8/23
Saturday was a great day. My flight to Virginia wasn’t scheduled to leave until 11pm, so I had all day to clean, pack and prep. I got everything all ready to go and then headed to the movie theatre to see Miyazaki’s new masterpiece: Ponyo. It was lovely, although I felt that the end was a bit abrupt. I also wished I’d been a bit more clued in to Japanese folk lore and legends so I’d known a bit more about what was going on with the storyline. But it was a gorgeous, magical bit of animation and storytelling. Very cool. I highly recommend it for kids! My favorite part: “HAAAAMMMMMM!” Hehe.
11pm flight to Chicago, no sleep, connection to Virginia in the morning and Sunday morning at 10:30, I was greeted to the lovely Old Dominion State by two of my favorite people: My Aunt ‘Ne (My “Mama” – said in a lovely southern drawl) and my Grandma. I love those women!
The drive out to the farm takes an hour an I had a blast catching up and chatting with Gram and Mama. When we finally drove up the old rock driveway past all of the fields planted in Corn, nearly ready to harvest, I was so happy to be home! Opening the car door let in the smells and sounds of this beautiful place! The sweet, muggy heat hit my face and the clean, warm scent was intoxicating! The crickets played their loud and lovely symphony in the fields. Mmmm.
My Grandma's House - from the back
The "New" Barn. (It's nearly 20 years old now...)
That would be corn.
My Grandma's Steam House... the current version.
After heading “into town” for a spell to eat a fantastic Southern lunch of Chicken n’ Dumplings at Cracker Barrell and then to the local Wal-Mart for groceries, we made it back to the farm again and I took a three hour nap! (Not sleeping the night before totally caught up to me) I have no idea what I did the rest of the night, but when I woke up this morning at 9, my 80-year-old grandmother was already awake and going! I swear that woman could run circles around a marathon athlete. When I made my way out to the kitchen, she’d already been outside, harvested the ripe figs from the fig trees in the yard, cleaned, cut and was making and canning fig jam from them! Amazing. And I documented the process and took a ton of photos.
Later today I went a-visiting. I walked the mile down the road and around the corner (across the field) to my Aunt’s house and visited my cousin Anna, hung out on the hammock in the yard, read a book and took a nice long walk down to the Pennington plantation. Walked back home and Grandma was at it again, making her YUMMY, Russian Vinaniky (basically Russian dough pouches filled with either potatoes and cheese or cabbage and kraut and then boiled). After they’re done you can: 1. Eat them up. 2. Sautee them with butter and onion until brown or 3. Bake them in Milk. Any way you do it, they’re amazing. They’re time consuming and Grandma makes them from scratch. She doesn’t do it often, but she usually makes them for me when I visit. I’m such a lucky girl!
Tomorrow we plan on going into town to go and get a new computer for Grandma. Funny story: Just a short while ago grandma got herself a new computer. She’s hard on electronics, lawn mowers, cars, freezers and washing machines. I don’t know how she does it, but she wears them out faster than I’ve ever seen anyone else. Well, unbeknownst to my little Grandma, Windows had released a new operating system called Vista (two years ago), so when she got the new computer, it confused her so badly that she was ready to throw the darned thing off the back porch (literally…. Like I said, hard on electronics!). Instead, it ended up with an uncle of mine. So, she bought another new one, expecting this one to be like her old one. Well, she finally figured out that the new look was there to stay and figured her way around. Except this time she couldn’t get on the internet! (She lives out in the country, the only way to get internet is via dial-up. Most new computers now don’t come with Modems anymore… so I think she didn’t buy a computer with a modem!) So she gave that computer away to my cousin. So tomorrow, we’re going to go for the third brand-new computer. This time she wants a laptop. Hopefully we can get her surfing the net again soon! On Sunday afternoon I asked her when she wanted to go into town and get her computer (we have to go into Petersburg, which is about 45 minutes away. We go to Emporia for Groceries – about 20 minutes). It had been a long day with driving to the airport and going into town for groceries. She sighed and said to me… “Not tomorrow. I’m too tired today to go tomorrow.” LOL. Gotta love it.
8/24/-8/27: Lots of naps, evening movies with Grandma, trips to Wal-Mart and one brand-new Toshiba laptop purchased, set up and internet accessible. Check.
Sunrise pix. Yes, I was awake for the Dawn. Actually, I never slept that night... so I saw the sunrise for once. Hehe.
