News From Browntown

News From Tomatoville

The high point of summer came to pass yesterday when we finally feasted on tomato and mayo sandwiches!! Despite the thieving squirrels of Browntown, we ended up with plenty of homegrown tomatoes thanks to a visit from Bev Nachtrieb. Bev arrived on Saturday afternoon bearing homegrown peaches and tomatoes from Sperryville and we have been eating them ever since.

The visit with Bev was really nice and gave us a chance to re-connect in person after about 30 years of once-a-year Christmas card contacts. Win, Emma and Andrew, you don't remember John and Bev but they lived in Flint Hill when we lived on Stonewall Drive and before that they lived in a house PawPaw and Grammy owned on Utah St. in Arl. and John (Bev's husband), worked with PawPaw. We all go back a long, long way to the time when Win was born and then their first child was born shortly afterward. They have lived in Chicago for the past 27 years or so and have been faithful about keeping up contact with PawPaw and Grammy.

Bev and I share a number of interests including yarn and crafts. Even more important, we share the same kind of "family values" (like Dad and me, Bev and husband John are children of the 60s). Dad, Grammy and I spent a good portion of the day yesterday taking Bev to Liberia. She got the tour of the shipping preparation set-up in the Meeting House and saw the medical supplies and school stuff. Then we viewed the videos of the precious children. No matter how often I see those pictures, I am still struck by how irrepressible those adorable children are in spite of their skinny little limbs, distended bellies and raggedy clothes. They are just beautiful. Bev was captivated too, of course.

The weather this week-end was absolutely perfect - sunshine, blue skies and temps in the mid-80s. It was a perfect two days of meandering up and down the hill from the cottage to the house and back again via the Meeting House and the pool garden and, of course, eating tomato and mayo sandwiches. Dad mowed while we meandered.

Check back for details and pix of little Richie's Big Third B-Day at the Animal Park!