Taste of Charlottesville

Yea!  I love the fact that Amtrak has a station in Charlottesville.  We are not frequent users of the train, but that’s only because we tend to travel east to Richmond or the Tidewater area (family) if we drive anywhere.  But, if we do travel north, and certainly beyond DC, it’s almost always by train.  Traveling by train is so much more comfortable, there’s no fighting beltway traffic and risking life and limb among the semis, and it’s affordable. 

Charlottesville Tomorrow provides details on the BOS meeting here.  It’s even good for the environment…

Supervisor Ann Mallek (White Hall) sought one change in the resolution, to add a paragraph describing the environmental benefits of rail travel. The passed resolution included language that reads:  “VDRPT has calculated the new Piedmont Corridor rail service would reduce CO2 emissions by 1500 tons per year.”

What’s not to love?

sponsored locally by the Piedmont Environmental Council

We had some tree work done on Monday.  This is a constant activity, by the way.  I’m often given pause when a client suggests that a wooded site for their home is preferable to open, because they don’t want to cut grass.  You only need to cut grass some 5 months of the year, cetainly no more than once a week.  And it costs you a few hours of labor & a mower tank of gas.  Tree work, on the other hand, is a thousands of dollars investment every year or so.  And, if you don’t cut your grass, you just have a messy-looking yard.  If you don’t take care of your trees, you have a whole set of other problems.  But, I digress.  We love our trees.  They are like children to us, definitely part of our family. 

We love springtime best, and Monday was a true, early-spring, Virginia day.

It was chilly that morning.  The temperature rose just enough during the day that a light sweater over short sleeves was sufficient.  With the recent time change, we are enjoying daylight until 8:00.  Stephen arrived home at 6:30 or so, and as I walked onto the side porch to greet his arrival, I was struck still by the waning sunlight sparkling in the new growth in the tree tops.  I was also struck at that moment by how large our trees have grown in the past 17 years.

In true Virginia Spring fashion, the temperature dropped like a bomb that night.  A blog entry posted earlier in the afternoon on cVillain, Freeze Warning Tonight, reminded me that winter wasn’t quite ready to leave.  Just the day before, the following gardening article, The Spring Garden Takes Shape, was posted by blog author/master gardener/gardening coach, Tracey Crehan Gerlach on Life in Sugar Hollow.  I can’t remember what day it was that Stephen came home with three gorgeous tomato plants, but they are being planted in a “grow” box as I write, and they’ll be living in our south-facing window for some time.

As the week wore on, I picked up the Real Estate Weekly for their article on Virginia’s Historic Garden Week (no direct link to the article, but info on the event can be found at VaGardenWeek.com).  I learned that there is an organization called Earth Week in Charlottesville (should have know that but now I do);  I read Rowena Morrel’s editorial for her local magazine, In the Kitchen, where she promises a continued look at local “green” resources; and, I picked up the newer issue of the Real Estate Weekly and read more about the Blue Ridge Homebuilder’s EarthCraft House Tour, which is taking place this weekend and next (April 19 & 20, and April 26 & 27).  I also read the latest Hook because their 2008 Green Issue was inserted, articles from same found here.

Okay, so I got a little away from just “spring”, but I regained focus when I picked up the April issue of Albemarle Family Living Magazine (see online reference at AlbemarleFamily.com), with great articles on Spring, from spring cleaning to local festivals like the Dogwood Festival, camp planning, gardening with your kids, and lots more.  By Wednesday and Thursday, the chill was gone, temps were climbing, the local blogosphere offically predicted the end of winter and began suggesting warm weather activities (I’ve Got a Fever…Spring Fever on cVillain and It’s Spring at cvillenews).  In fact, it was downright hot on Friday.  But, I’ll tell you one thing — people were happy.  I was all over town on Friday, for some reason, and everyone I came face-to-face with had a big smile and a welcoming greeting.  Yesterday, Saturday, was another glorious day. 

As I try to wind up this entry, it’s early afternoon on Sunday, and it’s a chilly 57 degrees.  My bare feet will be covered as soon as I finish my writing.  It’s also raining (a good thing, and we need more).  The weather forecast for the coming week is 52 - 77 (degrees F), which, as a life-long Virginia resident, I will say is right-about-norm for us.

