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Wiley, My Eastern Shore of Virginia Arabian Horse. The On-Going Saga, Part 5. Wiley Learns About The Birds and The Bees !

Thursday, March 3rd, 2011

This is Wiley’s second spring here on the Eastern Shore of Virginia,  a 2009 Christmas gift to me  from my son.   He has settled in so well, but then who wouldn’t love life on a huge waterfront farm south of Cape Charles, Virginia,  just grazing on the lush grasses,  cool Chesapeake Bay breezes  blowing through your mane,  dining on gourmet oats  every night in your  comfy stall in a  brand new barn ?    As  the very smart horse he is,  I’m  sure  Wiley  realizes  he’s living the life of Riley.

Week old colt with his mother

Welcome To The Eastern Shore, Little Guy !

Spring has sprung here on Virginia’s Eastern Shore and with spring comes new life.  Wiley now has a brand new stable mate,  a little colt  which came  unexpectedly early,  born  quietly in the middle  of the night  and found bright-eyed and bushy tailed at  Bayview Farm’s  morning feed.   Now Wiley,  being a young bachelor,  had never actually been told about the  “birds and the bees”  or,  in this case,  about the mares and the stallions.   So he was pretty curious.  He knew it wasn’t a pony but was not quite sure if  was actually a horse.  It walks  pretty funny and  looks like it’s all legs,  with a head too big for such a small body.   But all in all,  Wiley thought he was a cute little fellow,  bay with a long white blaze and 4 white sox,  described by one of the  mares  who is  a serious  NASCAR   fan  as having  “lots of chrome” ,  and he has welcomed him as an additional stable mate so long as he  doesn’t  cry a lot during the night and  disturb his beauty sleep.  And he’ll need all the deep beauty sleep he can possibly get because this is the time of year that every horse aspiring to be a show ring star needs to get to work to get back in shape.

As anyone who owns  equestrian property here on the Shore knows,  the gorgeous Eastern Shore of  Virginia’s  spring weather also brings the need to shed any excess  winter  pounds  as  the 2011 show season is just around the corner.  No more lazy short winter days  just lounging around in a warm blanket,  chatting with friends in the pasture  or cozy evenings playfully horsing around in the stables.   No,  now it’s time to work,  work, work to get his  boyish figure back.  Wiley is currently evaluating what meal plans and work-out routines he’ll use to get the most from his efforts and he  wishes there was a  TV  set up in the barn so that he and his buddies  could look at a  few  YouTube videos from leading health and fitness experts on  the most  up- to- date  methods of  slimming the flanks,  firming up  the withers,  toning neck muscles, etc.   Wiley knows that the time to get serious about fitness is upon him,  his first show appearance of the season is coming up in Raleigh, North Carolina  in just a few weeks.   Oh,  the price to be paid for being a beautiful horse !     ( P.S. If  you’re  thinking of a farm or farmette here on the Eastern Shore of Virginia,  equestrian or otherwise, please visit our website,  www.blueheronva.com , and click on the listings link– we currently have some outstanding  farm and farmette real estate opportunities.)

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The First Flowers Of Spring 2011 On Virginia’s Eastern Shore. They’re Here At Last !

Monday, February 28th, 2011
Picture of deep pink camillias with golden centers and deep green leaves.

Such show-offs ! Early Eastern Shore of Virginia pink camellias with blazing gold centers, nestled among leaves of deep, deep green.

I’m not sure what it is about the first blossoms of Spring that I find so exciting,  invigorating actually.  We have such a moderate climate, 4 mild seasons,  here on the Eastern Shore of Virginia so it’s not as if we have suffered through 5 months of  the miserable freezing  weather that folks to the north and mid-west have endured.  After all, the temperature here is going to be nearly 70 degrees  today while a customer who just visited from Connecticut reported that it was snowing when they left to come down here last Friday !  And most of our winter days are sunny and pretty mild.  So really,  bad weather is  not the reason that seeing the camellias begin to bloom  puts a smile on my face every year,  but smile I do.  

Masses of pink camellia bushes at Bay Creek Golf Resort in first Spring bloom.

