Front Porch Fredericksburg - April 2017 by Virginia Grogan

contents

closeups 3

clint van zandt ...Facing down evil

april cover artist ... pete morelewicz Sarah Lapp At the Crossroads

porch talk .

on the porch...life in fredericksburg Messages

On the trails:: go tell it on the ott mountain

garden week: kenmore valley neighborhood

Collette Caprara...Reflections on Nature chatham manor: artisans, art & history

history’s stories.: hugh mercer our heritage: a grassroots organization

fam reopens angela freeman: taking care of business

Senior Care: don’t stop laughing

mind your mind: april is the cruelest month emancipated patients: doulas

rabbits & their artist: charlotte richards helen ramsey: art from the heart

art in the burg: eye candy

STORIES OF FREDERICKSBURG mYSTERY hOUSE

fxbg music: “haze” is clear on songwriting

renew: create a healthy routine

It’s all energy: tame your anxiety

fredericksburg sketches ON STAGE: local chorus “on broadway”

CLINT VAN ZANDT Best-Selling Author, TV Commentator & long-time fredericksburg resident By kevin brown crimes/investigations for the FBI in Georgia, New York and PA, I was transferred to the FBI Academy and the Special Operations and Research Unit to teach Hostage Negotiations to FBI Agents and national and international police officers. I was also deployed nationally with FBI's Hostage Rescue Team and internationally to kidnapping of US citizens to coordinate hostage/kidnap negotiations. I was eventually transferred to the Behavioral Analysis Unit to conduct criminal profiles of significant offenders. I retired from the FBI in 1995 after 25 years of service, and started Van Zandt Associates, Inc., a forensic and behaviorally oriented crisis management consulting company, which I operate today.

from my porch: year of growth FREDERICKSBURGERS: poppy merrell & laura donnell

va organizing “I HAVE A FRIEND”: a unique bond

Everything Greens: Takes a village poetryman: smith run

walk fro mental wellness

season’s bounty: where are you spring

12 rotary: just a bunch of old guys?

Cooking with Kyle...Shrimp ceviche

flavors of fredericksburg food tour

16-17

Calendar of events

sophia street throwdown

...And more! 15

Cover: “Darbytown” by Pete Morelewicz

Q. What do you like most about Fredericksburg?

This month, we catch up with long-time Fredericksburg resident Clint Van Zandt, FBI profiler and chief hostage negotiator with a lengthy follow-up career as best-selling author, TV commentator, and public speaker. Q. What brought you to Fredericksburg? A: In 1983, after 12 years on the street working bank robberies and other

A: Small town atmosphere, great place to raise our children, cross section of people (including 4 closeby grandchildren), proximity to Washington, the Blue Ridge Mountains and the ocean. We enjoy the local restaurants (Ristorante Renato - wonderful early bird specials, Sedona Taphouse -Monday steak nite), coffee shops (Hyperion Espresso where great service is found and great discussions are held); fellowship at Rotary Club (Fredericksburg CC) and UMW community activities (Great Lives Lecture Series), most of which are within walking distance for those who make the move to downtown Fredericksburg.

Q. Please tell us about your latest project(s), what are you working on? A: I have had a contractual relationship with CNN, Fox, ABC, and now NBC/MSNBC TV as a law enforcement and behavioral analyst for almost two decades. NBC has placed a mini TV station in our Fredericksburg and Wintergreen homes to allow them quick access to me in breaking news stories requiring on-ccamera criminal analysis. I'm represented by three speakers bureaus and have monthly travel to present key note lectures, seminars, etc. I work with a number of Fortune 500 companies as part of their Threat Assessment Teams for violence in the workplace (VIW) and extortion cases, and I conduct VIW and threat assessment seminars for such companies, this while I'm working hard toward full retirement at some unknown future date.... Last, but not least, my latest book, "Facing down Evil, Life on the Edge as an FBI Hostage Negotiator" is in the process of republication with new chapters and updated information. I encourage readers to look for it in the near future. On behalf of our Front Porch readers, thank you Clint for your longtime public service, for looking out for our public safety, and for sharing your love for our favorite city.

April 2017

Front porch fredericksburg

200 William Street Downtown Fredericksburg 540.373.4421 Mon-Sat: 9:30-5:30 Closed Sun CrownJewelersFredericksburg.com

Nomad Yippy Rubber Rain Boots

Kevin Brown is the administrator of the "“FXBG City Council Public Forum” Facebook Group, a downtown resident & Military Analyst for Segue Technologies

Highlighting Local People, Places & Events Since 1997 2

Introducing Benchmark ...The Distinctive Wedding Rings.

