Things we love...

January days on the beach score pretty high on this list, straight after sledging on saturday - crazy meteorological times indeed.

So the list of things that make life pretty good over here... 

Big blue skies - local volunteer radio - Amish doughnuts - almond butter - wild swimming - Shields Market and Joe's Inn - Mexican Diners - HBO - Thrift stores - Billy's Bread - easy parking - pumpkins - Anthropologie - festive lights - service - Obama! - progressive Episcopalians

Beaver Lake, Pocahontas State Park

Incited a a group of well groomed teenagers on the lake's pontoon to retrieve and hurl logs onto the ice, having spent a good deal of time trying to break through it ourselves...

Up in the bare trees the sound of woodpeckers and inland, a tiny fairy lake full of leaves, with a narrow (and fairly high!) trunk for traversing and a giant pipe for peering down.

Sunday DIY or this? This won!

Slope 1, Maymont Park

Out on the slopes early for the best run in central Richmond... It was sunny, the bison were roaming (fence artfully out of shot) and the snow lay fairly deep and crisp and even.

Things we miss...

There are some days our distance from the UK feels further than normal and as I prepared for a play-date for a cute kid with a gluten intolerance I reached for my flapjack recipe and found that I needed golden syrup... but there was none in the supermarket and it became worse when we found out that in America a flapjack is in fact a form of pancake. However I'm calmer since sourcing the golden syrup from the fabulous World Market.
My maple syrup version being consumed here...

Then on to the passing of Michael Winner - a North London movie man who never wavered from who he was and what he loved about life - food and girls (and teddy bears) amongst them, and certainly was not bothered if he offended anyone. He is rather a loss to British culture and I'm certain I didn't share his politics.

Today's shocker was a PBS broadcast on the link between soya milk consumption in young children and breast cancer (great!) and precocious puberty... so it's off to Wegman's stores in the Washington DC area for Simpli Naked Oat and a bit of shift in our breakfast routine. More than sometimes I long for Waitrose...

Other things we can't easily replace:
Aquafresh children's mint toothpaste - the views - Kenco decaf - Garnetts pickled onions - Quorn sausages - plain pork sausages - M&S stir-fry veggie mixes - Lavazza & Illy decaf - Tyrrells crisps - Fortnum & Masons (!) Piccalilli - Yorkshire tea - Maltesers and other chocolate - Dorset Muesli - Great tights - Fat Face clothing - Sunday Observer - Bertolli spread - National Trust - Pressed cod roe - George's traditional Fish & Chips - Lamb - mini pork pies

Inauguration 2013

Obama was in the Capitol building in the distance, we may almost have had the same view from our front garden in Richmond. From a mile away we could barely see the balcony where the action was taking place, though there were megatrons for close-ups. However we were there for the atmosphere, and it was serious - no fireworks (!), yet amazing. Okay, and yes, J fell asleep during the Big Man's address, despite the cold and Beyonce did sing/lip-sync with style.

Inauguration hosts had guided from the metro station at Arlington Cemetery along the National Mall, which did involve some major detours  around security cordons and zones for those with tickets (felt most by those who'd forgotten their child's stroller). However they gave us flags to wave and badges to adorn our multiple layers and one was helpfully (?!) on hand to take a family photo for us.

The girls' favourite parts of the day? The merry-go-round, the metro and of course, the Ikea food-stop on the way home.

Lincoln Memorial, National Mall

Lincoln's foot was not as big as the storybook suggested but M was still impressed to see him. We were glad to find warm, clean loos and on the way home, a fantastically sunny view of the newly restored reflecting pool, plus hot drinks and a seat from which to gaze over the Potomac river and witness the 150+ bus procession bringing in the bands for the parade.

More homemade...

Inspired by others... I got our the embroidery thread and stitched daisies in the snow-reflected sunshine. All for a sweet kid in the Museum District, whose 4th Birthday party is today.