Throughout Bay Creek Golf Resort, masses of red and pink camellias have begun their annual Spring Show, delighting property owners and guests.

My  ” Camellia Watch”  starts not too long after New Year’s– about the middle of January I start to think, well– the camellias will be blooming pretty soon.  And by the middle of February I am truly longing for the bright reds and deep pinks of the very first flowers.  Near our Machipongo office we have a huge bush,  at least 30 maybe even 40 years old, which seems to have literally nearly a thousand blossoms every year,  in a very pale, delicate shade of  pink.  I have  several at home, both the fall blooming as well as the spring blooming,  but they are still small as camellias are  slow growers.  Number Three Daughter who lives in Cheriton, a tiny town about 5 minutes from Cape Charles,  has at least 10 amazing spring blooming camellias.  Their house was built about 1925 so their plants are  fairly old and quite large,  really more like trees than bushes,  unbelievably spectacular when they flower.  She has one variety which is quite unusual, a variegated red and white,  a  late spring bloomer,  and it puts on a real show every year !    ( I’ll post a picture when it blooms,  it’s worth seeing if you love flowers.)  One of my favorite places to see masses and masses of  blooming camellias is at  Bay Creek Golf Resort in Cape Charles, Virginia, which has just amazing landscaping throughout.  The  roads are built  with  one-way lanes  and wide  medians separate  the two lanes.   The medians are  lushly landscaped  with a huge variety of  showy plants that bloom throughout the spring and fall and  the colorful  “Knock-out”  variety roses which bloom here from early spring until very late fall.  Needless to say, the camellias there are simply gorgeous,  massed under tall pines and hardwoods. ( One of the benefits of buying a home at Bay Creek is that the landscaping throughout is so beautiful,   it’s just eye candy all the way home !  )   So, it’s official  !    The robins are here, a few gold finches have already been seen and the brightly colored flowers  of  camellia japonica  have stamped  their imprimatur upon the landscape.  Spring has sprung on Virginia’s Eastern Shore !      P.S.   Check out    www.easternshoremastergardeners.com   for some great gardening tips on gardening on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.

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Winter Water Warriors– Chilling For Charity, The Cape Charles, Virginia “February FREEZE” !

Saturday, February 19th, 2011
Dashing into the Chesapeake Bay in February for Habitat for Humanity charity event

Out They Go! Cape Charles, Virginia's "February Freeze" charity event for Habitat for Humanity

Last  Saturday  (February 12,2011)  I decided that if I wasn’t brave enough to sport my bathing suit in 50 degree weather and go for a dip in 42 degree  salty waters of the Chesapeake Bay,   that the very least I could do was to  support those who were brave enough.  This was the 15th Annual  “February Freeze”,  a winter splash  from the Cape Charles beach into the chilly waters of the Chesapeake Bay  to benefit  The Eastern Shore  Branch of  Habitat for Humanity.  Cape Charles’  beachfront was buzzing with both participants and spectators,  all laughing and chattering away, waiting for the start gun.   Since it was low tide at the start time,  I was able to stand out on a small sandbar,  wrapped in  a  heavy jacket and armed with my  camera and video Flip,  and look  back at the winter water warriors standing at the ready at  water’s edge… waiting  and freezing,  freezing and waiting.    Clearly,  they don’t call it the “February Freeze”  for nothing !   I just couldn’t even imagine myself standing in the  wind,  on the beach,  in my bathing suit,  much less actually getting  wet.  The official Dip was to take place at noon but I think the actual start time ended up being 12:10 pm.  One might think a only ten minute delay was pretty punctual but not when you are properly dressed,  in a bathing suit,  for the Dip,  but not for the actual weather, which that day included winds blowing at 15  knotts !

