A Country Drive

I have lived in Culpeper for 4 years now. 

 

Ever since moving here, I have admired the beauty of the Autumn mornings.  Misty sunrises are breathtaking!  And for 4 years now, I've vowed to get up as early on Saturday as I do the rest of the week to get out and capture the beauty on camera.  And this year, I finally did!

 

Jim decided to crawl out of bed before sunrise with me.  He was my chauffer and did not mind pulling over and helping me trespass wherever I found a bit of beauty.  Enjoy!

 

 

Jim's favorite 

 

I have passed this old church to and from work every day since 2009.

I finally pulled over and took pictures of it.  I don't know the story behind it, but I just daydream about what kind of history it has seen! 

 

 

Another cute church on the out skirts of town.

 My fav pic!  We pulled over on a busy section of Rt. 29 for this shot.

Across the street from our house. 

Our first time visiting this lake that is 5 minutes from our house. 

 

If you have a favorite, I would love your feedback:)  Even after 4 years of living in this house, our walls are still pretty empty.  I finally have some artwork that I can put up! 

Wednesday Review: Opus 9, Williamsburg, VA

Opus 9 Steakhouse
5143 Main St., Williamsburg, VA 23188

Menu: Sunday Brunch

Jim and I decided to take a little weekend getaway earlier this summer.  We wanted to drive no further than 2 hours, so we settled on Williamsburg.  My only request was to go outlet shopping.  Jim's only request was to find a Sunday brunch.

To me, Sunday brunch was the meal {sausage gravy} that took so long for me to make {3+ hours?}, that it was AFTER breakfast but before lunch before it was ready.  To Jim, you went to mass on Sundays and then went out to brunch.  Once he moved to Virginia, he realized that Sunday brunch isn't really popular.  There are not many restaurants in our town or surrounding ones that serve it.

So I looked to google.  I found Opus 9 through a "Top 10 Williamsburg Restaurants" list.

We arrived just as the restaurant was opening for the day.

We were the first ones seated.  We were offered mimosas or bloody Marys, which I turned down!!!  {ONLY because I had a rough day on Saturday at Busch Gardens.}  Suddenly, a man came and sat down at the piano that was sitting right next to our table.  A bassist soon joined him.  They played the entire time!

The brunch set up was amazing.  There were the typical omelet, waffle and carving stations.  But there was so much more.  There were crab cakes, grits, jambalaya, etc!!!  The dessert spread was the length of the bar.  I ate so much!


It was so good, that we are considering going back one of these Sundays, only to eat brunch and then drive back.  (and not outlet-shop!  yeah right.)

Price: $24.95/person.  Very reasonable for the spread.

Score: 5 out of 5

Tips:  -Make a reservation!  
           -Private rooms for parties.
           -Do not go to Busch Gardens the day before.
           -St. Bede Catholic Church is about five minutes away.  We went to the 9 am mass to be at         brunch when they opened.  And to sneak in a little shopping in between, muah ha ha.

Posting from my iPhone

(Because I have the urge to blog now that my computer is spending a few weeks at geek squad camp!)

I did something crazy the other day. I joined a gym. 

Not because I wanted to. Not because I was actually going to follow one of the many workout plans I've been adding to Pinterest hourly. Because I won a gift certificate. 

Now I've never been the gym-going type. I've always consistently and proudly run with the "race home and drink as much wine as possible after work" crowd. But I had this certificate that I did not want to waste, so I decided to cash it in. 

And cash it in I did. After signing on the dotted line, I immediately raced to the gym floor as eager as the first day of kindergarten. I felt great! Confident! I'm a gym-goer! 

I stopped dead in my tracks as I reached the gym's perimeter. 

This...

...stared me straight in the face. 

Instantly, I felt all:

My feeling was temporary however. For after the first workout, I came back the next day! And the next, and the next. It's been 5 consecutive days so far! And while my esteem is elevated and after each 5lb dumbbell rep I feel like this:...

It's more like uh-this:

And this:

 Which, with my husband's constant encouragement, will soon turn to this:

Stay tuned!

Five Favorites

Am I doing this right?

This is my first Five Favorites.  I'm so excited to have something to motivate me to blog more!  Here goes:


1.  The flowers that bloom in June:

And these are just the ones in my front garden!


2.  Strawberry season.

 What kind of woman would I have been without Pinterest?


3. Zen tea.

 

I don't know what it is about this stuff.  It is so delicious and seems to make me so relaxed.  It is the perfect at-work tea!  I couldn't drink coffee for the past 6 weeks and my husband brought this home instead.  It was a delicious alternative!  Although I am very glad to have my coffee back!

 

 

4.  Masterchef.

 

 



My favorite summer show!  Even though Joe is a jerk.


5.  Joss and Main

 Home décor, organized by category, on sale.  I haven't purchased anything but I find myself browsing the website more often than pinterest (gasp!).  Everything is so pretty!


Hallie hosts the Five Favorites every week, thanks for letting me play!

I'm back?

I really really really really want to start blogging again.

In fact, I've said it a dozen times in the past several weeks:

"I'm going to blog tonight!"

I end up sitting down at the computer, opening up blogger, and reading a thousand other blogs that are really pretty, interesting, and not-boring.  And then I think: "my life is so boooooring".

And maybe it is.  But I guess that just means I can have a boring blog, right?  As long as I'm writing it down, I'm happy.

Glad I got that off my chest.  So, here is what I did today:

I woke up bright & early and scrubbed the house like a mad woman.  My aunt was coming to visit the house for the first time today (along with my cousin and her son- she's been here before but not since it's been moved into).  I had surgery a few weeks ago (more about that in a future post?) and they were coming to visit.

Jim tended to the yard work while Sadie sulked.

My aunt loves all things lemon so I went to work making these amazing lemon bars.

The recipe calls for Meyer lemons, and since I've made these two other times VERY successfully with just that, I stopped by the only store I've ever known to sell them yesterday.  They were out.  I settled for regular lemons and added honey for sweetness per the sales rep.  But that did not stop Jim from buying me...

a Meyer lemon tree today.  For future lemon bars!

After my aunt and cousin arrived we did a little downtown touristy shopping.  Here's one of my favorite little shops:

Where I fell for and bought this hat:

I bought a few other goodies:

 

Which leads me to now.  I love beer in the summer & fall.  My current fav is a local brewery, endorsed by Dave Matthews himself:

 

Although you can usually find me with a Magic Hat in hand, this one gets 8.5 stars. 

 

Tune-in in 2014 when I write my next blog post!  (kidding...hopefully?)