Living Along the Appomattox
View all posts filed under the Living Along the Appomattox category.
By Pamela Matlack Klein on 28 January 2009
On Friday afternoon the first sign of spring showed its pretty little head and most welcome it was too. No, it wasn’t a flock of hungry robins feasting on earthworms or anything in bloom. It was the arrival of spring gardening stuff at the Farmville Voldemart (A.K.A. WalMart)!
Posted in Columns, Living Along the Appomattox | Tagged Christmas, Wal-Mart
By Pamela Matlack Klein on 21 January 2009
It’s really hard to believe that January is over a third gone already and we are staring down the throat of February. I’m afraid to blink, I may miss an entire month!
Posted in Columns, Living Along the Appomattox | Tagged Facebook, MySpace, Valentine's Day
By Pamela Matlack Klein on 14 January 2009
For about as long as I can remember I have heard about lake effect snow. Apparently Lake Erie dumps a lot of this peculiar type of snow on northwestern Pennsylvania and New York. After spending three full days driving in lake effect snow, I can assure you that snow is snow!
Posted in Columns, Living Along the Appomattox | Tagged Great River Road, Lake Erie, Lake-effect snow, Living Along the Appomattox, Mississippi River
By Pamela Matlack Klein on 7 January 2009
There is a new website up in honor of our President Elect, Barak Obama. He promised us CHANGE and the site is called www.change.org. If you discovered this site before January 1, you probably got in and voted for some Ideas or even posted one of your very own.
Posted in Columns, Living Along the Appomattox | Tagged Agriculture, Livestock, Living Along the Appomattox, National Animal Identification System, United States Department of Agriculture
By Pamela Matlack Klein on 31 December 2008
In our part of Virginia, along the Appomattox, we actually have five seasons, Spring, Summer, Fall, Mud, and Winter. Mud and Winter usually overlap some. If the mud is frozen it is Winter and if the mud is soft and all over everything, it is Mud.
Posted in Columns, Living Along the Appomattox | Tagged horses, Living Along the Appomattox, Weyr, Wisconsin
By Pamela Matlack Klein on 24 December 2008
By the time the Vernal Equinox rolls around in March, day and night will be of equal length. I have always considered the Solstice to be the true advent of spring. After all, when the sun comes back it is certainly cause for excitement and celebration. Most of our Christmas traditions are based on ancient rituals revolving around the return of the sun, chief among them being all the greenery we bring indoors at this time of year.
Posted in Columns, Living Along the Appomattox | Tagged Christmas, Holidays, Living Along the Appomattox, Winter Solstice
By Pamela Matlack Klein on 17 December 2008
The Richmond Museum of Natural History had a booth filled with wonders from around the world, including some beautiful little Yixing teapots. Dainty pots indeed, as nice as the ones I ordered online last week but more expensive. Nevertheless, the museum shop needs the profits from their gift shop to help their bottom line, I don’t begrudge them a bit and might have bought a pot had I not already splurged on six of them. Hey, they are small, each dedicated to one type of tea, six might not be enough! Time will tell…
Posted in Columns, Living Along the Appomattox | Tagged Dante Alighieri, Living Along the Appomattox, Natural history, Virginia Commonwealth University
By Pamela Matlack Klein on 3 December 2008
Once upon a time, when I was a very wee Dragon, my Daddy taught me a lot about driving, neat stuff like when I’m being overtaken by another car or truck I should always flashed my lights to signal it was safe to pull back into the lane. This is still a very polite, not to mention safe, thing to do. When is the last time someone “flashed” you over? When is the last time you did the same?
Posted in Columns, Living Along the Appomattox | Tagged Living Along the Appomattox, safe driving
By Pamela Matlack Klein on 19 November 2008
Bill and I recently experienced an epiphany regarding the food we put into our bodies and the bodies of our animals. It’s been coming for a long time now, but finally arrived with Michael Pollan’s books, The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food. We are now looking at our diet from an entirely different perspective.
Posted in Columns, Living Along the Appomattox | Tagged High-fructose corn syrup, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, Living Along the Appomattox, Michael Pollan, Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
By Pamela Matlack Klein on 12 November 2008
Bill and I drove up to New England Friday morning. We got a late start, forgot the cell phone, and misinterpreted the Google map, but it was a good trip anyway. The company was excellent and the antiquing even better.
Posted in Columns, Living Along the Appomattox | Tagged Boston Massachusetts, New England, New York City, Nova Scotia
By Pamela Matlack Klein on 5 November 2008
November 4th was an Election day. And as opposed to off-year elections where we only get to vote for piddly things like some of the Congressmen, the odd Governor or Mayor, and stuff like Commissioner of Revenue or Commonwealth Attorney, this is the big enchilada, a Presidential election. If you were unaware of this you must have been on retreat in Nepal for the past two years.
Posted in Columns, Films, Living Along the Appomattox | Tagged Virginia, Voting
By Pamela Matlack Klein on 29 October 2008
Because I am loyal, hard-working, and dependable, a few years ago I was finagled onto the Board of Directors of our horse organization, Al Khamsa. One would assume this to be a great honor but one would be wrong. It is actually more like a red letter stitched to one’s chest, a blazing announcement that one is wiling to give many hours of one’s time, talent, and money to insure that AK functions.
Posted in Columns, Living Along the Appomattox | Tagged Al Khamsa, Oklahoma, Tulsa
By Pamela Matlack Klein on 22 October 2008
Well, that dreaded but inevitable event occurred early Monday morning when Appomattoxians woke up to the unmistakable signs of the first frost. Because of the high humidity, most surfaces were covered with a good quarter-inch of fluffy ice crystals that soon melted when the sun touched them.
Posted in Columns, Living Along the Appomattox | Tagged , bird seed, Indian summer, Jack Frost
