Eden was home!

Yes, for her 10 year high school reunion. So it was a quick trip. You can read more about it on her blog. But we loved having her here briefly, and I even got to go to the Saints football game (second half--they lost to Landon:().

A Perfect Autumn Day in Blue Ridge Country

Last Sunday was the most beautiful day. We've had many this fall, and many of those have been hotter than usual. But this was a mild and completely clear day. We headed out to a state park we've discovered. I wish I'd known about it when the kids were young because it isn't as far as Front Royal or the mountains, but it's between where we live and there. It's called Sky Meadow State Park and was donated land by the Melon family in what has become horse country Virginia. The view of the Blue Ridge Mountains is gorgeous though and the "meadow" truly is BIG. There are hiking trails and primitive camp sites as well as a farm on which they hold events, like fall festival.

Our hero in silhouette against the Blue Ridge!

This is Sky Meadow farm house where the farmer lived with 11 children. I could just imagine them running over one of the most beautiful 1000 acres as children. The house is furnished as of about the 1850s.

A Dad shot through grasses with interesting lighting. But he misses his 35 mm Olympus!

The first "real" hike since getting my cast off. Though the hills look rolling and gentle, they were really pretty steep, but very manageable.

One of several stiles ("The cat drank the milk and when it had finished, the cat began to kill the rat, the rat began to gnaw the rope, the rope began to hang the butcher, the butcher began to kill the ox, the ox began to drink the water, the water began to quench the fire, the fire began to burn the stick, the stick began to beat the dog, the dog began to bite the pig, the pig went over the stile and the old woman got home that night!" ). Remember that story from our old nursery rhyme book?
That's just the end of it, of course.

There are many many old stone fences, and they are truly a work of art. I tried to imagine the people building them without any mortar and with many different sizes and shapes...yet they are sturdy and stand forever (it seems). Do a lot of people line up and pile them all at once? Were they slaves or the farmer himself or his 11 children?

This is the new "Blue Ridge Farm." It's for sale, and it's called something like Ovaka Farm. http://www.thomas-talbot.com/t-tovoke.htm Anyone got an extra $4 million?

The fishing pond at Sky Meadow State Park. I wish they'd named it Big Sky Meadow
because I like the way that sounds better.

The end of a perfect day in the Virginia country-side.