Mushroom hunting at W & M (back post)

 For my birthday this year, Kenan took us all to William and Mary to visit the boy. 

We had fun wandering around Historic Williamsburg.  Grabbed some coffees at Aromas coffee shop, then got some crazy delicious ice cream from Kilwins.  i highly recommend them! It was so good!

While wandering through historic Williamsburg, i spotted this Chicken of the woods growing on a tree in the front yard of one of the historic homes!  i seem to spot mushrooms everywhere i go!!

After leaving Historic Williamsburg, we went back to the W&M campus and decided to walk some trails and explore the woods.

We had so much fun spotting mushrooms! i would love to come back and do some actual mushroom hunting here. We didn't have to hike very far to find these beautiful Beefsteak mushrooms! These are edible and one of the few wild mushrooms that can be eaten raw.

These were popping up everywhere. i can't remember what they are called, but i had identified them and then let them be, so i am guessing they are not edible or i would have remembered what they were. They were really pretty though and neat to see them cover such a huge area.

i found hedgehog mushrooms, also known as Sweet tooth mushrooms. These are edible, although i have never tried them before. They can be identified by the 'teeth' on the underside. These grow from the ground and not on trees like Lionsmane, another toothed fungus i like to find.

i did manage to spot a couple tiny Lionmanes as well! They were really small, but it's still always very exciting to find one! i would love to come back to Williamsburg and do some serious mushroom hunting.  My boy has such a fun campus and amazing woods to explore here. He is not as excited about mushroom hunting as i am, but will still occasionally send me photos of mushrooms he's found while out walking the campus trails. 

This was a fun and simple birthday.  i loved getting away on a quick overnight, spending time with both of my kids again and getting to explore some woods!   Pretty much a perfect birthday and that ice cream at Kilwins is so good! 

My boy seems to be adjusting well to college despite all the weirdness of masks online classes and Covid restrictions.  Not really ideal for his first year of college, but he'll have some stories to tell one day about life during lockdown.  

First Trip to Williamsburg (2020 Back post)

 

My boy started his first semester at William & Mary in the middle of the pandemic. The College of William & Mary was founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William III and Queen Mary II, it is the second-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and the ninth-oldest in the English-speaking world. The history surrounding this area, is really neat. We brought him to the school in late August.  Masks were required on all areas of the campus. Only one person was allowed inside the dorm to help him move it. It was all very surreal. 

The campus is absolutely gorgeous though. So we enjoyed exploring the area, hiking the woods and wandering the different trails. For being a college campus i was really impressed with the amount of nature surrounding it all. i expected more of a snobbish 'city' feel.  

Historic downtown Williamsburg is a quaint little town that's full of history. It was pretty empty due to Covid restrictions, but still fun to walk around and see the old historic buildings.  Typically they would have people in historical dress offering tours and information about the different buildings and houses, but due to Covid it was all closed when we were there. We knew we'd be back to visit soon, so it wasn't a problem. Our first trip there was really just to drop him off and head back home. It was very difficult, but a wonderful experience for my son. We are so incredibly proud of him and knew he'd do fine.

Big News! Introducing Blue Ridge Alchemy!

So, a bit of BIG news! Earlier this year my husband and his friend Caleb decided to rent a glass shop together.  This would move Kenan's glass shop out of the basement and into the town of Floyd. The building they found was almost perfect! It has an apartment upstairs, that Caleb is renting and a store front!

The guys have been putting a ton of work into the building to make sure the ventilation is good for glass blowing, building new work benches and getting the store front ready for business.

Blue Ridge Alchemy is a functional glass shop where both Kenan and Caleb work daily. It also has space for students and visiting glass instructors. Their plan is to eventually host classes and workshops once the coronvirus madness has calmed down a bit.  

The storefront just recently opened and is only open for limited days/hours. Right now it's open Friday and Sat 12-8pm.  We are just beginning to fill the store, but there is lots of glass work from Kenan, Caleb, me and even a few pieces from Sequoia. We'll soon be carrying other glass artists work as well.

Just a tiny sampling of some of the things you may find at Blue Ridge Alchemy.  This is a sample of Caleb's work. He works with both glass and copper electro-forming to create some really original glass work. He can also be found on Etsy and instagram.

We have a nice selection of handcrafted jewelry from Dark Gem Industries.

A small display of some of my work, which i really need to be making more. i haven't been in the glassshop since they moved it, and have been so focused on sewing and gardening i haven't had much to contribute to the store.  

We have some gorgeous art prints by Kaitlyn Page , pottery by several Floyd artists. Wood crafts, bamboo flutes and more!

