Hollywood Cemetery

I thought this picture really turned out nicely. That is the James River in the background, which is in flood stage because of the recent rains in Virginia. This is taken inside the Hollywood Chapel Mausoleum, which is of course on Waterview Avenue. It is a beautiful site. Tomorrow I'll post pictures of President Monroe's grave, and the Confederate Monument among other items of interest.

What's going on?

Today we visited Walkerton Tavern in Glen Allen. Built early in the 1800's it is one of the oldest original buildings in Henrico County. One of its interesting features is a folding partition wall in one of the bedrooms that was used to open up the upstairs room to accomodate more travelers. It was a popular meeting place in early Glen Allen history and the county has recently restored it and it serves as a community place of interest as well as being available for rental for parties and weddings. The picture above was taken in the gazebo where many weddings are held.

I think Mom and Dad are having a great time. Dad and I plan a trip to Pamplin Park either tomorrow or Monday. We are also planning to go to the Botanical Gardens for lunch on Saturday or Sunday.

Beetles, Basil and Bait

On the home front, we have had an invasion of Japanese Beetles , who have taken great delight in eating my basil. So, following the example of neighbors and relatives, I have set out a Bait bag trap. It contains something that smells wonderful to these little critters, and seems to work. You place the bait downwind of the object of affection (basil in this case) and they absolutely run over each other in their haste to get to the bait. You can watch them swarm in! This morning, I had one lone beetle feasting. Of course, the plant already looks like a free smorgasbord sign was posted there, but luckily they only ate number 1 plant, and ignored 2 others.

Happy Father's Day

This is one of my favorite pictures, even if blogger thinks it needs to be sideways! It is a very appropriate picture of what today is all about for I think!

Happy Fathers Day to my dad, son, brother, nephew and son-in law ! Hopefully next week at this time Dad will be here and we can celebrate with a real cake, and maybe some crab cakes! Sounds good to me! I also hope to be able to connect with Russell later today. I hope Skyler is taking him out for a fabulous sushi dinner somewhere! I love all of you, and as far as I am concerned, you are all the best there are! You all are great examples of being a father and in my dad's case, also grand-father and great-grandfather. Enjoy your special day!

Nothing too exciting going on here, though yesterday I did go to a plant sale at the the garden . (Held, gratefully after the ball game in the last post). This was an impromptu sale, not one of the usual huge vendor sales they have twice a year. They were given 1,000 bulbs to sell by a vendor in VA., and they also cleared and cleaned out starts from their own greenhouses. There were so many people there, most just snatching up what they could carry. Almost everything was $1.00, so I could not resist getting some at that price. I planted about half yesterday, and will get out in the back today and plant the rest as soon as I decide where!

Last game of the season

Once again, remember to allow time to load!

Making Cookies

You do need to allow time for this to load fully before you attempt to watch or it will be jerky. I suggest hit load, then pause button and wait for gray slider bar to show fully across bottom.

New Camera Pictures

We had a day of rain today from Alberto, and it was welcome here. Tonight as you can see from the picture, the sky is clearing and tomorrow we will be back to normal and by the end of the week, into the high 80's. I guess at last we will have on the AC. It's been enjoyable having the house open, so we'll miss hearing all the crickets and frogs at night.

This is one of the pictures I took this evening with my new camera. I have a hard time with the Macro, but if you look closely at the raindrop, you can see a reflection! Pretty cool I think! Happened entirely by accident, believe me, I could not see the reflection! There are a few more pictures at Flickr, so be sure to hop on over and see them.

We picked tomatoes

Yesterday afternoon we picked the first tomatoes from our plants, and there are lots more to come! We have about a half dozen banana peppers almost ready and the japalenos are doing nicely too. Tonight we used some of the herbs in a marinade, so it will be interesting to see the difference if any between fresh and dried.

Not much else is happening here. We are still wishing for rain, yet loving the cooler temperatures we are having. We have not had the AC unit on except for 3 days in late May. That is welcome. it's nice to have the windows open and hear the birds outside.

Tomorrow I am planning to go to the Botanical Gardens with Rebecca and the kids in the afternoon. I'll go for my scheduled swim at noon, the earliest the pool is open for free swim. A neighbor and I have started going together on MWF and we have almost worked up to swimming 30 minutes. Good progress for us.

It's been great talking to Lufkin and hearing all the news and activities. I know everyone will be sad tomorrow when Brian and Christine and baby Michele leave to go home. They will move into their new house this week, so I am sure they are excited about that.

Mom and Dad, we are planning for you to come, so be thinking when. I think anytime you want to arrive after the 19th will be fine. If our neighbors are true to form, we will have fireworks right here in the back yard!

Hope this isn't happening!

Not quite a perfect shot

I am posting this because only a few weeks ago I mentioned I never saw butterflies, or if I did they were going too fast and it was impossible to get a shot. This isn't the greatest shot, but it is a first for me! Oh, by the way, this is an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. Very common here.

Herbs and Peppers in the Garden

I promised herbs yesterday, but didn't get time to post them. Enjoy the pictures, wish you could smell them, they really have a nice scent.

Farmer in the Dell

I'm feeling very much like a farmer these days. Every morning and every night I am outside watering my garden and flowers. I'm already counting my tomatoes before they ripen and all that. That could be bad luck, but I hope not. I have NEVER had a crop of tomatoes like these, so I am mighty proud of the results so far. Of course, we haven't had one ripen yet so we haven't had a taste. I do hope they are good!

Tomorrow I promise pictures of the herbs and peppers!

Mike how do you like the detail on these shots? I love those hairs!