Bundoran Farm Sighting!

After environmentally-conscious developers, gentleman farmers and Norwegians with a sense of humor, we’ll have to add one more supposedly mythical creature to the Bundoran Farm menagerie.  Always-bubbly Natural Resource Manager Leif Riddervold pulled off this grab shot of an elusive resident of Israel Mountain, after Bundoran residents Grady and Diane Lewis reported some unsolicited shrub-trimming [...]

“Bundoran Farm Space Center” – A Place with Space

Too often in today’s world our open spaces are either overly programmed or overly protected. Open space ripe for enjoyment are typically reserved or programmed for one thing and one thing only (baseball fields, golf courses, etc.). If they aren’t a single use space, they might be so protected that you can’t do anything on [...]

Green Mansions Part Deux

And from the same source, this article detailing the struggle of U2 guitarist “The Edge,” who’s attempting to build a “luxury green” community of a handful of 7,000-12,000 square foot homes in the Santa Monica Mountains, above Malibu, California.  Environmental groups, regulatory agencies, and rock stars are definitely not seeing eye-to-eye on the project.  The [...]

Green Mansions, Size and Sustainability

The attached New York Times article, brought to our attention by Bundoran Farm residents (and not-so-big-house afficionados) John Foraste and Grady Lewis, follows the debate over Lotus founder Mitch Kapor’s proposed home in Berkeley, California.  Berkeley has its own scoring system, to evaluate the environmental responsibility of new home construction.  The article examines how the physical [...]

Bird Notes by Dorothy Tompkins – Chipping Sparrow

CHIPPING SPARROW – Spizella passrina
The chipping sparrows are arriving back, singing their cheerful songs.  They breed in most of the states, except Florida, and in Canada and eastern Alaska.  These sparrows winter in Florida and to the north along the coast to Maryland and in Mexico.   So spring must be coming!!
Chipping sparrows are among the [...]

What a Great Weekend!

This past weekend was one of those weekends that makes me feel blessed and grateful to live in the Charlottesville area — a place with some many interesting things to do and people to hang out with.
I started my weekend off on Friday evening at the opening reception of “Our Water, Our Future” at the [...]

Locabusiness in Albemarle

When I visit a new city, the first thing I want to know is “why is this here?”  The answer tells you a lot about a place: sheltered deep-water harbor (Boston), big river for powering mills (Albany), inland navigable limit of the river (Richmond).  And Charlottesville?  Well there’s some transportation history (railroad gateway), and some [...]

Bundoran Farm – Your Land of Winter Wonders

With this season’s record snowfalls, Bundoran Farm has become a winter wonderland.  The verdant pastures and majestic forests are covered with a broad and deep white coat making it quite easy to understand and appreciate the land’s features and resulting life experiences of this distinctive place and time.
By means of a short poll, we came [...]

C-ville (the “C” is for Chocolate)

Bundoran Farm’s protected rural environment is beautiful, but what makes it special to us is the proximity of this idyllic spot so near to Charlottesville.  This little college town continually surprises us, and this Valentine’s Day, the surprise we enjoyed most was Gearhart’s Chocolates.
Pastry chef – chocolatier Tim Gearhart established the business that bears his [...]

Home-making on the Farm

In belated honor of  J.D. Salinger,  a deceptively simple observation on homes, by Joyce Maynard:
“A good home must be made, not bought.”
Taken a bit out of context, this assertion is, when you think about it, pretty radical.  We buy homes, like we buy cars and home theater systems, though usually with a bigger loan, and [...]