A favorite weekend activity of ours is visiting the Farmers’ Market downtown, located in a Water Street parking lot at 2nd Street NW.  It opened last weekend, and, though we won’t begin our periodic trips downtown until May (when the market hits full capacity), you can be sure that vendors have already arrived with all sorts of plant material and handmade goodies.   Last summer, I hired a young friend of mine, Annie Turner, to write a few articles for me while she was home on summer break.  Among them, is the following piece she wrote about our local markets……  

Local fresh produce and products are bountiful this time of year in Charlottesville with farmers markets in full swing.  You can get almost anything from these markets—handmade artisan crafts such as jewelry and wooden cutting boards, all-natural sorbet, gluten-free cookies—not to mention some good, old-fashioned home grown fruits and veggies!

The two most accessible farmers markets for those living in and around Charlottesville are the Charlottesville City Market, Saturdays from 7 am to noon next to the Water Street Parking Garage, and Farmers in the Park, Wednesdays from 3to 7 pm in Meade Park. 

However, if you want to make a day of it, Fluvanna, Greene, and Nelson counties have their own farmers market, not to mention the Mennonite market in Madison.

The Charlottesville City Market is a great place to get a true cross-section of our talented little town.  There are musicians on almost every corner providing music as you make your way through the different rows of tents sheltering the locally made crafts, jewelry, and furniture.  All of this is mixed in with the more traditional farmers market offerings of local fruit, vegetables, and baked goods.  Some vendors even allow you to sample delicious home made spreads and cookies.  Also, the Charlottesville City Market is a great place to get local information as well as local produce.  While there I picked up a brochure on the up-coming county fair as well as one listing tips for combating Japanese beetles.
       

Farmers in the Park is much smaller than the Charlottesville City Market, but is definitely still worth checking out.  The vendors are extremely personable.   I was greeted with a sample of the “Holy Graol”—all natural, high-flavor sorbet made right here in Albemarle County.  If you go, try the strawberry or limoncello.  At the other end of the park is the stand for Babes in the Woods, which sells forest-grown pork, which means the pigs are essentially free-range and eat roots and berries they find in the woods, not garbage, and therefore the meat is safer.  They have a pork steak that you can cook medium rare because the bacteria normally found in the garbage-fed pork has been eliminated by their clean, natural living.

Local foods can also be found in many grocers in the area.  Cville Market and Feast are locally owned and offer a wide variety of local produce and goods, and Feast has great samples of cheeses, spreads, and oils out daily.  Whole Foods also carries some local products, my favorite being a chevre cheese made in Earlysville.  It comes out in limited batches since it can only be made after the baby goats have been weaned, but it is always well worth the wait! 

I’ve recently had a neighbor’s home on the market.  We were under contract in 38 days, which both the neighbor and I were happy with.  It’s a nice home, a 2-story Colonial-style home, with 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, a large finish-able bonus room, and a 2-car garage with enough room for 2 SUVs.  It sits on 3 really beautiful acres.  Marketing during times likes these calls for considerable intuition and creativity, because you have to find that special something that makes a buyer say “that’s the one”, instead of bypassing it for one of the other 65 houses that are a lot like it.  For this home, it was it’s setting and it’s location.  The buyers of this property may or may not know it yet (because they may believe that all of my hype was just that), but they have just bought into a lifestyle that is quite unlike any other.

It’s springtime, and the weather is incredibly unpredictable.  While today is cold & rainy, yesterday was absolutely glorious.  Stephen and I took the boys for a walk in the afternoon.  We usually walk them in the hours before dawn, and we enjoy the quiet and moonlight shadows.  Walking them on a warm, sun-filled afternoon is such a treat.  We walk them by the old barn on Bleak House, the one that will one day soon be torn down.

I usually let Brunello off-lead
once we reach the Bradford Pears.














The Garrison’s Farm is named “Cricket Haven.”  They have one of the most incredibly beautiful pieces of property, and we along Bleak House are blessed to be able to share it with them.  They have placed Bluebird houses along many of the vertical fence posts. 

Bleak House Rd. is a special place of which we never tire.  We have never once, in the 17 years we’ve lived on Bleak House Rd, taken it for granted.  When we walk, we see neighbors & wave or catch up, or visit with one of their latest pets (it was a nanny goat on this walk).  We pass other walkers and runners.  We enjoy watching the landscape change with the seasons and mature with years.  And, always, we are thankful that we found Bleak House Road.