Riprap Hollow

On our second swimming hole expedition, we traveled over the mountain to Rip Rap Hollow, which is more or less the other side of Afton mountain from Sugar Hollow. We went with the MM's. This time, we actually swam. It was ... cold. Not a little cold. All three girls swam, tho they might have turned slightly blue.

To make up for it, we stopped for Tastee Freeze. Ironic. No one ordered the "Freedom Fries". Char took these pictures, because Jo & I are lame. I think our battery charger is messed up. Or something.

Zara-patra

Amazement Square is even more fun when you're nearly 4.

The Wave

We went to Richmond to see Carbon Leaf perform at Plan 9, stock up on Costco & Trader Joe's, eat at Kuba Kuba, visit the Richmond Children's Museum, and play in this nice little park. Busy day. Zara's pictured here wearing "The Wave", a silver necklace that belonged to her great grandmother, Dorothy. It was made by Maryann's upstairs neighbor in Providence, Doug.

Go Fly a Kite

(thanks to guest photogs at hungry robot for the snaps, we at no dashiki seem to never have batteries in the camera, or maybe not even have the camera, as of late...)

A few weekends ago the forecast was "rain likely" which in Michigan would have meant it will likely be raining most of the day, whereas in Virginia, it means it's likely that somewhere will get some rain sometime during the day, generally after dark. As you can see from the pictures of our foray with the Ts to the Kite Flying Festival in Palmyra, it was a lovely day to fly a kite.

Berry Picking Time

After such a successful adventure at the strawberry patch with Zara's class, we decided to pick another 8 pounds just one week later. This time, we brought Laura with us, since she's between engagements. 3 pounds became fresh jam, 4 pounds we just ate, and the last pound or so, we're still working on. I'm told we can pick cherries shortly. And as always, surrounded by the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains...

Field trip!

The first pic is Z with her best buddies G (front) and A (back), sitting on a cannon in what she calls cannon park which likely has another name - basically it's a nice square with cannons and a horse statue right by the courthouses etc in downtown c'ville. The next pic is Z and many classmates in the cool glass elevator that goes up 5 stories and gives an awesome view of the downtown mall and the mountains near cville (like mount alto, home of TJ's Monticello, maybe you've heard of it?). Last pic is the result of Zara's gelato consumption, as this was a field trip/treasure hunt to seek out gelato... it doesn't get any better than this, does it? I want to go back to preschool!

Strawberry Picking

Zara's preschool class took a strawberry picking trip. Good luck explaining to a bunch of 4 & 5 year olds about not eating the sprayed berries in the field! We picked nine pounds, made two into excellent jam, and accounted for the other seven per os.

Mother's Day

In the morning, we went for a walk in Sugar Hollow, searching more or less fruitlessly for Blue Hole, a locally renowned swimming hole. Apparently, we were on the right track, but didn't go far enough. Nonetheless, we had a lovely time, and a nice picnic on the North Fork of the Moorman River. Later that evening, we had the T's over to make ravioli from scratch.

Helicopter

Zara went digging to the bottom of her toy box, finding this gem from her second birthday. It's really remarkable how differently she plays with it, now. In addition to a fascination with the nice noises and movements the toy makes, the vet now has a name, a mission, and as far as I can tell, likes certain restaurants more than others.

May Day (Observed)

We met the T's and the MM's at Frontier Culture Museum for their annual Irish-themed May Day Fest. Live music, maypole, beer, Robin Hood, how could it be better?