A spring peeper photo by Steve Roble By Stephen Living/DWR The sure signs of approaching spring are everywhere. Early wildflowers are blooming, tender green leaves are uncurling from the buds and tundra swans and Canada geese can be heard overhead as they wing their way north. Another sure sign of spring across Virginia is the emergence of amphibians! In some parts of … [Read more...]
My Wife: The Mulch-aholic
My wife is a Mulch-aholic. I have gone to their meetings, and there is no cure. It’s an illness caused when your mother didn’t let you play in the dirt as a 4-year-old. Each spring, Lowe’s brings in 2 tractor trailer loads of brown mulch – one for Nancy and one for all the other gardeners in Charlottesville and Albemarle County. Mulch-aholics ofte try to hide their sickness. Rather … [Read more...]
A Pot of Beans
For 40 years, I was camp cook at our biannual gatherings. The main reason I volunteered is that if I had not, we would have had Cheetos and Little Debbie’s for every meal. So, I cooked, and for 40 years I always cooked a big pot of beans every trip. Beans are something most of us don’t often eat at home. That’s because they aren’t very exciting, and wives usually don’t bother with them. Yet, when … [Read more...]
A Concert to Remember
There is an amazing concert being held now in Charlottesville. It’s free and it happens every morning around 6 am. It’ is a concert of our local birds performing spring arias. The air is filled with their songs. Robins are the divas; cardinals provide backup, and many other birds join in on the chorus. Birds, of course, sing throughout the day, but they bring their a-games in the … [Read more...]
Salty Report
The water temps are in the upper 50’s in Virginia and have passed 60 degrees on the Outer Banks. Game on! It’s April and the flounder bite is happening. Flounder are being caught by drifting live and natural baits on the bottom or trolling small bucktails dressed with strip baits, near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. Some of the best early flounder action always comes from the … [Read more...]
A Big Mossy Brown
I am so proud of my youngest daughter, Laura. She took up fly fishing on her own just a couple years ago and has since become a capable fly tyer and an excellent fisherman. This past week, she went to the Hallowed Grounds of Mossy Creek in Augusta County and enticed a huge Brown Trout to eat her fly. This is not an easy task because, first, Mossy Creek is a tough place to fish. It is … [Read more...]
Fun Food at MAS Tapas
There are not many fun places to eat out in Charlottesville – fun, like kid’s would enjoy at a Chucky Cheese. Most restaurants are laid back, dull and boring. Many have good food, but fun? Not so much. There is one restaurant, however, that has both excellent food – not good, excellent - and it’s a super fun place to visit; and that would be MAS Tapas in Belmont. Nancy and I joined our … [Read more...]
Tips On Raising Chickens
(My good friend, the late Sherman Shifflett, wrote this for Cville Buzz a few years back. Sherman loved his chickens, almost like children. As more and more folks are raising chickens in their backyards, this might come in handy) By Sherman Shifflett Except when I was in college and in the Army (drafted during the ‘Nam era), I have raised chickens all my life. I no longer … [Read more...]
A Bluebird Date
Bluebirds and humans have similar habits. A young human male often takes his wanna-be intended out to dinner and feeds her – just like bluebirds. My resident bluebirds have picked out a house (after several last-minute changes) and are ready to set up housekeeping. But the male bluebird leaves nothing to chance. Ever on the lookout from his perch atop the fence, when he spots a juicy … [Read more...]
Signs of your Times
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