My New (old ) Bike

          So I finally retrieved my bike from my sister's barn where it's been languishing since the big move. It's a little worse the wear but I'm going to get it spruced up this week and start biking again. The only problem is that I'm used to the greenways of Roanoke and the quiet gravel roads of Bedford county. There was generally no danger of getting run over by a speeding car.  Mainly it looked like this path below though usually not as steep.

     So , my question is where are the hidden , quiet country lanes that a NOT-AT-ALL  adventurous bicyclist could ride near Staunton, Va? And not get run over. Feel free to email me directly if you don't want everyone knowing the answer.

On my Walk with Bhindi......

............we didn't almost freeze to death! It was great ! And then I heard that Punxsutawney Phil says that we will have an early Spring. It "may" be highly unscientific but I don't care. At all. I completely believe that a sleeping groundhog can predict the weather , as long as he is predicting warmer weather. Yay! Phil !!!

PS For out-of-towners, this is the Amtrak station at the Wharf in downtown Staunton this very morning.

RECAP..I still love Staunton..

  For those of you who have just joined us, I will now do a recap of this blog to date.  I've been a sculptor for 15 years , I lived and worked on a mountaintop in Bedford County.  For the last 5 years ( leaving out the last year) I was a caregiver for my mother who had had a stroke. When that ended I chose to move to Staunton and begin my work again but in the "city". I bought a pre-pre civil home and am slowly improving it. This blog is among other things an example of how this artist works or DOESN'T WORK ! when other things ( like a kitchen renovation ) are going on). Basically , I yammer on about my clay sculptures of Dinosaurs , reptiles, amphibians and last night A BEAR! and also about my garden and my photogenic pets, Bhindi, Sasha and Spike. Coincidentally, this is Sasha complaining about something. Although I have to say , judging by how much time she spends on the counters , she heartily approves of the kitchen reno.  But she still complains about it.  I also like to talk about Staunton , Virginia and how much I love living here. Because I do love it here. The people are friendly and you can walk to downtown and there is a downtown to walk to, and people are interested in the enviroment and food. All in all , I have no regrets about up and moving to a small town where I literally knew no one. I recommend it highly, but only if you're moving here.

I Love Staunton.

     Spike says " Hey, Liz is in the Staunton Newsleader on Sunday ! " Actually it was me that said it, Spike really can't type very well.  But it's true , a very nice reporter named Becky Martinez came over and asked me a few questions about my clay dinosaur sculptures and my life for a small profile piece that they do around once a week, I think.  You should know that due to Staunton being quite small it's likely that any person who lives here would have at least a one in four chance of being asked to do it, I'm not super special. 

     Which is just one of the things I love about Staunton, everythings personal here.  A person can't stay anonymous. I love the idea that I can walk down the street and see someone and know that their personal pet peeve is " people who chew their gum too loudly ".  As a matter of fact, I wasn't able to work this in with Becky but my personal pet peeve is littering. How someone could see that classic 1970's commercial about littering with the crying Native American guy and still litter is beyond me.  For the younger generation , you can probably find it on youtube or something. But to bring it back to being interviewed, it was fun and it did kind of make me feel super special, for an hour or so.

           As for the photo, that's Spike displaying his patented "Holy Cow , are you trying to starve me ? And "who can I call about that ? " face.  It's not as cute at 4 in the morning.

Liz