Sunday, September 03, 2017

Celtic Highways and Byways

Paul and I, aka Drowsy Maggie & The Whistler, have started a new adventure in our new community of Pocahontas County, West Virginia. We are on Allegheny Mountain Radio every other Saturday, 3 to 5 pm playing Celtic tunes from the British Isles, Europe, and North America.  Live radio is a kick in the pants!  It keeps you on your toes especially when there are technical difficulties as there was today. It's our second show, so we are counting on the 3rd time to be a charm!


Being the Labor Day holiday weekend, we focused on tunes that had to do with work, working, traveling to working and then the fun of celebrating a holiday.
This week, our artist list included:
  • Damien Dempsey & the Dubliners
  • Solas
  • Beggar's Circus
  • Dysart & Dundonald Pipe Band
  • Bohola
  • Smithfield Fair
  • Maggie Macinnes
  • Beoga
  • Lúnasa
  • Tony DeMarco
  • Lissa Schneckenburger
  • Edsall Road
  • Mark Dunlop
  • Aurora Celtic
  • Bonnie Rideout
  • Sandy Meldrum
  • Beginish
  • The Dubliners
  • and Grit Laskin
We'll probably post the full song list at a future date (have to catch up from last week anyway), but we certainly look forward to future shows!

Stay tuned for what is happening next with Celtic Highways and Byways with Drowsy Maggie & the Whistler.

Travel Afternoon, Northern Neck Adventure

LOVING on some ladies from across the fence. Lovely day to explore the Northern Neck of Virginia with Vaden.


Enjoyed a step back in time while we tried to find directions to an ancestral home in the area of Farham, VA

Sunday, January 31, 2016

End of year fun

The Richardson Family Christmas party is always a fun time to catch up with ... well ... everyone, and everything going on. This year was no exception and the venue was fantastic! For ambience and atmosphere, you cannot beat the Williamsburg Inn. 


And of course no visit to Williamsburg at Christmas is complete without Father Christmas.


Or ice skating ...


So although the season is vorbei, Happy Christmas to all, and may 2016 bring new joys and laughter. 


Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Paul's BIG 50!



Jane Austen in Emma declared that "Surprises are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced, and the inconvenience is often considerable." Well! we pulled off enough of a surprise for Paul's 50th birthday, that he declared was not in the least foolish nor inconvenient! And it was an actually pleasurable event enhanced by the many amazing friends in attendance.
We were blessed with a day of wonderful weather, good food, and superior drink for this grand celebration. The only unfavorable part were the friends and family, who for many reasons, were not able to be with us.

Thank you to all for the may well wishes and congratulations to Paul, on this, the beginning of his next decade.

Everybody knows it's Paul's 50th! plus some shark teeth for the occasion!

Celebrating in the garden on Alleghany Street!

Paul the selfie king!

Dad the photo bomber at Thanksgiving!

Wednesday, April 08, 2015

Too long Away

Life in the Alleghany Highlands of Virginia continue.  Spring is here green and ready to burst forth, or spring or sprout or blossm or mushroom.
The chickens are hollering about another egg or a cat prowling around the pen. Testing of Wils for the required year end results are almost finished.
Jacob's Ladder Spring retreat is here this weekend. This will be Wils' last year as a Climber, 8th grade and middle school is almost over.
And spring keeps pushing on.

Tuesday, July 08, 2014

All my roads end at the Water

Been hanging out on Rt 64 East and West a lot this summer.  My travels take me from Alleghany County to Middlesex County, from mountain lakes to tidewater creeks. Truly an amazing state. Even while the miles mount on my body and wear out my automobiles, I am not sure if I could chose. The life of "twixt and between".  I realize I must chose sometime, but until that time is made clear, I'll enjoy the views!

 Douthat State Park, Clifton Forge, VA

  Urbanna Creek

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Sunny Sunday Morning in Clifton Forge

The pollinators were loving the mimosa this morning. It was a mixed morning for us, as Wils said "so long for the Summer" to his two sisters. He's heading off for a total of 4 weeks of camp (one with the Scouts, another with the Climbers), and they have to head off for work this morning (guarding at Douthat).

Also appearing, the first tomato of Summer and "frog in green bondage"!









Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Homeplace Graduation Party 2014

It is a wonderful thing to have a "home-place". This is a place that one can go back to after wandering.  A place to return to after trying to find ones' self. A place to catch your breath if needed. A place to kick back. A place where the folks really know who you are because they know where and who you came from. A place where when you look at the pictures on the wall or in a fading photo album the eyes, mouth, hair and even the way a head is tilted whisper back at you: "Hey this is your home place. These are your people. This is a place that will always be."
And this is a place that feels like it has always been there.
One should use the word "always" and its other definitive cousins judiciously and I do not use it lightly.  But "always" fits. I will always have family that loves me. I will always have family that like to throw parties and gatherings and laugh wide open mouth laughs. I will always have family that say: sure we have enough room!
The wonderful thing about this homeplace is it is a feeling. At the moment our family is enjoying great and spacious homes and grounds for cousins to run and jump together, for the dogs to roll in the grass under the trees or on the rugs in the hallway. We have places to stretch out and watch the next new thing on a big screen together.
I also remember gatherings at other "home-places". Surroundings that were not so stretchable and not as many people could get around the table.  The children's table was always a memorable feature of these gatherings. But always the feeling was there: pull up a chair, share this laugh with us, discuss this concern with us.
The feel of a home-place moves. It moves with its people. It moves with that familiar shape of the eyes, that chin or that head of hair. It follows that saying: well you know what my grandma used to say... It follows its people.
We just had the chance to congratulate my middle child on her graduation from high school and her continuing onto college. Invitations were sent. Some could make it, some could not, but all were there. When the newly found album of faded pictures came out, all were remembered. They were there in the pictures of their roots. There were the stock that made the laughs widemouthed, that made the sayings what they are, that made the shoulder dip and hand sit on that hip.  It was a gathering at a "home-place" and I will always have a place at home.

Sunday, June 08, 2014

Spring 2014

Looking at the previous post we are many months in arrears! So to sum up:
This spring has been wonderfully busy! We have seen Vaden complete her fist year of college. She is a dance major and creative writing minor at James Madison University.
Stryker-Ann has graduated from Chatham Hall. She has had a wonderful run there and we will miss Chatham Hall. SAM is on her way to University of Richmond in the fall.
Wils has just made his debut in "Dorothy Meets Alice, Wizard of Wonderland"  at the Masonic Amphitheatre stage here in Clifton Forge. 
Paul continues to at Dabney S. Lancaster Community College in their IT department. He is enjoying riding his bike to work and engineering coops and tractor pens for our new chickens.
Madge is busy with her grant writing and development for Jacob's Ladder and is working a bit at the Clifton Forge School of the Arts.
We are attending the Central United Methodist Church in Clifton Forge. it is nice to be in a church community near enough to walk. And they have frequent cover dish lunches! Fellowship and Food!


Friday, April 12, 2013

April is Poetry month

Wils has been studying the poetry form of "Diamond"
We will add family members' and other creations. Here is my attempt:

Ocean
dark, cold
rolling, billowing, crashing
flowers, creatures, sand, crevices
burning, stinging, drying
light, hot
Desert