M is still working on her double-stocking (ex-leggings) for J's forthcoming celebration - I am to add a princess, in due course, to a specified design.

Snow Day # 1, 2013

The best bit of Snow Day was sledging at the Carillion - we got three on a borrowed sledge (ours is best for two), then M made snow angels and a fantastic snowman, plus there were two left in our front yard from her late night action - organic carrots for noses, no less! J took to the slopes with fearless speed...

Calipso, the Burnese Mountain dog, kept track of us all as we yelped down the slopes and trudged back up. It was like something out of a storybook and then it all turned to muddy slush and we went home for hot (soya) cocoa.

Buns, Rituals Salon and Spa

Sometimes all a girl really wants is a bun! We think 80s Demi Moore is style, we're not sure who she's referencing, but suspect Disney is to blame. They even got out the hairspray - I shuddered...

Dutch Gap Conservation Area

We love an industrial feature and this is a mammoth coal-fired station beside a conservation area with peaceful cycle paths and floating decks and little beaches and bird hides and even an historic village (shut for the season). Led by the Italians we embarked on a 4 mile epic adventure, with J kitting herself up to fish for baby belugas (!) and the others constructing fairy dens, amidst the mangrove-style water's edge.

The low grey sky gave way to sun and balmy 20 degree temperatures... all now a distant memory of course.

Strange Matter, RVA

In Strange Matter, a punk vegan friendly cafe-bar venue, to see Pedals on Our Pirate Ships, we both relived a student memory neither of us actually had!

We may have been the only people in the venue needing to arrange child care and we were pleased to have a seat.

Four billings on the schedule were excellent, and in an oddly American way, each giving genuine thanks and shouts-outs to the others.

We had tasty hummus and (hot) chips, Czech beer, and a really lively evening out, plus could just stroll home.

The girls had a great night-in with neighbour Ameigh.

The dramatic red light in the bottom picture is actually a passing ambulance.

Sub Rosa, Church Hill

Chocolate on bread that leaves Nutella for dust... fabulous Turkish breads, grilled cheeses and bits, plus pastries, if you're early enough, followed by proper mint tea - true bakery joy.

Richmond Southside Transfer Station

aka THE DUMP. Saturday's destination of choice after a major clearance of junk (including a wet bar!), cobwebs and spider egg sacks, from our termite infested garage and soon to be P's open workshop - seriously satisfying and wearying.

So the process: back up to a knee-high wall and throw your trash onto the tarmac the other side, whilst standing in the stuff that hasn't made it, before the biggest scooper truck on earth then rolls past... no sorting or sense of the environmental here. Pull away and wonder what you have done leaving behind  Nottinghamshire's Langar dump and the guys who helped lug our stuff and sifted out crazy toys for the kids.

First Friday 2013, Broad Street

So we headed for a back street and did Gallery 5, an old fire house, now gallery. It was our first time and a magical affair as we stepped from the dark into a room of glowing colanders and gleaming car parts, fashioned into lights sculptures, reflecting across the walls. Upstairs we almost made a purchase from Adam Juresko's wall of collages and paint. Some red, colour-test paint cards cut into triangles and satisfyingly patterned on rich brown board - perhaps next month...

Back at our usual haunt at 1708 things got decidedly brilliant - a miniature 'ice' rink for confined hockey games and us slip sliding about, all thanks to Eric McMaster of VCU. Sport and it's rigmarole and all the tensions of shifting the rules, conveyed with such palpable energy - we loved it!

Back to school...

...in new sparkly shoes, new hand-me-downs c/o Finn and Mathilda, new flower-in-hair clip and disembodied-hood styling... super cute!

Buon Anno 2013

A day of fantastically home-made fare - according to our Italian hosts, it's soup for health (butternut n carrot); pasta for happiness (tortellini as seen) and puy lentils for money, plus we added in a good dash of Prosecco for joy.  Such a satisfying start to 2013, under grey skies with the promise of rain and possibly snow...

French toast for breakfast too with great coffee.