I Don’t See Nearly Enough of Them

Friday-Sunday October 18-20, 2024                        Most Recent Posts:
Greenfield Mountain Farm                      September in Virginia: Rain & Covid
Virginia                                                           Last Days of Summer in Vermont

FRIDAY OCTOBER 18

My favorite people came for the week-end.  Visits now have to work around school schedules.  There was a Friday school holiday, not sure why, so they left Maryland and took the longer but easier route and arrived around 2:00.  We grabbed some lunch and headed out for a hike.

They want to go down to the lower field stream.  A favorite place but they neglected to bring boots.  This made for some unhappiness that mom would not let them get in the stream and walk around either in their shoes or bare feet.

“It’s right over there”

Looking longingly.

“We could walk on the logs and stones.”

Celia at 8 is better able to weather the disappointment than Colin 6.

Things improve greatly when we have a 6th birthday celebration six weeks late for Colin whose “real” birthday is on September 1st when Nana is still up north.

Celia being an excellent sister and not helping unwrap.  Yes those are a stack of Disney VCRs.  Everything is behind the times at the farm where we have no TV signal but we do have a working VCR player.

Pretty excited about a Lego RV.  There were also books and a game, Slamwich.

Colin has no trouble blowing out the #6 candle on his carrot cake.  Next time he wants chocolate.  Nana should have known this.

When he’s not a whirling dervish,  he’s a sweet darling boy. 

Mommy supervises the lego work.

SATURDAY OCTOBER 19

There was some fooling around with one of several bonnets my great Aunt Carrie made for me insisting that I wear them around the farm to protect my skin as she did.  Wish I’d listened to her.  I did take one with me in our travels and had so much trouble with the sun in Chaco Canyon that I wore it.  Lots of comments.  This one was made for me as a girl about Celia’s age.

I love this.  Aunt Carrie would love her namesake wearing it.

Then it’s off to the Rockfish Community Center playground.  The building was the elementary school for years and the playground, tennis/pickle ball court and skate park are a favorite place out here in the country.

They have recently upgraded the playground equipment to include the mother and child swing.  I think Celia is facing the wrong way.  Colin is in the child swing with Molly, Celia’s dolly.

They love these skateboard ramps and are lucky there were no skate boarders around so they could use them.

In previous visits, the favorite dolls were the original Cabbage Patch twins which were also Carrie’s as a child.  This year Nana got out the original American Girl Dolls, Samantha and Molly.  At this point they must be about 36 years old. 

They go everywhere all week-end though Molly is the favorite.

The park also has a stream which they have never investigated  before and are again sorry they didn’t bring boots.

Back to some climbing.  I wonder how many more years they will want to do this together.  It’s wonderful right now.  Lately, I’ve been trying recently to pay close attention to what makes me happy and this definitely does.

I remember winding my swing up and spinning back.  Do you?

Back at home it’s a hike up the mountain behind where the wonderful barn used to be.  Carrie and Colin are in in the distance.

Colin is collecting “things” with Carrie’s childhood wheelbarrow.

The only nice thing about the barn being gone is the view of the barnyard.

I could definitely get used to having my shoes tied for me.

In the afternoon Carrie’s childhood friend comes from Richmond to see us.
We all love Kate and are so glad she’s made the trip.

That evening we head over to Devil’s Backbone  brewery for dinner.  This week-end has been full of hikes, the park, games and eating.  Somehow I have no pictures of food.  The only one I have of the restaurant is Celia and Kate coloring while we wait for our food.  Celia wears ear protectors.  She doesn’t like loud noise.

SUNDAY OCTOBER 20

This morning we’re out to visit a different stream on the farm that begins as a spring below the house, flows through the pond and on to the Rockfish River.  When we first moved here the spring was our water source.  After a couple of summers of drought we drilled a well about 10 years later.

This time I get out my boots purchased for this summer’s flood in Vermont.  They are miles too big for the kids but they take turns wading and are thrilled despite the low low water levels due to this year’s summer long drought and extraordinarily high temperatures.  Even the rainy rainy September couldn’t fill things up after such a drought.

Time for Celia to give the boots to Colin.

He tromps around happily trying to keep them on his feet.

Even the water fall is small though its sound is lovely regardless.

Back to the house for lunch, some coloring and a raucous number of games of slapjack.

Mommy gets this one.  These two were jumping up and down as the picture shows.

And guess who was the winner in the end after so so many rounds of cheering and groaning..

Then sadly it’s time to get on the road back to Maryland for school tomorrow.
Celia hugs Samantha and Molly goodbye before leaving. 

We temper the goodbye a bit with a visit to Nellysford’s  Black Bear Creamery for some ice cream and they leave from there.

Molly and Samantha wait on the bed Celia sleeps in in her mother’s former room.  I am sure they are anxious for Celia’s return.

I sit down in the too quiet yard to catch my breath.  Although I’m sad they have left, I try to remember to be thankful for how happy their visit made me.