After our boat tour we finally got to the second half of our trip – the first part was all mountains on the way up – and ahhhh….now the beach on the way down. We were swimming in Chesapeake Bay – the water was warm and there were hardly any waves, so we mostly bobbed…
Travel Journal 8: Chincoteague
When I was 10 I read Misty of Chincoteague, and it began for me a love of reading horse stories. When I was planning our trip and looking for state parks to stay at, Kiptopeke State Park came up, on the Southern end of the Delmarva peninsula, and a reasonable drive to the island of…
Travel Journal 7: Big Meadows
After Monticello, we got to enjoy our camping spot at Big Meadows in the Big Shenandoah National Forest the second day. We weren’t quite expecting the very, very rusticness of it – nor the tons of dog poo all over our camp site, but the rangers were really nice and cleaned it all up for…
Travel Journal 6: Monticello
The drive through Virginia from Fairy Stone State Park to Big Meadows was lovely. I really like Virginia. The scenery is so very pretty and pastoral. There were so many little farms and fields we passed along the country roads. For years now, whenever I saw an interesting historical seed variety grown by Thomas Jefferson,…
Travel Journal 5: Fairy Stone State Park
We made it up to Virginia, but awfully late because we had lingered so long in Asheville. Nothing terrible happened on this drive except for the usual sibling squabbles and listening to Nightcore. It was almost dark when we got there, but we tossed up the Green Goblin (one of the other campers even helped…
Travel Journal 4: Asheville
We had a blast in Asheville. We stayed in a little cabin on my friend Sabrina’s beautiful homestead a short drive from the city. She’s been homesteading here for six years now, and this is the first time I’ve visited! She is an herbalist, and her garden is full of magical blooming herbs, all covered…
Travel Journal 3: Cloud Canyon
Our next stop was Cloud Canyon. That evening the Green Goblin went up easier than ever before, especially since there was a super handy big rock to pound the stakes in. It wasn’t until dinner that things started to get a little hairy. I was making something i would never make at home, but made…
Travel Journal 2: Tallulah Gorge
The next day’s drive brought us to Tallulah Gorge State Park in north Georgia. The drive there was only a few hours long, but it was very intense. We avoided Atlanta like the plague, but the traffic extends so far beyond it, we still found ourselves driving through 14- lane wastelands with cars almost merging…
Travel Journal 1: High Falls State Park
Well, this is it! The girls and i are off on a wild state park camping trip up to Virginia for two weeks! The trip began with a heart-stopping incident where the car refused to start, or even turn over. It had just been in for an oil change and check the day before, and…
Lime Basil Pesto
I write here from the garden this evening – the sounds of the chorus of cicadas swell in the trees, and make the whole world alive with sound. The sun is setting, still bright at the edges, with small clouds like little golden fairy castles floating above the pines. It isn’t quite gloaming yet, but…
Summer Eggplant Curry With Millet Dumplings
Midsummer is such a strange time – just like the winter solstice, when you can faintly feel the little flicker of light behind the darkness, here you can sense the dark shadows behind the stark brightness of summer. The garden is still beautiful, even in the middle of summer. This year it has been the…
Midsummer’s Homecoming
As soon as I got home, everyone rushed over to me, barking and wriggling and glad. It was wonderful to wake up at night again and hear other people breathing, to feel the dogs walking on the deck outside, scratching and playing, to have my favorite kitty Ginger snuggled purring next to me, and to…
Toadstools And Fairy Rings 