Victor Abrahamian takes a shallow swim in the Chesapeake Bay at Cape Charles for Habitat for Humanity charity event

Victor Abrahamian wows the crowd watching from the beach with a full body swim at the 2011 Cape Charles "February Freeze"

From start to finish,  the 2011 February Freeze took  just about  two minutes.  Last to leave the water was Victor Abrahamian , no surprise,  Victor having been a swim coach for 44 years . Victor was looking forward to really getting wet,  and proceeded  to wow the crowd by taking  a shallow swim as he made his way back to the Cape Charles beach.    All in all,  about  44  brave souls participated,  winter water warriors each and every one of them,   raising  over 4,700.00  dollars from this charity event for Habitat for Humanity. Eastern Shore Habitat for Humanity And each participant  who raised over $ 35.00  was rewarded with a delicious and steaming hot lunch.     What a great cause but what a crazy event !   Yet as I left the beach Saturday, I thought to myself,  possibly,  just maybe,  next year.  We’ll see.    Maybe…

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On The Eastern Shore Of Virginia, It’s Singing In The Rain……. Again !

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

No snowing, no icing, no sleeting, just rain, sweet rain here on Virginia's Eastern Shore today

It  truly feels unreal,  a strange weather disconnect between Virginia’s Eastern Shore and a  wide  areas of nearby states.  Flipping on CNN this morning while waiting for the coffee to brew,  it was just amazing to see the storm pictures on the screen and hear the reported stories.  Thundersnow in Chicago, the snow coming down at 2-3 inches per hour,  with thunder,  lightening and temps near zero.  (Rahm Immanual, you are one strong dude to be battling to return to that climate ! )     Video of 20 inches coming down in Oklahoma,  parts of Wisconsin reporting snow drifts of 10 to 15  feet,  a story of  a snow bank so high in New York that one couple’s dog climbed up the snow and onto their roof  !   Good golly, Miss Molly !    6000 +   flights cancelled because of this storm,  must be close to a record.   It made me shiver to just hear these stories.  Santa, please, please,  please,  bring  all these  folks gift certificates for some  artic weight Patagonia long johns next year !

Then I opened the door to let the dogs out,  took a tentative step onto the wet deck,  a few puddles there from the rain last night and a light sprinkle on- going this morning, fog obscuring views across the water  but temperature-wise, quite mild,  definitely no Patagonia long johns needed here.  (Although I have to say that Youngest Son loves  Patagonia shirts and slacks,  absolutely swears by them,  so I’m pretty familiar with the Christmas gift certificate thingy.  Check them out at www.patagonia.com.)  Then a quick boot-up of  the computer confirmed a very nice day for us in the offing, temperatures here on the Eastern Shore expected to be in the 60’s today  and hovering between the 40’s and 50’s  the rest of the week.  But the weather map showed a nasty streak of deep purple across our neighboring states,  signs of the huge ice storm which is brewing up trouble today.   Freezing rain and sleet is expected to leave up to an inch of ice  in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and  into New England,  which will also be hammered with still more snow.  A bit of trivia– www.weather.com ,  my go-to  web weather source whose headline today is  ” New Month, Same Report : Major Winter Storm On Tap”,  explains that the reason that ice storms cause so many power outages is that a mere 1/2 inch of ice on a  utility wire weighs 500 pounds.  It’s no wonder that  the inch of ice expected to accumulate today in those areas is expected to create significant power outages.     

After nearly 25 years of enjoying the mild and pleasant 4 season weather  here on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, truly I can’t imagine living in a climate where you get pounded every winter by terrible cold weather and the days are usually grey and dreary.   And the snow shoveling, the high heating bills,  the bitter cold would be  bad enough but,  in the end,  I  really, really  just don’t see myself as a Patagonia Long John kind of girl !   No,  give me  a coastal life with weather moderated by the  influences of the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean which surround our slender peninsula.    Give me a life with the short mild and sunny winters of  the Eastern Shore of Virginia,  a climate  where farmers start plowing and planting by the first of March.   Give me a life with the long cool springs with camillias that bloom by the end of  February and falls with clear blue skies and gorgeous Indian Summer days.  Give me a life with the golden warm sunshine and tangy salt breezes of  easy-living summers on  Virginia’s Eastern Shore.  In 1608,  Captain John Smith of  the Virginia Company of London fame,  while exploring the areas around what is now Cape Charles, Virginia,  wrote in his journal  that   ” Heaven and Earth never agreed better to frame a place for  man’s habitation” .   True  303 years ago and still true today.  So even though it will be raining here today it won’t  be snowing and blowing or sleeting  and  icing .   So I repeat what I said in my post of January 27th,  I’m singing and smiling about today’s rain here on the  Eastern Shore of Virginia !!     P.S. If  you live in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey,  Connecticut and other nearby areas  and you’ve been dreaming of getting out from under bad weather but want someplace close to easily keep in touch with friends and family,  consider a coastal lifestyle  here on the Shore.  Take a look at our waterfront, water access, golf,  town and county and historic properties  listings on www.blueheronva.com .  P.P.S.  Remember what Capt. Smith said– no better place for man’s habitation !

