The Beauty of Basics at Cool Spring Organics

I recently had lunch with a friend at Cool Spring Organics, a favorite hangout for people who love foods that taste good and are good for you.  One side of the store is a restaurant with delectable options for lunch or dinner, and the other side is a market with equally tempting selections and lots of fresh produce.  If I want to treat myself, I drift into the market, say hi to the owners, Brad and Selena, and begin a slow browse around.  I never ever leave empty handed.

All year round, including in mid-winter, the colors inside are vibrant and practically shout their promotion of good taste and good health.  I think it’s the color that got to me this time since the landscape outdoors is still rather bleak.

I happened to have my camera along and could not help noticing a display of really grand paintings high on the top shelves.  The pictures are of produce and barnyard animals.  What beautiful additions to the gorgeous colors of  actual produce in the store! As I visited with Selena, I asked if I could take some random photographs.   She agreed and also told me the paintings were by our local high School students!  What a perfect place to display them!

Want to beat the winter blues?  Make a trip to your local organic food market and bask in all the brilliant color!

Sometimes I forget there is real beauty in the basics.

Art by Student

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Orchard Outings – Prologue

A PEACH RUN TO PINEY RIVER

Next week we are making our yearly run to Saunders Brothers (Piney River, Virginia) for fresh-from-the-tree peaches!  My friends love heading out of town.  I love the peaches.  I just don’t love getting there.

Saunders Brothers and Dickie Brothers Orchards are our favorite seasonal haunts.  We load up on succulent peaches at Saunders this time of year, and then great apples at Dickie Brothers (Roseland, Virginia) in the fall.

WE ARE LOST!  WE ARE LOST!

Lost Again

Even though we have been doing this for years, we have a penchant for getting lost en route. Both orchards are over the mountains in the same general direction, via winding roads and byways we forget about from year to year.

Please note the picture of three of us, taken on our first Orchard Outing when I was the driver.  You can tell by the despairing look (I’m in the middle) that we are LOST!  I was distressed. The others thought that was pretty funny.   You can see Peggy comforting me and Monika is literally LOL!  How is it they don’t seem to worry about losing their bearings on car trips?

A DESIGNATED NAVIGATOR

My Deep, Dark Secret Secret:

In my long-ago childhood, I was always the Designated Navigator in charge of maps on vacation trips, whose duty it was to guide my father along the proper routes.  It was a great honor to be the Designated Navigator (and I was puffed up proud) until I gave him the wrong directions.  This did happen of course, and the results were a lot of yelling and booming frustration from Dad (who was only trying to get us there).  I’m sure he didn’t realize the long-term psychological impact.

How could he possibly know I would turn out to be emotionally destroyed by my own aimless adult driving down unknown roads?  My baby brother escaped this horrible fate (the little brat).

DUBIOUS SUPPORT FROM FRIENDS

Lost Barn

Lost Pond
Smile!

But, back to my friends – they are actually very kind and supportive when they aren’t laughing at me.  They offer comforting words like,  “If we hadn’t taken that road Dor, would we have stumbled upon this fabulous crumbling barn?”  And they say other things like,

“What a picture!  Mary Beth’s husband could paint this!”

  “See, there is always an upside to getting lost!”

“And look at this beautiful pond.”

“O.K., so we took Rt. 666 (the Devil’s number) by mistake at the crossroads at Crabtree Falls Road.   We’ll just turn around!”

  “Smile for the camera now!  Try to Smile.” 

Note: We actually did take Rt. 666 one time. It’s a real road.

Next week we will go on our annual trip to Saunders Brothers for peaches.  Once again, I am the driver.  I plan to appoint Monika as the Designated Navigator though, and woe onto her if she gets me lost or laughs out loud!  My camera will record any snickering from her, Peggy or Sandy!

To be continued with Accompanying Photographs as proof of which friends are LOL!

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