Weekend Activities

On a typical Friday night Annie can be found lounging around the house relaxing with a brew watching "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives".

Annie enjoying a Mojo

Last weekend though she had a special visitor, Uncle David, in town which meant lots of puppy massage, walks at York River State Park and all over Williamsburg in addition to games of Blokus, bananagrams and Clue the card game. David and I caught a movie, "The Grey", which Annie would have really loved because wolves were heavily featured in it. Alas we forgot about the camera all weekend so we have no pics of our adventures with Uncle David.

Saturdays are one of Annie's favorite days as it means walks with both Dan and me. Today was an especially good Saturday because there was a special February Farmers Market -Annie loves going to the Farmers Market to see what's for sale and sniffing other dogs.

Annie loves her market!

Paper whites for sale

Peanuts, Seafood, Fresh Eggs, Goat Cheese, Pastries, Flowers, Produce and More!

In addition to the excitement at the Farmers Market Annie enjoys visiting the ladies outside the Colonial Tavern who shower her with affection and treats! Other highlights include various animal encounters:

Annie doesn't dare get too close to these beasts

Winter in Williamsburg

This blog post is a little late in coming but last week Annie and I were on a walk when we encountered daffodils in bloom! It was 70 degrees here the last day in January - boy are we spoiled! :-)

New Year's Day Hike

To celebrate 2012 and the glorious 65 degree weather here in Virginia Dan, Annie and I got in our car, crossed the James River on the Surry Ferry and went to the Chippokes Plantation State Park for a nice long hike. Along our route we passed a farm - Annie always loves sniffing the farm animals. Dan and I spent Christmas in Colorado visiting our families - Ellen and Chris have a great post recounting the action at their house: http://mcgrundallness.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-with-auntie-and-uncles.html

Annie and Mary on the ferry

Our ferry, the Surry

Bridge over College Run creek feeding the James River 

Pig roaming free outside the chicken coop

Alpaca

Mule

Ram and sheep

Dan and Annie outside the Chippokes Mansion

Horsey decor at the mansion

Mary and Annie in front of elaborate fruit wreath

Christmas Decorations in Colonial Williamsburg

Annie has been enjoying the beautiful wreathes in Colonial Williamsburg. Although it was hard for her to choose she is photographed below with her favorite. I think she picked it because it had Granny Smith apples in it which she probably wanted to eat. The wreathes in Colonial Williamsburg are really cool because they feature all natural products, ie: real apples, pomegranates, oranges, cotton balls, etc. :-)

Annie's Favorite Wreath

Pomegranates, pears, lemons and clementines!

My favorite wreath

Dan's favorite featuring antlers, cotton and feathers

More pomegranates and apples

Thanksgiving Weekend Battlefields

Dan and I spent a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with friends followed by a fantastic pie party with more friends. We were sitting fat and happy Thanksgiving evening with leftovers in the fridge (including slices of pumpkin, pecan, pear and apple pies). Wowzer! How could we possibly make it up to Annie that she wasn't invited along to these feasts?!?!

We asked Annie how she'd like to spend the rest of the long Thanksgiving weekend and she suggested a trip to Fredericksburg to visit with good friends, the Firsts, and tour the battlefield. Additionally she suggested a walk through the Yorktown battlefield. Sadly we forgot to bring our camera to Fredericksburg so we only captured photos in Yorktown.

Dan and Annie in front of cannon

Annie and Dan at British redoubt 9

Mary and Annie with Chesapeake Bay in background

Yorktown Victory Monument

Sticks and Trees

Annie loves the autumn leaves. One of her favorite trees is the beautiful ginkgo biloba - she once tried to eat a ginkgo seed (perhaps trying to improve her awful short term memory) and spit it out. Apparently those seeds are pretty nasty tasting! There's an especially stunning ginkgo tree that sits in the Bruton Parish cemetary.

In addition to trees Annie also loves sticks, as evidenced by her poem, "An Ode to Sticks and Leaves".

Veteran's Day

On Veterans Day Annie and I were on a walk through Colonial Williamsburg when we spotted a large crowd up ahead of us:

We were both curious what the crowd was looking at so we hustled over and happened upon a most excellent Veterans Day parade led by the Colonial Fife and Drum Corp and following behind were the true heroes, the Veterans of all branches of the military.

As an added bonus Patrick Henry and George Washington made guest appearances and gave riveting speeches - Annie was so taken by part of GW's speech that she chimed in with a couple barks of her own. And that, my friends, I took as a signal that it was time for us to mosey on and continue our walk.