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Singing In The Rain Here On Virginia’s Eastern Shore

Thursday, January 27th, 2011

Gene Kelly in "Singing In The Rain" -- One of my very favorite old movies

Well, maybe not exactly singing in the rain, because I have a terrible singing voice, but definitely smiling about the rain !    In a  December post describing  the Christmas 2010 snowfall we had here on the Eastern Shore of Virginia,  I mentioned that our temperate  coastal climate is definitely one of our area’s great attributes,  one of the many delightful aspects of  our coastal livestyle.   Usually when areas nearby are wrestling around with snow,  here we are having rain.  Being a slender peninsula bordered to the east by the Atlantic Ocean and to the west by the Chesapeake Bay, the proximity of these large bodies of water helps moderate our temperatures in both summer and winter,  so that we  remain  warmer in the winter than nearby areas and cooler in summer  ( plus we get delightful summer breezes blowing gently off the Chesapeake Bay. )  So even though it rained yesterday for most of the day,  pouring buckets from time to time,  light showers in-between,  I was glad to see it.  Not for us the snarled traffic, snow,  slush and 400,000 + homes without power this morning in the Washington DC metro area, with some folks reportedly being trapped last night in a 13 hour commute as described  at  www.washingtonpost.com .    Not for us the 15 inches of snow that fell in New York City and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut, that closed schools, airports, offices, etc.  as reported at  www.nytimes.com .  For us not even the comparatively puny 11 inches of snowfall in Boston which created  massive morning commute problems today.  Nope,  for us yesterday it was high temps in the 40’s and rain !   Sweet, sweet  rain, refilling farm ponds,  recharging aquifers,  giving my car a needed wash,  irrigating the long  line of  dwarf azaleas we planted last fall along our driveway,  pattering on the roof,  a quiet  sound and especially  welcome in lieu of  the snow, snow, snow piling up in other areas.  ( If you’re sick of  freezing cold, snowstorms  and ice storms but like a moderate four season climate, check out our great coastal listings on www.blueheronva.com .  ) So, yes, yes,  yes,  once again our traditional moderate climate has proved true,  no snow for Virginia’s Eastern Shore.  I’m smiling about the  rain,  just smiling about the rain.

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Be Careful What You Wish For……..

Monday, January 3rd, 2011

Last year  ( actually a  few posts ago ) I was bemoaning the brisk breezes off the water but hoping for a little snow.   Ha !   As my father often said,  be careful what you wish for because your wish might come true.   And did it come true,  in spades.  On Christmas Eve Day,  Don Slater,  my favorite weatherman at WAVY tv 10 in Norfolk, Virginia was forecasting that the whole East Coast was  in for a whopper,  that  instead of blowing out to sea as previously thought,  the storm would be blanketing most of  North Carolina with up to 6-8 inches and would then work its way towards us,  bringing 4 inches, maybe more.  Although I was already re-thinking my  little wish,  I’m sure many a child here on Virginia’s Eastern Shore  was gazing  out the window,  thinking  WOW,  bring it on !  ( And at our house, definitely our two Newfies,  Pumpkin and Honey,  had visions of snowflakes dancing through their heads. ) 

The Weather Outside Is Frightful, Inside It's So Delightful, Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

