounds of the university, checking out the shops, going to the Bookstore, and having a coffee on the Corner. We had lunch at Feast, a gourmet grocery and cheese shop that makes great sandwiches and soups. Then we headed to the Downtown Mall to check out the shops~~lots of people were out, enjoying the day, there were even some musicians playing on the Mall.

We also stopped at Ivy Nursery, which used to be one of my favorite stops when we would visit Julia in Charlottesville. It's a great nursery and garden shop, definitely worth a visit.

One of my favorite things to do on the Grounds is to walk through the Pavilion Gardens, just off the Lawn. There are 10 small gardens, each planted with native trees and shrubs and plants, and with a few garden benches and chairs. You can always finds students in these private gardens, especially on a sunny day, studying or reading. My favorite time of the year to see the Pavilion Gardens is in the spring when the spring bulbs and peonies are in bloom. One of the features I like the most is that each garden has its own unique gate.  I just love those gates, I wanted to take pictures of each one. There wasn't much blooming of course, but we did have a nice chat with one of the grounds' gardeners.

In addition to the gated gardens, I'm also kind of obsessed with these serpentine brick walls that enclose the gardens. An interesting fact: the walls are just one brick thick.

Such a great selection of amaryllis at Ivy Nursery. I had to restrain myself from buying more amaryllis.  And also...that pottery. Best selection ever. And why didn't I buy one of those pots from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew?

Apples and Pumpkins

We had a beautiful fall weekend here in Virginia. I didn't have to work on Saturday, which always feels so luxurious to have the whole weekend to do what I want. I spent a lot of time outside in the garden, beginning the fall cleanup chores...raking leaves out of the garden,  emptying a few pots of annuals, cutting back some perennials, starting to pull zinnias.  I cleaned out my little mailbox bed and planted some fall pansies and ornamental kale and cabbages. Put pumpkins on the front steps.  On Saturday we drove out to Thurmont, Md. to get pumpkins and apples. There is a great orchard there that we like where you can get a great variety of apples and apple cider. Of course we also got an apple pie to take to our friends' house for dinner that night, and some apple cider doughnuts. And really, is there anything better than apple cider doughnuts??

I bought a basket of Staymans to make applesauce, and maybe an apple pie too. Or maybe apple dumplings, a fav from my childhood.

Sunday Drive, Fall

Yesterday was such a beautiful fall day, so we decided to take a drive out Route 7 towards Round Hill and get some apples. After getting the apples (and an apple pie, too), we took some back roads through horse country and got some beautiful views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The leaves are still a week or so away from peak color, but it's always such a joy to see our beautiful Virginia countryside with its wide open spaces, miles and miles of stacked stone walls, the allées of trees,  the horse farms, the big old trees, the little stone buildings and houses, and always the backdrop of the mountains. After the congestion and craziness of Northern Virginia, it feels so good to know there is still all this beautiful open land not so far away.  We ended up in Middleburg, walked around for a bit and had a coffee, and then headed home.

Sunday at Solomon's Island

Solomon's Island Marina

Yesterday Walt and I escaped the Inaugural rush in the DC area and drove about an hour south to the waterfront town of Solomon's Island, where the Patuxent River meets the Chesapeake Bay. We've been there before and like a restaurant there, so it seemed like a good day to take a drive and get on the water for some crab cakes. After lunch we walked along the water for awhile and stopped by the marina to admire the boats. There were a lot of people out and about, enjoying the sunny day, but in the summer this place is really hopping.

Solomon's Pier

Marina

Cute little town church

Oyster shells everywhere

Before heading home we stopped at Annmarie Gardens in Solomons, a sculpture garden in the woods that my friend Mary had told me about. There is about a half-mile trail through the woods and there are sculptures placed among the trees and in the grass, about 30 of them which are on loan from the Smithsonian.  I particularly loved these stone benches that were themed with various flowers or trees. We'll have to come back in the spring when the trees are out and the wildflowers are blooming--I'm sure it's really beautiful then.

Tulip tree bench

Columbine bench

Cool carved tree

Hand

Pawpaw bench

Frederick, Md. in June

Gillian and I went to Frederick yesterday and walked around around the town, looking in shops, checking out the antiques, and poking in other people's gardens. Of course we had lunch, too.  Love the windowboxes. Love the buildings. Frederick is a great little town, full of history, and even on a weekday afternoon, there were lots of people out and about.

We happened upon a little courtyard garden, which just happened to have the largest and oldest gingko tree in the entire United States! I love love love gingko trees and I have never seen one anywhere near this big. It was in the center of a small garden tucked between two old historic houses. The garden had this plaque on the wall, so I told Gillian, sure it's open, it must be a public garden, let's go. So in we walked and were looking around, taking pictures, admiring the flowers and pots and garden sculptures, taking our time.  And then a woman walked out of one of the houses and it turns out it is her house and garden and it is indeed a private garden. She couldn't have been nicer--apparently she and her husband are bigwigs in town, he is a big name realtor, and she is a politician. She told us all about the history of her house, and the tree, and all the care they give to the tree--you wouldn't believe what they have to do to take care of it. When they built a new patio near the tree last year, they had to wrap the roots and do all kinds of protective things for the tree. She said the roots of the tree extend five blocks! Her tree company is the same company that takes care of the White House trees.  Her house dates to the 1700s, and several of the windows have original glass to that time. I love that wavy old glass. Amazing. She was so talkative and friendly, and invited us back next year for the house and garden tour, so you know that we already have it on our calendar. 

Gingko tree in background

Love that stacked stone wall!

Gillian making herself at home

Sunday Drive

On Sunday, Walt and I decided to take a drive to Frederick and on the way we stopped in Lucketts at one of my favorite antiquey/flea places.  I was looking for a birdbath and I found one! They were loaded with great stuff, lots of cool outdoorsy stuff, and there were a lot of people looking. Wouldn't this pretty green shelf look great with some plants lined up on it?

And you know I could hardly resist the giant tin "E." Those are marble tiles behind it, for $4/piece.

I would love a bench like this for underneath my pine trees. But moving that one concrete birdbath almost did us in...

And maybe a horse head for your wall or fence? This is horse country after all.

They had tons of these olive baskets. Olive baskets? Who knew.

And I looooved this trough (I guess that's what it was). Wouldn't the birds love that!

I liked this old blue wheel, but it was pretty pricey.

We had lunch in Frederick and walked around town for awhile, browsing through a few shops, then headed home. We drove all back roads, through Buckeystown.  It was a hot, hot weekend, but nice to be out of the house for awhile.