Here’s a write up on the Foxfield Races (this year’s races are this Saturday, 4/24) from our wonderful UVA intern Kristina-

Spring time in Charlottesville would not be complete without blooming dogwoods, sunny afternoons for hikes, and the pinnacle of all spring events, the Foxfield Races. I look forward to these steeplechase races every year as a festive way to cap off the school year and have some fun before exams.

The spring races are a bit different from the ones that take place in the fall.  Every year in late April, University of Virginia students descend upon the rolling field in western Albemarle County for the day.  Aside from UVA students and other Charlottesville residents, the spring races attract many UVA alumni, as well as students from Washington and Lee and other Virginia schools.

Different student organizations usually purchase a plot, or you and some friends may purchase one, and there are hundreds of plots.  The scene itself is part of what makes the day.  The spring races resemble a massive tailgate, similar to something you would see for football game.    Unlike a football game, the tailgating goes on all day, and while the races go on, most people are preoccupied with food, drinks, and socializing.  You may decide to hang out on your own plot all day, but it is also fun to roam around the many plots to see friends or people watch.  Everywhere you look there are girls in sundresses, and many even don hats.  It’s overwhelming, but the energy of the day is contagious.  The main joke amongst students is whether or not they even see a horse, because the event is so social.  I took the time to find some horses and snap a couple of shots, to prove that the event was, actually, a horse race.

The weather is nice enough that most people can still plant bulbs.  Up until the ground freezes, you can get bulbs in your flowerbeds and vegetable garden, including garlic and daffodils.

I was recently at a harvest festival and I purchased two types of garlic. If you haven’t planted garlic before it’s fast and easy. You simply break the bulb apart into separate cloves and plant each clove 3 inches down and 5 inches apart.  Each clove grows into a bulb and it’s well worth the little amount of space that they take up.  I love buying specific types of garlic at festivals and farmers’ markets, but I have also simply planted garlic I bought at the grocery store.  I know I am taking my chances with this method, since grocery store garlic wasn’t grown in Virginia and may not make it through our winters, but I haven’t had any problems in the past.

As for daffodils, I have hundreds growing around the yard.  With so many amazing varieties available, I can’t help but plant a dozen or so new ones each year.  I tuck daffodils behind and between my perennials.  This way when the foliage of the daffodils is dying they are hidden by the new growth of the other plants. Look for new and different types of daffodils at fall farmers’ markets and through specialty growers, like our local grower Brent and Becky’s Bulbs.

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I think I am feeling compelled to write about this today because I thought I had lost my family’s sweet Dachshund rescue Max yesterday. He was hiding under our deck. For me, I think our pets can be so much work, sometimes I don’t always realize how special they are to the whole family. I sure came to that realization fast yesterday! Max hasn’t been part of our family for long, but he already joins in on our weekend outings, believe it or not, he is great on hikes even with those short legs.

I never knew how many breed specific rescue groups there are. If you have a fondness for a particular breed, there is almost certainly a rescue group. Below I will list just a few. We found ourselves dogless again last spring and while it made for an easy summer with no worries about who was going to take care of the dog while we were on vacation and away for the weekend, our house was too quiet. We had always had bulldogs and most of the family loved their comical bullish ways, but my daughter didn’t. They would bulldoze her friends, chew on her dolls and occasionally steal whatever she had and take off. She had always liked dachshunds, particularly the smooth haired and smaller versions. She and I looked online and found Dachshund Rescue of North America and sure enough there was Max.

I will say it took a lot of paperwork and time to bring home Max, but it was worth every minute. We first filled out a long questionnaire, complete with references and scenarios about how we would handle our Dachshund in various situations. They called my vet to determine what kind of pet owners we had been. They came to our home to check out what type of environment he would be living in. They looked at our staircases (which can be tough for some Dachshunds), asked many questions about our Koi pond and fencing and even made sure we keep household cleaners out of reach. We then traveled a few hours away to meet a group of Dachshunds at a park that were looking for homes. There we were able to meet Max’s foster parents, ask questions about him and they could also ask further questions of each of us. A few days later we got the wonderful news that we were chosen to be Max’s family. I think these groups do wonderful due diligence in matching the right dog to the right family.

Another great web resource for finding virtually any pet is Petfinder.  They link to virtually all SPCAs, breed specific rescue groups and even private rescue groups.  You put in what type of animal you are looking for, age, size, gender and your location and it will return all that meet your criteria.

