You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.
Patiently awaiting a change of weather for the better
Melvin usually knows where to go when family life just gets too much for him.
It's a sleepy afternoon. Every afternoon is a sleepy afternoon.
Trapped in the study, with dreams of Civita di Bagnoregio to taunt us.
A Saturday morning's rush through town to the newly resumed Staunton Farmers' Market (2 April 2022).
That's E. Beverley St, our main drag, viewed from W. Beverley St.
That's W. Beverley St.
Interviewing one of the policewomen on a Saturday morning
The Farmers' Market is open again for the season, in the Wharf Parking Lot.
That's Stauntondowntown's early April Saturdays Downtown Chick ('FREE SELFIES! Open to ALL AGES!')
A long line at the Chai Dhaba Indian mobile tearoom, in its fourth year as a Farmers' Market feature (see article in the local paper, Sept. 2021)
Some Farmers' Market views
The CBD tent
The panoramic view of the Market
The City Council majority was recently taken over by a retrograde group, and it's been downhill ever since. As in towns all over the country, public education is only one of the civic services being cut back or dismantled.
Luckily, in response to the deplorables, there are many civic-minded volunteers working to raise public awareness of what's being lost and start us moving forward again.
Another panorama
The Saturday morning band is tuning up.
These musicians were wonderful, and there seems to be a different musician or group each Saturday.
The Downtown Chick is still going strong.
The Montgomery Hall Expressway hybrid path
The mini-forest is extremely dry, a sort of vegetative molotov cocktail.
Everything's certainly greener than when we were on this trail two weeks ago, but it seems mostly to be the parasitical vines.
There's the first yellow trail marker, reassuring us that we are still on the path.
Our first flower of the new season
A warmer day than we've had recently; coats off
-- No stragglers!
The Montgomery Hall jungle
-- We mustn't straggle.
Staunton's Frontier Culture Museum
Things will be seriously picking up here soon, and the full fleet of instructive docents will be at their stations demonstrating the period arts and drafts. We're actually here today just for a casual walk round the grounds. Moderate exercise is good for everybody.
First stop, the 17th century English Midlands farmer's house
Then a little upland trail above a swampish sort of thing
A big tree . . .
. . . with inspiring branches.
The 18th century Ulster Irish forge, and its scenic pond
The Irish forge, and a northern Irish farm, also from the 18th century. All of these buildings have been brought over from their original sites.
The English house again, across the Irish forge's pond
The Irish farm
And again
There are three or four enormous pigs on the property -- this one is called 'Sunshine'.
The 18th century farmhouse and its outbuildings have been brought from the Protestant Palatinate of the Rhine in southwestern Germany.
Back home, two small cats, each of whom is probably unaware of the other's presence.
The Hall Monitor is monitoring again. This a small mostly-private staircase out of our upstairs study down to a back entrance to the building. Both cats like to be let out in the morning, since it's got the only direct sunlight at that hour, but Choupette doesn't always come back when called.
And can be perceptibly resentful when fetched.
Next up: Looking for new vegetation in western Virginia, late April 2022
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