A long day..and still daylight! (Thurs)

Our day began at 4am with a taxi to the airport for an early flight to Chicago, then on to Anchorage.

This is the view, taken this afternoon,  from the hotel towards the mountains.  As I write this it is 9pm local time, still light and 20 hours since we got up this morning!  We had s few interesting views from the plane..

Firstly this was mist clinging to a river valley early this morning..

Wonderful cloud formations..

The neatest fields as we approached Canada..

Then of course the snowy mountains and glaciers of the northern part of Canada and into Alaska..

We have had time to explore Anchorage a little and one of our first stops was at Ship Creek just below our hotel where salmon are swimming upstream to their spawning grounds.  They are not very easy to see in this photo but each dark streak in the shallows is a good sized fish.

No bears to impede them here, just a few fishermen - although they seemed to be throwing them back..

Our impression was that many of the salmon going upstream at this relatively late stage seemed to be tired and a bit unhealthy looking.

We walked for a while along a path around the coast with a view of FlatTop Mountain.

The wetland areas and mudflats are a haven for birds during migration but all was quiet today.

Time to call it a day I think - a final photo as the sun sets over the water ..

Yves St Laurent at the VMFA

Several weeks ago when we were staying in Richmond I went to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to see the current Yves Saint Laurent exhibition.

The exhibition begins and ends with portraits of the designer himself but mostly it is dedicated to the display of his amazing creations over more than fifty years.

A very talented artist, he would sketch his models and create designs for them - all represented on a large poster with fabric samples suitable for the collection.

I can't claim that I have ever worn anything designed by Yves Saint Laurent but in the 1970's I certainly wore outfits that were heavily influenced by the trends in these designs..

On the other hand, every catwalk collection must have its rare birds and I am not sure that anyone would ever have actually worn this..



Perhaps this is the more wearable version...

The exhibition included a fabulous collection of YSL couture jewellery - some very wearable pieces and some only suitable for the catwalk!

The shapes for forming hats made quite an artistic display in their own right.



The final parts of the exhibition, mostly featuring occasion wear, were organized in jewel colours and looked very impressive..

Concert on the Town

On Saturday night the weather was perfect for an evening concert out of doors.

The Spanish acoustic guitar band 'Incendio' were playing at Reston Town Centre and so we went along with our chairs and pitched camp.

There was a good crowd - stretching right back to the fountain.

Everyone seemed to have a good time and the most energetic were dancing enthusiastically. (No, not us!!).

Below Stairs at Maymont

At Maymont Park last week it was possible to do a self guided tour of the kitchen and staff quarters, as well as the main part of the house.

Unlike many of the earlier houses that I have visited here, Maymont's kitchen and staff quarters are in the basement of the house.

Maymont did not have slave labour but its domestic staff were very dependent on the family who employed them.

As in the upstairs rooms there were displays of posters from 1917,  commemorating the centenary of the year that the US joined the Great War.

The kitchen benefitted from both electricity and gas but also had a coal range.

The illustration below compares the amount of time needed in 1919, 1955, 1975 and 2000 to create a dessert.

Adjacent to the kitchen is the laundry room.

Here the living quarters for the butler and the place where male staff who did not live in would change before starting work.

Female staff of the household resided or changed in this room.

It was easy to imagine staff bustling through the house in these uniforms.

Sunday Sunflowers

It was some weeks ago that we first heard about this lovely flower farm which specializes in tulips in the Spring and sunflowers in the Summer.

We have been waiting impatiently for the crop to be ready and the farm has just opened for visiting/picking - although with only a fraction of the flowers yet in bloom.  

The bees were showing their appreciation of the flowers and the sunshine.  The farm also sells honey and it was clear and very dark golden, I wonder if sunflower honey has a distinct flavour?

Come to think about it, I didn't sniff any of the flowers (which is probably irrelevant as I have a cold anyway). I just assumed they didn't have a scent.

There were many different varieties - apparently a mixed planting of a million seeds in more than thirty varieties.  No wonder the bees are happy!

Many families were there gathering the blooms ($1.50 each).  

Later in the season we will go back to try to find and buy some that have matured enough on the plant to have seed for the birds.  For now we just enjoyed looking at all of the different flowers and at the other insects that were enjoying them too..

David took this photo of a large Chinese Praying Mantis.  An impressive and very calm beast!

Others were more conventionally beautiful..