Monday, November 3, 2014

Another beautiful Fall unfolds at Ramsay

Humpback Mountain from the south lawn

A radiant oak tree on the south lawn 

Main driveway and estate house

Lots of leaves are gone and fields are beginning to fade a bit

Despite the cooler weather and the end of some of the major projects undertaken during the spring and summer months, there's still a lot going on at Ramsay.  Here are some pictures of some of the activities underway, as well as a few featuring some of the fall color on the farm.  Even though we see it every year, it's still always surprisingly beautiful.

We have had to say goodbye to two of our excellent part time workers who did so much to help maintain the property over the summer.  Richard, who just completed his second summer with us, has found full time work at the Charlottesville Regional Airport and left for orientation in Philadelphia last week.  In addition to doing many tasks here on his own, he provided invaluable assistance to Geo and Kevin with landscaping and carpentry work.  Geo's last regular day was last week also, and he will be on call for special assignments while conducting IT-related contract work in the area.  Many of the jobs Richard and Geo did so well during the summer won't need to be done now that the weather is changing and much of the landscaping will not require as much work, but we will miss their presence here at the farm nonetheless. We are genuinely grateful for their contributions to the work here at Ramsay and wish them all the best!

Connie continues to work--and work her gardening magic!--all around the estate, including some decorating for fall in addition to the fall cleanup of the many flower beds and planters.

Connie's fall decor on the gate posts at the main entrance

Connie has "put to bed" many of the borders and other areas where
fading annuals and perennials lived, which had flourished over the summer

Last weekend, Oscar and his painting crew primed and finished putting the first coat of paint on the picket fence around the vegetable garden.

Also last week, with direction and a quick sketch from Stephen, Kevin built a new storage rack to house the firewood at the outdoor fireplace, again using many materials already on site from previous projects. Richard assisted Kevin at the start, and Stephen helped with finishing.  The result looks great and will enable guests to keep their evening fires going longer if they wish without needing a re-supply, and now the wood will have some shelter from rain as well.

Toward the end of last week, Clay and Josh were here dismantling the rail fence on the west side of the Grigg Barn in preparation for the beginning of a new, major project at that site.

Once the fence was removed, they began buildinga new patio along the west wall of the barn. The patio is being constructed with dry-laid, re-purposed brick formerly part of the sidewalks on the east lawn of the main house and around the parterre garden.  As of this evening, Josh was almost done with the brick-laying.

Today, two additional crews arrived on site to begin work on the new barn yard terraces.  The excavators were here early to start removing the sod and re-grading the lawn just west of barn to make two level terraces linked with a graded slope.  As they were getting underway, the tree-moving crew from Grelen Nursery arrived to relocate the small maple tree which had been planted near the barn last year year.

J. C. Arnold crew begins excavation and grading work

The "tree whisperers" from Grelen...

As the light was fading around 4:30, we took these pictures of the day's work. One can see the new lower terrace mostly graded adjacent to the Grigg Barn and the upper terrace beginning to take shape.

There were guests here for the weekend in the Carriage House, so Stephen wore his "Innkeeper" hat over the weekend and Sherry did laundry and housekeeping today in several of the residences to restore everything to its usual apple-pie order. Ramsay hosted 26 guests in the month of October!

I took my first walk by myself outside today, as my broken knee and the one with all the torn ligaments is improving weekly, thank goodness!  I couldn't resist taking these pictures of one of the beautiful maple trees along the main driveway.

With Daylight Savings Time  ending this past weekend, the mornings are light earlier, which is nice for all of us who get an early start, but the evenings seem to come on so quickly, with the light fading noticeably by 4:30 or 5 PM.  The Blue Ridge mountains in the picture here have a beautiful purple hue in the early morning light.