Splash with Flash 723 Caroline St 540.899.8077 Daily 10-5:30, Sunday 12-5 front porch fredericksburg

April 2017

contents

closeups 3

clint van zandt ...Facing down evil

april cover artist ... pete morelewicz Sarah Lapp At the Crossroads

porch talk .

on the porch...life in fredericksburg Messages

On the trails:: go tell it on the ott mountain

garden week: kenmore valley neighborhood

Collette Caprara...Reflections on Nature chatham manor: artisans, art & history

history’s stories.: hugh mercer our heritage: a grassroots organization

fam reopens angela freeman: taking care of business

Senior Care: don’t stop laughing

mind your mind: april is the cruelest month emancipated patients: doulas

rabbits & their artist: charlotte richards helen ramsey: art from the heart

art in the burg: eye candy

STORIES OF FREDERICKSBURG mYSTERY hOUSE

fxbg music: “haze” is clear on songwriting

renew: create a healthy routine

It’s all energy: tame your anxiety

fredericksburg sketches ON STAGE: local chorus “on broadway”

from my porch: year of growth FREDERICKSBURGERS: poppy merrell & laura donnell

va organizing “I HAVE A FRIEND”: a unique bond

Everything Greens: Takes a village poetryman: smith run

walk fro mental wellness

season’s bounty: where are you spring

12 rotary: just a bunch of old guys?

Cooking with Kyle...Shrimp ceviche

flavors of fredericksburg food tour

16-17

Calendar of events

sophia street throwdown

...And more! 15

Cover: “Darbytown” by Pete Morelewicz

Q. What do you like most about Fredericksburg?

April 2017

Front porch fredericksburg

200 William Street Downtown Fredericksburg 540.373.4421 Mon-Sat: 9:30-5:30 Closed Sun CrownJewelersFredericksburg.com

Nomad Yippy Rubber Rain Boots

Kevin Brown is the administrator of the "“FXBG City Council Public Forum” Facebook Group, a downtown resident & Military Analyst for Segue Technologies

Highlighting Local People, Places & Events Since 1997 2

Introducing Benchmark ...The Distinctive Wedding Rings.

Splash with Flash 723 Caroline St 540.899.8077 Daily 10-5:30, Sunday 12-5 front porch fredericksburg

April 2017

Lori Izykowski

ON THE PORCH Guest Porch Editorial

Contributing Writers & Artists A.E.Bayne Scott Bergstrom Laurie Black Kevin Brown Nick Cadwallender Collette Caprara Barbara Deal Christina Ferber Dan Finnegan Frank Fratoe K.Jeanne Frazer Tricia Garner Joan M. Geisler Ann Glave Lou Gramann Alexis Grogan Ralph “Tuffy”Hicks Karl Karch David C. Kennedy Lenora Kruk-Mullanaphy Michael Lewallan Jo Loving Vanessa Moncure Patrick Neustatter Sara Poore M.L. Powers Beth Pulley John Reifenberg Scott Richards Cliff Satterthwaite Suzanne Scherr Casey Alan Shaw Georgia Strentz James Kyle Synder Christine Thompson Carolyn Van Der Jagt Dawn Whitmore

Front Porch Fredericksburg is a free circulation magazine published monthly by Olde Towne Publishing Co. Virginia Bigenwald Grogan, Publisher.

The mission of Front Porch Fredericksburg is to connect the diverse citizenry of Fredericksburg with lively features and informative columns of interest to our community’s greatest resource, its people.

Messages from our readers are welcome. All submissions must be received by e-mail by the 19th of the month preceding publication. Writers are welcome to request Writer’s Guidelines and query the Editor by e-mail. Front Porch Fredericksburg PO Box 9203 Fredericksburg, VA 22403 Ad Sales: E-Mail: frntprch@aol.com Web Site: www.frontporchfredericksburg.com The opinions expressed in Front Porch Fredericksburg are those of the contributing writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Front Porch Fredericksburg or its advertisers. Copyright 2017 Olde Towne Publishing Co. All rights reserved.

April 2017

On the Trails

part of the community

Go Tell it on Ott Mountain!

