Here we are, still staying on our son’s farm in Virginia never having imagined what spectacular adventures awaited us; Dan and his old timey jam sessions along the trail toward Humpback mountain with hikers stopping to listen. My son is the very talented guitarist and mandolin player on the right.
My daughter in law Malena and I have cooked up a storm, but she is the **star cook and innovative beyond belief. We are the happy recipients of such glorious produce from the farm: blueberries, zucchinis the size of short but fat baseball bats, yellow squash, fabulous long and thin and bell shaped peppers, small sweet onions best when grilled on skewers. We await tomatoes, corn and there is a pumpkin already bright orange plus more to discover.
Fast forward to the last week of July. Long time friends, Leigh, Dan’s classmate from High School in Rochester and hubby Patrick visited the farm, a long time dream for a weekend of memory-making, adventures, non stop talk and food galore. The culmination of their visit was a hike along the Appalachian trail and sight seeing from the Blue Ridge Parkway. A few minutes after a 6′ distanced and somewhat teary goodbye we started back to the farm but were delayed with a stop to help an AT through hiker in trouble, then proceeded on our way home. Delightful news awaited us, Dan was going to be blessed with visits in one place by his 3 wonderful sons and one gem that calls him Dad and calls us Bubbe and Zayde.
A new day and all of the boys are here having departed for a day of hiking in the wilds and walking in the town of Charlottesville. I took a late afternoon spur of the moment walk. The weather radar showed no rain after days of raging rain from the hurricane Isaias. I am thinking of my cousin in Wilmington, NC and other family and friends who have been hit by this storm on top of all the hardships of this Pandemic. It started dripping from a seemingly blue but misty sky. I am only slightly damp and the cool drops felt so good. I arrived at the rig as the 6 guys (his four sons, Dan and Paul) started down to pick blueberries.
Tonight will be constant stories, chatter and a delightful dinner made by super chef Grandson Josh and 8 individual pizzas. So good and the photo is my pizza (made smaller for my size appetite. I ate 2 pieces and wished for a bigger tummy.
How hard it will be to leave this farm, But we will head to Rochester and lo and behold we have signed on to an OAT trip next April to Sicily and then hopefully next summer take that aborted trip to Alaska.
Tomorrow a large zoom gathering awaits us to celebrate my beautiful Aunt Dorothy’s 97th birthday. How can we top the last 3 months?
Be well all.