From the 14th Floor

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Another Trip to Staunton, 3/20 -22/15 ( #Staunton VA #Shakespeare #ASC )

It was another terrific weekend in Staunton in spite of me. First, we missed our train. I looked only at the return ticket to see the departure time and realized my mistake after Renee had graciously provided our taxi service. Only because she came into the station with us to get her Auto-Train ticket did we have a ride home. Next, while I was driving in the rain, I went to sleep at the wheel on 66. Only because of George's calm reaction did I avoid a wreck. That scared me so much I may never drive on the highway again.

This was a rare trip without camera gear. The weather has been so lousy that it just didn't seem promising to take a lot of photo equipment. My last posting about Staunton with photos can be found at 1/31-2/2/14.

After checking into the Stonewall Jackson Hotel, our home away from home, we went to The Shack. This small, former hamburger joint, has received a lot of positive press coverage because of the reputation of the owner/chef. I was less than impressed. I didn't like having to sit with another couple when there were empty tables available and I didn't like the very undercooked pork loin. Hubby did like his lamb schnitzel. I did enjoy the desserts - sorghum cake with frozen apple meringue and chocolate mouse. Back to the Zynodoa next trip!

Saturday we had breakfast at Cranberries. While there we found out that it is has a new owner who has a passion for hiking. The 1st hike of the new Staunton Hiking Club was about to take off while we were there. I wish them many happy walks.

No trip would be complete without a visited with Rebecca at Turtle Lane. I can never just pop in for a hug and a "hi, how are you?" I always find something I must have. This time it was a birthday gift for a friend and earrings for me.

I failed to keep the information on the artist because I wore the earnings out of the store, but the gentleman who made them does painstaking detailed work with wood to make these very light weight pieces. I love wearing them and I'm usually not a fan of dangling earrings. They were very inexpensive.

As usual, our primary focus of any trip to Staunton is the American Shakespeare Center. One good thing about having to sit with another couple at The Shack was finding out that they had never heard of ASC. They were from Newport News, VA, and she had worked at a local theater company as the stage manager. After hearing us rave about ASC, they promised another trip to Staunton to check it out. They were actually staying at a resort off 81 and had spent the afternoon at the Grand Cavren and were in Staunton only for dinner.

The matinee was The White Devil by John Webster, a contemporary of Shakespeare's. Remember the creepy kid in the movie Shakespeare in Love? He grew up to write works, as described in the playbill, "...as the darkest and most amoral vision of humanity in the early modern period." This play was full of evil deeds, murder, and hypocrisy. The body count was unusually high - at one point several bodies were strewn about the stage. Joe Bob Briggs (my 1st cultural reference that ages me) would have been thrilled.

We have never been disappointed by the acting at ASC but this performance was a real treat because Chris Johnston got to prove his serious acting skills. He is definitely the master of the "hippy, dippy weatherman" persona, (my 2nd old cultural reference) but this time he was strong in the role of Flaminio, the evil manipulator and murderer.

I must comment on John Harrell's show stopping singing of The Grateful Dead's A Friend of the Devil at the end of intermission. He was joined on stage by the cast and it was hilarious. Of course, John can get a laugh out of anything - this time during the play it was his Latin prayer as the Pope that turned into just garbled mumblings.

The evening performance was Mother Bombie by another of Shakespeare's contemporaries, John Lyle. Again Chris Johnston gave an outstanding performance as Dromio. His vaudeville riff of one liners was perfect. Allison Glenzer and Christopher Seiler were a great team of old men and I love Lauren Ballard's total courage at throwing herself into any role. Her size is not a hindrance but I was amazed at her playing a standup bass twice her size.

Lauren reminds me of an attorney I worked with in Austin. This petit blond lawyer hid her brilliance behind a facade of dumb blond foolery. She was "outed" after winning thousands of dollars in the firm-wide March Madness pool two years in a row. The 1st year she claimed she just picked her favorite colors and we believed her. The 2nd year she said she picked the school she had never heard of ("Is Seaton Hall a dorm?") but her secretary showed me her Excel spreadsheet not just on each team but each player!

