I stooped at my local farm to pick up my free range eggs and had to buy peaches, plums and cherries which were from just over the border in WV. They are so full of flavor, the plums reminding me of the wild ones I'd pick as a teenager in England and the cherries reminded me of my Nan who looked forward to them every year. Not many of them made it back to the house, I was munching on the way home. No need to cook dinner tonight!

I watered the allotment tonight and isn't it doing well? Everything is growing nicely except the chard, which fell victim to a midnight muncher. We even have a couple of sunflowers that sprang up and my Aaron's Rod is about to bloom. I grabbed a lettuce and a couple of tomatoes. Yum!

A fallen tree knocked down a power line in Middleburg. I arrived just a few minutes after the event and snapped a photo and some video. The fire was crackling along the cable and exploded so I departed rapidly. The locals reckon a small tornado blew through, causing the damage.

The ingredients to go into Kota Kat's 14th Birthday Dinner, and of course a bowl for Rosie Lee. Only the best!

A perfect day for a paddle, this time on a lake near Stafford.

Enjoying a free flight at a 'Women Can Fly' event at Warrenton Airport where we learned about the basics of flying a small plane.

When I was dropping off my trash at the recycling center today, a lady was dumping these huge pots. 14" tall and 16" diameter. She was glad for me to take them and I was ecstatic to accept them. I planted my hops into one of them and I'm not sure what to do with the others yet. I looked them up on line as they're made in Italy. They're worth $100 each and can resist temperatures down to -15. What a lucky day for me!

The things we do at Emblemax. Kevin had a team's set of uniforms to decorate and some were stained. So we printed logos and heat pressed numbers, then he hand washed them, and afterwards rigged up a drying area in the back of his truck, where they spent the afternoon drying in the warm sun.

After working a 13 hour day, then driving home dreading what I would find since thunderstorms had raged most of the afternoon, it was lovely to have a friend rush up to me and hug in the supermarket, and then also lovely to have a rainbow greet me as I pulled up outside my front door. The icing on the cake was finding no damage to the house or trees, just evidence of a power outage, and two  furry fluff balls meowing hello.

With Bill on vacation I was fighting a losing battle dealing with the weeds and watering on my own at the allotment, so I spread a bale of straw around the plants this evening. Hoping that will help.

Emily and Richard discussing beers at the NovaBeerFest in Manassas.

The first time I've ever seen a prickly pear cactus in bloom. Beautiful.

My lunch, a delicious banh-mi sandwich, the best in the area. It hurt my gums a little but it's the first bread I've eaten since my chopper extraction and was delicious!

Amazing that with a ferocious storm blowing, powerful enough to knock out my power, and with thunder crashing and lightning flashing, as soon as the wind dropped for a few minutes one of the hummers came to my window feeder for a drink. Also amazing was that for the first time ever Rosie Lee didn't stay hiding under the bed, but came out amid crashes and flashes to sit, leaning next to me, on the sofa. Kota has always been unfazed by storms yet still had a handful of treats as well as his sister.

Arrived at the allotments to find I was the only one there again but our neighbor had been earlier on in the day and watered our plot so I soaked it again and then did hers. Hopefully we'll get the promised rain in the morning.

An incredible sunrise as I drove to grab breakfast this morning.

While watering the plants on the patio this evening I suddenly spotted this little chap, obviously enjoying the sudden shower by the look on his face!

I found a new use for those old arrows I had lying around, they make excellent supports for my plants.

Bringing in the hay starts early in the morning out, the machinery has started running and rolling as the first rays of the sun cast a golden light on their task.

After Bill and I had tended the allotment we went to our usual pub for a beer and snack where we met the most awesome people. A small group were celebrating the early retirement of an air force vet and were about to down Breakfast Shots, which we'd never heard of, but were intrigued with the rasher of bacon and the fact that everyone had two glasses each.  They very generously ordered shots for us and then we all stood up, toasted the veteran, and downed first the glass containing Jaimesons whiskey with butterscotch liqueur, followed swiftly by the second glass with orange juice, and then chomped on our bacon. The combination tasted just like a pancake or waffle! Hence the name. A lovely evening with a promise to meet up again soon.

So pleased to see that this tiny structure on Main St is being saved. I had been so sure that they'd raze it to the ground, but now I'm looking forward to see what it'll become.

Layers and layers of film that I'm printing and I still haven't caught up. It's good that we're so busy though!

Monday, June 6, 2016

Rosie Lee not impressed with me after receiving her ear wash. She doesn't know that she has another one tomorrow.

Storms rolling in, not that we care, we're all snuggled up on the sofa.

Sebastian is back to licking the terra cotta pots again, and wasn't even slightly perturbed at me being so close. He's looking chunky and healthy, and still gets fed by me. One spoilt squirrel.

Production grinds to a halt as a pipe erupts and all hands are needed to clean up. Except mine. I'm off to the dentist. Boo.

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Middleburg getting the same boring treatment as all the other villages in the area, brick pavements and walkways. Unfortunately this unsightly trend will be hitting Marshall soon too, and stripping away its identity.  Why can't they be original with each town and lay different style paving slabs or use different materials for walls?

Ain't these cute? Part of my grocery shopping today in readiness for my double tooth extraction on Friday as I'll need lots of soft stuff to eat or purée.