Deer Proofing and Art Viewing

Saturday was a hot muggy day but I wasn't traveling far afield today, just into town, to attend a Deer Proofing workshop by the Fauquier County Master Gardeners at the old Marshall school. This group of gardeners hosts workshops throughout the year for the community and this one appealed to me. Plus I had been noticing lately on my drive home the beautiful flowers blooming in the old school garden, and had wondered who was responsible.

The grounds are glorious. I wasn't able to see inside the building today but it will be open in a couple of weeks, so hopefully I can make that date.
The garden comprises of a group of beds, each one tended by a member, and each bed packed solid with perennials and annuals, while another area was filled with vegetables and herbs.

 There were also decorations added, a bird house with succulents on its roof, prettily painted wooden features, stepping stones and wind catchers. Some were obvious while others peeked out from under blooms or leaves. But I was stopped in my tracks at the sight of not one but three humming bird moths, flitting among the bee balm plants.

For me, it was like Christmas Day, I was so excited to see them. I'd first seen one of these last year and thought it to be a rare sighting but here was a whole gang! And they were oblivious to me and my camera, as they busily collected nectar.

The garden was teeming with wildlife, the air filled with chirrups and buzzing and fluttering wings. Butterflies, moths and bees buzzed from bloom to bloom, while a large frog enjoyed the damp shade by the pond. I even saw a garden snake slither under some leaves but wasn't quick enough to take a photo.
The gardeners walked about and were happy to give names of plants and advice on tending them. It really ignited an interest in me to get back into gardening again. I'd always had gardens filled with perennials in England but my first (and last) garden here in the U.S. was gobbled up in 3 or 4 days by unknown insects, leaving just a few barren stalks sticking out of my tilled earth. I'd not bothered since then but had been told that it was likely that the free mulch I'd had delivered by Falls Church had been the culprit, infested with insects. Seeing this beautiful display today reminded me of what I was missing, so I'll be planting a few plants this year at Meadow House before the fall.

I used to have a mallow tree too in England, which grew like wildfire.
But today, I was here to learn about deer proofing the garden, and since we encourage all wildlife up on the hill, I guessed fencing would be the best way, but didn't want it to look ugly.

 Chairs had been laid out in the shade and a table stood with leaflets, refreshments and a pretty jug of flowers. The workshop was about an hour long, including lots of useful advice and even a little competition where some of us had to select from a pile of vegetation which would be deer candy or not. We all did pretty well and were handed a perenial for our efforts, which was a lovely surprise.

Here's mine, planted as soon as I got home and a couple of photos of the Master Gardeners imparting their valuable knowledge to us, with plenty of laughs. We learned that deers have 4 stomachs, eat about 8lbs of greens a day and can jump up to 8ft high. but they don't have a good perception of depth so won't jump unless they see a clear landing. So we learned about various types of fencing and methods of deterring them, such as noisy or shiny hanging objects or bad smells. but for me the most important thing I learned was a bout the plants that deers dislike, and the ones they love. We were advised to put all the deer candy in the middle of our flower beds and then put the deer gagger plants on the outside. And we learned how about laying down organic scents that deers dislike. I came away with a wealth of information and a reawakened interest in perennials. It was with reluctance that I left the garden to carry on with my day's agenda, but not without stopping to watch the hummingbird moths again.
 The FCMG does have a website, click here, and offers plenty of advice or classes for those avid green thumbs.
My next stop of the the day was the National Sporting Library and Museum in Middleburg. I've been driving past this for a couple of years and finally found a few hours spare in which to visit it.

I stepped out of the car into the blazing sun, and took photos of a the two beautiful bronze sculptures outside and then scuttled towards the building with its comfortable A.C. And as soon as I opened the door I saw this.

A huge horses' head right in front of me, carved so realistically that I wanted to stroke it. I had unknowingly decided to visit while an exhibition was taking place. This piece is called Still Water, 2011, by British sculptor Nic Fiddian-Green. It's hammered lead with copper rivets on an oak base, standing 10'2"ft including the base.
I found a PDF online, click here, dated 2014, but it holds all the 2015 entries too, so I'm assuming it's both years.
My favorite painting was Harvest Raven by Shawn Gould, Page 67, and my favorite sculpture was Dreaming of Jill by Bryce L. Petit, Page 104.
Understandably, I wasn't allowed to photograph any of the exhibits, apart from Still Water, but harder than not taking photos, was the disallowance of touching any of the sculptures. But again, completely understandable. The standard of work was breathtaking, some of the pieces were just astounding.
I had the place to myself, and walked around slowly enjoying the private tour, and then on to the rest of the art throughout the building. I noticed, quite proudly, that the majority of art pieces displayed, not included in the exhibition, were by British artists, many dating back a few hundred years. My favorites are below.

The Hunt in Belvir Vale, 1835, by John Ferneley.

The Day's Catch, 1864, by John Bucknell Russell.

Gone to Ground: A Grey Hunter with Foxhounds, 1887, by John Emms.

A screen incorporating paintings by James Seymour, Thomas Butler showing early Thoroughbred horses.

A sterling silver on marble sculpture called Park Drag, 1910, by most likely Elkington & Co. in London.

