Carousel, Charlottesville

We love a carousel and this one is outdoors, parent-propelled and just sweet. Plus it's on a pedestrian High Street with nice cafes and second hand bookshops and vintage joys. 

The detail: Six painted aluminum horses that are 1910 Mangell’s castings of Marcus Illions carvings - he was deservedly renowned for them.

Ski Monday, Maymont

Another snow day and with a reluctant child, a hang-over and low-grey skies we eventually made it to out favorite slope. It was not all joy and whizzing about, there was a fair bit of trudging, grumbling and the odd frayed nerve but ultimately I got to do one mammoth run with J, then, just as we were about to leave, M finally embraced the opportunity!

Agecroft Hall and Virginia House, Windsor Farms

T'is the place to hear terrible accents...  It be a blend of ye olde English and Irishish. Volunteer wenches introduced medicinal garden herbs and brewing with hops and barley. The pies weren't real, neither was the wattle and daub (concrete!), however the river view, grassy maze and cottage gardens were very real and rather splendid.

Agecroft Hall was transported from Salford, apparently in Lincolnshire, by local shipping line owner Mr TC Williams Jr, to five minutes from our front door. Virginia House next door was a more charming, earlier stone concoction, though the statuary was in rather poor taste, not to the kids however.

St John's, Church Hill

St John's has a fabulous and impressive history... for me it's a sunset location for yoga, in a Parish Hall that feels rather like home. 

So the history: As tensions between Virginia and England grew in the 1770s, the assembly of the Second Virginia Convention was moved from the capital of Williamsburg to Richmond. St. John’s, the largest available public building in the City, was the site of the March 1775 meeting attended by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee, and other prominent Virginians who heard Patrick Henry’s stirring words, “Give me liberty or give me death.

Santa's stocking

An unseasonal craft project, that M saw through from start to finish, came to completion today as J's last gift. The blanket(ish) stitching is great and the care put into its styling... just perfect. It's now in the year cupboard awaiting its festive moment.

The Beach Party on Floyd

So the beach plan was washed away by the weather, instead an indoor assault course, freeze dance aka musical statues and free play were on the plan. Some donned safety gear to bash in nails into our children's carpentry work station (adult supervision might have been wise), whilst others bathed playmobil figures in our new poolside scene, complete with working shower and a slide. A few intrepid folks actually donned swimwear!

There was a fabulously flat Victoria Sponge (Oh Delia, we got the tin size wrong), pear sorbet cones (thank you Bev's), P's whole wheat bread, sugar snap peas and triumphant scotch eggs!

J wore silk throughout and loved it all. M would have preferred more ceremony around gift-opening and a dairy-indulging ice cream option.

The Light Box

An afternoon's carpentry and we have a birthday light box... so with sand, wooden blocks and sliced fruit, "A grape person called J, on the beach, in New York City" was produced.