Texas Lou

Archive for the ‘Seasons’ Category

Greetings on this beautiful spring Mother’s Day!

First and foremost I’d like to wish a happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms out there, especially my mom! Since both mothers and spring give birth to new and beautiful life, I thought I’d post some lovely pictures of all the blooming flowers, fruits, and vegetables growing in my future in-laws’ garden!

Lovely Blooming Peonies

I try to go for a walk during my lunch break a couple of times a week since my office building is located in a semi-rural area.  There are some wonderful views and plenty of plant life nearby.

These are some shots of dogwood trees located near the property.   Dogwoods are Virginia’s state tree and flower and I think they are quite lovely when they are blooming in the spring.

It’s starting to feel like fall!

After the sweltering heat that we’ve endured this summer, I’m welcoming the autumn season with open arms.

Fall always reminds me of new beginnings: starting school, starting a new job, entering into a new relationship.  These significant events in my life have almost always happened during fall, so the familiar smell of the air and feel of the breeze cooling you as the sun warms your skin perfectly always makes me happy and nostalgic.

Tomorrow, I’m attending the Harvest Wine Festival At The Plains and will happily be sipping local wines while enjoying the company of friends and the feel of the grass beneath my body.  Next weekend, I’ll be attending and “starring in” the autumn harvest themed wedding of two dear friends.  I can’t think of a better way to welcome the season!

I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated the blog!  It’s been an extremely busy summer with lots of traveling, special occasions, and activities!

Recently, I’ve been helping my friend Sarah get ready for her wedding that is two weeks from tomorrow, but once things calm down some and the slow and relaxing air of autumn is here, I will share all of my adventures!

Charlottesville must have angered the gods because yesterday we had one hell of a storm!

Yesterday, Charlottesville experienced what the meteorology world calls a microburst.  And it was the second microburst experienced by the Charlottesville area in less than three weeks!

I was driving from work to pick up Ben so that we could go to my Team in Training Batesville Store fundraiser.  Ben works in the heart of downtown Charlottesville which was the hardest hit area, so lucky me got caught in the middle of the maelstrom that came out of nowhere.

I was driving and chatting with my brother on the phone when I heard a message from the Emergency Broadcast System come on the radio.  I knew a storm was coming because I saw dark clouds and heard thunder, but I just expected it to be a quick passing summer storm so I didn’t pay too much attention.  Less than two minutes later, rain started pounding, large branches started beating my car, and huge tree limbs were blocking parts of the road.  I barely had time to turn on my windshield wipers when I heard a loud popping noise on my right.  There was a huge burst of flames from a power line in the field next to where I was driving.  I quickly put down the phone (the storm had already ended my call for me) and started to inch my way through torrential downpours, strong winds, and falling trees.

When I was almost to Ben’s office building, I heard another loud popping noise, this time on my left.  This one was even louder and came with a flash of blue light that scared the shit out of me!  I believe it was a transformer blowing.  When I got to Ben’s office parking lot, the storm was starting to die down, but the parking lot was covered in trees and a downed power line.

Ben and I spent the next two hours driving around Charlottesville trying to find a way to Batesville, and then giving up on the fundraiser and trying to get home.  Traffic was terrible because of power outages affecting traffic lights, trees blocking roads and intersections, and power lines down everywhere.  We saw one tree that had a root system at least 10 to 15 feet in diameter that had been uprooted and was leaning against a house.  We saw a light post that had been broken from its pole and was dangling near a power line.  We saw several trees and power line poles snapped in half.

I’ve never seen so much damage and I grew up were hurricanes and tornadoes are a common occurrence.

When we FINALLY got home, we were surprised to see the large poplar tree that is usually staring back at as through our fourth story windows on the ground.  We have worried about this tree falling and damaging our building many times in the past, but I am glad it is finally no longer a threat and did not hurt anything or anyone in its demise.

Here are some pictures of the tree’s final resting place:

I’m glad that everyone I know was not hurt and we all came out alive and safe, but I’m still wondering what is with all this crazy weather: 2 large snow storms in December and February each totaling more than 2 feet of snow, 2 microbursts in June that have caused tons of damage, and a June heatwave that I’ve never seen in Virginia!

If you’d like to check out more pictures from the storm, they can be found here.

Last night was a blast!