I spotted James Keegan and Greg Phelps in the audience. It was good to see them, but I would have preferred it if they had been on stage.

Sunday morning, before heading home, we had breakfast at Mrs. Rowe's and purchased one of her coconut meringue pies before stopping at The Virginia Store to stock up on favorite provisions. Enough to hold us until we return in June.

Friday, June 27, 2014

A Visit to Goat Hill Farm, June 2014

Following attending Mercy's graduation ceremony in Austin, Michal and I headed to Goat Hill Farm. She and her brother inherited the property and an old farm house from their parents. The farm is just outside Hamilton, Texas. Her brother has updated the old home and Michal and John selected a site away from the front gate with lovely views for their home.

If you have never heard of a "dog-run house" I'll try to explain how it is built and why it got that descriptive name. Think of the house being built around a porch that looks like the letter H on its side and the roof covers all of this -

The kitchen was away from the rest of the house because that's where the heat was. Because the porch was open the dogs could run through the house - thus the name. John and Michal made a variation of this. Their suite is on the same side as the kitchen, thanks to air conditioning, and the guest quarters are on the other side. They also installed glass "garage doors" that can be lowered to close the dog run and this is where they have their living and dinning rooms.

Here are some photographs of the home:

The view of the house from the main pasture.

Views in the kitchen.

The sitting area in the master suite.

The bedroom area.

This photograph is of the living room in the "dog run" area and the ladder to the grandchildren's loft.

This view of the living room shows the garage door that can be raised to allow the breeze through.

The front door.

Michal on the back porch.

For getting around on the farm, Michal uses a Gator. The dogs, Colt, Kota, and Rue, love to run but to protect them from blade grass, which can kill a dog, and burrs, she puts them in T-shirts.

Michal in her Gator.

The sign on the dash - seems appropriate for any vehicle.

Michal and her well dressed pack.

Here are some views around the farm.

Note Colt sneaking up on a cow in order to do some herding. Cow wasn't happy.

Not exactly like the horse barns of northern Virginia (see previous post).

You can see how dry the tank is - the hull of a boat is shown at the top where the water should be.

Tree is estimated to be over 200 years old.

The farm is also going to be the family burial site but so far only one grave is there. Two years ago their beloved dog, Nickie was killed by a rattle snake. We visited the grave and found that the cross needed pushing up.

Well, we couldn't stay on the farm too long, even though just sitting and listening to the rain on the tin roof was delightful and enjoying the SILENCE was marvelous, headed out.

Our first stop was in Clifton, TX (yep, there's one in TX and VA) to do a little wine tasting.

We didn't actually visit the winery, but it has a lovely tasting room in Clifton.

Here are a couple of shots from the tasting room:

Next, following a tip from John, we went in search of the perfect chicken fried steak. This brought us to Hico, TX (that's HI co, TX). Note the hitching post -it's still used.

The search for the steak lead us to

Here are some shots in and around the restaurant:

That's mirangue towering over the pie.

Cowboys do not remove their hats inside.

Note that the chicken fried steak is only $9.99. The waitress took one look at Michal and me and said we'd probably prefer the ½ order. It was more than enough and we would have been happy to pay the full price. I chose the onion rings and they were the best I have ever had.

Remember - this is the half order!

Here are some shots of downtown Hico:

This is the local TX-Mex restaurant with a really long bar.

The local popcorn shop and the sign when closed.

Just a friendly reminder.

The local barer shop has a B and B on the 2nd floor.

Across the street from the barber shop we met Denise. She was TX friendly and invited us in to look around. Her client was getting a major frosting job but we weren't comfortable taking shots.

If you're really interested in Billy the Kid this is the part of TX to visit. Seems there is a huge rivalry between Hamilton and Hito concerning where he is buried (some say neither place as he lived a long life and died in New Mexico - who knows.) Anyway, you can visit two museums as each community has its own.