Mountain Musings

Photographing the Valley

As mentioned in a previous post, we recently hosted Tom's brother, Steve, when he traveled down south to visit us last month.

Some of the activities we planned for his visit included, of course, a visit to the farmers' market. The downtown streets of our quaint little city offered many opportunities to set up his tripod and snap away!

The highlight, however, was a picnic and a drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway. You can see Uncle Steve in action here at one of the many beautiful overlooks:And another shot with a good view of the Shenandoah Valley in the distance. Uncle Steve loves photography and brought all of his camera gear knowing he'd be taking photos in one of the most scenic areas of Virginia.Hannah made sure she documented the beauty, too:This lone tree at Raven's Roost Overlook was the subject of many photos: Uncle Steve with Sarah, Hannah, and Jonathan looking towards Afton in the background: Soon, we had worked up an appetite for some food over the campfire...grilling tilapia for fish tacos with lots of smoke in my eyes!:Here are the two brothers and Jonathan enjoying the meal:Another day of his visit we traveled to the little town of Dayton and drove by the surrounding countryside. Upon spotting a large field of pumpkins, we pulled over and both photographers set up shop and started shooting away:Everywhere we looked the gentle rolling farmlands were photogenic:In fact, all the photos you saw in Hannah's recent post Autumn Splendor were taken on this excursion with Uncle Steve to photograph the Valley.

Whenever we drive down country roads, I'm always on the lookout for barn quilts. On this trip I was rewarded with this orange quilt pattern at Silver Lake Mill: I'll leave you with this beautiful fall display of pumpkins, gourds, and corn shocks outside a Mennonite farmer's barn:I hope you've enjoyed this view of the Valley. I feel so very blessed to live where we do! In fact, Virginia is the only place I've ever lived. We think Uncle Steve enjoyed his visit with us and hope he comes back soon!

On Monday I'll be participating in the Around the World Blog Hop, so stop by again after the weekend to see what we're working on craft-wise.

~Deb

A Month of Saturdays

Wow, a whole month has passed since farmers' market started back up again! We've been getting settled back into the routine of preparations during the week and getting up early every Saturday morning to set up downtown.
The first day of market was beautiful, though still a bit chilly, as you can see from my coat. :) Some friends from church blessed us by driving over to see our booth and encourage us on our first day.

One of the girls put together a beautiful bouquet that Hannah used to decorate her table the rest of the morning, and they also brought a snack for us to enjoy halfway through our time.

Our second week coincided with the Redbud Festival that Mom talked about in this post, so I enjoyed having Jonathan helping out with Hannah's soap that morning.

I brought a small decorated carrot cake, hoping to sell it, of course, but also to advertise my cakes in case anybody wanted to special order one for Easter the following week. That little plan failed, but I tried. ;)

Whenever I bring a little cake, though, there are numerous customers who comment on it and take my card. So perhaps it will lead to a future order for birthdays or other occasions after all.

The third week was Easter weekend. All holiday weekends tend to be busy with good sales, so we were hoping for that trend to continue. The weather was beautiful again, and there were lots of people out and about.

Usually every other week, the market has live music from 9-11, and on this week a co-worker of Jonathan's was one of the musicians.

One of the vendors down a couple spaces from us is an older couple who came over to America from the Bohemia area, and Willy came over to play a special Bohemian song on his accordion just for them.

Since it's been quite the cold spring so far, not a lot of vendors have vegetables yet, but there are a few greens and beets out.

Also adding some color to the booths are plenty of flowers! A couple of weeks ago, a customer of mine mistakenly left some pretty pink flowers on my table and left before I could catch her. We really enjoyed them, and they lasted until just a couple of days ago.

This past Saturday was also a very busy day, as there were other events going on downtown that drew a crowd to the area. There was a dance troupe performing that was very....interesting. You can see some pictures on this newspaper article. They had plenty of observers, who then made their way down our row - yay!  I was also asked for the first time this year if we were Amish, heheh. That's a question that has been asked multiple times over the past couple of years....I don't think people know what Amish people look like. ;)

All in all, it's been a busy and productive month. I've enjoyed reconnecting with my regular customers and meeting new ones. Come on by and visit sometime!

~Sarah

35 Years Ago Today

March 21, 1979...Tom and I met each other for the first time 35 years ago today at Westinghouse Electric Corporation in my hometown of South Boston, Virginia, when he arrived from "up north" as a college senior seeking an electrical engineering job.

