Sweet Virginia

For nearly a year we plotted and planned and finally on June 20, I flew to Virginia to visit my dear friend Lesley for nearly a week!  Except for two visits into Williamsburg, most of my visit was happily spent at Lesley’s charming home nestled in the countryside.  We visited late into the nights, sharing hopes and dreams and stories.  We picked blackberries and listened to the sweet peeps of tiny chicks in their brooder box on the screened porch.  I heard cicadas in the trees and in the evenings sat on the porch steps, with companionable kitties, and watched fireflies dance over the garden.  Lightening bugs!  For this pacific northwest woman, fireflies are a wonder!

Each morning I crept as quietly as I could down the stairs and fixed myself a cup of tea in this charming, airy kitchen.  See all those books?  Lesley has oodles of books and I only had time to peruse a fraction of them!

The oldest part of Lesley’s house dates to 1780.  While it has been remodeled and added onto over the years, two old windows with wavy glass remain.  I love the view out the window to their drive…  That driveway is so old, and I would not have been the slightest bit surprised to see a soldier from the past riding up the drive on horseback.

The home is situated such that the golden light of late afternoon and early evening floods into the kitchen and gathering room.  The room and everything in it glows in such a beautiful way.  Lesley has captured this lovely light in many photographs on her blog.

On Friday we visited Colonial Williamsburg and in spite of the nearly 100 degree weather, we did a walk around most of the old town.  We saw soldiers coming to work…….

and other worker bees going to work……all in their historically correct garb.

I loved the houses, the church, the mossy roofs, the old cemetery….

Isn’t this inviting?  This lovely gate leads you into the garden shown below.  Lesley told me this garden is filled to the brim with tulips in the spring.  I could happily move right into that darling, little house!

It gave me the shivers when I learned I was walking on the same paths where three of the first ten U.S. presidents had walked.  Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and John Tyler all attended The College of William and Mary.