Strawberries and More

It's sure warming up here in Williamsburg! Today we went strawberry picking over in Surry. There is a farm over there across the James River--you have to take the ferry to get to it--where they grow vegetables and fruit (mostly strawberries), and you can go pick your own for fairly cheap. We got 2 gallons of them today! It was burning hot out there in the sun--technically only 80 or so, but it was probably hotter since we both wore jeans (to keep the chiggers off us) and since the field is under direct sun (necessarily, so the strawberries can ripen!). Many of the strawberries were sadly not very ripe yet. You really had to pick through to find the ripe, juicy red ones. I guess in a week or two there might be more of them that are riper. Oh well! I'm not sure what we'll do with all of these--some we are freezing and will use in smoothies. With the others, I might make strawberry shortcake, strawberry coffeecake, and a strawberry/spinach salad. Of course, they are so good plain that we might just eat them that way (until we're tired of them!).

In other news... Ben is DONE WITH CLASSES! Hooray! His last class was yesterday, and we celebrated by going to a good seafood restaurant nearby that we hadn't been to before. It was delicious! It was called the Whaling Company, with whales being the theme inside, and the entire restaurant kind of decked out to have a "ship" feel to it.

Besides that, the other news is that we have a bird nest about 3 feet from our front door, nestled in a pot that Ben strategically nailed to the inside of the porch overhang (yes, he WANTED to see if birds would build a nest there!). The birds are some cute little finches, and it appears that they have laid their eggs since Mama bird has been sitting in her nest lately whenever possible (see below). Unfortunately, whenever we go in and out, it disrupts her, so we are trying to make sure we don't go in and out too often, and only when necessary. (Ben is a little more concerned about this than I am, whereas I am thinking that I should not feel trapped in my house all because a bird is out there--it seems, after all, that the bird should just get used to a little noise!!)

I guess that's about it for now. Ben is just going to be busy with end-of-term papers and studying for the next two weeks, and then he will be interning all summer. In the meantime, work is going well for me--just the same-old, same-old, except for the fact that we're in a new building now, and I really like my new office. We're really looking forward to two weeks of "vacation" this summer, one week of my family coming to visit us in May and one week of going to California to go to Mammoth Lakes with Ben's family. Both will be much welcomed breaks of fun in our usual routines of work!

Spring Days

Lots has been going on lately in our neck of the woods. Last weekend we went to South Carolina for a whirlwind trip to see my college roommates for a get-together as well as to throw a baby shower for Betsy, who is having a baby boy (due in May). It was a joyful and meaningful time, despite the brevity of the trip. We managed to stop in quickly to my all-time favorite place to eat, Coffee Underground, as well as drive by for a quick picnic by the lake at Furman (my all-time favorite place on Earth!). We made it back in the wee morning hours of Sunday (3 a.m. to be exact), just in time to catch some sleep so that Ben could spend all day Sunday working on a paper (which he finished just before 4 a.m. Monday morning)....a paper that he then found out on Monday wasn't due after all! The professor had moved the due date during Friday's class, but Ben was gone, so he didn't find out!

(Above is the whole group who attended the shower)

(Above is the Furman Belltower)

Anyway, the pollen is now in full swing here, making us rather miserable feeling. However, with it is also some lovely foliage, including wisteria! Here are some up-close pictures of the flowers (which I had never really stopped to take pictures of before until today). Together with all the dogwoods and redbud trees, the town is really beautiful.

A Seasonal Visitor

I know next to nothing about hunting, but there is one thing I have learned from Ben about the "sport." March and April are typically the months during which one is allowed to hunt turkeys. (I suppose I remember that fun fact since I found it ironic, given that we typically eat turkeys in the fall for Thanksgiving--the total opposite time of the year!) Anyway, so apparently in Virginia the 2008 Spring Gobbler Season begins this Saturday, April 12, and runs through May 17. (I did a little research; I definitely didn't know that off the top of my head.) Nevertheless, it was still a bit of a surprise when today, in the early afternoon, Ben spotted a runaway gobbler on the golf course adjacent to where we live! The turkey was running across the course, making a bee-line for the neighboring woods (who knows where he was going--or if he even knew--he was probably lost!). So, Ben chased him with the digital camera until he had just about disappeared. He only stopped chasing him when he turned and noticed several golfers teeing off on the same green across which the turkey was running (he wasn't sure who looked funnier--him running across the green with a camera, or the turkey!). He tells me that the little guy did make it across before getting a nasty surprise of a golf ball hitting his head.

Here are the best close-ups of our seasonal visitor, for your amusement:

Rainy Weekend

It's a rainy weekend here in Williamsburg, as it seems to be everywhere else in the Southeast this weekend. It's a bummer that the nice, warm, sunny weather seems to always fall during the week when we're cooped up inside working! Oh well. Ben has tons of deadlines looming for school, so it's just as well that we're kept inside so that he can be productive.