I was the secretary who arranged his flight, rental car, and hotel for the interview...and the one who had thoroughly read his resume. :)

When Tom ended up turning down the job offer in order to be closer to Langley Air Force base in Hampton, Virginia, where he would be helping lead Bible studies for the military guys, I was impressed that a college student without a job would turn down the offer of one because he'd promised to volunteer in a military ministry.

I'm very grateful to my boss (Hi, Ron!) who passed along Tom's letter to me because he thought I'd be interested to read the story behind his decision. I decided to drop Tom a quick note--knowing I'd never see him again--just to wish him well and to tell him I'd be praying for him to find a job closer to Hampton.

Well, who knew he'd write back?? That began a penpal relationship many years and many memories ago. We tell folks that he turned down the job, but he took the secretary!

Today we celebrated our first-met-each-other anniversary downtown at a little lunch place called Pampered Palate: And here's a view from the opposite direction. The building was built around 1840 and is part of the downtown Historic District. I've brought many friends here for lunch through the years:Here's that young college student treating me to lunch as we together remember our anniversary:
The tables at Pampered Palate include a round piece of glass overtop the tablecloths, and patrons can leave notes tucked underneath. Today I left this note: "March 21, 1979 ~ Tom and Deb first meeting. Celebrated at Pampered Palate today, Friday, March 21, 2014. Fun 35 years!"

That's been my Friday. It's been good. How was yours?

~Deb

Redbud Festival, Meeting a Blogger IRL, & Saturday's Farmers Market

Hello! Hello! With all that's been going on with Granny's back surgery last week, I'm finally getting a chance to blog about what's been happening around Mountain Musings!

By the way, thank you for all your prayers for Granny while she was in the hospital and also for the emails I received asking about her. She's still recuperating a bit more, but we think the surgery was a success with the three compression fractures being repaired. She still needs to be very careful getting around!

Two weekends ago Hannah and I set up her soap display and Granny's basket display at the Redbud Festival in Dayton.This was a first-year craft show so we had no idea if it would be well attended.

The day was absolutely lovely, the vendor area so roomy and grassy, and we were blessed with Tom's help in setting up our new 15-foot tent--what a heavy monster--nice, but we never could have managed it alone!

Here's Hannah getting her side of the tent ready with all of her products for sale: Hannah's display always looks nice with the antique scale holding soaps, colorful lip balms, and her two wooden cabinets full of the goats' milk soaps she makes: Normally Hannah would be setting up each week at our local Farmers' Market, but because of this craft show, she just sent one small basket of soap with Sarah to their booth there. Jonathan became "Hannah for the day" and sold soap for her and helped Sarah set up and break down her tent and display.

All ready and waiting for the customers--some showed up but unfortunately a lot didn't!As the day got underway, free wagon rides brought folks all around the town and put them off at stragetic spots--right across the street from our tent being one of the stops: One of Hannah's first customers was a co-worker of Jonathan's, so I took his and his friend's picture:Here are some of the other tents. We were set up right alongside a highway...which was quite different: And did I mention that I met a blogger in real life? I've read Cindi's blog (Cindi's Sewing) for quite a few years. She's a Virginia blogger and only two hours from me, but until the craft show we had never met. Here we are getting acquainted when she stopped by after bringing her daughter to a local college orientation: And did I mention that Granny couldn't be at the craft show?  Well...after Sarah finished for the morning at Farmers' Market, she drove Granny to the show just for a while so she could see the setup and how things were going. Here she is a couple of days before entering the hospital for surgery. I think she looks pretty good even getting around in her wheelchair: Okay, fast forward to this past Saturday ... Hannah took the morning off from Farmers' Market again to head with Jonathan to the Lexington River Road Races. That meant this week I became "Hannah for the day" and tried my hand at selling her soap!

You know what...I've come to the conclusion that I did not take after Granny in the sales department! But I enjoyed the day and had a fun time being with Sarah!

Let's check out Sarah's chalkboard to see what she's selling today: Mini Key Lime Pie, Black Forest Fudge, Blueberry Lemon Muffins, Turtle Cheesecake, and a new favorite Key Lime Fudge--and those are just the ones she wanted to call attention to:In this post I'll feature one of the plant vendors that's at market--Weird Dude's Plant Zoo is set up right next to our vendor spot and features very nice perennials: And here's a final view of Saturday's customers. Many regulars and newcomers frequent the market each weekend. Why not plan a trip to the Farmers' Market and come see us this summer? Who knows...I might be there behind the counter trying to sell you something!

Another prayer request...Granny's only living sibling passed away on Friday, and I'll be taking her to the funeral Tuesday in my hometown of South Boston. Please pray for strength and encouragement for her for the day's events and traveling safety as I drive us. Thank you! 

~ Deb