Life's Little Pleasures

Once December 25th is past, winter seems to take on a dull and wearisome air. The snow has melted down to a white icy crud. Most folks have stopped turning on their holiday lights and the seasonal concerts are over. The stores of course look like a tornado hit them with a modest little New Years display trying to remind us that's its not over yet. Sometimes I really do wonder if we have simply used up all our fun between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Then, just as I'm really developing a good funk, a wonderous sparkle of joy will pouch on me and tell me I'm just being silly. The snow storm here prevented mail delivery to my house from 12/19 until 12/26. So on the 26th I had a mailbox full of Christmas cards, birthday cards, letters and even a present. WooHoo !! Then on Monday morning when I came home from work (I had to work 12/25 evening thru 12/28 morning, which didn't exactly lighten my mood) there was a message on my answering machine from Missy, one of my rendezvous friends who lives in upstate New York. YeeHaw !! So I called her back that afternoon and we had a wonderful chat. So while the white icy mounds outside still pretend to be snow, and its still ugly damp cold here, and I have yet to get together with my Urchin for a birthday/Christmas/movie party, and a whole basket of Round Tu-Its are waiting for my attention here at the house, so what ? To everything its time.

Happy New Year to You One and All !!!!

Christmas Greetings - Kursk-Root Ikon at Church

First I want to wish a Merry Christmas to all my friends who are celebrating Christ's birth today. I hope you are having a wonderful time among your friends and family. May there be much joy in your life on this day. You are all in my thoughts. I'm working tonight but am off work for the Julian Calendar celebration of Christ's Nativity on January 7th. So today is a quiet day at home for me, with many little birds outside enjoying the seed and suet I put out this morning. I did drive over to Staunton Wednesday afternoon and stayed with my friends Nick and Katherine. We had a great dinner and talked of this and that - so I too spent a Christmasy time with friends.

This is the Theotokos of Kursk-Root on its ikon stand during the liturgy.

Yesterday on western Christmas Eve I was at church for liturgy in the morning for a very unusual reason. The Kursk-Root ikon of the Theotokos was visiting my parish church of All Saints of North America. This ikon was found in 1295 in Russia. It has 3 survived Tarter invasions, the burning of its monastic church home and the destruction of that same monastery by the Soviets. In 1921 in was smuggled out of Russia, it was in Serbia and other Balkin lands for a time, and then it was brought to the USA in 1951. Since then it has been honored and loved by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. Currently it is being taken on pilgrimage as it were to the ROCOR parish churches of the eastern USA.

Here are the priests who served the liturgy. Fr. Michael on the far left is from the St. Innocent of Alaska Bulgarian Orthodox mission in Roanoke, Virginia and Archpriest Serge on the near left is from St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Howell, New Jersey. Fr. Serge is one of the clerymen bringing the Kursk-Root ikon to the eastern diocese parishes. He also accompanied it to Moscow and Kursk last September. Fr. Gabriel is holding the ikon and Fr. John is on the right. Fr. Gabriel and Fr. John are my parish priests.

This website has a synopsis of the parish visit and a YouTube video from the service. I'm one of the 6 people singing in the choir. There is also a link on this page to pictures from the service:
www.eadiocese.org/News/2009/dec/middlebrook.en.htm

For a brief history of the Kursk-Root ikon of the Theotokos:
www.eadiocese.org/News/2009/november/kurskicon.en.htm

A Joyous and Happy New Year to All.

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Happy 59th Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME !!!!!

Just what I wanted - a boatload of snow. In case I was feeling homesick for a real winter. Well I admit I miss ice fishing but I don't miss measuring snow in feet. Anyway, here my snug little house after the bodacious storm of yesterday.

Of course getting into my snug little house has its moments. Think I'll let the classic Virginia solar snow removal system clear the 3 feet of drifted snow from my front porch. Yes Virginia, there are steps up to the porch.

The back yard. Please note: there is only 2.5 feet of air from the bottom of the bird feeder to the snow. The feeder perches are level with my eyes.

The view from my kitchen door.

The foot path to my kitchen door.

The motorcycle rail trailer and shed wood.

It looks longer somehow - the distance from my kitchen door to my truck.

The driveway around the truck and out into the street is clear - now to clean off the truck.

Of course I don't exactly plan on going anywhere. This is Branchland Court looking towards the cul-de-sac turnaround and the neighbor's house. The neighbor with 4 wheel drive trucks. The trucks sitting in his cleared out driveway awaiting a plow to lower the snow so his 4 wheel drive truck's front bumper will clear the snow.

