Mozart's Birthday, Carytown

Papagena and Papageno round off the Magic Flute performance at Cartwheels and Coffee, with all the kids flapping their wings and using their beak masks. It was a great afternoon of instrument try-outs and opera all in the name of, a now 257 year old Mozart. Happy Birthday to you! (tomorrow)

Moo Moo returns to Floyd

He had a morning skype with a UK guinea pig, had his portrait painted - as a super hero - met the little girl down the road, but sub-zero conditions meant his pram strolls were all indoors...

We love him and found a play mobile guinea pig set to keep us going until next time and then we went out for ice cream!

Snow School, Sponge HQ

So we wrapped up warm to survive the -9C conditions and slid down to VCU's Sponge HQ for a bit of culture time-out.

Investigations revealed a note that read, 'Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm'. For one that was harder than the others but buck heads left over from a performance night, neon tertras and jars of brackish dyes got everyone interested eventually. Drawings were made, snacks taken below stairs, a group-story composed and a mini movie shot... then the long walk home for hot soup.

Snow Day No. II

We have reverted to winter and got two consecutive snow days, the first was premature, though temperatures got down to -12C. We headed to the store for eggs and since, milk. It is so quiet out there.

P upstairs remote-working.

Savage Neck Dunes Natural Area Preserve, Eastern Shore

An idyll on the Eastern Shore. We crossed a 7 mile sea bridge with tunnels to reach the epicentre of the Chesapeake Crater, lunched in the shut seaside town of Cape Charles and thanks to GPS found the nearby 10,000 year old sand dunes of Savage Neck.

Beyond the flat, utter blandness of the highway, with its motels, their amazing 50's signs, and the Hams, Peanut & Firework merchants, a single track road led to a 4-car lot and a path through the pines, past a dune lake and then out onto the most amazing untouched shoreline. Above the boardwalk 50 foot dunes covered in Loblolly pines and the odd shed snake-skin...

Deep in a tunnel beneath the Chesapeake our car crossed it's 200,000 mile mark - an epic road trip all round, especially for the hung-over, conjunctivitis-suffering, evening driver.

Date Night, Gallery 5

We loved the positive force of Rodney the Soul Singer, the melancholic tunes of The Low Branches and the Phil Collins' cover that had P guffawing a little too loudly at the start.

Belle Isle Family Hike

Heading out across the high river for a wild church hike - canoeist bobbed by as branches and ice shards were hurled into the churning rapids...

A survivor's s'mores fire-pit back at base - marshmallows and Hershey's chocolate squashed between Graham (pronounce Gram) Crackers, for the uninitiated.

No McVities chocolate digestives here.