A Very Full Second Half of September

September 15-30                                                    Most Recent Posts:
Greenfield Mountain Farm                                 September in Virginia
Afton, Virginia                                                        From Vermont to Virginia

On September 15 I thought the repair work on the house, including painting had begun.  But that was the last day I saw any of the workers.  I know it will get done but I wanted to be here during the work. 

 

At the spring Memorial Day sale I had ordered a new mattress to replace the one that may well have been here for over 30 years.   Unfortunately they could not deliver it before I was to leave for Vermont so I scheduled it for September when I returned.

The house of course is old and it has a steep and narrow staircase coming up to the second floor where the bedrooms are.   So the delivery guys just took the old mattress and box springs out to the second story porch and heaved them over.

Then they used that strap to pull the “foundation” which is what they call the thing that has replaced a box springs up onto the porch from the ground.

But they couldn’t do that with the new mattress and I was pretty concerned that they were not going to be able to bend it enough to get it beyond the low stair ceiling and up the narrow stairs.   I wasn’t crazy about bending a new expensive queen size mattress but it was the only way apparently.

So there it is, my Serta perfect sleeper X on the left and all dressed up on the right.
It sleeps wonderfully.   I did not realize when I chose it after lying down on bed after bed for over an hour, that the one being replaced was also a Serta Perfect Sleeper.  Maybe that’s why it felt best.  I was used to it.  Then why did I spend so much to replace it I ask myself.

Later in the month I went with my friend Laurie to an art showing by her artist friend Ann Cheeks.   There were so many wonderful pieces of art displayed.  I have to wonder where Ann keeps them all when they are not on display and she says this was just “a selection”.    Notice the two on the near right.

This triptych was Laurie’s favorite. 

Like most of the things we really liked, it’s oil on canvas.

The most handsome sea gull I’ve ever seen.  I can’t believe someone won’t snatch him up.

This one is my favorite.  It reminds me of a spot on the farm property.

Laurie and Ann posing in front of my favorite although there were many many that I really loved.   Ann is very talented.

Afterwards we went to the Matchbox restaurant and each had the Butternut squash salad.    The salad was roasted chicken, mixed greens, romaine lettuce, butternut squash, apples, cranberries, candied pecans, feta with a creamy mustard vinaigrette.   Laurie swapped out the chicken for a huge piece of salmon.

Hers                                                                            Mine

My friend Mary had been having hours of trouble with Norton Life Lock and as those things happen had been on the phone endlessly trying to resolve the problem.  though she was happy for us to bring home Mellow Mushroom pizza, she was not so happy for me to take her picture to record the event.  Sorry Mary. 

I had the Holy Shitake (my FAVORITE)  pictured here but unfortunately I didn’t think to do it when the whole spiral was visible. Mary had the Veggie with added pepperoni.

One of the wonderful farm skies.

The last week of October Carrie came for a celebration of life for the step-father of a life long friend.  We were both going and had such a great week-end alone just the two of us.

She arrived around dinner time on Friday.  I’d fixed a bowl with spinach and kale, a wild rice blend with brown, wild, red and black rice, corn, broccoli, tomatoes, shredded carrots, pickled onions and a lemonade dressing.  It was delicious and filling. 

 

But not so filling that we couldn’t eat popcorn while watching Dolly Parton, Lilly Tomlin and Jane Fonda in 9 to 5.  It was Dolly’s first movie in 1980 and she was as great in it as Fonda and Tomlin.  I can’t imagine anyone hasn’t seen it but if you are the one person who hasn’t, it has held up very well over those 46 years and is just as funny now as ever.

These days when she visits, she sleeps in the extra bedroom and Celia sleeps in her bed.  This time she wanted to sleep in her childhood bed and so she did.   Surrounded by the dolls and toys of her past.

I just loved seeing her there.

I don’t own many clothes appropriate for this occasion so Carrie kindly lent me her sweater and I immediately added one just like it to my Christmas list.

That night we got out a few of the MANY photograph albums I kept from her childhood and had fun going through them.  We also continued our Dolly celebration with Steel Magnolias.  But sadly the next day she had to leave.  Still it was wonderful to see her with no one to distract us.

I finished up the month with another dinner with Mary.  This time at the Guadalajara restaurant where we had Fajitas.  Mine vegetable and hers chicken.
She’s still not happy about having her picture taken.  That’s not a weapon in her hand, it’s the wrapped warm tortillas.    A TON of food which made for great left overs.

Here’s mine.  Two plates full.

I’ll end the month with more of my western skies.

and Pooh patiently waiting for our next adventure.

