Corgis On Parade

My friend Henley owns Corgis and was fortunate enough to be able to participate (Corgi in tow) in the infamous Middleburg Christmas Parade in early December.  If ever in Northern Virginia this time of year make an effort to be in Middleburg the first Saturday for a parade unlike no other in the Virginia Hunt Country's most picturesque village. Henley offered to share some of her photos.

Needlepoint Wreath

This needlepoint wreath is just too adorable for words.  It is so cabinesque!  Contact Po's Point in Charlotte if you want to do one.  I recently completed this same wreath (this one is not mine) and it does not take too long to stitch and would make a great winter project.  The wreath is bigger than it looks here. Suspect it is at least 18 inches, maybe 20 or 22".  Love this!!!!!!!

Olde Virginia Log House Tour

The local community association where I live hosted its homes tour this past weekend.  The warm weather made for a record turnout and the houses on tour this year each had a "log" component.  The first house was built in the 1700's and had been a tavern.  The current owners completely restored it. It was amazing inside and out.

 The downstairs bath was my favorite!

 The kitchen which was totally modernized was decorated to the period.

On the main floor, this room is used a a library/study.

 The fireplaces are original.

 There is a small log cabin behind the main house.

 

 The second house is also, log, moved and built about 10 years ago.  It has new owners who have wonderful taste and have decorated it to the nines. It is used as a weekend home.

 They collect all kinds of things and the house was full of antiques:

Behind the house is a small log shed they added recently with a nice cozy patio.

The third house is the newest having been built a few years ago.  The logs are about 150 years old and were taken from a house just a few miles away.  This is the side porch, which enters into the kitchen.

 The log section is on the front of the house facing east.

Legends of the Fall, Part One

Moonie was fast.  When you saw him galloping in front of the ambulance deep in the woods you could tell he had been a race horse.  His shiny white coat stood out among the evergreens but there was no mistaking that rotating red light that seemed to be nipping at his heels as he ran faster and faster.  He looked like he was leading a parade and in one sense he sadly was.

You're never prepared.  It happens when you least expect it.  And sometimes, if luck isn't on your side, the end result can be, at worst, life altering, or at best, a very painful experience.  This was to be one of those dreaded days, someone's life indeed was changed.

Ron had never been out with the hunt and he used this day in "cubbing season", a hunt warm-up if you will, to try Moonie out.  The pair had gotten along well at the boarding stable where Moonie was staying until he found his forever home but the real test was to be in the woods of the Maryland countryside.  No one had anticipated this.

The ground was hard, it was late fall, little rain.  The riders had been in their "off season" using the summer months to rest their mounts and their own aching bones so they might make it through the "hunt season" which started with cubbing at Labor Day, opening meet around Thanksgiving and then regular hunting until late March, weather permitting of course.  It took awhile to get your riding legs back, your seat, your wind.  That wasn't an excuse for what happened but it was later recounted as a contributing factor, but by then it didn't matter.

I remember Ron being summoned, he had the training from his Army days to take care of injured people in remote areas, unlike the other physicians in the hunt who saw their patients only in air conditioned rooms with nurses and equipment.  Moonie was stoic as well.  He seemed to know that something had happened and none of his usual antics were on display that day. Some horses are smart and innate.

In an age before iPhones, someone had to gallop to the nearest house to make the call.  The Medvac couldn't get in to our location in the woods.  The road was too narrow and the trees too dangerous.  It seemed like it took forever for the ambulance to arrive that day but the sight of Moonie leading the way like a gray race horse on a mission made an impression I'll never forget.

The lovely fall day started well but ended badly.  The rider had fallen over the neck of his horse when the horse stopped at a large tree covering the dirt road.  Most of the others jumped but this one did not.  The rider landed on the back of his neck much like the movie star, Christopher Reeve, had done at a three-day event in Virginia a few years earlier.  Now these two men had something in common.  So many others have had that same fall but walked away.  How did these two get so unlucky?


Galloping through the woods at high speeds on a 1500-pound animal, jumping over trees that will never move is not a safe sport, no matter how you look at it.  But we all choose to do the things we love - skiing, mountain biking, football, kayaking, car racing -  because it's what we do, it's part of who we are, our DNA; the risks are inherent, the love for it evident and omnipresent.  Many of us went out with the hounds the following weekend, putting the prior week's events out of mind at least for the four hours we were in the saddle.

Jimmy's life was changed forever that day and he never got out of his wheelchair again paralyzed from the neck down.  Whether his cherished hunting memories haunted him or humbled him from that day forward, we'll never know. 

 

Books With a Past

Finding time to read is a luxury for me and I love nothing more than to snuggle up with a good book on a cold winter day.  While books are personal, everyone has their own style, even in reading, a good book IS a good book.  Here are a few of my all time favorites, ones I read over and over again. And books make great gifts!

1) The Big Short by Michael Lewis

Lewis is one of my favorite contemporary writers and this book is coming soon in a movie with Brad Pitt.  I can't wait to see it.  This chronicles several real life people who bet against the financial meltdown in 2008 and won really big. Fascinating stories.  Somewhat technical in financial speak but if you like big finance you'll enjoy this one.  He also wrote Moneyball and Liar's Poker.

2) The Razors Edge by Somerset Maugham

Maugham is my favorite writer and I've read all of his novels. Ashenden and Of Human Bondage are also favorites.  He's very dark but how the man could write.  He was a famous playwright in his day, lesser known as a novelist.  Who knew? There are several old movie versions of this book out there.

3) Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

Another one of my favorite writers. Stegner, who taught creative writing at Stanford for many years and who taught some now famous writers their craft, is possibly better known for his Angle of Repose which won him the Pulitzer.  He writes mostly about the West but this book is set in Wisconsin.

4) Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriela Garcia Marquez

Just a great classic novel that can be read over and over again.

5) A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham

One of my newer additions to the list and by a contemporary author no less.  

I am getting ready to start Robert Penn Warren's classic All the King's Men.  I've never read any of his works.  Wish me luck!

Turn off your television, your video games, your iPhone and read!

A Holiday Filled With Ribbons

Hectic holidays abound here in Virginia, regretfully. Since time is short this week, hoping that your Monday was not manic like mine.  So sharing this holiday wreath made with recycled horse show ribbons.

Happy Monday!

More Foxy Needlepoint

Want to get a jump on NEXT Christmas?  You can purchase this needlepoint ornament from Po's Point this week, 20 percent off.  It is adorable isn't it?  Contact Po's Point in Charlotte, NC directly at
704-553-8777 to order.