A bronze sculpture called The Thoroughbred Horse, 1949, by Hebert Haseltine.
I finished my walkabout and then had a quick look about the library, which held many cups and awards from Middleburg horse events. But I couldn't stay long. I was acutely aware of a plant sitting in the back of Stuart that needed planting, and I was itching to start putting together a list of a few perennials to go in the garden before the fall. Maybe I might get a hummingbird moth flitting around some bee balm plants alongside my hummingbirds. Wouldn't that be something?

The 4th with the Foo Fighters

On Saturday I trooped down to DC with some friends to watch the Foo Fighters 20 Anniversary concert at the 'looking worse for wear' RFK Stadium. We got down there about 2pm, the gates had opened at noon, but I guess getting older means the opportunity of starting a party earlier just wasn't calling us loud enough. We manged to get good enough seats and they were were selling Goose Island beer, which made me a happy bunny.

Plenty of folks were dressed patriotically including myself, which ended up being a little odd since in our group I was the only one wearing stars and stripes, and also the only one who isn't American. Hmmm.

The music started off with an amazing band, Trombone Shorty. It doesn't get much better than blues rock and these guys knocked it out of the ball park. Literally.

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Never been keen on these and today was no exception, but I sang the token chorus words, just to show no ill feeling.

The motley crew and some of our beers. Good stuff!

And then, of course, just when things were going nicely the bloody weather had to intervene. The concert was put on a temporary hold until the storm blew over. A spectacular array of colors started filling the stadium seats as veteran concert goers donned their plastic ponchos and settled down for the worst. Which of course happened. A huge monsoon unleashed cascades of rain into the stadium and everyone retreated to the covered concourse.

This is how you save seats at a concert.

Those already under cover sat tight and many of the poncho wearers accompanied them but everyone who only had one thin layer of fabric on their body, like me, ran for shelter.

We took this opportunity to grab some food, and it soon became apparent that everyone was thinking the same idea. So the food ran out. Steve was lucky enough to get 2 burgers but Mark and I had no luck. The best we could lay our paws on was a cold, heavy pretzel bread thing each, which I covered in mustard, and was very glad I did, because that was the only edible part of the meal. We sulked and lamented and Steve disappeared with his burgers like a jackal that has just made a killing and doesn't want to share.
But then it was announced that we could go back out again and resume the concert so we reclaimed our soggy seats.

This is how much rain water my cup collected. We had another lesser deluge shortly after and I collected about half of this amount.

Heart cheered everyone up and got us all back into cheering mode again.

Buddy Guy, my favorite, This man is a legend, a blues master and still rocking at the tender age of 78. He had his young 16 year old protégé, Gary Clark Jr., performing with him, who is definitely going to be a big star himself in the near future.
There were also performances by LL Cool J and Trouble Funk, neither of whom I could make myself like.
And then as dusk filled the stadium, the FF curtain fell down in front of the stage and the crowds quietened. It was then I realized that throughout the afternoon, more people had been filtering into the stadium because now it was packed solid, and everyone was staring at the stage waiting for the Foos to drop that curtain.
Leading up to this moment, everyone had wondered if it would actually happen. Dave Grohl had only 3 weeks earlier fallen off the stage during a concert in Sweden and broken his leg along with dislocating his ankle. He had actually later that evening completed the concert with a medic supporting his wounded leg, but the following concerts had been cancelled. I felt bad knowing some of my English friends had been looking forward to seeing them at Glastonbury.

And then suddenly, the curtain dropped and the music blared, jolting the stadium into life and excitement.. Dave himself looked to be sitting in the middle of the stage on a big throne.

But then it moved forward, propelled by an unseen operator, and like a blinged-out Davros, he coasted slowly down the catwalk to thunderous applause and screams. It was epic and he reveled in every moment of his fans' adoration.

Being the first to see him perform since his accident, he gave us all the gory details along with photos shared on the screens, so I almost felt like a family member being given the run down after picking up a relative from the hospital.

His morphine pump!

And he shared his drawing of how he envisioned his chair to look, drawn while dosed to the gills with pain meds.

 The chair was pretty awesome, and the guy managed to perform a set lasting over 2 hours with no signs of flagging. I noticed that while he was performing his upper body was constantly moving, so much so, that his leg was jiggling too. I mentioned this to Steve, who agreed with me, that since he'd also broken his leg, there was no way that Dave wasn't in some pain throughout the gig. I reckoned he was carried through on Adrenaline since he was obviously not on any strong medication.
The band put on an amazing show, but each time that chair moved along the catwalk, I prayed that it wouldn't topple off the edge or the operator lose control of it. Dave even stood up at one point and leaned on crutches to sing with a couple of band members. He told the crowd that there was no way he would have cancelled this show because he grew up in Springfield, VA, and so therefore DC was his home. He asked if this concert should be an event in DC every 4th of July and his home boys howled in appreciation. We left the stadium with fireworks cracking overhead in a show that must have rivaled the Mall's earlier display, and as I sat on the metro, relaxing on a soft seat, I hoped Mr Grohl was also giving his inevitably throbbing leg a well deserved rest. He had certainly earned it.
The concert write-up from USA Today is here.
The Foo Fighter's set list is here.