Last week I rolled into Virginia to visit my kids, David and Lindsay with their little daughter Eva!
The first night it snowed and I woke up quite late to find a snow covered landscape. That's my Subee out there in the street, all dressed in white.
Deer roam through their backyard, browsing on the plants and birdseed spilling out from the feeder.
View from the inside looking out; much better to be inside in front of a fireplace than alone outside in the freezing snow, trying to keep warm in front of a campfire!
Lindsay and Eva took me for a walk through the most beautiful little trail in their neighborhood.
Brilliant purple crocus flowers pushing up through the snow.
That would be me standing in front of the huge picture windows that overlook the forest.
One afternoon I went out exploring behind their house, and climbed through wet leaves, logs, and these terrible sticker plants that insisted on reaching out and grabbing me with their sharp thorns. My reward was this little pond reflecting the trees and sky. So very sweet!
At last I have seen a cardinal and am very impressed! The backyard is like a nature reserve; birds, a red fox, black and bushy tailed gray squirrels, lots of deer, bats and even a turkey! No Don, you can not go hunting here!
The squirrels are forever raiding the bird feeders and keep amazing us with their antics.
I stand in the backyard and look up into the sky, all the while pretending that I am a tree swaying in the wind. No troubles, no fears, just gentle peace, rocking me back and forth.
Lindsay took me down to the Potomac River where we looked for sea glass along the shore.
Lindsay and Eva patiently waiting for me to finish my scavenging.
Old Town Alexandria is one of the most unique cities I have seen, with cobblestone streets, centuries old buildings, a busy waterfront and quaint shops residing in the old brick buildings.
The King Street Blues had strange faces carved into the front, live music every night and a very popular pub going on inside.
The Torpedo Factory is an old torpedo and munitions factory right on the waterfront that has been magically transformed into a working art gallery, with 82 studios and over 150 artists. We toured three floors of studios and saw artists working on site, painting, making jewelry, stained glass, ceramics and textiles. It was an explosion of artistic energy all melded together in one place, a welcome addition to any city.
The Lavender Moon Cupcakery, offering a wide variety of cupcakes, coffee and tea!
This huge riverboat is aptly named the Cherry Blossom, and is a re-creation of an old Victoria steamboat. The cherry blossoms are just now starting to bloom and hopefully before I leave, will burst forth into full bloom.
Eva stood there pondering this duck on the wharf. We ended up giving the duck a few of her crackers and were soon inundated with more birds than we wanted.
Lindsay spotted the osprey first. She saw it bringing sticks over to its nest on top of the pilings.
There were originally two osprey building the nest, but when we got too close, we scared one of them off. We figured it was the guy, because girls rule the world and get the job done. Hope I didn't ruffle any feathers........o well. All in fun.
An awesome bird, the osprey. I have seen them all over the place, from Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming to the harbor in Oceanside, California, but never have I seen one building a nest. It was all very cool.