The snow actually started  just as we were sitting down to dinner on Christmas Day.  It had already been a  long but exciting day, starting with the arrival of  Group One consisting of two “big kids”, two little kids and two brand new puppies for brunch  ( everybody had a wonderful time, the puppies were adorable ),  moved on to phone calls to those far away,  a  visit  from those having dinner elsewhere, then on to Group Two for  dinner.  Actually, at our house,  Christmas dinner is always a  simple affair,  unlike Thanksgiving where my eldest daughter thinks dinner isn’t complete without at least six or seven different side dishes, including  the always mandatory homemade mac and cheese  and collard greens  ( I’m not originally from the South but have taken well to the Southern notion that collards,  cooked with a little bit of country ham for seasoning,  are a  “must”  on Thanksgiving ). Offerings of  pecan pie,  pumpkin pie and possibly coconut cake tempt one from the dessert table.   The Christmas menu in contrast is quite simple and always the same– roast beef,  twice-baked potatoes,  a green veggie,  a big green salad,  cheesecake  and pecan pie for dessert.  Potatoes and pies  made ahead,  salad greens washed, spun dry and popped into Tupperware  ahead,  mushrooms for the peas or green beans all sauteed,  everything tucked into the refrigerator,  the  cheesecake courtesy of  The Cheesecake Factory,    my world- famous, well,  family-famous,  port wine gravy started a day ahead so flavors can marry overnight— absolutely no cooking to do on  The Day,   just pop the roast into the oven and finish the gravy.   But back to the snow,  which started  just as we were  getting settled into dinner.

Pumpkin and Honey, The Snow Dogs

I flipped on the outside lights so everyone could enjoy the sight of  big,  fat flakes slowly drifting down—  they were indeed big fat flakes but they were not slowly drifting,  they were pretty much twirling and swirling at a pretty rapid rate,  giving me my first clue that  Slater’s  forecast might be right on the mark.  It was a beautiful sight though,  large white flakes set against the night sky.  Snow is a  rarity on the southern tip of the Virginia Eastern Shore– usually if  it snows nearby,  it  just rains here because of the moderating influence of having the Chesapeake Bay as  our western border and the Atlantic Ocean as our eastern border– it just doesn’t get cold enough.   But not Christmas night– it was cold,  it was snowing,  it was sticking !   I think it is hard for people from areas where lots of snow is simply routine to fathom how on earth a few inches of snow can snarl up an entire region.  But if you seldom have snow then you seldom have snow tires,  snow chains are unheard of  and you have no practice driving over snow and ice.   And your municipality has very little snow removal equipment.   So trust me when I say that 4 inches of snow here closes schools, offices and the county– it’s an official Snow Day,  break out the hot chocolate and marshmallows !  So if you’re still braving winters in New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and other icy places but are considering real estate on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, relax, take heart,  usually it warms up right away,  within a day things are generally back to normal. 

Dawn, Clear But Chilly

But not this time– according to official reports, this was our biggest snow in nearly a quarter of a century and it was the 7th largest snow on record in Norfolk !  As everyone was saying their goodnights on Christmas it was snowing hard and by the time we woke up on the 26th it was just about a white-out.  The Newfies were so excited,  they dashed out,  practically did summersaults  in the snow,  raced around wildly,  then plopped down in a  little drift,  just chilling out !  Dawn on the 27th brought bright pink skies over a thick blanket of  dry white flakes.   By the end of that storm Cape Charles, Virginia  had officially had about 7-8  inches  of the cold white stuff and it was pretty clear that  it wasn’t going to disappear overnight.   However,  I was prepared to relax and just enjoy it– office closed, new Christmas book at my elbow ( autobiography of Mark Twain) —- let it snow, let it snow. let it snow !  (  Of course the forecast of  50 + degrees for Thursday was very comforting !  )  And  when I saw the snow totals from New York City (23  inches)  and parts of New Jersey (26 inches)  and Cape Cod– well,  let’s just say that I felt pretty doggone lucky to be here on the Eastern Shore of Virginia,  where our  mere 7-8 inches was  one for the record books.   But I will be a bit more careful next time about wishing for snow— because we might actually get some !

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Gone Is The Wind But Dreaming Of A Little Snow

Monday, December 20th, 2010

One of the things I have always loved about the Eastern Shore of Virginia is its great weather- long pleasant autumns and springs,  hot parts of summer and winter quite short.  And fall this year was beautiful,  gorgeous blue October skies,  perfect temperatures most of the time, trees more exuberant than usual in November with their colorful foliage.   The first week of December was nice too– started out in the high 60’s and averaged in the mid-40’s.   But  last week was a proverbial pain in the you-know-what, with temperatures in the mid-30’s and breezy too.   Definitely not my kind of weather at all but sometimes you get  to take the bad with the good.

