1August2008
Posted by Bill under: outdoors; personal.
Not directly related to 2874 Morgantown, but to my interest in photography. I have been trying to come up with other ways to purposely improve my photographic skill with my dSLR camera. So, my plan is to take photos from time to time when I sit on the porch of the house. The 180 degree view encompasses the upper yard, driveway, and street and railroad tracks that pass in front of the house. Pretty boring, actually, but it will be interesting to see if I can spark up shots with the occasional deer couple in the yard, a male and female cardinal who frequently prance around on the walk way or a passing cyclist (a group of 10 went by together last evening!) or walker. We’ll see… Click on the image below to move to that blog.
29July2008
Posted by Bill under: house; cooking.
Hendrick had some time off from work so he came down to Charlottesville this past weekend to rendezvous with Kelly, who had to work on Saturday and Sunday at her new job at Montpelier. They stayed on through today and Hendrick prepared us dinner last night. As is usually the case when Hendrick cooks (according to him), he uses a lot of pots, pans, and dishes and, generally, makes a mess, but the end result was very good and the three of us enjoyed every bite (and sip)!
Kelly and Hendrick (mostly Kelly) did, however, clean everything up after dinner and Hendrick - pulling a "Mary Ann," he said - ran a load through the dishwasher while we ate our dinner. So, end result was that all was back to normal this morning, after all had dried and I put the dishes away.
No, that is not a contrast problem with the first picture below. That is SMOKE! We opened lots of windows and doors and pumped up the fans and finally got rid of the smoke.
15July2008
Posted by Bill under: outdoors.
In late May I started clearing the underbrush (ivy, etc.) and cutting the old, rusty fence that used to - I assume - separate our property from that of the lady who lives up the hill from the house. Ed had rolled it back down to the area by the well head to open up the yard that he reclaimed from woods.
I finally got back to it last evening. It is really a challenge to both cut the ivy so I can even get to the fence wire to cut it from the post, but I was finally able to remove the next section which allowed me to pull out the large spance of rolled up fencing as well. I piled it up by the brush pile from the fallen tree for later removal to the dump when I am able to borrow a truck.
I surprised myself when I was also able to pull out the one post from the ground! Whew! Next, I need to free the last fence section going down to the gate by the hose then that will be all clear. Clear, that is, when I am able to remove the last post that is all covered with ivy. I cut up some of the growth, but may weed-whack it and try to seed it when I do the major lawn seeding in September.
15July2008
Posted by Bill under: cooking.
Maggie Angus, Monica Prahinski’s mother, gave me two Campbell cookbooks earlier this year. I finally pulled one out and gave it a whirl!
Didn’t have beef chunks but, it turns out, hamburger meat worked fine too! Easy to prepare and adaptable to what I had in the cupboard. The recipe, however, did give me a good starting point to prepare a nice dinner that also served me well for lunch the next day.
Thank you again, Maggie!!
26June2008
Posted by Bill under: house; cooking.
Kelly and her three classmates (Meghan, Erin, and Julie) from U.Va.’s Northern Virginia Center spent Tuesday and Wednesday night at 2874. They were down in Charlottesville to attend a 1.5 day “Policy Institute” and the attendance was part of the requirements for one of their Master’s degree courses. Last night, in addition to consuming some wine, we enjoyed a delicious dinner prepared by my guests.
It was fun to have a break in my normally, quiet weekday schedule! Click on the image to see more.
26June2008
Posted by Bill under: outdoors.
I don’t know what kind of tree it is that stands to the left of the porch up the bank from the walk - the tree from which the swing hangs - but it has been dropping berries on the walk for weeks and there doesn’t appear to be an end in sight! It’s driving me crazy. I have taken to walking through the yard to get to the porch and into the house, but because Kelly and her friends were coming I thought I should do a few more frequent clean-ups. I used the blower to blow off the loose berries, but still had to use the hose to wash off those sticking to the stones. The flies are loving it, but I am NOT!
Click on the small images and a larger version will pop up. Anyone know what kind of tree this is? And the picture of the walk is deceiving: this is AFTER I blew off most of the berries…should have taken shot BEFORE!
26June2008
Posted by Bill under: outdoors.
It’s discouraging how some plants seem to thrive and others just fade away. Still others are eaten by the deer, but that’s a whole other posting! The wave petunias I planted in the two planters in front were going gang busters, almost growing too well. Then BAM! the flowers in one pot just start to brown out and die. Interestingly enough, the two single blossom petunias Mary Ann got in Lynchburg at (I think) Home Depot (as opposed to the red ones I purchased at the Charlottesville Lowe’s) continue to look healthy.
Oh, well, so goes the plight of the planter, eh? I do, however, need to replace them.
18June2008
Posted by Bill under: outdoors; personal.
This post is really to test a new image/thumbnail routine I happened upon today: Highslide. It allows one to embed an image in small, thumbnail size that, when clicked on, expands to the full size of the image as an overlay to the page. Since I like to include at least one image in each my posts, I think this will be a nice addition.
So I am trying it out with an image I took of the house when I took a walk up to the vacant house above me last week. This is a shot through the woods. To try it, click on the 240×180 pixel image in this post and it will expand out to the full 1024×682 image. Click on that image, and it will revert to the smaller version.
13June2008
Posted by Bill under: outdoors.
I was on my way out onto the porch last evening to give Mary Ann a call and was startled to see two deer grazin in the upper yard by the swing! I immediately ran to get my camera and then tried to get angles on them - I even went up in the master bedroom and stood on a chair to try and get a good shot of the deer.
Eventually, they noticed me and took off up the hill. They didn’t eat that much. I still have to cut the grass!
13June2008
Posted by Bill under: outdoors.
Though the heat over the past week slowed down the grass growth, the seeds and plants I have planted are doing well. The hydrangea plant in front of the house now has nice, white blossoms and the wave petunies in the pots are growing like crazy. If anything, they are getting a bit long in plant and short in blossoms!
Still have not added more mulch to front area of house and I want to lay down the dirt so I can plant some grass to fill in the area and make it more presentable.
The morning glory and moon flower seeds are really yielding plants now, so I expect to have beautiful flowers covering the fence by July! I should have enough basil to supply all of Charlottesville and four of my five plants are really shooting up. I have already used some in chicken salad and some other dishes. Pepper plant, too, is growing, but I noticed last night that its leaves and some of the leaves on a few of the basil plants are getting eaten by bugs. Hopefully, my marigold flowers will blossom soon and chase the bugs away!