I'm in love with this pic.
Side view of the back porch. This is where I sat each morning and ate my bowl of cereal.
Love this pic too.
8/28/09
Today I woke to the sound of the phone ringing. My Aunt called up to see what I wanted to do today. She had something special in mind. There is a river that runs through this area called the Nottoway. In the summer time, the river usually runs low. The bridge that crosses it nearest my Grandmother’s farm is called Peter’s Bridge. On hot days throughout my life while I’ve been out here, we’ve headed down to the river to cool off. Sometimes we bring chairs and sit in the river. Sometimes we’d bring a little hibatchi grill and grill up Crazy Eights hot dogs. Other times we bring shovels and screens and dig for Shark’s teeth and arrow heads (the river bed was at one time ocean bottom and we frequently find teeth and bones from ocean creatures there. Also, this land was once Indian land and you can still find Indian artifacts, pottery, arrowheads and utensils.) This time around, Aunt Néné wanted to take her canoe and paddle from Peter’s Bridge to Cary’s Bridge. Cary’s bridge is about ten or fifteen miles down the road from Peter’s Bridge. My Uncle showed it to my Aunt a couple of years back… funnily enough, my Aunt has lived here her whole life and never knew it was there. Same with my Grandmother. Anyhow, I thought it sounded fun, so we set out.
We drove my Aunt’s pickup and my Grandmother’s car first to Peter’s bridge, dropped off the canoe, drove both vehicles to Cary’s bridge, dropped off the pickup and drove Grandma’s car back to Peter’s Bridge. Done. I packed the car keys in the dry well on the canoe and we packed up the cooler, sunblock, my camera and the dog (out here you always take a dog with you to the river – they keep the snakes and other dangers away) and set off. It was great fun! We’d paddle to and fro and sit and look and enjoy and paddle some more.
Soon after we set out, we noticed a Bald Eagle drop down and dive for something in the river. Then he took off and we thought we’d seen the last of him. Not so! Every 200 yards or so, we’d see him take off from a tree above and fly a bit further down the river. He stayed with us the whole day.
About two hours into the outing I looked up at my aunt and for some reason I asked her if she had the truck keys. She kinda looked at me like I was crazy and asked why she would bring the truck keys. (Out here we rarely lock doors on houses or cars – we normally dump the car keys on the floor mat of the car when we park anywhere locally) I just looked at her for a minute and then she said “Oh….” So I asked if she brought her cell phone: “Don’t got one of those.” We looked at each other and just started laughing and laughing and laughing. Oh well. Four hours later, exhausted, sunburned and ready to go home, we pulled the canoe out of the river at Cary’s bridge, walked out to the road and flagged down a car, borrowed a very nice woman’s cell phone and called René’s husband, Uncle Kenny to come and rescue us. He is such a sweetheart! He drove the 20 miles to Cary’s bridge (where we were), picked up the car keys, drove to Peter’s bridge, picked up the truck keys and came back to us to give us both sets. What an adventure!
Gotta love country folk with a good sense of humor!
Hibiscus
River Mussels
My Beautiful Aunt NéNé. (Mama)
Auntie in the Canoe.
A turtle getting some sun.
8/29/09
I was supposed to be flying home right now. But I just wasn’t ready to go yet. So last night, after canoeing with my Aunt I called up the airline and changed my flight. Cost be damned, I wanted to be “home” for a bit longer. It must have been the right thing to do as it didn’t actually end up costing me a cent. Have you ever paid nothing to change an airline ticket? Me neither, but somehow I was connected to a very accommodating fellow who changed my ticket sans fee. I now leave Sunday morning and arrive home in time to get settled back in and get some sleep before returning to work on Monday. As my Aunt said in her slow, comfortable, country drawl – “‘das right, you had about enough of this damn four-day California vacation nonsense and fixed yourself up right.”
This morning, after sleeping in until nearly 10am (due to exhaustion and sunburn from yesterday’s outing) I headed over to my aunt’s house and parked myself in the hammock in the woods. I read my book and listened to the sounds of the Virginia woods: crickets chirping, bugs humming and calling, birds singing and had the wind been blowing: rustling leaves. As it was, today was a hot, muggy, still day. The kind of day the locals say has “oppressive heat” – heat that just hangs in the air, dripping down your face and rolling down your back. Combine that with the local humidity and it makes it easy for one to imagine why Southerners are known for sitting on porches and drinking tea. It’s the equivalent of islanders “no worries” attitude. It’s a way of life.
