| Americans work very hard and weekends are a time for relaxation.
We were parked on a friend's drive and they took us on a tour of local
wineries. This one was called Hillsborough and since we have an area of
that name in Sheffield, England, we just had to investigate. The owner was
Turkish and his wines were quite good. |  |
 | We had made
many friends in Shepherdstown on a previous trip with an English Morris
team. Another of them took us out for the day for a walk along Antietam
creek starting at the Burnside bridge, the scene of a particularly bloody
Civil War battle. She was very knowledgeable about the local wild plants
so the walk was particularly interesting. |
| She and her family live in a large and interesting house in 15
acres at the side of the river. An acre to live in and the rest as
neighbour control! which was really the only way to describe the scrub
woodland. At least they didn't have to spend all the weekend on a tractor
mowing the lawn as many others do. |  |
 | Another friend also
took us to her house which is further away. The plot of land is smaller
but still surrounded by woodland. The family had also built a property
next door for his mother. The interior style is open plan and the basement
areiwas an extensive workshop. |
| A central feature of many of the houses of this type is the wood
burning stove, often originating from Vermont as with this one. They do
keep the houses very warm and the wood is often easy to find locally even
if you have to pay for it. This was a magnificent house made in a
traditional way with wood unlike many of the houses today which make more
use of vinyl siding. |  |
 | Shepherdstown
is a University town and so contains many shops full of 'stuff' which only
tourists would buy. It also has an old cinema showing non-mainstream films
which we visited twice. It also has this quaint miniature house which
apparently is open on summer weekends. |
| The reason we delayed in Shepherdstown so long, apart from our
friends, was a weekend Irish Set Dance workshop and ceilidhs. This was
hosted by the Greater Washington Ceili Club. When we walked in the door we
were greeted by three couples who had all met us before in Ireland or
England. This shows how small a world the dance community is. After that
we were in!
I just liked the tee shirt - it sums up our philosophy in a Tee. |
 |
|