Road Trip

I was thrilled to be invited to the Garden Club of Virginia’s 80^th Historic Garden Week.  Last Thursday, my Farmville fave, Faye, and I took off on a road trip through the most beautiful rolling hills this side of the Mississippi.  The grand estates, well- appointed homes and charming parsonages situated from Norfolk to Leesburg, graciously opened their doors and garden gates for the hoi polloi to traipse about.  Our destination was northern Virginia, somewhere in and around Warrenton.  After picking up friend Kay in New Canton, we breezed along Highway 15 to rendezvous with friend Beth in Little Washington. (It’s not really named Little Washington, that’s to squelch confusion with THE Washington.)  The way to Beth’s house was one-lane, following a babbling stream and chocked full of scenery.  We were stopped short, literally, at the bridge.  No go.  Not crossing today. The paving crew from VDOT said we could retrace our steps and go WAY around and come in on the backside of the property – somewhere in parts unknown.  No thanks.  We called (once we back-traced enough to get a cell signal) and asked Beth to meet us up and out of the hollow.  She did. 

 There was no mistaking that I was in the company of Master Gardeners.  My day-tripping companions hold offices in their Garden Clubs and humbly understate their own magnificent gardens.  I was clearly in the midst of garden giants.  They know the name (and I’m speaking of the scientific name) of every tree, bush, shrub and flower.  They reel off varieties of flowers like I might speak of draft beer.  I was in awe.

We toured all but one of the sites, including Leeds Manor Farm (built for Chief Justice John Marshall), The Hume Parsonage (1855 Episcopal Church rectory), Glen Gordon Manor (1833 Wells Fargo stagecoach stop), Locust Grove (fabulous B&B with a wine cellar dating to 1765), and finally Standen Still, my favorite, a English Arts and Crafts stucco home with a steep cedar shake roof. 

I may have been the least trained in flora & fauna, but no one was more enthusiastic and thrilled to be included on such an excursion.  We laughed as we put the miles behind us, sipping on ice coffee and rubber necking all fields & flowers, fences, barns, houses and horses for 150 miles and back again.

I cannot close without mention of our box lunch provided by Chef Faye.  By golly, she puts Martha Stewart and Paula Dean to complete shame.  Delicious AND healthy, our individual lunches were packed in recycled mushroom containers, complete with three-bean salad in tightly sealed mason jars, a delightful chicken salad roll-up and cookie! 

Kay brought out her famous cream cheese & cucumber sandwiches and we dined like queens.  Cloth napkins & sweet mint tea topped off the ambiance. It was picture perfect!  It truly was.