My long-time friend Wayne Ferguson lives in Charlottesville’s Dunlora subdivision and has been plagued by deer since the ink was dry on his real estate contract. Wayne, like me, is an amateur vegetable gardener and loves flowers in his yard, but so do the deer and there are a ton of them in Dunlora. But this year, Wayne decided to stop the thieving whitetails and built a nifty cage … [Read more...]
Game Rooms Are More Popular Than Ever
By Nancy B As we live through this pandemic and uncertain times, we need to be more creative. While we WILL get through this, many of us are staying at home and many of us with children. Keeping wee ones busy is often a challenge not to mention the older kids. I’m speaking of “old kids”, like myself. Game rooms have become a central social space for family and friends to gather. This space … [Read more...]
That First BLT
Plucking that first red-ripe tomato from your garden is more than simply harvesting – it’s a special event – almost the equivalent of Thanksgiving. That’s because after months and months of eating plastic tomatoes grown in hot houses, you can finally slice into a real tomato and enjoy a BLT – bacon, lettuce and a real tomato sandwich. For that first BLT of the season, I insist on … [Read more...]
Flounder, Flounder Everywhere
Flounder action has really picked up in Virginia waters. The big flatties are being caught along the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel and on rough bottoms. Many of the larger fish are being taken around near-shore wrecks and artificial reefs. Drifting flounder rigs and jigging have both been effective. Remember, large baits catch big flounder. Rudee, Lynnhaven, Little Creek and … [Read more...]
Play Ball!
There is a school yard behind our house and several acres of open fields. Occasionally, we’ll see some folks tossing frisbees to their dogs, but rarely do we see kids out playing – and there is an actual baseball field behind the school, and unless parents have organized a tee ball event, it sits dormant. I would have killed for either field. Come summertime, we played baseball and … [Read more...]
APB for “Alabama” Bass
(An Alabama Bass) The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries – or whatever they call themselves these days – has issued a de facto APB on a species called Alabama bass. The reason? This unique strain of black bass can potentially destroy the largemouth bass fishery in Virginia – and this is big business. Largemouth and smallmouth bass account for millions of dollars in economic terms … [Read more...]
Good Morning, Morning Glories
Morning Glories are night people. They bloom and party and carry on all night, and when daytime comes, they close up shop and snooze all day. But if you get a peek at them before they tuck themselves in, they are certainly pretty things. Recently, I have been seeing a few morning glories growing wild on the sides of the roads. These special places often hold many wildflowers and plants you … [Read more...]
Grumble, Grumble
I spend a lot of time and money at Kroger’s. I spend enough that I often get 50 cents off per gallon when I buy gas from them. But there are two things that really get my goat. One, they use those huge shopping carts when they are assembling food for their pick-up customers. These things are so big you could put a couple refrigerators on them and still have room left over, and they … [Read more...]
Mexican Stuffed Shells
I saw an interesting recipe this week for Mexican Stuffed Shells. I haven’t stuffed any jumbo shells recently and they are always fun and look good on a plate, so why not? They were delicious. Anytime there is cream cheese involved, it’s usually good and these Mexican Stuffed Shells were no different. As usual, I strayed from the original recipe, but straying is half the fun. Here’s how I did … [Read more...]
A Deerbird Feeder
Donald Taylor has an interesting bird that comes to his feeder. I think it’s called a deerbird. While most birds fly to feeders, Donald’s visitor just walks right up and helps herself to a few seeds. Sometimes the deerbird comes during the day, sometimes at night. With deerbirds, you never really know. … [Read more...]
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