These are our friends Gwen & Jack with baby Imogen who we're staying with in Maryland.  

Daddy and baby love. 

Today, we adventured to historic downtown Annapolis, where the US Naval Academy is located. The streets were rich with history. This house was from circa 1715!  

The harbor was lovely. It seems spring has finally arrived...it was almost 80 degrees today and everyone was out and about, wearing shorts and enjoying cold ice cream. 

Silly poses. 

We especially liked this split downtown street. 

Hello baby! 

A typical street lined with cute little houses. 

Happy shoulder rides. 

Tomorrow we're headed to DC to see the cherry blossoms and check out some monuments in the nation's capital! 

After driving for a while yesterday, we spent the night in Manassas, Virginia. When we got up this morning, I didn't follow the GPS directions correctly, but that ended up being a good thing. We happened upon the Manassas battlegrounds, the site of several major Civil War battles. It was early this morning and the air was crisp and perfect for a walk. There are over 10 miles of trails in the Manassas battleground park, so there was no shortage of places to walk. 

Dave wearing his 70's look. 

Stone house was once a tavern and later a Civil War hospital, constantly mentioned in letters of soldiers as a sort of oasis in the middle of a bloody war. 

Bizarrely, when we climbed up over the hill, we were greeted by a long group of soldiers, marching across the field. Apparently they were on a tour of the historical battlegrounds. 

Dave really loves these old Civil War-style fences, which we've been seeing lots of in more rural areas during our travels. 

A cannonball stuck in the side of Stone House! 

After our walk, we continued our drive, and made it to our friends' house this afternoon. There's nothing quite like the freedom of traveling...it is so liberating to be able to travel, set our own schedules, and have time for stops at things like historic battlegrounds. Life is great. 

This morning, we got an exciting surprise. Kittens! The farm's calico barn cat had babies a few weeks ago, but no one has been able to find them. She has hidden her past litters very well, so the task of finding them in the array of old barns and buildings on the property was daunting. Today, though, when we walked outside to let the chickens out of the coop and feed the horse, we saw mamma cat walking across the road towards the horse barn with a kitten in her mouth. The first kitten sighting! A neighbor who helps with work around the farm showed up right after we saw the momma cat and kitten, and he volunteered to climb into the old barn and search for the kittens. He came out with about a dozen eggs the chickens have sneakily been laying in the wrong place, and an armful of squirming, wriggling little kittens. 

They are just the softest little things. There were four in this litter. 

We brought them into the house so they can acclimate to humans and eventually find loving homes. 

We've been feeding this beauty, a retired rodeo horse, some apples that got old. They are her favorite treat. 

We left the farm this morning and are currently in Charlottesville, Va, on our way to visit our wonderful friends Gwen and Jack and their baby in Crofton, MD. We're also planning a visit to Washington, DC for the cherry blossoms. Apparently, they are supposed to be at their peak this weekend or early this week, which is later than usual, and very serendipitous for us! We've been loving the drive through Virginia's rolling hills on non-interstate roads, and spent the morning stopping at yard sales and a few amazing antique stores. We picked up a new treasure for the Etsy store, which we'll post soon. Happy Saturday...hope you are enjoying your weekend!  

Before....

A nice fresh coat of white paint for spring. (And this is why Dave usually takes pictures, not me. Note the shadow.)  

Today, the forecast called for rain, which really limits what we can do outside, especially projects like painting. Though it hasn't actually started raining yet, we took advantage of the overcast morning to sleep in a bit, relax over cups of coffee and tea, and fix a tasty breakfast. 

The coming rain has cooled things down quite a bit, so we enjoyed a fire in the kitchen fireplace while we were cooking. These are all farm-fresh eggs from the chickens. We were talking about how these eggs are like an entirely different food from the store bought eggs. The yolks are noticeably richer- a deep almost orange color, as opposed to the very light yellow of the store bought eggs. And nothing can compare to their taste! 

Everything looks nicer with a fire in the background! 

The end result- a scramble with eggs, country sausage, tomato, and a bit of salsa on top. Yum. 

I went out to give the chicks fresh water and food this morning. They are growing every day---they are bigger now than when we first arrived just a few days ago. 

So cute. Little chick butts. 

Today was our first full day of work exchanging. So far, things are going great. Our hosts are wonderful--- we've had great food, yummy cheese, good wine, and conversation. The old farm house is just so full of charm and character. We have our own space upstairs: a bedroom, and a second room we've been using for reading and are going to use for art. Dave learned how to drive the tractor, and I scraped old paint off the cottage house to prep it for repainting. 

It's great hanging out with the chickens. They are true free range birds. I could spend all day watching them scratch around. I collected their eggs first thing this morning; they were still warm from just being laid.There are even babies---they make the most adorable little peeping sounds. 

Dave has also been busy cutting wood for the heating system, which is really neat. It basically works like a radiator, but is huge and stationed outside the house with pipes running inside. 

Buck is the best farm dog. He is fantastic. 

We tucked him in before dinner this evening on his porch swing bed. 

These are the rest of our photos, continued from Sarah P. Duke Gardens, Part 1. 

One of our favorite spots was the bird observation hut in the Native Plants section. (They had, by the way, 900 species of native plants alone, all labeled with tags in the ground. And that was in only one section of the 4-section garden, to give you an idea of the scope of this place. Incredible.) 

Scratching squirrel! 

We sat and watched the birds for a long while. We didn't even need the binoculars here because they were so close. We were treated to a pair of Golden Finches, several pairs of Cardinals, a Red-Headed WoodPecker, and many more happy birdies, along with the squirrels who have equal love for the bird feeders. 

We also enjoyed the large pond in the Asiatic garden, populated by geese and a wide variety of ducks, who all honked and paddled happily after the rain, and turtles, who happily lazed on the rocks. 

Also, I feel the need to share this, because I learned it relatively recently and it seems like many people are unaware. Don't feed bread, crackers, or other snack foods to ducks, geese, or other water foul. It has very dangerous consequences: changing the PH balance of the water, damaging the intestinal systems of the critters, and eventually killing them. There were signs posted around the pond asking people not to feed bread, but I overheard many people talking about wanting to bring bread back another day. It's amazing how often people don't read signs, or care. We are part of nature, too, and its irresponsible to ignore rules like these that protect the wellbeing of the critters and nature. You can buy duck food, or even bring lettuce, if you'd like to feed the animals, safely. Pass the info on to your friends and family, too! 

Quack quack! 

We have special love for the geese. 

We had already seen most all of our favorite critters-geese, ducks, squirrels, birds, and turtles- when we got one final treat: chickens. Tucked away in a corer was the entrance to the exploratory gardens, which was essentially a homestead in the middle of the gardens. They had honey bees, an edible forest, gardens, rain collection systems, compost, and, of course, chickens. Chickens make me the happiest and I can't wait to have our own, so seeing them always makes me squeal with glee. They were the perfect finish to our lovely garden walk. 

After the gardens, we hopped over to the Ackland Art Museum at UNC, which also had free admission. (The gardens were free, too!) We spent the last hour or two browsing their permanent collection, which featured a lot of neat ancient pottery, and their current exhibition, More Love. 

So, today was pretty much perfect: nature, birds, meditation, chickens, and art. It was a great last day of free roaming before we enter about 2 months of work exchanges, beginning tomorrow at the vineyard. Can't wait!