Late summer in small town Virginia

We've had an amazingly hot and dry summer this year. I think we had the hottest and driest June on record, quite a counterpoint to the snowy and cold winter! I believe we had something like 40 days in a row of above-90 degrees temperature. Thankfully, i have central air conditioning...i got it years ago because Lesley had feline asthma and her vet said she'd be much better off if the windows could be kept closed--and the only way it would be bearable to have the windows closed would be to have air conditioning. The cats have been feeling warm but pretty comfortable.

Fuzzy laying on the 3rd desk's book shelf, keeping me company while i telecommute

Sylvie checcking out Farmers Market bounty: peppers, Napa cabbage, corn, 2 different mixes of cherry tomatoes, new potatoes (in bag), radishes

Sylvie staking out my desk chair, which the cats have pretty thoroughly trashed. Why buy a new one if that'll get all shredded, too?

Louie snuggled into his "Hairy Blankie"

Gingy relazing on the kitchen doormat (yes, she's the one who has peed repeatedly on the back door)

Another fine part of summer here is my town's tradition of offering outdoor concerts every Saturday evening in a joint partnership with Bluemont Concerts. The musicians set up on the sidewalk across the street and everyone sets up blankets and lawn chairs on the lawn of the Warren Green building, a Civil War era building that now houses some County offices, next to the County courthouse complex. It's wonderful listening to all kinds of great musicians in such a family-friendly atmosphere. Different community groups provide the refreshments each week and get to keep the proceeds...it's like having a bake sale with a musical accompaniment!

Last week my quilt group provided the refreshments. We lucked out...it was a gorgeous clear warm evening, not dreadfully hot and humid as so many other Saturday nights had been, and the music was fantastic--the Martinsburg Jazz Orchestra, a group of about 8 guys (from an ensemble of 16) playing swing and big band music.

Here's what it looked like from the back of the crowd, as the lights just started coming on.

Martinsburg Jazz Orchestra entertains as night falls

One thing that doesn't show in the picture are the bats and swallows flittering around overhead catching the bugs who are attracted to the lights.

Here are two of my friends from the quilt group with our table of goodies. In addition to the usual homemade cookies and brownies, bottled water, iced tea, and lemonade, we also had trail mix, pretzels, homemade caramel corn, spiced nuts and spicy popcorn both custom made by one of the group, and a peck of peaches picked that very day by a member who hadn't had time to bake. By the end of the evening we only had a few peaches and a few bags of trail mix and cookies left...a very successful evening for us. And so much fun, too!

Quilters and goodies for sale at the Bluemont concert

Saturday's Garden and Farmer's Market Loot

My rugosa rose. Not fancy, and with flowers growing at the ends of long canes, but they smell so delightfully rose-y, and make really nice rose hips.

Wild blackberries. Looks like it will be a good year for berries this year.


Some sort of wildflower/weed growing in my front lawn. I had thought these were the wonderfully-named "pussytoes" but i don't think they are...whatever they are, i like them, and try to mow around them so they get to bloom.


My mountain laurel, bursting into bloom. The previous owner had cut this bush to ground but it resprouted from the roots and is quite a nice size now. I really like mountain laurels, even though in the wild they grow into huge tangles that are impossible to hike through!

Here's my gorgeous Festiva Maxima peony. As usual, the huge flowers weighed down the stems so i had to hold this one up for her portrait. My whole front yard is filled with wonderful spicy peony fragrance from this one plant that has about 8 blooms on it.

Bowman's Root, a lovely native wildflower that doesn't mind being in the shade. It's in the same bed with a pair of Astilbe that are getting ready to bloom soon and the Goat's beard (see below).

The goat's beard (aruncus dioicus) starting to bloom. It's so pleasant to have this spot of brightness in the shade garden.

Amongst all the goodies that i brought back from the Farmer's Market, the thing that the girls were most interested in was this "cat grass" plant. My friend Sabry http://www.sharkawifarm.com/ brings all sorts of wonderful herb plants, dried herbs, and teas to the market and he said that my cats would love this...it's some type of barley, apparently. Gingy and Sylvie liked it well enough to coexist (barely) while both chomping on opposite sides of it.

Fuzzy was more interested in a little nap while Gingy kept chewing.

Sorry about the amateur quality of the video (and the fact that i didn't turn off the radio!)...it begins with a deep growl from Sylvie and ends when Sylvie coughed to dislodge a piece of grass from her throat...

Another lovely Saturday

I had to get up early (for me on a Saturday) because i needed to get to the Farmer's Market before picking up a friend to go to a bat mitzvah....which i had to get to early because i was bringing the yarmulkes and prayer shawls and Kiddush cup (for blessing the wine) in my car!

The Farmer's Market had double the number of vendors as last week. And everyone had gorgeous greens, since this last week's cooler, rainy weather was perfect for them. As early as i got there, i still didn't get there early enough to get the first asparagus of the season *pout*, but i did get a beautiful head of red leaf lettuce, a bag of mizume, a bunch of radishes in mixed colors, a bunch of rapini, a slice of berry pie, and little bags of biscotti, rugelach, and almond cookies. All set for veggies and breakfasts for the week! Oh yes, and the lady with fresh salsa and chips was back, too....yummmm.

The bat mitzvah was wonderful. I've known the young lady since she was about 4 years old. It was wonderful to see how confident she was, and how well she read and chanted the Hebrew. Rose, our lay leader, did a superb job of preparing her...but it was up to her to carry it off, and carry it off she did! There were probably 150 people there, which for our tiny congregation was huge...lots of friends and family from New York came down for the event.

After the ceremony, they moved tables into the room and set up a sit down lunch. The most amazing thing was that each table had a gorgeous glass vase on it, with flowers in a complementary color, on a quilted mat...the bat mitzvah girl's father made each of the vases himself from blown glass and his mother--the girl's grandmother-- made all the mats. I got to take one of the vases home!

I made two cards, one for the gift from me and one for the gift from the congregation, which i presented. The young lady volunteered at the local animal shelter as her special project leading up to her bat mitzvah, so i put a kitty on her card from me!

On the way home i stopped off at Borders to pick up a gift for next weekend's bar mitzvah...i realized if i didn't get it today, i won't have a chance until the weekend, when it will be too late!

This evening, the cats have been playing musical nests...and i had the camera at hand when Fuzzy took his turn on the boogie mat...