This is Branchland Ct. looking towards Westwood Dr. Its about 50 yards from my driveway to where the jacked up 4 wheel drive drive truck with very serious off road tires and chains got stuck around noon. The tracks are visible at the top of the photo. Branchland Ct. has several inches more snow than Westwood Dr.

Snow accumulation on my trash can. Don't think the trashman will be around today.

My GPS Says This is Virginia . . .

I think this snow storm used a Map Quest knock off. It obviously was headed for North Dakota and somehow got here through bad directions.

The view from my kitchen door at noon today.

The view up the driveway at about 2 pm.

The back yard at about the same time.

The view at 4 pm.
The snow in the street came to my knees when I went to check.

The snow on the spare tire on my motorcycle trailer measures 26 inches at this point in time. Notice that it is still snowing. Its going to keep this nonsense up for about 6 more hours.

My friend Jane wants to be in Texas about now. Me, I want to be retired so I could just wait it out and enjoy it. Note to Santa: Please send me a nice set of wood & rawhide beavertail snowshoes with a classic strap leather harness.

Advent: The Time of Preparation

Well its December 16th - Just 10 days before the Feast of the Nativity according to the New Gregorian Calendar. I finished my cards for my new calendar friends. Wrote a note in each card this year rather than do a letter-for-all. It was a very pleasant evening activity during Advent - I'd play Christmas music of one kind or another and write little notes to my friends. With a fountain pen of course. And green ink. I've also gotten the presents I need to mail wrapped, packed and ready to go. With a card and note in each. Written with a fountain pen. And green ink.

I did have to take down my little Hello Kitty Christmas tree - Skiddy and Pippen kept attacking the tree. Not the Hello Kitty figures mind you, but the tree. Tackled it, pounced on it, biffed it. I have no idea why they found it so in need of punishment. All 30 of my Hello Kitty figures are fine and none the worse for wear but I clearly need a cat free area for the tree. The tree is fine also and in protective custody.

Else I finished loading all my Christmas CD's onto my iPod. Then I went to Panera bread and spent an afternoon near their gas fire updating various programs on my laptop. So now the AGV, iPod, iTunes and WinXP are all up to date. I really should do this monthly instead of quarterly. I was there for 3 hours and didn't even get to checking for updates for my other apps. Also got all the routine chores done at the house so I'm ready to work on crafts and just enjoy the rest of the Holiday season. December is really a most excellent month.

Let It Snow - Let it Snow - Let it Snow

This is the scene that greeted me when I got up Saturday morning. Not much changed all day. Once it got dark the wet slushy snow turned to frozen crusty icy snow. Very unpleasant. Concerts were canceled, church services (including those at my parish) were canceled, and in general whatever was planned for Saturday evening didn't happen. The Malls even closed early. Not that this bothered me all that much. See I had planned to drive up and visit The Urchin Saturday evening through Sunday evening, but a change in The Urchin's Work Schedule necessitated a change in my visit schedule to Thursday evening through Friday evening. So The Urchin, D&D and I had a grand time. Urchin, Dolores and I went out to breakfast at the Amphora and then checked out the local pet supply store. Later on Urchin and I went out and got our hair styled. We even went to Tyson's Corner to check out the Holiday decorations, although that was a bit of a bust. Very sparse decorations, none of the wonderful displays in the concourse intersections that I remember at Tyson's in years past. I drove up and back on clear dry roads.

Of course we had to fuss over Urchin's kitten Wicket. He's gained half a pound in the last 2 weeks, which is very good. He has also learned how to wake up and immediately scamper at warp 9 all over everything in sight. In other words, he is a typical kitten with a corner on cuteness and a chainsaw purr.

He has also managed to wrap Don around his itty bitty paws. Mischief managed incarnate.

I did get out on Sunday, bought some Christmas cards and started in on them after dinner. May all my readers have a Wonderful Advent, a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and a Joyous 12 Days of Christmas. Or if they prefer a Happy Chanukah or a Joyous Mid-Winter.

Advent Has Arrived !

