DIY Graveyard at Night

... and lit.

Halloween, The Fan

Yes, that is a Barbie's make-up station. Our opposite neighbour did debate cutting her wig brutally on one side to be totally true to the original.

The fat zebra and Cleopatra (new snake!) had their own castle and pen, though the lack of night-time aesthetic consideration and decorative finish did cause a row with the chief Artistic Director. Stuff child-led!

DIY Graveyard on Floyd

No polystyrene graves for us. With a hand-saw and some wood ends we have our own spooky set, with blood (!) thanks to J.
- Rise from the Dead
- Dare to Enter
- Here Lies 'Het Beest'

Tomorrow the artful front yard display and extension cord joy. First P needed to test-drive his new lawn mower leaf catcher set-up... with dust bowl results.

Floodwall West, RVA

There are some serious flood defences Downtown and so we ventured out to survey the ageing industrial landscape around Manchester - paper & grist mills and an old power plant, amongst the newer world of Art Works studios, loft apartment blocks, Blanchard's Coffee, Legends Brewery and Blue Bee Cidery.

There was a giant flood gate for the railway line and half way along the wall we spotted the sewage-storm water outlets. No paddling south of here!

We loved the view beneath Manchester Bridge but didn't venture too far towards the climbing wall, thanks to an abundance of poison ivy. M made the wildlife spot of the day - a beaver beside the railway tracks, before he scuttled into an old pipe...

Fall Festival, Fox

Cleopatra designed her own costume with the help of google image search and then sourced the fabric from Fantastic Thrift.

Her sibling, the fat zebra, came from next door and her lovely friend won a prize for being a whole genre - POP art! Lichtenstein would have been proud. Her skin was marked with even white dots and her speech bubble, read 'Gasp!' We were seriously impressed.

Reading Time, Sponge HQ, Anderson Gallery

This was my reading platform for today and it was bliss. NYC refuse disposal and the politics of non-native plants being this week's fascinating topic. John Tradescant, eat your heart out!

Walk-To-School Day, International

So we joined the throng thanks to two car drop-off, many police out-riders and even a helicopter! It was really fun, despite the serious faces here, and we made it in for the bell.

Pumpkin carving on Floyd

J & M started with a baby and its sister (pictured), now we have a mum and dad too and maybe next year some aunts and uncles. The seeds were boiled & roasted and loved!

Autumn days...

The sandbox with a drink and a long curly straw. Today's art is merry-go-round.

On the sidewalks are incredible leaves I can't name, but we collect...

The Piedmont... from Carter Mountain

Sometimes we hug in public...

Carter Mountain, Charlottesville

This was  road trip with friends, but once we'd done the hill climb in our challenged car, we saw so many other faces we knew in the crowds...

Some embracing the insanity of the season and others overwhelmed by the pumpkin-apple-donut-tractor-parking fandango. We took the chance to end on the terrace with some local wine before it was closing time on the mountain and we rolled home.

Carter Mountain, Charlottesville

It is mid season and the Fujis are high!

Pumpkin Tales, BAPP

Other people wrote about caterpillars and the trampoline but J's field-trip tale took a different slant...

'I saw a pumpkin, but I couldn't get a pumpkin because my Dad didn't give my Mum any cash.'

THE END

Grandma's Pumpkin Patch, Chesterfield

J's first school trip... out into Chesterfield County to Grandma's Pumpkin Patch. We rolled them, before we picked them, to check for the perennial black widows and weight-tested them, before we wandered. It was lovely, low-key fun.

J impressively found the lock box for the tractor key, and opened it, ready to start the engine...

More blue sky... Yorktown

... with fluffy white clouds.

Blue sky, Yorktown,

They swam, we all dug and Aurora was not buried too deep. We used our Tess-and-baby-Jake-legacy spades & buckets to full effect by creating a lagoon that withstood the rising tide for ages, before being washed away while we strolled towards the furthest bit of non-sequestered seashore and then had ice cream!

NB: The National Parks Service own the neighbouring battle sites, closed, along with the car parks, thanks to the Government shutdown, so all was very quiet this Columbus Day.

Richmond Folk Festival

It rained and it rained and it rained. The ground turned to mud and the crowd was committed. We cycled (!) and their was valet parking for us. We were pulled in two directions - ours and theirs - The Red Trouser Guys and Kids Craft Zone, but we got a  little bit of joy thanks to amazing Fado (Portugal); Cajun Dance Hall (Louisiana), Appalachian clog dancing (Crooked Road, VA) and Reunion soul.


It was all unbelievably international and spread across four stages, along the great James River with a CSX coal train rolling by and local Phillip Morris as a sponsor - Smoke and Folk, indeed.

Bless-the-Pets, St Mark's, Boulevard

Cutting across the generations, an assorted bunch of pets and their owners gathered on the church steps for a moment of petastic glory - be it General George Patton - the bulldog, the trim Scottie, the wisely caged cat or our selection of soft toy creatures - baby monkey in a sock (aka a monkey-mermaid), Sam Pig , Cocoa the Reindeer and Chippie the Chipmunk.

Only one moment of snarling...

Tracing us... The Lightbox

We got inspired at Studio Two Three on this First Friday, so today we took old photo print-outs and turned them into fab drawings - our communal efforts pictured with baby M by big M; Baby J & me by J & P and then my slightly bigger baby J & me at our first anniversary lunch.

Dorset cereal, Imported

So the challenge is to recreate Dorset muesli in all its glory. So far a mere three types of oats to source and proportional contents to factor in. We're a way off perfection and are consuming the evidence, so the pressure mounts...

Fall Zines, Studio 23

Studio Two Three won us over for a second time this First Friday with its 'Sweaty Armpits and Swimming Pools' zine show. There was some paper architecture to learn and plenty to read. We went home and made our own - The Helicopter Book (J); Why I love Fall (M); Acorns of Virginia (C) and My Family (P).

Hidden around a corner was a larger format zine using a hose pipe for binding and a translucent hamburger meat print for the front cover. We loved it, especially as it is made by student we know - VCU's Gavin Foster (pic).

Pumpkin patch, Shields Market

Our publicity shot for the window of Shields Market - our second home and lovely neighbourhood corner-shop. Here with mini pumpkin gifts.

Heading home c/o United

The cabin spaced out and from my window I saw the islands off Connemara shoreline, near endless sky inbetween and finally Newfoundland.

Falling asleep at the gate in IAD, waiting for the local transfer flight, was a little remiss, but a kindly official ran me out to the delayed plane in the dark, the pilot did a thumbs-up and I was aboard and heading home on the final leg of the journey.

Link Common, Malvern

There is something gently magical about English grey and on familiar paths I crossed the common in soft rain with both dogs, surveyed the shrouded hills, ate perfect blackberries and grinned at the first autumn leaves.