Posted by David Hamilton on December 30th, 2009 in General
Good photos of the great Charlottesville snowfall keep showing up on friends Facebook pages from the Carolinas to New York. Because the snow came the week before Christmas, I missed it, and here depend upon the capable photography of Bundoran Farm’s Natural Resource Manager Leif Riddervold.
Aside from documenting this very unusual two-footer (I waited four [...]
Posted by David Hamilton on December 22nd, 2009 in General
For those of you who aren’t residents of Charlottesville, the big news around here is the weather. Bundoran Farm found itself in the path of the great December snowstorm of ‘09, which left us with abundant white stuff the week before Christmas. The official farm tally (from our weather station) hasn’t been confirmed, but Natural [...]
Posted by David Hamilton on December 22nd, 2009 in Agriculture, Bundoran Farm Events and Occasions, General
We just saw an interesting short feature on the economic impact of agritourism in Augusta County. Augusta is seeing a comeback in farm acreage, swimming against the tide of decline. This story focused on some of the non-traditional recreational activities, some very distant from what we’d call agriculture, which are becoming essential economic engines for [...]
Posted by David Hamilton on December 19th, 2009 in General
Bundoran Farm residents Grady and Diane Lewis have just been notified that their home, the second completed at Bundoran Farm, will be certified LEED Silver. LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the most rigorous common green-building certification program, overseen by the US Green Building Council, who have historically set the standard for commercial [...]
Posted by David Hamilton on December 16th, 2009 in Agriculture, Education and Inspiration, General
Someone just asked me for a picture from Bundoran Farm’s trail network. I dug through the files and found a few shots from this fall on Israel Mountain, the ridgeline trail that tracks the western boundary of Edge Valley, and one looking down from the gazebo near the treeline on Tom Mountain, above Lake Scogo [...]
Posted by David Hamilton on December 15th, 2009 in Bundoran Farm Events and Occasions, Education and Inspiration, Nature/Environment
…are the laurels you can now garner on the Field Notes blog.
In order to see who’s actually reading our blog, and with what urgency, I offer the following challenge to readers:
The first person to correctly identify this fairly common Virginia native wildflower wins a brand-spanking new Brunton compass, a reliable guide on even the longest of Bundoran [...]
Posted by David Hamilton on December 13th, 2009 in Agriculture, Baldwin Center for Preservation, Education and Inspiration
In defiance of economic conditions, my wife and I recently had the opportunity to dine with some friends at Jean-Georges in New York. The grandparents foolishly offered to host the kids overnight, and before they finished the sentence, Hillary and I were in the New York suburbs. If you haven’t heard of JG, it’s the flagship of JG Vongerichten, quite [...]
Posted by David Hamilton on December 12th, 2009 in Agriculture, Baldwin Center for Preservation, Education and Inspiration
I just got a chance to have lunch with Friend-of-Bundoran Andrew Morley. Andrew is an interesting fellow who has decided to take an extended break from the world of hedge funds (whatever those are) and focus on something really exciting: artisanal cheese.
During his journey through the world of artisanal cheeses, Andrew has worked and studied [...]
Posted by David Hamilton on December 10th, 2009 in Agriculture, Baldwin Center for Preservation, Education and Inspiration, General
My favorite moment in publishing is the end-of-year retrospective. The New York Times Magazine is set to publish its Year in Ideas, which this year includes Virginia’s recent action to promote connectivity in new subdivisions. As is often the case, a very well-intentioned idea that generally promotes good planning practice is, in the context of [...]
Posted by Joe Barnes on December 6th, 2009 in Education and Inspiration, Nature/Environment
White Breasted Nuthatches
Sunday morning, December 6, was spectacular at Bundoran Farm with the trees on the hillsides frosted and snow on the ground. Woodpeckers were active and vocal as were some white breasted nuthatches. These little birds are year round residents with a territory of 25-45 acres. You often see them going headfirst down trees [...]