Dachshund Rescue of North America

French Bulldog Rescue Network

Portuguese Water Dog Rescue

Bloodhound Rescue

Saint Bernard Rescue “Save our Saints”

Petfinder.com

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Right now in the mid Atlantic states and across latitudes 31-37 it is peak monarch butterfly migration season. There are no butterflies in the world that migrate like the monarchs. Millions of them travel up to 3,000 miles in their two-way migration, a pattern that most closely resembles a whale’s migration. One of the greatest mysteries is how monarchs are able to find their way each year, many times they even return to the same tree to roost. Unlike birds or whales, monarchs only make the round trip once and it is their children’s grandchildren that return the following fall to the exact same place! Amazing!

If you’d like to get involved, Monarch Watch is an educational conservation outreach program sponsored by the University of Kansas that involves school children in the counting and tagging of monarchs throughout their migration. This program is monitoring the effects of deforestation in Mexico, habitat loss, global warming and agricultural practices. This fall, for example, large numbers of monarchs are migrating where typically only a few are seen. Monarch roosts appeared last week across western Kansas, and even northwestern Oklahoma and Texas. This is nearly 200 miles off course for them. I wonder what will happen next, will they continue moving west, drop down to Mexico and rejoin their course, can the dry western climate support them?

If you are anywhere near Encinitas, CA, there is also a huge vivarium open to the public April through November that shows the butterflies in all stages of their life cycle, called The Monarch Program.

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It’s not too late to take an outing to a ballpark.  Whether it is to see your local minor league team or a visit a major league’s stadium, the weather is perfect for a game of baseball. It’s not too hot, is not too cold.  It is perfect.

My husband is a Detroit Tiger’s fan.  A tortured fan, but a loyal one, nonetheless.  We have been to see the Tigers, the S.F. Giants and a few minor league games, as well.  Now I’m not a huge baseball fan, but I do love the yummy food, the sweet treats and the time we sit together laughing about life and talking a bit about baseball, too.

Recently, the whole family went on a weekend trip see the Baltimore Orioles. We spent the night in a hotel in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and the evening watching baseball.  The tickets weren’t too expensive, because the seats were a little high up. But really, just how close do you have to be to home plate?  I actually think we spent more on the food at the park, but we knew going into the weekend getaway that it was going to be pricey.  And really, it was worth it, because there’s so much more to a baseball game than just watching the game.

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Restaurant Reviews in Baltimore!

On any given warm weekend in Charlottesville, many University of Virginia students make the pilgrimage to Hatton Ferry to spend the afternoon drifting down the James River on a tube.  Tubing is a great, leisurely activity, where you can simply relax on tube while the current lazily floats you down the river.  UVA students love this activity because it’s a great break from the stress of school.  Honestly, how much better can it get than relaxing and getting sun on a river that does all of the work for you?

The trip begins at Hatton Ferry, about 25 miles south of Charlottesville.  Most people go with a group of friends, and everyone has their own tube.  It’s also a good idea to have a couple of tubes to tie coolers onto, so that you don’t get too dehydrated.  It takes over three hours to get down the river, so once you leave, you’re in it for the long haul..  If you don’t have the time to take a whole weekend to drive to the beach, tubing is a wonderful way to go out on the water.

A cheaper approach to tubing is to buy your own tube, so you don’t have to rent one for 20 dollars from James River Runners.  The catch is that you have to make sure to have a car parked at the ending point of the river.  If you’d rather let them do the work for you, (the option my friends and I take), you can simply show up at Hatton Ferry and rent a tube from JRR.  They will take you on a bus to the starting point of the river.

JRR recommends making reservations on weekends, as they tend to get booked (i.e. run out of tubes).  Here is the link to their website if you’d like to have a closer look!

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Like many families, we are a family of huge football fans.  Every year we try to figure out how to take the kids as affordably as possible to see an NFL game and a few college games.  Making it affordable is tough.  One of the best things we did was when we turned going to see a Falcons game into a mini vacation over a long weekend.

My husband found very reasonable, albeit nose bleed, tickets from RazorGator.  I researched a few fun outings in Atlanta.  Atlanta is a great city to visit with tons of fun for kids.  I was dying to visit the Georgia Aquarium, so that was first on my list.  My brother-in-law also suggested the World of Coca-Cola, I found a great city park and finally no visit would have been complete without a visit to The Varsity.

