Willow Grove ~ Luray, Virginia

(click photo for a larger view)

One of the prettiest spots just down the road from our country home is the Willow Grove Homestead.

A designated "Century Farm",  it has been in the same family for over One Hundred years.

The Farm Store is the perfect place to pick up the days basic needs...eggs, milk, butter, flour, ice cream (we all need ice cream) and chat with proprietor Catherine for a bit while nearby her son naps on his make shift  bed. The market also sells veggies, meat, coffee and.....roving for spinning yarn. Many of the products come from the various family farms in the Willow Grove tract and the rest is decidedly local to the Valley.
The Mill, long still, sits at the end of a one lane stone bridge crossing the scenic Hawksbill River on Stoneyman Road.

 I half expect a horse and buggy to meet me at the end every time I go by.

Busy Needles

Eleven days of Wet Gloomy Cloudy Grey weather.

What's a gal to do besides knit and bake?

Embossed Champagne Socks are long completed.(as is the bottle of bubbly from earlier photos)

The next pair are being swatched...not something I usually do for socks, but these are to be super thick knee hi's for wearing with boots at The Farm, so I want to be sure on the fit with the thicker wool. (Three Irish Girls DK)

This little ruffly scarf worked up really quick and was so fun to knit.

Purple Shawl (Collinette Jitterbug) awaits the switch to larger needles now being used on...

...Kate's Dress.
 Its coming along and growing nicely each day.

There will be a faux belt at the waist front with a large decorative button that I plan to scour antique and thrift stores for. What do you think....wooden, metal or sparkly?

AND...I have been practicing "knitting" with Marzipan inspired by this. Friends from my knitting group are coming to The Farm this weekend for a little front porch yarn social. Edible knitwear should be lots of fun.

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Linking with Tamis

Apples

In the end, our tree netted fewer than expected apples. Not enough for much canning or cider, but plenty for pancakes, fried apples, cakes and just plain 'ole good snacking.

Seems we have a bit to learn about caring for fruit trees.

What the caterpillars didn't destroy in mid summer, the bees tore through in late summer. I didn't know bees ate apples. 

What I do know is that this French Apple Cake is wonderful!

Until next year...

Long ago a happy young couple sat on the edge of the mountain on Skyline Drive and dreamed of a life down below.

Recently, a happy young at heart couple rode along Skyline Drive

and marveled at the land upon which they now live down below

That's our place, outlined in red, in the midst if the Shenandoah Valley.

A Visit to Stoney Lonesome

How good it was to be amongst friends this week as I made a long overdue visit to the CSA farm I had helped at prior landing on my own farm. I've been keeping up with the goings on there, but nothing can replace smelling the air and hugs from persons I miss a bunch.

 

Pablo's new fields are impressive.

Love all the garlic hanging from the distribution shed.

Thanks gang for being so welcoming!

Tuesday Nights

One of the highlights of the week is my Tuesday night knitting group. I love these ladies. They are inspiring and creative and just fun to be around. Just like the harvest helpers at SL Farm, they hail from a diverse set backgrounds and social commitments and ideals which is precisely what makes the group so much fun. We range in age from the 20's to the 70's and have so much to learn from each other. And not just about knitting. Alway respectful and always helpful, I could not imagine a Tuesday without them  for any great length of time.

Plus...it's just a great time to get a few rows done so that I have something to show for Work-in-Progress Wednesdays.

Embossed Champagne is coming along thanks to the stolen moments I work on them. I just love a project small enough to keep in the purse to have handy to work a few stitches at the oddest of times

Allegheny is growing nicely. The try on trip to the west coast was quite successful. (in so many ways!) Now just to get it to dress lenghth...

Life Imitates Art?

A poster from 2005 found while unpacking

Our driveway at The Farm.

 

A scene painted on a clock I made 20 years or so ago

the sunrise last week from my front porch.

Apple Pancakes

 Oma'a Apple Pancakes.

My go to breakfast for years now. Always a favorite during the elementary school sleepover days, the large gathering beach trip days, and the Hi mom...I bringing home 15 buddies from college for some home cooking days.

So it is no surprise how excited I am that we bought this...

 (and the acreage, outbuildings and home around it)

...To watch it grow

and then send a very willing niece and nephew up the tree

 to pick a basket of these

to slice up

and add to a milk, egg and flour batter

to have this to enjoy!

Food traditions passed on through generations are key to family lore and connect us in a very profound and satisfying way. I am honored that they are called Marme's pancakes, or Aunt Joan's pancakes or Mrs. K's, or the very special Mama K's pancakes. But I, and my children, know that they are really Oma's pancakes. Many thanks to my mother-in-law Anna for teaching me this special treat at a time when I barely knew how to whisk an egg.

Now if I only knew how to make my grandmother's baked beans...

The Pacific Coast

The shoreline along the Pacific Ocean just a very short drive from where my Kate now lives is beautiful...

But nothing is as beautiful there as Kate and her sons

I had a wonderful visit!

I FOUND THEM!!!

I intended on making it to October before a visit to my luvs, but then I would have missed all this...

...and it was so worth it!