Advent has arrived. This the season of harried shopping for many, free live musical concerts for some and joyous anticipation for we few, we happy few. I've been to UVA for 2 free concerts so far. Both were semester end presentations so they didn't feature seasonal music. They did feature baroque music so I was hardly disappointed at not hearing any carols. I've also worked with the horses on Tuesday, bought pet food, cleaned my kitchen, done the laundry, washed the dishes, finished scrubbing the kitchen walls, mailed 2 ebay sales, listed 3 more items on ebay, balanced my checkbook, sorted the Important Papers file, practiced some songs I'm working on learning and engaged in Buckskinner Stress Relief by throwing hawk & knife. Plus read some and slept. To top all that activity off I put up my kitchen Christmas Tree today. Yes friends, its decorated with battery powered mini LED lights and Hello Kitty figurines. Bunches of Hello Kitty figurines. Only the silver angel on top isn't a Hello Kitty item. So far the cats have ignored it. I also have an Advent calendar going. Urchin gave me a calendar of Church Saints (late 1400's through late 1700's western art) and it included an Advent Calendar. So everyday I get to open another little gold door and see if I can guess what Latin saint or feast it reveals. So far I've gotten 2 of 3 right. I've also learned that St. Sebastian is the patron of both upholsterers and policeman. Uh, right, go figure.

T-Bird Day Was Just Duckey

Got up Wednesday afternoon (I had worked Tues night, so I got home about 7 am Wednesday), it was a beautiful day, so I drove up to my Urchin's Digs earlier than I had planned for T-Bird Day. The traffic was light and it was one of those crystal clear early winter days. My part of the feed was veggies and wild rice. The Urchin provided the duck, mashed potatoes, gravy and sparkling cranberry juice.
This is the Urchin with her new kitten Wicket. He's a rescue kitten who was bottle raised so he's small for his 10 weeks of age. He's got a chainsaw purr, very curious paws and an amazing jump. He's not allowed a run of the house yet, not until he gets bigger.

He gets fed every 4 hours right now so he can transition from being bottle fed to solid food only. Plus he needed surgery so Urchin has to monitor him closely while he's healing.

This is D&D's older cat CC. Stands for Cuddle Cat. And she is.

This is D&D's younger cat Tabitha.   Tabitha has decided her job in life is to supervise the household from this chair.

So I didn't get much routine cleaning done or any project work done. Found the Round Tu-it for spending shinning times with my Urchin and D&D. The cleaning and projects Tu-it will just have to wait until Monday. Hope all ya all had a good T-Bird Day. Oh, and Happy 82nd Birthday to Ted Gewirtz ! Sorry I have to work tonight and can't come to the party.

Farewell Fall - Welcome Winter

Its official. As of Friday November the 20th it is Winter. There were no crickets or other critters singing in my yard on that night, thus Winter has begun. A quiet enough beginning, perhaps it maybe that we're in for a quiet winter. That would be nice - a quiet and not too cold winter.

When I got home from work Friday morning my friend Gypsy Jane was here. She had worked nearby Thursday and we had arranged for her to visit Friday. The day was bright but very chilly and damp, the damp at least was a product of the recent heavy rains. So we spent the afternoon changing strings on various instruments. Note to Self: Self, when next you buy dulcimer strings get the kind with little brass thingies on the ends. Putting loop end dulcimer strings on is way more work than its worth. Anyway, once Jane and I had banjo, guitar, 12 string guitar, bass and dulcimer strings on their respective instruments we of course had to play said instruments. After we had a dinner break that is. A good time was had by all.

Pippen and Skiddy Help Play Music

Saturday Jane and I tackled going through more boxes of books, sorting them into keep, give to the church library and sell piles. So all the book boxes I've located to date have been sorted once. I had already finished sorting through the all my clothes, cleaned what I wasn't keeping and then took the surplus items to the local Thrift Shop. The old Nokia cell phones and their accessories have also been donated to a recycling facility. Its looking more and more like a home here and less and less like a 4 room storage facility with bath and kitchen. Jane left for places south in the early afternoon and I finished up house chores. Then I settled down for a good read with one of the recently found keeper books.

Sunday I was off to Liturgy at church. I caught up on prayer and parish news alike, picked up the jacket I had left behind and found the shelf for the refrigerator that hadn't made it into the fridge before it came home with me. It was a very good day, but sunset came all too early ! Oh well, 2 days of work and then Thanksgiving with the Urchin !! WooHoo !!

Fall's Little Gifts

Fall is a very conflicted season. One day is all big poofy cotton ball clouds with blue skies so intense they crackle and a warm breeze full of bird song. The next day its cold hard rain with s slate gray sky and a cutting wind stolen from the straits of Mackinac. Last Saturday was one of the poofy cloud days light wind days, which means it was also a perfect day for ballooning. There are over half a dozen of balloons available for hire locally plus at least twice as many more used solely for their owners' personal pleasure. Its not at all unusual to see 6 to 8 ballons at once in various parts of the sky here. This particular balloon is about to land and ts chase truck was parked right across the street from were this was taken. It landed in the field just over the trees on the left of the picture.