This past week has been an interesting one - I have moved office locations for work, so I'm in a nice new office now, though as yet, the computer servers are still being "fixed" after being moved, so it was pretty difficult to actually get work done all last week. That means this coming week will be busy, with work having piled up during the moving week. At the end of this week, we're going to South Carolina for a baby shower for my Furman roommate, Betsy, whose baby is due May 10. I can't wait to be back on the Furman campus and to spend good, quality time with all my Furman roommates. Even though our times together are few and far between, they're always special and well worth the driving involved in getting together.

Last weekend, we went to Gloucester, which is across the water from us - a peninsula between the York River and the Chesapeake Bay. We haven't spent much time over there, so it was neat to go. We went to the actual, historic town of Gloucester for their yearly Daffodil Festival, plus spent time at a nearby garden store called Brent & Becky's Bulbs (which is, oddly enough, where Ben's dad has been ordering his bulbs from for years!!!). The flowers were gorgeous and very picturesque (a couple pictures are on this blog entry, though we took many, many more than these).

(Above: At the Daffodil Festival)

We also went, after the festival, to a beach on the eastern side of Gloucester Point where there is supposed to be good fishing, hiking, and bird-watching. It was pretty, but it was also very windy. I think we'll go back once it warms up a bit more!

Well, I better head off to get ready for bed - and to mourn the UNC Tarheels' loss in the Final Four. :(

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, everyone!

We wish everyone a meaningful day reflecting on the life and resurrection of our Lord.

"I wandered lonely as a cloud..."

"...That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze."

Thus says William Wordsworth in his poem, "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," and thus says the landscape in Williamsburg right now! There is a serious number of daffodils in this town, all over the place, right now. They are just literally everywhere you go--along the roads, near the rivers and lakes, beside driveways, and in random fields. We couldn't resist stopping and taking some photos since they were so gorgeous in the sunlight tonight...enjoy!

These are a different bunch near William & Mary:

These are outside my office near where I park every day:

And just in case anyone reading this doesn't like daffodils (although I don't think I know anyone who doesn't like daffodils!), here's a picture of something different. This is a photo of the sunset over the York River from this past weekend. It was beautiful, though the digital camera doesn't ever quite capture the way the pinks and purples really looked:

A Fresh Look

Surprise! Our blog has a new look. You might not have been tired of looking at the same old template over and over, but we sure were. Hope you like this new one. If not, let us know, and we'll try again. Anyway, spring is here, or, rather, it's peaking its head around the corner. There may still be some cold weather in store (as usually happens in the South, where the weather is rather unpredictable until June, when it becomes unbearably - but consistently - hot and humid). However, this week and past weekend represent the first relatively long stretch of warm weather since last fall.

Spring is my absolute favorite time of year. I love the sense of newness, the fresh smell in the air, the beautiful flowers and trees everywhere (despite their tendencies to make me miserable with their pollen), and - best of all - the ability to just get outside and soak in the sun again. Each season has its pros and cons, but I'm sure I am not alone in enjoying spring the best of all.

This past Sunday we went on a long walk nearby and saw these daffodils (above) on the verge of blooming - some of the few that actually hadn't bloomed yet in town. We also saw this field, which looked positively brilliant with its bright green color (and apparently it is also "the oldest continuously cultivated farm in America's first English settlement," according to a nearby historical marker):

Today after I got home from work, we also went biking (my first real ride on my new bike I got for Christmas) - just before a large string of storms ran up the coast and put us on a tornado watch for the rest of tonight. It was so nice to be able to exercise without freezing to death!

Anyway, other than that, it's the Lenton season. Neither of us decided to "give up" anything in particular this year, at least tangibly, but I have been trying to reflect a lot more on Easter and on the meaning of His Resurrection and of the entire Gospel for my personal, everyday life. It's so easy to get caught up in the unimportant, little things, and one thing we've been hearing lately in sermons is how important it is to to focus on the "big" rather than the "little" in life. The "big" is that Jesus came to earth to show us the perfect godly life, and He died for our sins so that we might have everlasting life with Him. The implications of that are huge, and it should really affect us more on a daily basis than it often does.

To comprehend better how to put all this into practice, I picked up a little, but old (and classic) book that I've wanted to read for a long time, called The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence. It talks about glorifying God in the small things - that is, finding peace and contentment in Him, but through what would normally be considered routine, monotonous, and dull. I guess you could say this means accomplishing the "big" through the "little" (which turns into the "big" when He's in it). This is a lesson I learned awhile ago, but it's one thing I think we can never quite remind ourselves of too many times. I leave you with the quote (prayer) that starts Brother Lawrence's book:

Lord of all pots and pans and things...
Make me a saint by getting meals
And washing up the plates!