Late Summer at the Farm

Our last chance to get away to the farm before Grace and I start school this week coming up. 

Hitting all of our favorite Roanoke spots on Saturday – IHOP still has pancakes!  Ian found to his temporary dismay that his favorite card shop was relocating.  Barnes and Noble had a better than usual bargain sale.  We found a new Kroger’s to try and Grace was delighted to spy a little cafe with gelato called Pino Gelato!   We took a “new” route back to the farm that involved a fun but slightly unnerving road paved (barely) with gravel, and wide enough (barely) for one vehicle, which wound all around and up and down the mountain called Adney Gap Rd!  We found a beautiful little Hidden Valley (yes, like the ranch dressing!) on Wade’s Gap Rd (just before Adney Gap).  

We were blessed with the most restful Sabbath in a long time.  Cinnamon rolls and scrambled eggs started us off, followed by Scripture:  Grace reading from Matthew, Ralph reading from Exodus, Sara reading from Psalms then Deuteronomy and Ian reading from Job (Chapter 2 – the prayer from the belly of the whale!).   Grace led us in a round of “Love the LORD your God with all your heart,” and then the kids went out to skate in the barn  and shoot hoops.  The temperature was in the lower 70′s and Ralph and I sat in the shade of the Chestnut Tree and drank coffee, checked email and watched wild turkeys and the occasional deer cross the back field.    After lunch we moved to the other side of the cottage under the bigger Chestnut Tree and enjoyed a fabulous breeze and watched clouds high and white and fluffy sail over the ridge, while the kids played a card version of Monopoly.  The clouds turned dark and a storm rolled in with big fat drops of cool rain, and flashes of lightning and a few strong gusts of wind.  The deer raced toward home, and we rushed to gather up laptops, blankets, cards and chairs and hurried to reluctantly close the windows that were open all over the cottage.  We watched the storm bluster across our little farm.  To our joy we were gifted with a stunning rainbow drenched in rich brushstrokes of color! 

Monday we all enjoyed a fun family adventure hike to Fallingwater Cascades at Mile Post 83 on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The path was well-defined, and scattered with byways and benches and boulders, and a butterfly bush covered with enormous butterflies!   We followed the path of the water down, and then hiked back up, appetites stoked for lunch!  It was mid-afternoon so we stopped in the Peaks of Otter Lodge to find their Dining Room fairly empty.  Despite our hiking apparel we were welcomed to sit down, so we enjoyed a delightful lunch overlooking the lake and Sharp Top,  followed by a lighter hike around the picturesque lake (to burn off the Blackberry Cobbler!)  We drove home along the Blue Ridge and found the Syon Abbey and the other side of our little ridge before heading home.

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The farm at dusk

Sunday morning my sweet daughter presented me with a hand drawn gift for Mother’s Day – A beautiful sketch of the farm at dusk, complete with shimmery sky (stars, you know) and golden sparkly windows in the cottage, the little apple tree and alpacas coming out of the barn. 

“Alpacas?” you ask. 

Yes, well, there is an extensive, often convoluted, certainly ambitious, and exceedingly flexible plan for the farm that includes bees, lambs, horses, pumpkins, Christmas trees, chickens, a hotel and alpacas.  The list changes as interests change.  For the longest time it was to be an Angora bunny farm.  This interest was fueled by the show bunnies at the Virginia State Fair, but waned when she realized she would have to trim bunny teeth.  Similar discussions of animal husbandry requirements for alpacas have yet to swerve her from this latest plan.

Grace shares my love for the farm and intends to live there, when she is not in Paris.

In any case – I couldn’t have received a better gift from my daughterkind for Mother’s Day!

Thanksgiving at the Farm

We never seem to make it to the farm in the fall.  In Southern Coastal Virginia, when the calendar says sweater, weather.com is saying sunny and humid!  This is the time I wistfully look at my planner and dream of an October weekend surrounded by mountains of fall leaves, a nice chill in the air, night skies illumined solely by the moon and stars suspended in space (Psalm 8)…but Ian has the Head of the Lafayette River Regatta (see Viking Invasion post) on Halloween weekend.  There is usually an October Scout campout or a church event that keeps us home.  I have women’s ministry events to work on.  We end up ”settling” for Thanksgiving weekend.  

This year was no exception.  We enjoyed a sumptuous Thanksgiving dinner thanks to Grandma Midge and her sister Ilene from West Virginia, and left in the afternoon with a packed cooler, and tank full of gas, headed for the farm.  Ralph caught us up on Grace’s history read-aloud, “Carry on Mr. Bowditch,“ while I drove.  With only 1 stop in Clarksville for the obvious reasons we made it to the farm by 9:30 pm.  We warmed up the cottage, and warmed up leftovers and relaxed!     

The sky did NOT disappoint!  The weather was wonderful – cold!  The leaves, had fallen.  (sigh)  The wind was really something Thursday night and Friday morning!  We hiked the back fields, and up Dad’s ridge (making lots of noise so the bear would avoid us).  Saturday we took our usual trip to the Roanoke Farmer’s Market. I was hoping to find fresh wreaths.  There was an abundance of beautiful wreaths to choose from – many with a lovely variety of greens: cedar, boxwood, holly, pine, magnolia; and so very inexpensive! We picked a large pine wreath with magnolia leaves and a bunch of pine roping.  We also enjoyed the market’s harvest offerings of apples, including my favorite winesap variety, all shapes and colors of winter squash, large fluffy greens (the eating kind), beans, and root vegetables.  There were farmers selling goat cheeses, and quick breads, many from organic ingredients.  Vendors were selling wonderfully scented handmade soaps and candles, crafts and jewelry.  

Back at the farm…Skating in the barn is VERY popular with the Garner kids.  Papa Gene usually makes sure the barn is cleared out, creating a small roller rink!  (Thank you Papa Gene!) This year there were a few rolls of hay in the barn, and the TRACTOR.  So Farmer Ralph had to fire up the tractor and move it.  I HAD to get a picture of that!

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Sunday morning Ian read Luke, we listened to Christmas CD’s and munched on deviled eggs and ham.  The kids took a last skate, Ralph and I packed up the cottage.  We always hate to leave.  On the ride home we enjoyed the fresh fragrance of white pine, nd the sounds of Christmas jazz alternating with a few final chapters about the incomparable Nathaniel  Bowditch.  (Even Ian wanted to know how the book ended!)  

As we approached Norfolk via the downtown bridge tunnel from Portsmouth, the waterfront came into view reflecting a skyline of manmade steel and glass neatly outlined with Edison’s best - proclaiming man’s attempt at lighting the night sky -  and we were thankful for time spent at the farm, spending time together, enjoying the harvest of local farmers, surrounded by mountains, under a blanket of Heaven declaring the Glory of God (Psalm 19).

The next morning the leaves on my oak tree were just starting to drop…