The Fall Hunt Season is another sight & sound common to this area. I've heard a hunt before but never actually seen one let alone been able to photograph one before. This was was winding up one evening down in Culpeper county. About half the riders and a third of the hounds have walked past me and gone over a river to a farm pickup spot. This group was shortly joined by 2 more riders and another hound. Then they too crossed the road and were last seem heading towards a barn complex.

Of course its also hunting season alone the eastern side of the Blue Ridge. Archery season opened in early October, muzzleloading season in the beginning of November and general firearms season will open in mid November. This fine fellow doesn't seem all that concerned as he strolls around a field about 4 miles from my house.

The last 2 days have been very gray, very wet, very windy and very chill. I did the sensible thing - washed floors, vacuumed, polished all my shoes, cleaned out the hall and yellow bedroom closets, did the laundry, did the dishes, updated my blog, spackled and in short removed things from my Round-Tuit list. As a reward to self I then spent Thursday evening making music with my friend Jane. A very nice end to an otherwise dreary late fall day.

Fall Thoughts

This is one of my favorite spots to just go sit, watch the wildlife & think.

The trees in my woods have lost almost all their leaves, the understory plants are but dry stalks, and the crickets still sing of an evening but with less enthusiasm. I have redone the tomahawk stump pile & the firewood pile, putting landscape timbers under both so the bottom layer is held off the ground. All the wood I've cut up so far is now stacked back by my fire ring. The kitchen wall cleaning is almost done & I've started spackling the walls so I can paint them. My clothes closet has been gone through & everything that doesn't fit well is cleaned & ready to go to the local thrift store. The old cell phones & their accessories (the ones Urchin & I had when she was in college) have had their contact numbers erased & are ready to be recycled.

Friday last I was able to meet the Urchin for dinner at a grocery store food court. We had a great time, talked of this & that, pretty much just enjoyed each others company. I hope we can do that a bit more often. Saturday I puttered around the house a bit & then went to the Ivy Creek Natural Area for a walk in the woods. Sunday found me at the IWLL shooting range with my friend Jane. I finally got around to firing the .45 flintlock pistol my dad gave me back in 2000. It shoots nicely but I do need to spend some time working out its optimum target load. Monday I worked on the house & yard some more, then took a nice ride over Snickers Gap to enjoy the fall vistas. I also picked up pet & bird food. The chickadees, tufted titmice & wrens are quite happy about the birdseed part. Today I've done more routine cleaning while loading blog pictures. And so it goes.

OVPR Rendezvous is 25 Years Old !

One October 25 years ago a group of muzzleloading shooters decided to make a 1 day shoot into a longer affair with period overnight camping. Thus began the Olde Virginia Primitive Riflemen Rendezvous. Somewhere along the line they decided a spring 'Vous would be a nice compliment to their fall 'Vous. On a warm March evening around 11 years ago I finally found the OVPR encampment (not as easy to spot as a CW reenactment) & I've been going ever since. Made 15 of the 'Vous since then, which isn't bad at all given uncooperative employers & having the Urchin away at school for 6 of those years. Its my favorite time travel event. So here's some pictures of just whats what in a rendezvous camp.

This is Lew, one of the founders of The Olde Virginia Primitive Riflemen
He is also the inventor of the Lew Light, a folding candle lantern for those oh so necessary trips to the necessary at oh so very dark night hours.

A very nicely turned out British midshipman (younger son of a gentleman of some standing but without the purse to buy a better posting) with his back country lady from the Carolinas.

Mistress McGill, wife of the local Squire, enjoys the latest novel brought over from England.

No rendezvous would be truly complete without an roguish musician or two.

Of course back country folks set up their lodges to trade various goods. Their table and tentege seem rather grand for hard scrabble farmers, waterman and longhunters. Some say these folks are smugglers, so perhaps the constable should keep a weather eye on them Assuming of course that the constable himself is not party to their trade.

Of course not everyone at the "Vous has been coming for 25 years. I tried to buy the Letters of Indenture on these fine fellows but did not have an adequate letter of credit to do so.

Blanket trading is an important activity at 'Vous. Folks sell gear they have made, used period things they no longer need and the craft materials needed to make our apparel and accouterments.

Now rendezvous lodges come in many sizes and types. These fur trappers are displaying their skins for sale in front of a miners tent, otherwise known as a range teepee in modern western cattle country. They have a western fur trade era encampment.

These frontier women prefer a wedge tent, also known as an A tent, with a dining fly in front to provide shade and some protection from any rain.