Still heat usually brings afternoon storms, which are most welcome. After a late lunch with my Grandmother, I headed back to the hammock to nap and read some more, to listen and smell and enjoy just being here. At one point the world was still, the bugs quieted down, the trees sat around and the heat collected and then I heard the building rustle of the approaching wind. It moved quickly through the trees in the distance and across the field and then hit my face with an exhilarating whoosh! Again another peal of wind approached, this time a bit more violent, and carrying a sheet of rain with it. I saw it before I felt it: great giant drops of liquid life splatting and kerplunking on the rich soil beneath, hitting the tin roof of my uncle’s workshop loudly and finally making their way to the patch of forest I was parked in. The trees I sat under mostly sheltered me from the onslaught of rain, but I would occasionally feel a massive drop hit the side of my face and explode outward to seek out other regions of my head and hair. When I finally got out of the hammock to save my pillow and book from the rain, I made a beeline for the car and was soaked within ten paces, my bare feet sinking into the sandy, clean dirt the whole way. Delicious. The rainstorm was both more entertaining and enjoyable than the book.
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This afternoon I caulked my Grandmother’s bathtub and installed new foil under the elements on her stove range. The bathtub is old, the stove is new. Considering how much I like to take baths, I think it ought to be the other way around. On second thought, nevermind... The bathtub is pockmarked, worn and entirely without enamel. I grew up taking baths in that tub. As a child, my mother bathed me with my sister and cousin in it. By today’s standards, it would be considered oversized and luxurious. Until this trip, I always thought the bathtub was pink - to match the floor-to-ceiling pink tile my Grandfather installed when the house was built at my Grandmother’s request. I realized why: Until this visit, my grandmother has had the same dark pinkish red ruffled shower curtain. Combine this with the pink tile equals one giant pink-reflected bathtub. Now that a new, white curtain (with sewn-in pink floral detail) graces the bathtub, the tub itself is surprisingly white.
Later this evening, I sat and listened to Grandma in the Kitchen. She told me stories about my Grandfather. Stories about their marriage, about his family life growing up and how things have changed so drastically throughout the years. She told me how when she was growing up the thirties and forties that women were expected to work and be quiet; they weren’t entitled to an opinion or personal desires. She told me story after story about her life and how it took her so long, too long to realize that she could stick up for herself and that she didn’t have to sit still and be quiet. Makes it easy to understand how prejudices and old attitudes can live and thrive so long. Some places take longer to catch up on ideas. It’s a mixed blessing. My Grandfather always called this beautiful place “God’s little Green Acres.” And he was right. This place is God’s country. But it’s not the only spot that is, and for as much beauty and good here there is an equal amount of the opposite. When all is said and done, any place is what we make of it.
8/30/09
What a gorgeous day! After yesterday’s rain it’s been a little bit cooler, a little less muggy and beautifully sunny after a bit of warm drizzle in the morning. After doing a bit of laundry in the morning and hanging it to dry on the line outside, I set off to my Aunt’s house on foot. I walked slowly, stopping to take pictures of flowers and bees and anything that I felt like taking a picture of. ¾ of a mile later, I rolled on up to the house, patted the dogs, took off my shoes and hollered for my cousin Anna. She came out and we took off on her four wheeler. She gave me a quick lesson on how to drive a shift four-wheeler and toured me around the trails on the farm and then let me go. It was fantastic! I cruised along in fifth gear, flying over the bumps, through the grasses, over the white-sand roads along the pond and knocked over a few tall stalks of corn when driving too close to the borders of the corn field. What a way to get around! If I lived out here I’d definitely have one of those things. Too bad they’re not street legal and the cops have been really looking out for Anna since she got it (all two of them who cover a really large area of countryside). So no road for me sadly! After four-wheeling I grabbed some lunch (nothing like wind in your hair and gas fumes to make ya hungry!) and then my Uncle took me for a cruise through the country on his brand new huge roadbike. Gorgeous thing. So fun! We went for miles and miles and met up with my Aunt at Peter’s bridge. He dropped me off and she and I dragged chairs and a dog down into the river and sat and talked for nearly 3 hours. What a day! Sunshine, Quad rides, Motorcycle ride, the best company and the river! Can’t ask for more than that.
Time here passes so quickly and it's funny, you wouldn't expect it to because everything moves slowly. My time here is spent and then some. I feel restored.