Sunrise Over The Orchard

And wouldn’t you know it,  these chilly temps and windy days came just as we were waiting for the installer to come back to add a loop to the dog’s invisible fence.  When the fence was originally installed we didn’t run it across the gate area figuring that the gate was so far away from the house that the dogs would never figure out that it was a free zone.   Wrong again,  the two Newfies  figured it all out although it took them a while  to do so.  Naturally they took advantage of this new-found knowledge to sneak a visit to the dogs next door,  next door being about a 50 acre farm so they have a ways to travel to make a visit.  And although our human neighbor loves Pumpkin and Honey,  his dogs are a bit scared of  them.  Pumpkin is now sized more like a small pony than a dog,  Honey a close second.  There is nothing in the world, including food,  that Pumpkin and Honey like better than to meet other dogs and start to play,  making little woofing sounds  and doing the prancing around thing to encourage a game of tag.  However,  to a small dog,  I imagine that the so-called little woofing sounds are more like a deep base barks and the prancing around likely involves having a 150 pound playmate’s  foot land on you somewhere.  So it’s easy to see why our dogs can sometimes be a bit intimidating to their smaller brethren.  In the meantime,  before the installer got  here  ( he does this only part-time so unfortunately,  it was  going to be another few days ) as the person who gets up first,  I was elected to take the dogs out for their first duty call of the day,  usually in my fluffy warm bathrobe,  fleece scarf,  maybe even gloves.  The last couple of days before he came were cold and windy,  unusually windy,  I had been muttering hurry up,  hurry up,  HURRY UP as the dogs dawdled around.   But then Tuesday the wind was gone,  it was just beautiful,  with crisp,  calm air.  Out there about 6:30 am,  the sun was just coming up over the woods,  the sky an azure blue,  punctuated with  small,  fluffy clouds, everything overlaid with a deep, deep pink glow,  just gorgeous.   

A Little Sunrise Water Colour In Shades Of Pink And Violet

 Zipping  Honey back  inside,  I grabbed my camera,  setting out with Pumpkin  to try and capture the wintry scene.  High overhead,  honking  geese were heading in the direction of our neighbor’s pond– the sounds always intrigue Pumpkin,  although I’m never sure if she can actually see them,  she does love hearing them.   I was a bit late to film the very deepest colors over the orchard but the waterfront  was starting to pink up nicely.  Click, click, click,   then back inside for a hot cup of coffee,  a  pot of  “Machipongo Morning”,  a delicious blend from the Eastern Shore Roasting Company located in Exmore, Virginia.   I  brewed  an extra full  pot  because the weatherman had said  we were going to get an inch or more of actual white flakes before it turned to rain.  Since Northampton County almost always gets  rain instead when nearby places get snow ( the moderating influence of  the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean at our very narrow southern tip), when  the weatherman says snow,  I always want to make the most of  this little treat of  Nature,  by  just relaxing,  coffee mug in hand,  watching the flakes as they fall,  fall,  fall,  knowing  that likely they will be melted and gone by the next day.

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I Can’t Believe That My Favorite Month On Virginia’s Eastern Shore Is Almost Over !

Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

From Our Deck The Water Looks Bluer In October

October on the Eastern Shore of Virginia is just the best month of the year,  to me anyway.  The clear blue skies and the Indian Summer warm days are so delightful,  nearly perfect really.  The leaves start to turn,  but very slowly.   My dogwoods and crepe myrtles are coloring up beautifully  but the deep reds and oranges of hickory and oaks have yet to really start.  Fall camellias are just starting  to bloom,  pansies are ready to plant,  time to put collards and kale in the garden and buy a few mums for the porch steps to enjoy as I come and go.   Sitting on the deck enjoying the views,  for some reason the water just seems bluer to me in October.  Fall here is  long- sleeve- cotton- blouse weather,  not yet time for a sweater or windbreaker,  which is good because I hate toting that stuff around,  putting them on,  taking them off.  ( Actually I’d rather be a little cold than lug a sweater around even in December.  January is a different story. )