During store hours guests will also get a chance to watch live glass blowing! 

Blue Ridge Alchemy has been a long time coming. There is still a ton of work to do to get everything set up as it should be and to get the store filled, but it's really coming along. Caleb has taken the reins on the store front, while Kenan is working on putting together classes and events they can host. 

For anyone traveling along the Blue Ridge Parkway and visiting Floyd, be sure and stop by The Blue Ridge Alchemy and say hello! You can follow along on our adventures here and see new merchandise and featured artists as we fill up the store. 2020 has been a real drag on our plans for the shop/store, but i really feel it will all come together and work out fine.  #visitfloydVA #floydartisans #shoplocal #thisisfloyd

Quarantines and Garden Rambles.

How is it already July?   i've been a bit behind with my posting, 2020 has been quite a year for a number of reasons. The kids ended school in March, due to the Coronavirus quarantine.  My son missed the end of his senior year, but was still able to graduate in June.  i'll make another post about that eventually. My folks moved down here from MI and bought a house not far away in the next county over.  Kenan moved his glass shop to Floyd (another post) and i've just been home with the kids doing what we do. Nothing else has really changed too much.

We had some weird weather in May (21 degrees!!) so things are a bit behind. 

Harvest 5-23-2020  Sppring temps were weird, but i did manage to get a few cold crops planted. So by the end of May we were getting asparagus and radishes. My spinach did terrible, but i did get a bit and the strawberries came from a pot that had overwintered in the greenhouse. We were getting shiitake and oysters on and off all winter and my hens began laying eggs again in February. 

6-4-2020  First week of June we started seeing garlic scapes. Rhubarb is ready to harvest and lettuce is just starting to come in.

6-11-2020  Almost the second week of June before we start to see peas.  Still getting a few radish, although they are starting to bolt now. Plenty of lettuce ready, still getting mushrooms and eggs.

6-16-2020  Found our first Chicken of the season!  Getting tons of Garlic scapes, peas, eggs and carrots are ready to pick.

6-30-2020  Ending June with another Chicken of the Woods. Also found a few wild chanterelles and getting shiitakes again.   Everything is about a month behind.  Normally i would already be getting tomatoes, squash and beans.  They are still a few weeks off for a variety of reasons. The deer found 2 of my fenced gardens and ate all the beans, so my bean harvest this year will not be great. Tomatoes are loaded with green fruits, but still have a while before they ripen and my squash didn't germinate well. After replanting repeatedly, i finally have a couple plants that appear to be close to blooming.

We have so much to do at home to stay busy, it hasn't felt like much of a quarantine. However the closer we get to school starting up, the more anxious i get about it.  We've felt quite protected here in our bubble, but once school begins we will lose that feeling of protection. Especially with my son headed off to college in just about a month. 

End of 2019 recap

 The end of 2019, was a crazy busy time.  December is always busy just with the holidays, but then add in christmas parades and band concerts, plus this year i sign up to set up at a couple different shows.  It's a wonder i ever got any shopping or cookie baking done. 

The first event i set up at was the Gift Local Holiday Market in Roanoke at the GreenBrier Nursery.  It was a really nice event with live music and plenty of vendors. It was a very different crowd from the Artisan Market in Floyd, which made for a very different experience.

Despite being the middle of December it was pretty mild out, and the solarium got really warm during the day once the sun came out. So even though we were set up sort of outside, it was very comfortable. i really enjoyed the event and look forward to doing it again next year.

My market friend Sarah invited me to set up at her open house at Spoon Mountain Farm. It was a really small event with only 4 of us set up, but it was also a lot of fun. 

Only a couple people attended the open house, but i still did better than i do at some market nights. 

Somehow with everything else going on i still managed to do a little holiday baking and decorating, although definitely not to the extend that i've done in the past.

Our holiday cards were put together about a week before xmas. Trying to get a photo with both teens home at the same time and cooperating was nearly impossible. i gave up all hope of getting one with all 4 of us, and finally managed to get this one after a bit of yelling and threatening.   i only got cards sent out to maybe 5 people, before giving up entirely.  

i did manage to get a family photo on xmas.  We are only missing one kitty and me in the photo, as i was taking the photo. As the kids get older and life gets busier, it's getting harder and harder to get photos of all of us together. 

December was so mild, we ended up going for a hike after opening gifts. We took two of the dogs and just made a day of it.  It was really nice spending the day together.  Life has just gotten so busy these days and i don't see it slowing down any time soon.  This pretty much wrapped up our 2019. We had a few lazy days to end out the month, before starting fresh in 2020.