Our new life in the Mid-Atlantic

This blog should have been started when I returned last November, full retired; but there was simply too much to absorb. For the past several weeks I've been sitting down and writing, only to decide this morning that trying to write about nearly a year's worth of experiences in a few pages was ridiculous.

We live in the mountains, west of Staunton, VA at an elevation of 1930 ft., in the Geo. Washington Nat'l Forest with trees hundreds of years old surrounding us. Our view to the w/nw/n is across three mountain ridges, to West Virginia. It's just beginning to turn color and leaves will remain until the end of October and later. In the late afternoon of now early fall, the east/southeast side of the woods surrounding the driveway and paddock are nearly dark as night in early evening while we enjoy light and sunsets on the other. It is a very interesting phenomena, only one of many here. At this elevation we sometimes look out to low clouds, and high fog and watching the weather approach from the west and north will always be extraordinary, especially during the winter months.

We're often asked why we decided to retire to this part of the country, and have chuckled over Bob's dermatologist's reply when asked the same question. He came here from Wisconsin some decades ago and said he loves the change of seasons; he just doesn't like two of them to be winter. We couldn't agree more. Another recently heard description for this part of the country that we enjoy is: almost summer, summer, still summer and Christmas. We referred to last winter as a pretend winter even though we were told was unusually cold and cold earlier than normal. Two snowfalls that last past noon don't count.

We have great neighbors, none of whom live closer than about a quarter mile. There are deer, of course, and they are much smaller than those in Minnesota; a few squirrels, the occasional oppossum seen , live, only at night and this summer our community has been bothered by a 300 lb. black bear who, for reasons we can't understand, seems to like being chased and shot at. Our giant Schnauzers love it here and we certainly like being able to let them out without being leashed. We've noticed that neither they and the deer pay little heed to each other. The deer don't come right up to the house any longer to eat flowers, but we did abandon plans for a vegetable garden concentrating on herbs and tomatoes in pots on the decks.

We've joined a small church nearby where we have monthly potluck dinners and Bob and I love to cook and entertain at home. He provided his BBQ pork for the Lion's summer park music series concession and has done a private party now and again.

As a member of the ladies circle at church I go to a large nursing home once or twice a month and provide assistance to residents while they play bingo. My mom was a NA in a home while I was growing up and spent the last year of her life in one so I am very comfortable in that environment which cannot be said for everyone. I also work 3-1/2 hours a couple times a month at our library. With budget cuts they've had to cut back on staffing so were looking for volunteers. I have found this to be highly fulfilling, and very tiring. Don't ever complain about librarians having it easy.

We are having a fun and lovely couple for dinner tomorrow night so this morning Bob was working on the beef bourguignon (Julia Child's beef stew) and I made fresh peach ice cream. For 3rd anniversary dinner celebration a couple weeks ago I made thyme ice cream, served with peaches. Oh my gosh! you cannot imagine how good that thyme ice cream was. And since it's still peach (local) season, we eat them as often as possible.

We both love the planning, shopping, preparation and, ultimately, the enjoyment of a meal. Occasionally a new recipe turns out to be a dud; others we've done a second time, and even more. We enjoy some of the TV food shows, but believe me, not all of them and we especially enjoy the chef competitions. I'd never seen G. Ramsay until Bob and I were dating, and the first time I watched Hell's Kitchen I turned it off, asking why anyone would submit themselves to such behavior. Ramsay is now one of my favorites; and the thyme ice cream I mentioned above is one of his recipes. Last night Bob suggested a fun idea while we were eating dinner. We're going to do our own version of Chopped twice a month; one of us doing the entree, the other, dessert then reversing it the second time and all of it using four ingredients already in the house (fresh or leftovers) from lists given to each other.

In addition to Food of All Nations, with which I was already familiar, we've discovered and really enjoy another shop, Feast!, in Charlottesville. Martin's, here in this area, carries most of what we need, but lacks several items and/or choices. We are cheese snobs and were sorely missing Surdyk's in Minneapolis. Feast! carries cheeses and the salumi to which we'd become accustomed, and we've just discovered that Whole Foods makes wonderful fresh sausages. If you haven't tried their andouille, do so; it's amazing.

Later this afternoon a new friend and his wife are coming out to give Bob another lesson in bread making, this time with a sweet dough. We'll have a light supper after they get done messing around; literally!! Being a foodie is such fun.

There is probably much I could have written about, but this will have to do for a beginning. From now on it will become a daily journal. Retirement is wonderful; we love our lives, the area, the weather, new friends, reading as much as possible, bathrobe days.

Mona