Colorful Fall Foliage In The Blue Ridge Mountains

And there’s always a lot going on in October both on the Eastern Shore and around Virginia.  It’s almost time for our annual Blue Ridge mountain trip to Carter Mountain Orchard  in Charlottesville, Virginia,   home to  Pink Lady,  Fugi,  Stayman Winesap, Yellow Delicious and  Granny Smith apples— all favorites of our family.  Time to put a couple bushels in the garage refrigerator for pies and Waldorf salads, etc. through the winter.   Fall foliage will be at its peak up in the Blue Ridge Mountains,  a lovely sight indeed.  And the 20 + wineries there will nearly all be having special tasting room treats.  It’s an easy trip,  just over a three hour drive  from Virginia’s Eastern Shore to Charlottesville  ( C-ville as the locals there call it ),  through some beautiful scenery.  Going to Carter Mountain for apples, apple cider and apple butter plus some side ventures for wine to Jefferson Vineyard and Barboursville Vineyard,  both a part of the Monticello appellation ( www.monticellowinetrail.com )  is annual October tradition for my husband and I.   Part of the  “October is my favorite month”  thing —  good apples,  good wines ,  good times.

October Is The Time To Plant Pansies And Mums On Virginia's Eastern Shore

Here on the Eastern Shore,  the October foodie thing,  the annual Harvest Festival has come and gone.  ( In fact, I just finished a week of rice cakes and cottage cheese for lunch,  thanks to over- indulgence at the Harvest Fest,  especially on crabcakes and the always fantastic sweet potato pie.)   The October birdie thing,  the 18th annual Birding Festival  has also come and gone.   But the birds,  especially the beautiful songbirds and large raptors,  are still migrating through.  Good luck guys and gals,  it’s a long,  long way to Central and South America.   ( Ever wonder if  birds say to themselves,  in bird speak obviously,   ” This migration thing is a severe pain in the tukus —  let’s just say   “No”  next year and go to Miami instead !”  )   The annual Chili and Chowder Cook-off  held in Chincoteague, Virginia  each year in  October for the last eleven years has also come and gone.  The chili and  chowder part is great–  I love chili,  my husband loves clam chowder,  so it’s  a  win-win event for us.  But Treat or Treat is still to come.  I’m looking forward  pumpkin carving and walking around the  “big block”  in the little town of Cheriton with my grandkids on Halloween as they collect enough goodies to provide another year of  job security for their dentist.   And then, inevitably,  October,  my favorite month on Virginia’s Eastern Shore,  will be over yet again.

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Rare Sea Turtles Released into the Wild From the Cape Charles, Virginia Beach

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

Caught in a Tangled Web

Rare Kemps-ridley Sea Turtle Released into the Wild

In  June at the public beach on the Chesapeake Bay in the little coastal town of Cape Charles, Virginia on Virginia’s beautiful Eastern Shore, conservation scientists who specialize in the rescue and rehabilitation of marine animals released 12 extremely rare Kemps-Ridley sea turtles into the sea.  These turtles had spent the winter at the Virginia Institute of Marine Scince (VIMS) aquarium in Virginia Beach, VA,  reviving from their near-death paralysis due to exposure to  cold and injuries from power boats, having been rescued from beaches all along the East Coast of the United States. With a world population of only 2,000, the Kemps-Ridley sea turtles represent the hopes of marine conservationists around the world.  Hundreds of well-wishers gathered throughout the morning in the bright sunshine and the warm salt waters of the lower Chesapeake Bay to see them off.  Children and adults alike were absolutely astonished by the robust health and activity of the turtles as each one was carried by a volunteer down to the water’s edge and carefully dipped into the sea to be released. Off they swam,  like birds in flight, flippers pumping in quick rythm.  The waders cheered and jumped out of the way to give the turtles room to roam.  May they all swim merrily on their way and have lots of babies!

Rare Kemps-ridley Sea Turtle Released into the Wild

At Cape Charles VA town beach, a rare sea turtle is released into the wild.

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