Grow food. Eat food. Even the cow is from family.
Eating WAY Local
August 4, 2026
cooking, farm, garden corn, food, fresh tomato, steak, tomato Leave a comment
Flowers and Vegetables: Summer in Virginia
August 4, 2026
cooking, flowers, food, garden flowers, garden, tomato, vegetables Leave a comment
We grew all this stuff.
First flowers…by the guesthouse.
Then the garden
Food!
Here goes the garden!
August 4, 2026
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Still eagerly awaiting the tomato tsunami.
Summer Solstice 2026: A Musical Treat
August 4, 2026
farm, fire, garden, music, party, who knows bonfire, garden, music, shenandoah river, solstice party, summer solstice, summer solstice 2026 Leave a comment
2026 presented us with a particularly fun iteration. The weather was balmy with only one slight rain delay. There was lots of music. The porch fest rocked on until 3:30am. Just really fun.
As we get older, the winter solstice has generally overtake the summer solstice in terms of audience participation. This summer was a welcome exception to the trend. I guess people were chomping at the bit since we skipped a year due to a death in the family in 2025. Thanks for joining us!
We’ve moved the party nexus close to the house, and it makes things swankier with Kitselman’s excellent patio in full swing.
Food is under Josie’s oak.
The garden is just ramping into production.
And off we go! The Charlottesville/NY contingent arrived early to get the party started. Early music!
And Leiden was the featured guest! Gonna keep him up…all night long!
Bubble?
John and Betty came as the ghost of wedding past.
Baby on the porch! Who knew that the dog gate doubled as a baby gate too?!
More early music on the patio.
It rained for a few minutes and we all temporarily raided the kitchen… but soon we were back outside where we belong.
At dusk, we lit the fire to turn the sun.
Woo hoo!!
This is my favorite picture of the party. Romey cooks a marshmellow.
Sure is a nice ritual.
Iulie obliterates a marshmellow.
Tunes around the fire followed. And after that, back to the porch for even more music into the wee hours. Special thanks to Gina, Allan James, the two Mikes, Emory, Chip, Linus, and all of the other musicians for a hella time.
Using a hay bale to block the heat…now that’s how to do it.
More fire pictures (thanks Dan).
Thanks to all who came.
Garden update June 20
July 31, 2026
food, garden garden, green pepper, summer squash Leave a comment
Oh lookee there! Summer squash and a green pepper. It’s early days in garden land. This year’s garden is beautiful.
2026 Garden In (May 9)
June 4, 2026
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A week early, we present the 2026 garden
One week early for the changing zone. Marigold, onion, cucumber, pumpkin, squash, zucchini, tomato, watermelon, cantaloupe, hot peppers, sweet peppers, ancho, beans, corn, sunflowers.
The Easter Bunny is Risen
April 7, 2026
farm, garden, nature, trees 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, easter, easter bunny, iulie, tradition, treasure hunt 1 Comment
For years, the Easter Bunny was bigger than Santa around here. Real. And very pirate. The kids looked forward to the annual Easter Treasure Hunt (which ended in exactly the same place every time…but nobody ever figured that out). There was at least a decade of deep Easter Bunny magic.
Now that Iulie is 7 (or as she says, “almost 8”), the Easter Bunny is back.
This year we had a slight planning wrinkle. Since it was officially Monday and not Sunday, the Easter Bunny was mostly done with its duties and relaxing in the Bahamas. We called EB up to see if an exception could be made for Iulie on Monday evening. Indiana helped. The EB said “why I think so.”
And thus the stage was set for an ALL NEW EASTER BUNNY TREASURE HUNT. Here’s how that went.
Initiation was way early (before Pilates) at 7:30am.
The kitchen table started everything off with map clue #1.
Iulie reads the clue, thinks a bit and figures out it’s her tree (which we planted together in 2023).
But does she stay on target? Nope. LOL.
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Hunt for eggies AND remember the clue? Lots to do when it’s so exciting.
Iulie got just slightly ahead of the grandparents on her way to the tree.
And there it was, map clue #2.
Which led us right past some eggies hidden in the grass on the way to the Garden. Behind the machine (awaiting a tire change) was map clue #3.
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A slightly trickier clue, this one needed “bouncy” for sure. Leading us t the newly fixed Swinging Bridge.
Iulie went flying right by map clue #4 and had to be called back.
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And then it was off to the Guesthouse (BIML world headquarters). Eggies to find along the way.
Map clue #5 was tricky. A.poth.e.car.y is a low frequency word. Hey, that’s this blog’s namesake!
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Finally, we found the Easter basket and some loot from the Easter Bunny! At the apothecary shed.
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The treasure hunt was over. Time for a Spring picture.
And some sorting of the loot.
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Who knew that the Easter Bunny liked legos?!
The Door to Nowhere
February 7, 2026
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All dressed up and nowhere to go.
Fall prep for winter (swingset down)
November 10, 2025
farm, fire, garden garden, solstice fire, tree frog, treehouse, treehouse removal Leave a comment
The beautiful Fall weather had us prepping for winter on the little pretend farm.
Garden weeding and tilling
Solstice fire re-core (we cancelled the summer solstice fire this year and are going to light up in the winter…but a winter core needed to be inserted so the fire burns hotter and longer).
Finally, the ancient and somewhat dangerous swing set was deleted.
This tree frog was supervising.
