March, 2004 we moved into our new home in Pur­cell­ville Virginia. A small town of 3,000 people about 40 miles west of Washington DC. Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, this area of the Nation is like a living museum of U. S. history.

Life in this small town has been hard adjusting to. Not much here in town other than antique shops. There is Clark's Hardware store, I swear it's just like Mr. Druckers form Green Acres. Most of the people here and the surround­ing area have lived here all their lives.

Yes, there was even the equivalent to the Hooterville Express. The tracks have long been removed to create a bike trail that runs form Purcellville all the way to Washington DC. This bike trail is a wonder­ful feature about this town, we bought bikes and ride this trail though the horse country of West Loudoun County. Western part of Loudoun where we live is looking to succeed from the rest of the county, to stop any more development. Folks here like things just the way they are!

Our home here is on a post stamp lot, in a development of about 30 homes. When we first moved in we needed to put up a fence for our dogs 'Scooby and Xena' . We received approval from the Home Owners Associa­tion. But a number of the people in the neighbor­hood decided they didn't want us to have a picketed fence in their neighborhood. After a hour of phone calls, the fence went up and the rightist Re­publicans were beside themselves. Just so happened a Home Owners meeting was the next day and we were at the top of the list of comp­laints. As I sat painting the new fence white as planed, the core you can't do that in MY neighbor­hood gang came marching by. I thought if I sprayed them with water, their beautiful wickedness would melt away. But it would have made a big mess in front of our house and our new fence! Anyway the fence stayed.

 
WINTER 2006