This is a military wedge tent, the painted stripes are in the uniform facing color of the regimental uniform coat. The painting was done alone the seam lines and improved the weather proofness of the tent. The tent poles are also painted the same color. The European armies of the 18th century housed those civilians who were "belonging to the army" in the same tents as the regiment itself used. Teamsters, artificers, soldiers wives to cook and tend the sick - all these "belonged to the army" but were not soldiers in the army.

When next I visit D&D, I'll see about Don taking some photos of me in my "Vous attire.

September Surprize

One of the joys of living in Mr.Jefferson's Country is that Moments in History tend to come & visit from time to time. In mid-September the Active As held a rally over at Mr. Monroe's place in Orange county. (Mr. Jefferson had such nice gentleman friends.) So for about 4 days there were Ford Model A cars from all over the eastern US all over Greene, Albemarle & Orange counties. Of course there were sensible family sedans.

And racier 2 seat coupes. Both could be has it hard or soft top varieties.

I even saw a Model A truck, unfortunately I wasn't able to get a picture of the classic moonshine delivery vehicle.

The dash was the same no matter what type of Model A you owned. No iPod connector or cell phone brackets in sight. (I did see several clever ways of mounting both.)

And of course some owners came prepared for boon docking it.

Quite a few of these folks were campers & about 2 dozen or so stayed at Pleasant Hills here in Greene County. Unfortunately I had the work the day they were all on display at Montpelier, but I got to see about 40 Model As while I was at my local music store. The weather was excellent while they were here, which is a good thing because these aren't all that rain proof.

Its Cold - Its Raining - I Want a Fireplace !

Its been ugly damp & cold here. After getting all sorts of Mighty Mouse work done at the house in the last 6 weeks I just sorta ran out of Ufda. So I washed & sorted my blouses, setting about half of them aside for the Thrift Shop. If it didn't fit well, it got culled. I sewed the side seams & hem on a red & white stripe heavy cotton 1750's petticoat for rendezvous (that's a skirt in the 21st century) plus did general cleaning at the house. Nick & Katherine gave me 2 solar lights for the driveway, I charged both batteries in the in-house charger to get them going & they're back in the lights outside working just fine. The old dead fridge has gone to the metal salvage yard in C'ville. Got my teeth cleaned at the dentist, which was nice, & found out I'll need 2 more crowns, which was most definitely not nice. I seem to have left my polarfleece jacket at church which is annoying but I've no one to blame but myself. Life proceeds as it proceeds. Oh well, next weekend is the OVPR Rendezvous - the light at the end of the tunnel isn't always an oncoming train.

Da New-to-Me Fridge

OK, two and a half years ago my fridge died. Smoke, sparks, it was quite exciting. Since then I have been using a dorm fridge. A big-ish dorm fridge with a separate freezer compartment but a dorm fridge. Recently my parish decided to upgrade the fridge in the parish hall kitchen. So I asked about the old fridge and it was given to me. So Sunday after liturgy two of the fellows in the parish loaded the fridge into my pickup and Monday morning Kat and I unloaded the fridge into my kitchen. Then we moved the old dead fridge onto my front porch so I can haul it to salvage after I remove the compressor. Kat and I also just had a great time hanging out, watching some The Avengers episodes, eating at the local Chinese buffet and playing with the pets here.


Fall has arrived in Ruckersville, kinda just moved in quiet like. The trees are turning and loosing their leaves, the woods behind the house are beginning to open up. Mushrooms are everywhere, at last count I had 8 kinds in my yard. There hasn't been a frost yet so the trees haven't turned en masse as yet. I've mowed the yard for the last time this year and need to trim the forsythia back for the winter. The OVPR rendezvous is coming up this month. That's my last real activity of the season. Then it'll be time to do the quiet at home projects of winter. Maybe that's part of why fall is my favorite season - it leads into the quietness of winter.

It has come to my attention that I have lived here, in this house in Ruckersville, for 17 years. That's 6 years longer than I lived in my childhood home and 3 times as long as I lived in my teenage home. Its the only place I've lived as an adult for more than 3 years. It's also the place my daughter has lived in the longest. It has been a good home for us both. Deo Gratias.

Farewell to Another Old Friend

Kat & my dog Bridget, our tried and true beagle-walker has died. She was her usual self when I fed her Monday evening. Tuesday morning she was laying right where she usually sleeps in the morning sun but she was dead. No illness, no suffering - she just seems to have gone to sleep and not awoken up. She was 12 years and 7 months old, she had lived with Kat & I since she was 5 months old. Mostly I remember our walks in the woods, still see her in my minds eye playing with Sophia. My friend Jane was here and helped me bury Bridget under the trees near the woods line in the back of my yard. She was a most excellent dog.