Some of you dear people may know these dear people.

They used to live in G-Raps, but now they live here:

These are the Blue Ridge Mountains.

I’ve been wanting to visit them pretty much ever since they took up residence in the mountains, and figured that going to a conference in Virginia afforded the perfect opportunity to swing by and say hello and hang out for awhile with my friend Marion and her boys and husband.

So, after I finished up at the conference on Friday, I got myself a rental car (first time!) and drove 2.5 hours from Leesburg, VA to Roanoke, VA. It was a nice drive. Just me and the open road and my radio blaring. There were lots of cows and little farms along the way…just the sort of scenery I like, really. I arrived at Mr & Mrs. P’s apartment late in the evening, and we had a nice time chatting and catching up before we went to bed.

THe next morning, we had a nice breakfast and Mr. P was kind enough to take the boys so that Mrs. P and I could have some fun girl time. We went to downtown Roanoke to see the farmers’ market, which was very nice. As you can see here, Mrs. P bought some peaches, with which she made an absolutely delicious peach cobbler that we ate our way through for the rest of my visit.

After the market, we spent the rest of the morning and afternoon pottering around antique shops and such in downtown Roanoke, and then went for a drive in the mountains.

Of course, pictures don’t really do them justice.

That evening, we attended a very fun party with some people from their church.

On Monday, Mrs. P, Gudge, Ankie, and I set out for historic Lexington, VA. The thing about Virginia (or at least the parts of Virginia that I spent time in) is that there’s American history pretty much everywhere you turn. Revolutionary this and Civil War that, battlefields and railroads and museums galore. So if you like that kind of thing, it’s a pretty cool place. (It’s a good thing that I like that kind of thing.)

George likes cannons. Not surprising, being that he’s a little boy and all.

We visited Stonewall Jackson cemetery, where Stonewall Jackson is buried, and spent about an hour looking at really really old gravestones. it was pretty cool, if you like that kind of thing.

After the cemetery, we visited Washington & Lee University, where General Lee, his family, and his horse Traveler are buried.

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It was a lovely visit. But it couldn’t last forever, because as if I hadn’t had enough traveling already, I had MORE places to go and stuff to see! Lots more in fact.

To Be Continued…..

I’ve been struggling with a little bit of writers’ block regarding my trip, too. I think maybe it’s because it wasn’t the stunning journey of revelation and rejuvenation that I hoped/expected it to be. That’s not to say it wasn’t wonderful; I had a lovely time. I guess I was hoping that I would fly off on a jet plane and learn some mind-blowing things about web programming and then commence with my vacation and learn equally mind-blowing things about myself. But that didn’t happen. Don’t get me wrong; I learned some cool programming tricks at the conference, but nothing mind-blowing. As for self-revelation, there weren’t a lot of surprises there either. I mostly learned that I am not my favorite traveling companion, and my roots go even deeper than I thought they did. Oh, and also, I love flying.

But did I mention that I had a lovely time?

Because I did.
So without further ado, here’s some photos and words about my trip.

DC: A Taste

The whole reason I got to go to Virginia in the first place is that work sent me there for a web programming conference. I spent my days attending sessions about Coldfusion. In the evenings, however, after marinating in code all day surrounded by ubergeeks, I felt the need to do something else. The first night I just went for a run and then relaxed in my hotel room, but the second night i felt the need to get out, so I took a taxi and a shuttle bus in to Washington DC. My desire that evening was to see the National Museum of American History. On the way I passed by the capitol (above).

The Julia Childs exhibit (above) was my motivation to see this particular museum. Being that I am enamored with both cooking and vintage style/decor, it was kind of a big deal for me. I hope someday to somewhat model my kitchen after Julia’s.

Another big deal for me: the hall of musical instruments, with several Stradivarius violins. It was kind of a bummer though, to only be able to look at them through the glass and not to play/hear them.

I also enjoyed first ladies at the smithsonian, which featured many beautiful gowns but went beyond clothing and talked about the changing role of the first lady (and women in general) in the US.

I saw a few other things there too: the (original, ginormous) star spangled banner, and a very moving exhibit on Americans at War. Being at the museum reminded me of all of our homeschooling field trips growing up, and it made me miss my siblings. Somehow, I find exhibits more fun when I can see them with kids and we can discuss the artifacts and their importance. As adults, we kind of tend to say, “huh. interesting,” and move along, but kids, even though they can be troublesome and even though they get bored, have such a cunning point of view and they sometimes notice things that I would have walked past and they ask silly and funny and poignant questions.