We had a great weekend.  We left right after school on Friday and drove through to my brother in law’s house on the outskirts of Atlanta.  Saturday morning we got up and had early brunch at The Varsity.  My kids loved it.  Open since 1928, it’s the world’s largest drive-in restaurant.  We then headed over to the World of Coca-Cola and spent about an hour there.  The tasting of 60 different Coke products at the end was great.  We then headed over to the Georgia Aquarium, it was just as amazing as I knew it would be.  The Asian otters and beluga whales were so fun to watch.  There is also a 100-foot-long acrylic tunnel you can walk through with huge whale sharks and Nanta, the only manta ray in an aquarium in the U.S.  It was the highlight of the weekend for me.

The following morning, the weather was beautiful and we headed out to a beautiful downtown park before the game decked out in all of our Falcon gear.  The pre-game celebration outside the Georgia Dome was tons of fun.  When we entered the stadium and climbed higher and higher into the stands, my son turned to my husband and said, “Sweet!  Dad, how’d you get the seats all the way in the top?”  We had a great time…

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Family Friendly Restaurants in Atlanta!

I learned something new at the beach.  I learned how to easily find sharks’ teeth.

I have to confess that the first tooth I found literally washed up to my feet as I sat watching the kids play in the ocean. From that one tooth, a bit of an obsession formed.  I looked for small black teeth on the beach from then on.

Here’s what I learned about sharks’ teeth:

Sharks continually shed their teeth, and some shark species can shed approximately 35,000 teeth in a lifetime. In order for these teeth to fossilize, they must sink the seafloor and be quickly covered by sediment. Rapid burial is important for fossilization for a number of reasons. First, the sediment acts to protect the teeth from the weathering, abrasion, and scavenging that could occur if they were exposed to open water and currents. Secondly, burial also limits exposure to oxygen and bacteria which are responsible for decay. The process of fossilization is a slow one that usually takes thousands of years. Depending on which minerals are present teeth can be found in a wide variety of different colors, ranging from blue/grey to black to orange/red to white to green. Fossilized shark teeth usually have a black root with a grayish crown.  Fossilized shark teeth can often be found in or near river bed banks, sand pits, and beaches. If the tooth was found in a creek 50 miles from the nearest ocean, it is safe to assume that the tooth is a fossil. When you find a shark tooth at the beach, you may need to look at its color to figure out its age.

Here’s how I find sharks teeth:

Walking along the ocean’s water line, as the waves are rolling in and out, I look for a little black “ T ”  or “ Y ”among the small broken shells.  The black fossilized teeth really do stand out against the yellowish sand and once you find your first tooth, it’s easier to know just what you are looking for. I did realize after awhile, that I couldn’t find any teeth on days when the shells that were rolling in were large. I only found teeth when small broken shells were coming in and out with the tide.  I think this has to do with the weight of the teeth, but that’s just my guess.

So next time your at the beach or even near a river, keep an eye out for sharks teeth. Happy hunting!

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My second favorite hike with kids, second only to White Oak Canyon, is Crabtree Falls in Montebello, Virginia.  I spent a beautiful July day there with my daughter, my friend, and her two girls.  Crabtree Falls is the tallest set of falls east of the Mississippi.  It’s 4.4 miles long, but you hike up and can turn around at any point.  It’s a great hike with kids, it’s shaded, always much cooler than the valley we live in, and there is a picture perfect view every switchback.  There are 9 switchbacks, guardrails along the steeper portions, and steps along the really steep sections.  About halfway up there is also a cave the kids really enjoyed.  There are places along the way to take your shoes off and have fun splashing in the water.  The rocks, however, are covered in VERY slick algae and there are Forest Service signs warning that people have fallen and died.  Our kids read those warnings themselves and did not need any policing from us while playing in the stream.

In the photos below you can see a tradition of rock stacking our Hawaiian friends taught us.  They leave small stacks of rocks along trails and beaches they visit.

On the way to Crabtree Falls is the Montebello Fish Hatchery.  I have always wanted to stop and have never had time.  The hatchery is open to visitors and 60,000 pounds of brook, rainbow and brown trout are grown there each year.  The hatchery is the main source of trout for Virginia’s Urban Fishing Program.

June 21st is the summer solstice. It is officially the first day of summer and is the longest day of the year! It is also known as Midsummer because it is roughly the middle of the growing season.

While we are celebrating the summer solstice this weekend, solstices really occur twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth’s axis is most oriented toward or away from the Sun, causing the Sun to reach its northernmost and southernmost extremes.

So what are you going to do to celebrate the summer solstice?  Here are a few ideas to consider-

Summer Solstice Wine Festival at James River Cellars, Glen Allen, VA

Summer Solstice: Paddle Evening Rendezvous, Wrightsville, PA

Virginia Farmland Solstice Supper, Purcellville, VA

 Solstice 2009: Puesta Del Sol, Baltimore, MD