September in Virginia

September 4-30, 2026                                             Most Recent Posts:
Greenfield Mountain Farm                                     From Vermont to Virginia
Afton, Virginia                                                          My Last Week in Vermont

I spend either the Spring months or the Fall months or both in Virginia to take care of things there and have the endless number of annual medical check ups that seem to be the not so fun part of being wonderfully retired.

I took this photo from the hill on which our beloved barn used to stand.  You can see the house through the trees and some of the distant mountains that surround us in our hollow, but that are no longer easily visible as they were when we first bought the farm.  Trees grow a lot in over 40 years.

Here’s the farm when we bought it from nearly the same angle.  Not only the trees and mountains have changed.

I try not to pile my medical visits up.  My preference is one a week.  But they piled up on me my first week home.  It seems the older you get the more doctors want to see you.  I had an Audiology and an ENT appointment both on one day and a Cardiac CT the next day.  So it seemed fun if not wise to go out for breakfast and have First Watch’s giant chocolate chip pancake the second morning.

At this point I was reading Geraldine Brooks People of the Book which I highly recommend.  I do love her work.  If you’ve read this one let me know what you thought.

The next day I drove to Maryland to visit Carrie and her family.  I had been on the road on September 1st, my grandson Colin’s 8th birthday.  But who doesn’t want to celebrate his birthday twice?

If you’ve ever had an 8 year old boy then you’ll recognize this challenge look he’s giving his mom as he wraps the ribbon around his neck after opening the Lego sets I gave him.   When no one said anything, he gave it up.  So funny!

Industriously working on one of his Lego sets.  I can’t remember which ones I gave him but I think one was a vehicle with a snow plow on the front and the other some type of big wheel ATV.   If he reads this, maybe he’ll correct me.

While Legos were going on, Celia, Carrie and I played probably our favorite game Sorry.  The weather was great for sitting out on their deck to play.

Basking in the sun in a winter jacket.  Too funny.

For the afternoon Carrie and I took him to one of his favorite places, Oregon Ridge Park which is relatively near their house.   Celia declined.

We first went to the Nature Center.  Not sure what he could see in the telescope indoors but he returned several times to look through it.

I just couldn’t resist asking her mother if I could take her picture.  Mom said she always picks out her own clothes. 

She’s clearly got a sense of style already.  I love it!

for years the farm had a resident black rat snake that kept all mice and maybe even groundhogs away.  We loved him and named him Sidney.   I feel sorry for this relative in his cage.

 

Colin hasn’t hit his growth spurt yet and is stretching to move himself into Turkey Vulture territory.  I suspect he wouldn’t even be a Canada Goose if he wasn’t on his toes.

The park has a lovely pollinator garden.

There were several female Black Swallowtail Butterflies on the wild asters.  I didn’t see the males who have yellow markings.

Not sure who this little butterfly or moth was.  Can anyone identify it?

The park has wonderful play areas with all sorts of things to investigate and play with.   These see-saws got him thinking and he spent quite a while working on plans.

First, if there is no one your size then you pick up other logs to balance you out.  I came back from the pollinator garden at this  point so I no idea at all how he got that giant on on the end of the board.   I know his mother, in the background, did not help.

You can see he’s moved both the see-saws around and gotten other logs to help in his plan.

I have to say I was pretty amazed when I saw him lift that larger see-saw up off the ground with his arrangement.

Everybody had to go back to work and school on Monday so I headed out after the commuter traffic around 10:30.    To get to Carrie’s house I have to take I 495 (THE INFAMOUS DC BELTWAY) and I-95.   But eventually I get to State Route 29 in Virginia where things relax.

On Rt 29 coming and going,  we both used to stop at my favorite ice cream store Bruster’s where I would always get Jamaican Me Crazy and the 3 of them would get various things.   But sadly Bruster’s closed and there was no ice cream to brighten up the trip.   I guess neither of us had noticed The Ole Country Store right along the edge of the highway.  But this time I did and stopped to check it out.

Ice cream is an immediate left just inside the door.

In the rear of the store are custom made sandwiches and a daily special which today was “Old Fashioned meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans”. Not sure what other sorts of foods there might be.   I didn’t check the store out as much as I later wished I had because I just wanted to get home.

Here’s the ice cream menu.  Decent prices and a variety of flavors though no Jamaican Me Crazy sadly.   Not sure what I’ll have next time.  Probably something with peanut butter.    Today I didn’t have room for ice cream.   Their opening at noon might be tricky for Carrie and the kids going back.  I’ll remember to stop on my way home next time and eat a smaller breakfast.

I was home in time for these lovely skies.

That’s the first half of my September in Virginia.  I’ll put the rest of the month in a separate blog post soon.   I forgot to mention that my first ever blog post was September 6, 2010.   So the blog is now 16 years old and Winnona is 22.  AMAZING!