The Charlottesville Band (the new name for the Municipal Band) is getting back into the “swing” of things. Steve Layman, Music Director, announced that the band will play a concert in Claudius Crozet Park on Sunday, July 11 at 3:30 pm.  It’s free – free, free, free, free, free. Find out more about the band at Cville Band – Central Virginia's Community Band … [Read more...]

The cicadas are coming. The Brood X, or 17-year cicadas, emerge from their beds in the earth every 17 years. That’s a long nap. There are a number of different types of these locust creatures. Some pop out every 13 years and some more frequently, but these big, fat red-eyed monster-looking cicadas are due this year. Right now, actually. They will be in parts of Virginia, but not all. If they … [Read more...]

  Virginia squirrel season is now in. I kid you not. It’s hot, it’s June, but there is now a summer season for hunting squirrels in Virginia. The ticks must be loving this – all that fresh meat free for the taking. Several years ago, the biologists at DWR decided that since there were no female squirrels carrying babies at this time, June would be a good time to get everybody up and … [Read more...]

Thank heavens we have Hulu and access to Netflix and other channels. There is literally nothing on network TV (except The Good Doctor) and with social distancing the law of the land, there is not much to do except stay in and watch TV. Recently, we watched an episode of The Good Witch on Netflix. It was riveting, not at all like the old “Good Witch” episodes on the Hallmark Channel with all … [Read more...]

Covid be damned, we’re going to Hawaii again this November. Gonna take the same Norwegian Cruise with four island stops. There’s still a lot of Hawaii left to see. In the spirit of Hawaii and with nothing else better to do, I decided to try my hand at making a Blue Hawaiian, one of our favorite “fruity drinks” during past cruises. For starters, there is a difference between a Blue Hawaii and … [Read more...]

I’m not much on buying prepared foods at the grocery store. They are usually overly expensive and not very tasty – gross, sometimes. But every now and then, when you don’t have time to cook or run to the store, it’s nice to have something in the freezer to pop in the oven – and hopefully it’s not gross. For some reason, I was in that section at the grocery store and saw a package of Chinese … [Read more...]

(Photo by Meghan Marchetti/DWR)   The largemouth bass is unquestionably America’s favorite gamefish. Virginians, too, have a love affair with these freshwater fish which leap when hooked and can grow to impressive sizes. In a few years, if things go as planned, there may be even more large bass in Virginia waters. Here’s the deal. The Division of Wildlife Resources (previously … [Read more...]

One of the most popular raffles in Virginia is underway – the Annual DU Calendar Raffle. It works this way. First, buy a raffle ticket for $50 – which goes directly to Ducks Unlimited and waterfowl conservation – a great investment by itself. But here’s what else you get for fifty bucks. Each day in December,  DU will select a name from the raffle bucket and only 1,000 tickets will be sold. Your … [Read more...]

It’s quiet up here, some 14 feet off the ground. Tree pegs allow a hunter to scale the tree and strap a metal stand on its trunk and then secure himself with a safety strap around his waist - just in case. It’s easy to fall asleep in a tree stand during this, the archery season for deer. This may be the most-quiet place on earth. It’s hard to find a quiet place these days. Homes are filled with … [Read more...]