That’s all the time I have for now. But soon I will post photos of the Roanoke, VA leg of my trip, wherein I visited with friends Mr. P, Mrs. P, Gudge, and Ankie!

Four years ago, this lovely, amazing, showstopper of a mare became an integral part of my life and I became a horse owner.

Four years ago last week, my dad and I drove to Arkansas and brought home my mare.

Mare and I have become quite the team. Back then, we were both a little fatter and a lot greener. Now, we keep each other in shape, and we are hands-down the best pair at our barn. (ha, ha. that’s funny because we ride at home!)

Horse ownership has been hard and life-changing and life-rearranging and poop-filled and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Four years and so much love. Whenever I go out to the barn, I know I’m the luckiest girl alive.

I have had a long wonderful lovely homesick trip.

Really, really homesick. I was ready to go home last Friday already.

But I stayed another week and had a lot of wonderful adventures. It was good. I have hundreds of photos. I was going to try and be a good blogger and post photos as my trip progressed, but every time I went to do it at night I fell asleep before I could get anywhere with it.

So I’m editing photos here at the airport and I’ll make several posts in the coming days. I won’t post all of my hundreds of photos but I will post a lot.

Washington was BEAUTIFUL.

It was so good to spend time with my uncle and my friends.

I cannot wait to be home.

Wait, I guess I said that already. But it bears repeating. I thought maybe once I got out into the world and had some fun, the feeling of needing to be in my place would wear off. But it didn’t. It’s just the way I am. I’m okay with it. So now I’ve had my fun and seen many beautiful and moving things of all kinds, and I’m going back to the place where i belong.

Dulles is a very interesting airport. So many people and languages! A girl about my age just came up to me and asked me if she was at the right gate. She has a lovely French accent and is from Paris! She is on her way to visit her boyfriend in Cleveland, who she has not seen since May. It’s her first time in the states and she misses him and they talk on Skype, like Julie and John and Carlos and Stephenie. Aaaaaw.

Anyhow, photos to come.
I’M GOING HOME!

I loved my first plane ride. I’m on a layover right now, and in about an hour I’ll board my next flight to Washington DC. Of course, I took pictures from the plane. They’re probably nothing special, for people who have done this before, but I just couldn’t stop looking out the window for the whole flight.

I love the patchwork farms. I love the lakes, with docks all around, like stitches holding the shores together.

it was such a perfect day for flying, I feel so lucky that it was so beautiful my first time in the sky! all clear skies and puffy clouds below. They cast shadows on the ground. It was amazing to see.

The sky…so blue….

A horse farm! I’ve always had a knack for spotting these wherever I go.

And here’s the NY skyline, as we landed in New Jersey.

Anyhow, those are my plane pictures. More fun to come.

I took this photo on my morning commute a few days ago. It’s my neighbor’s corn.

I love that my neighbor has corn. I love that I live in this place where there are cows and fields and fireflies. When the road beneath my tires turns from pavement to dirt and the scenery becomes mostly barns and fields and old farmhouses, my heart fills with joy and peace because this place is a deep, deep part of who I am and it’s where I’ll always belong and I love everything about it, even when the manure spreader just went through and everything smells like cow.

But next week, I’m leaving.

I’m flying on a jet plane for the first time everin my life. I’m going to Virginia, where I will be attending a conference for work (CFUnited 2010 — a web developers’ conference) and then vacationing. I’ll be gone for 10 days, which is the longest I’ve been gone since moving here. And it’s the longest vacation I’ve ever taken all by myself.

This is my great uncle Ray, who is pretty awesome. I’ll be spending a few days with him. He plans to take me all around Washington DC and we’ll probably also go down to Monticello and University of Virginia. After that I’m heading to Roanoke to hang out with my lovely friend Marion and her husband and two darling sons for a few days.

I can’t wait to learn stuff at the conference, luxuriate at the posh resort, explore DC and Virginia, and spend time with wonderful people. I can’t wait to have a good chunk of time off….it’s been years since I’ve taken more than the odd weekend.

But whenever I think all of this, I realize how very long 10 days actually is, and I get this lump of panic in my throat, because while I’m gone…

…my tomatoes will FINALLY be large and red and I won’t be here to pick them,

…and this cheesy little booger will be doing all of these cute things that I’ll miss and he’ll probably forget my name,

…and THIS cheesy little booger will probably think I’ve stopped loving him.

