Happy Trails: Weekends

The last few weekends have been pretty awesome. Last weekend we went and visited my parents. I was in true need of some mountain views, and it was a very relaxing time. As always, we ate incredibly well; below is just one example of many amazing meals we enjoyed there.

While visiting we also took some time to peruse the shops of downtown Lexington, including some of the art galleries. One of them, Studio 11, displayed the work of one of my all time favorite painters--Ryan Russell. I saw one of his paintings about 8 years ago, and it really moved me. Ever since then I've known that one day I would have some of his work in my own home, and we were lucky enough to have that happen! This is one of two that we purchased--it's hanging now in our dining room, and this picture truly doesn't do it justice...

The other painting is also gorgeous, but much smaller--it's a view of House Mountain from a field at sunset--the way the light touches everything, I can almost hear the crickets chirping and smell the scent of oncoming dusk...I'll share that one with you once we get it framed and mounted! Until then, I'll share some of my own artwork: although there hasn't been much knitting content on this blog for quite a while, it isn't because I haven't been knitting! My mom and I are working on this blanket together--it's an adaptation of the Circle of Friends baby blanket out of Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I basically doubled the pattern, and we're using Cotton Fleece on #6 straight needles. Eventually, once completed, this blanket will grace the bed of our guest bedroom. Mom's is the stripe on the right--she's a knitting FIEND, and mine is the much less impressive effort on the left. It takes us about 4 hours to knit each block of color, so I anticipate that it will be a while before this project is ready to thread together. These are 2 stripes of 7, but it's going to be really awesome--and I'm so happy to be doing it with my mom!

On our way home last Sunday, we stopped at King Family Vineyards--an absolutely gorgeous winery right outside of Charlottesville in Crozet. They have a beautiful veranda, with a nice view of surrounding farmland and the foothills of Afton Mountain. I enjoyed a nice buttery Chardonnay there--I love how the mountains are reflected here in the glass.

This week has been a bit lower key, but with a lot of nice surprises. I began to enjoy some wonderful local unfiltered honey, purchased last weekend, in numerous cups of tea, and drizzled on some homemade banana bread that I made this morning. Isn't it gorgeous?

The weather has also been surprisingly mild, and we enjoyed opening up all of the windows in the house both yesterday and today. It aired out the house, and the kids loved it--especially Mea, who couldn't get enough of peering outside, while River helped.

We also recreated one of the rustic dishes that Dad made us last weekend--Mediterranean Bean Soup. We enjoyed it yesterday with homemade croutons, and it is now Salmaan's favorite soup. We used chicken stock instead of water, which made it rich, and the addition of the olive oil and red wine vinegar at the end really transforms it into something so savory...good stuff.

I also baked a blueberry gallet, from a recipe that Dad picked out of an old Gourmet Magazine. He picked these blueberries up at Green Pond this past year, and they taste so good....we shared this dessert with some friends who came over for lunch Sunday afternoon.

And of course, after all that cooking, ya gotta find time to work in some R&R, right?

All of the boxes have finally been cleared out of the living room, and the animals are enjoying having a whole new room to lounge in--and so are we. Last night we properly enjoyed the fireplace probably for the first time, and it was really nice. Tomorrow morning our kitchen and dining room furniture is getting delivered, so we're excited to put those rooms together at last! Hope you've had a productive, relaxing weekend, with plenty of good food and spring-like weather....