September’s First Week

I was looking for a wine store when I discovered that Bars are illegal in VA and hard liquor must be purchased from a state run store. Restaurants can serve beer or wine, but no mixed drinks or hard liquor. Interesting….. So, no local pubs to hang out in here.

This is probably a good idea considering Virgina’s gun laws….

So, my day was a journey navigating this new system. First, I wanted to get some peppermint schnapps for hot cocoa in the winter.( I know, a bit early — best to be prepared is the way I see it 😉 I did find an ABC store, which turned out to be near the grocery store. (Do you think they planned it this way?) The selection was amazing and very well laid out. It is good to know if I need anything that most likely they will have it.

Now I know where other alcohol is, I needed to find some wine. There are not any BevMos or Total Wine stores so I looked up local wineries. I found two in Louisa and chose the closest one, which did have five stars. I went through the gates with the vineyard’s name and soon got lost on a single-lane road that kept winding through different estates, but there weren’t any grapes (or tasting room) in site. I had to backtrack and call the next one on the list. I found the winery I was looking for closed back in 2017. Off I went to, evidently, the only winery in Louisa, 53 Vineyard.

The drive to the vineyard…

Beautiful day and drive out to the tasting room. No matter if you are in Napa, CA or Louisa, VA; driving through a vineyard is pretty much the same. The tasting room smells the same also, faint hints of crush and wine. 53 Winery is a lovely place with lots of tables and plenty of beautiful spots to enjoy some wine and food. They do serve snacks with the wine flights. They only do flights and not single tasting. The varietal grapes are different here also. However, Petit Verdot does well here and they do sell it as a varietal. In Napa, it is rare to find it as a varietal as it is mostly used as a blending grape. I enjoy this grape so I bought two bottles. They had another grape I liked that I have never heard of. All in all, an enjoyable day running around learning the area.

Here are my cow buds I see everyday…..

Sending a little “cool” to my California buddies who currently are frying in record heat. I hope this gives you a little cool break….

A bit of cool for your day…..

This is the before picture…..

This is after I cleaned up the porch area.

I wanted to use the hose as a sort of pressure washer, but no water came out of the spigot and hose….unfortunately. I turned to the analog method of bowl and broom to wash the deck. It still needs a couple more times, but I had to get on to other things. Does look better though and that odd hawk kite seems to fit into the whole scene now…. 🙂

Gym Area

I broke down and unwrapped my bench. I just am not getting good workouts otherwise. I also found these super cool diffuser lanterns. They were only $10 so I bought two! I put citronella in them and they last for five hours! They are lanterns also so you can turn on the light. They are portable and work great on the porch too. It takes two in the workout shed to keep those pesky blood suckers at bay…. I have a can of Deep Woods Off there to threaten any other bugs that dare to creep into my space.

Made a new friend…..

So I went into Charlottesville on Thursday and did more exploring. My bank is next to the main campus area and has lots of interesting looking restaurants. I did grab a fantastic roast beef sandwich at one of these. They have some kind of special sauce that was yummy. I discovered a very cool used bookstore in an alleyway. There is just something enchanting about libraries and bookstores. The sales guy/Owner? Arthur is very charming and helpful and a perfect compliment to the historic feel of the store.

Meet Arthur

I went in Montpelier Saturday and what a lovely town. It is halfway from Louisa and Richmond. Really nice estate homes, Angus ranches and farmland — just beautiful. It is a bit of a drive, but it was the closest CVS where I could get the new Covid booster. I didn’t take any pictures, instead I went grocery shopping there. Since I live so far out from anything I have a knee-jerk reaction to shop whenever I come into a town that actually has shops.

So, I feel like crap today….Sunday….I am achey all over. This is the first real reaction I have had to any of the Covid vaccines. It is also raining so I will just hang out today. Even the pud went back upstairs to nap after a wee break and breakfast. My big job today will be to finish putting up my porch lights. I wanted to make it look festive for the holidays and it gives more light in the front area.

I give up! I wanted to light the porch tonight, but the lights need an adapter (male/male) so I can plug them into an outlet. I wish they would note this on the box. I would have run into the hardware store while I was out yesterday. Now it will just have to wait as I am not going anywhere. I do feel better but will sign off for this week. Wishing everyone beautiful (and cooler) days.