I think about all of this and literally start feeling sick and then I have to tell myself that when I get back, there will STILL be tomatoes in my garden, and Jamison will still do cute things, and Max will forgive me for abandoning him. And then it’s mostly okay, until I panic all over again the next time I remember that next week I’ll be leaving on a jet plane and i won’t be back for ten days.

In theory, I like the idea of travelling the world. I just wish I could do it and be home in time for evening chores. Since I can’t, I’ll suck it up long enough for a nice vacation.

But I’d have never made it an entire semester. So that’s the real reason I never went to Greece or Rome, and why I’ll probably never go to grad school unless it’s within commuting distance. It’s a big beautiful world, but I’m happy here.

This is my homemade salsa. with some chips. and stephenie’s sangria. the sangria was pretty amazing.

Stephenie and Emily, puttin food on the grill. specifically: tequila lime chicken, corn on the cob, and pineapple.

Here’s Julie, lookin all gorgeous as she sips her sangria and contemplates something very deep that stephenie was saying.

here’s the chicken. If it looks amazing, that’s probably because it was.

quinoa. and chicken. and grilled corn on the cob. and chips. and grilled pineapple. I was skeptical about the merits of grilling pineapple. then i tasted it. and it was even better than plain raw pineapple.

So after dinner Emily got out her Vitamix blender and made margaritas. I gotta say, having a friend with a professional quality blender is pretty great. These margaritas were even better than an Applebees or Friday’s margarita.

THIS.

This is fried ice cream. Stephenie made it. It was incredible.
Absolutely. incredible.

that’s why Julie is so enthusiastic.

Hello, lovely.

Almost gone

Anyhow….I’m kind of hungry now….

These are last week’s peas.
They were so, so amazing. The snow peas were crisp and tender. The snap peas were buttery and delicious.
(Next year, I will plant two or three times as many snap peas as I did this year.)

And this. I spent the better part of an hour yesterday morning, picking things. The beans are producing like mad. Dad and I picked a good 12 lbs of them on Thursday night and I got another 3 lbs yesterday. we’ve had them 3 times already this week and shared some with friends and there are still more in the refrigerator.

Also, I got my first cucumbers and squash this week. I cannot put into words how thrilling I think it is to pull back a thick, furry leaf canopy and find a fat little gourd hidden underneath. I realize that later in the season when the squash plants are producing four or five full-grown vegetables a day, my enthusiasm will probably be replaced by something like dread. But for now, I <3 my zucchini.

All of the bell pepper plants have adorable baby peppers on them. The red peppers, which start out green, are just starting to show the faintest streaks of red. Every last tomato plant has branches and branches full of green tomatoes. Romas and beefsteaks and cherries and big boys and about 6 other different varieties that I forget. I wish they would start turning red already! Maybe this week.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get over how amazing it is to put plants in the ground and have food appear 45 or so days later.

Here’s a three-horse team that drove in the Grandville Fourth of July parade.

(we went to the Grandville parade because the Dorr parade was cancelled this year on account of the entire road being torn up downtown for a sewer project. It was a nice parade but it had too many political candidates and not enough tractors and horses and people riding on scooters made from barstools and beer kegs.)

Every time I see a team like this, I want one badly. They have such sweet, steady faces and lovely large haunches.
They also eat a lot. So keeping a pair around just for kicks would be prohibitively expensive.

Speaking of eating a lot, all of the farmers in the area were haying this weekend and my hay lady Connie dropped off an entire wagon for me on Saturday.

The full wagon had 173 bales in it. My herd will eat their way through it in about 5 months. They eat 1 50-lb bale every day.
That comes out to over 9 tons of hay a year. Crazy, no?
(If I had known the truth about hay, and how much of it horses eat, I probably never would have gotten into horses.)
(So I guess it’s just a good thing I didn’t actually know what I was getting into.)

The very nature of hay–the fact that it’s basically sun-dried grass–necessitates that Hay Day happen on the hottest day possible. You make hay while the sun shines, and you stack it while the sun beats down and the hay dust sticks to your sweat-sticky skin.

Everybody helped. In spite of the scratchy and the sticky sweat. Hay is a lot better when there’s somebody to throw and somebody to catch and somebody to stack.

stacking is an art form that i have yet to fully master. a good stack is nice and tight and stable and maximizes the available space. (you can fit an extra 10-20 bales in a given space, depending on which way you point them.)

empty wagon….

…full barn.

Booger sneaks a taste.

I loves him.