Visiting, touring, gardening

Rottweilers in Williamsburg

My mother has been visiting since last Tuesday.  She heads back on Kansas on Thursday.  We've been pretty busy, trying to make the most of our time together, but mostly just spending time together. 

She cleaned out all the pots in my container garden, we've been shopping for plants, and doing some planting when it's warm enough.  We spent the weekend in Williamsburg and had a great time.  Today we went to Ashlawn-Highland.  We had been both places before but it had been several years in the case of Ashlawn and many years in the case of Williamsburg. 


The label for the new Scottish Ale.
It's got a high alcohol content, so we
called it the Big Hairy Beast.
Deborah drew a Scottish Deerhound,
brilliantly, as usual.

We've eaten out a few times and I've been cooking (crabcakes, steaks, scallops, and breakfast casserole) all stuff that my mother likes.  I'm going to make biscuits and gravy and corned beef hash tomorrow morning and we'll eat out again tomorrow night with Clay and his mother.  It hasn't been a great week for my new plant-based diet, but I've been eating more reasonable portions, coming to terms with the fact that at 50-something, I can no longer eat like a 20-something.  We have lots of leftovers.
 


That's a hummingbird approaching one of
the feeders on our front porch.

Mother has tried our home brews and likes them.  Today we sampled the two newest, the new version of the Redbone ale, and our new Scottish ale, the Big Hairy Beast.  They need to sit in the bottles for another week but I think they will both be pretty good. 

I've been keeping up with work, somehow, even without taking any days off. 


Trooper has become my mother's friend. He goes up to her for petting and she thinks he's pretty wonderful. She's right, of course.


I was more cautious than my mother but Trooper came through like, well, like a trooper.
He seems have accepted her as part of the family now.  It just takes a little time with him.
He's kind of like me; we don't like new people.



Ashlawn-Highland has got to be the most modest presidential home I've ever visited.
It does have some really wonderful furnishings inside, however, and about 70% of the
furnishings are original pieces owned by Monroe.

 

These two pictures show the contrast between the homes of an English colonial governor
and an American president, just a few decades later.





Rear view of the Governor's Palace in Williamsburg, taken from the gardens.
If you love history, Williamsburg is a fascinating place.
If you don't love history, you should.