Cheryl, Jennifer, Kristen, and I headed out to the Charlottesville Pavillion to celebrate the first day of summer and see Colbie Caillat and Sheryl Crow play!

We started out the evening at my apartment with a quick glass of wine and then headed to the downtown mall.  You may remember me writing about Ventana a few months ago and their very unique margaritas.  Well Ventana was offering a discount to all Sheryl Crow ticket holders so we decided to stop in for a pre-concert cocktail.  I finally got to try the cucumber margarita.  It was delicious!  It wasn’t as good as the jalapeno margarita, but it was definitely the perfect refreshing beverage for a hot summer day.  Jennifer tried the strawberry margarita and Cheryl had the habanero margarita which I tried the last time I was at Ventana.

After drinks, we headed to the Pavillion for the music.  We enjoyed some awesome Star Hill Lucy as we chatted and listened to Colbie Caillat play.

When Sheryl Crow took the stage, we got to hear all of our old favorites and some new ones too!  We danced and sang and had a great time and even bumped into some more friends!

Overall, it was an awesome first day of summer.  We definitely started Summer 2010 off right!

Summer makes me feel young.  The sun makes me feel happy, and today, the first official day of summer, is the day with the most hours of sunlight.

I’m celebrating by going to an outdoor concert to see Sheryl Crow and Colbie Caillat this evening with some awesome ladies!

In honor of the true beginning of summer, I wanted to post one of my favorite summer pictures.

This was taken by one of my best friends and partners in crime, Sarah Travis, a couple of summers ago while camping at Spy Rock in Nelson County, Virginia.  From left to right sit Ben, Me, Ian (Ben’s younger brother and Sarah’s fiance), and Sarah.  We had a great time that involved hiking, climbing, watching the sunset, building a bonfire, roasting weenies, and watching the stars.  This will always hold a special place in my heart as one of my favorite camping trips and summer days!

Here are a couple of other pictures from that evening (also taken by Sarah).

I hope everyone kicks off their summer right and enjoys some fresh air and sunshine today!

This was a beautiful evening, November 15, 2009, and I wanted to share it:

Living in Charlottesville provides quite a few lovely sites to help one become in tune with nature.  When I first moved to the Commonwealth, I was quite intimidated by the endless landscape of mountains and trees accompanying all roads and stretches of highway.  Born and raised a city gal, I was used to having numerous gas stations, restaurants, and shopping centers accompany me along my rides.  Being in Charlottesville and driving through the countryside for hours without seeing a single sign that the human race existed made me feel pretty lonely.  However, now I really do enjoy making my way from Charlottesville to Richmond with a only nature as my passenger. 

Besides the Blue Ridge Mountains, the occasional roadside grazing deer, and the trees often coated in white snow in the winter, Charlottesville is home to many hot air balloons and their pilots.  On most clear and sunny days in the Fall or Spring, you can catch a glimpse of a beautifully and brightly colored hot air balloon sailing through the sky on your way to and from work.  People often take them up to watch the sunrise or sunset so the timing is perfect to watch them on my drive to work or home from work. 

Even though my drive to and from work is only 30 minutes, I still get bored (probably because my commute at my former job was only about 5 minutes).  So the hot air balloons provide a nice background as I impatiently make my way through what small-town Charlottesville residents call traffic.  Getting to see these balloons sure beats the hell out of talk-radio!  I was lucky enough to have my camera to snap some great shots of the hot air balloons this fall.

I’m so glad that autumn is finally almost here! 

One thing that I have learned to appreciate about living on the East Coast is the beautiful weather and scenery that takes over between September and November.  Leaves changing colors and the weather getting colder is something I rarely got to experience growing up in southern Texas.  Now that I live in central Virginia, I can’t get enough of it!

I love taking pictures of the leaves changing colors from bright greens to various hues of orange, brown, yellow, and red.  I love getting to bundle up in sweaters and fleece and sit by a bonfire and drink apple cider.  And I love all of the fall festivals that take place during this time of year.  The Graves Mountain Apple Harvest Festival, the Carter Mountain Orchard Apple Harvest Festival, and the Fall Fiber Festival and Montpelier Sheep Dog Trials are just a few that I plan on attending!

The next couple of months are sure to be filled with lots of fun and plenty of pictures.