Mum comes to Marshall Part IV

Mum got to meet Rob and Barb a couple of times, they came to Meadow House for lunch which was a huge Shepherd's Pie followed by apple pie, all homemade of course. Barb also popped over for drinks after work one evening. I never got any photos of her, have no idea why I didn't think about it.

 Mum and I went down to Gordonsville to see Rob, Jessie and Jim. Jessie and Jim walked down to us as we sat by the fire ring. Mum loved their country accents but had a hard time understanding every word, a fact that made me realize how Americanized I've become because I don't have a problem with any of the different dialects.

 Mum and I didn't like where we were sitting as the sun shone in our eyes so we get each end of the bench and walked around the fire a bit so the sun was behind us. So then the smoke decided to blow our way and we had to get up and move round a bit more. The smoke followed so we moved again and before we knew it we were back in our original positions facing the sun. We gave up, but gave everyone a good laugh.

Sam was tired while when we walked over to visit him and yawned hugely in my face. One of the cows wanted her photo taken too. We had a wonderful dinner when Rob's son Lance arrived with his new wife Natalie but before we knew it, after much chatting and laughter, the sun had gone down, the night became late and Mum and I had to leave to head back to Marshall.

We popped into Emblemax one morning on our travels where Mum had the opportunity to meet Mike and the crew. She loved everyone and was particularly mesmerized by the embroidery machines.

She also loved the various mail boxes at the end of everyones' driveways. This one belonged to a Macmansion that we visited, the owners were having a contents sale that pretty much comprised of a heap of tacky household objects. But I did mange to buy some very nice brass and stainless steel skewers for the BBQ.

We found some great labels on bottles.

Mum was amazed at the wildlife at Meadow House. One poor little snake didn't make it, we suspect Rosie was the culprit who beheaded this one. There were praying mantises and for 3 days we had a family of stick insects by one of the french doors. Maggi had mentioned that there was a ring necked pheasant living in the field but we never saw that but Mum thinks she heard it in the long grasses. The deer visited along with the cardinals, hawks and woodpeckers.

We had lunch one day in Warrenton in a cute little teashop where the owner, Susan, made herself comfortable at our table and proceeded to chat away. I joined her e-mail list of 2000 close friends so I now get the gossip of Warrenton. Here Mum is trying the homemade french chocolate brandy caramel fudge gelato. It was delicious.

We also had lunch at the Red Fox Inn in Middleburg. Mum wasn't particularly impressed with this town, and I really didn't think she would be but most of the locals think it's the place to be. The shops are vastly overpriced but we did find a couple that I will return to. Lunch was superb and Mum got to have peanut soup for the first time. The pine bar here was made from a field operating table used in the Civil War.

We discovered this little country store near Marshall on our way home from an adventure and popped inside to find the locals sitting around a TV chatting while a small child played at the back of the shop which was filled with new and used clothing and bric-a-brac. It had a wonderful atmosphere with very friendly staff but the winning attribute was the delicious aroma that filed our nostrils as we walked through the door. They made their own pizzas here which were evidently very popular as the phone rang continuously with orders. We had a slice each and savored every morsel. I shall definitely be back here to eat again.

We kept seeing these large bobbly seed pods along the road verges which I looked up and identified as osage oranges

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Mum in front of a fire truck at The Plains. We were so engrossed in getting the photo right that we never noticed a couple of the firefighters that were observing us. We had a chat with them and discovered that they were preparing for Hurricane Sandy that was hitting us the following day. We hadn't really believed it until we talked to them.

  This cute sign caught our eye in a restaurant and made us laugh.

 Mum loved McKays, our local second hand book store. We both bought an armful of books and spent many a contented hour sitting and reading peacefully with Kota Kat and Rosie Lee, all of us enjoying the quiet time together.