BY Lori Izykowski

By Kevin Brown

Having been both a Navy ‘brat’ and a Navy wife, I am used to starting over in a community. Growing up, our family lived in California, Japan, New York, and Virginia. I attended six different public schools and learned to make friends quickly. Such a transient background taught me to be adaptable. This was helpful when I relocated to Texas at 18. Nine years (and a world of experiences) later, I would return to Virginia. Within a few years, I was married and moving to California, starting a mirror journey of my childhood (California to Japan to Virginia). After each move, the process of making new friends and building a community began again. Fast forward to 2003, and suddenly I’m starting over once again, this time as a divorced mother. After ten years out of the traditional work force, I had begun working full time, managing the heart-wrenching task of finding childcare, and learning to find my place in a new community: Fredericksburg. I should clarify: I had already been familiar with Fredericksburg, first as a tourist, then as a visitor from north Stafford, then more intimately when I began attending the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Fredericksburg, located on Caroline (now Eileen’s). But it was in June 2003 that I moved into my townhome in Chatham Landing. It was in 2003 that I began the difficult process of building a new community for myself as a middleaged divorced woman with a pre-teen daughter. I distinctly remember sitting in the pub at Kenmore Inn, back when the bar was tucked in the corner and the music was acoustic. The player was Jon Bachman, and it was Memorial Day. I got up the nerve to treat myself to this night out thanks to a child-free weekend. Later, when Frederick’s opened on Princess Anne, I sat alone at a table for two with a glass

of wine and the latest Front Porch magazine, reading from cover to cover while listening once again to Jon Bachman. That was when it really struck me, what a close and supportive community Fredericksburg is. Reading the FP allowed me to really learn about this town I had just become a part of: what was happening with businesses, the latest on food, health, music, and art. The Scene and Heard section was baffling to me, as names were dropped like petals from a wind-blown cherry blossom tree. Who were all these people? Soon I was enjoying many nights of music in town, wine parties at my home and the homes of others, participating in committees and events through the UUFF, and getting invited to some very special monthly and annual gatherings in the area. What’s more, I began to occasionally contribute to Front Porch, writing about different things close to my heart, or about new businesses that needed a bit of exposure. Now when I read Scene and Heard, not only did I know the author, but suddenly I knew most of the dropped names (heck, mine was in there sometimes, as well as my daughter’s). I recognized the authors of various articles, and had become friends with Rob Grogan. My life had become full, and I had become a bona fide member of this wonderful and supportive community. As life is wont to do, many changes came about in 2016: my sister and her husband moved to the San Diego area; my mom and step-dad moved to Reno, Nevada, settling about 30 minutes from my brother; and I left my employment of ten years at UMW for a

messages

Front Porch So happy to see our former residence; that I dearly loved, featured as the December mystery house (211 Caroline St).

Virginia Article spotlighting Hilltop Physical Therapy and Alternative therapies & Spa,(Christina Ferber’s “East Meets West”, January, 2017) was wonderful. Hope readers realize what skillful, compassionate, topnotch services these facilities offer. Beverley Coates

Front porch fredericksburg

Diane and Ted Clark Virginia Thank you for your continuous support of live music and the arts in the burg. Lou Gramann

new adventure in the private sector, only to be laid off six months later, weeks before Christmas. Those three things had me thinking long and hard about what my options are, realizing that I had an opportunity to pull up stakes and start anew. But I realized that Fredericksburg is now, more than ever, my home. Maybe it’s age, maybe it’s familiarity, but I like to think that most of all it is this special town where, no matter what is happening in my life, I am a part of the community, and each month I can sit down and catch up on my friends and neighbors by reading the Front Porch, cover to cover. Lori Izykowski has lived in the area since 1999, but in Fredericksburg since 2003. She has had a lot of opportunity to enjoy the many walking trails in and around Fredericksburg lately, but would very much like to get back to work. On May 13 she will have the great pleasure of seeing her daughter graduate from CNU. Lori has no immediate plans to leave this community!

Front Porch Thank you so mush for all of your support! (Colleen McElfresh Fundraiser “ArtfulRX”, March, 2017) Megan McElfresh Front Porch Beautiful cover! (March 2017) Patti Y Gutierrez Very nice tribute to Bill Kertsos (Tuffy Hick’s A ‘Burg Icon”, Jan 2017). Ted Ellis

Local outdoor enthusiasts Steve and Lisa Ott love trails - so much so, they even got married on one! With the hopes of inspiring others to get out and explore, these trail fanatics have created a social media presence on Facebook/YouTube called "Ott Mountain". Here they showcase Fredericksburg Area local trails and highlight their many outdoor adventures. Q: Steve & Lisa: Mountain?

So what is Ott

It isn’t a place, it’s an idea. The “Mountain” is what’s inside us. It’s the spark of adventure, anticipation and excitement you get when you first step foot on a trail. It’s the feeling of seeing the world as a place to explore again, rather than just a place to work/pay your mortgage. Some of us have lost that sense of exploration and adventure in our everyday lives. Our two-year old granddaughter has that spark. You take her to a playground and you’d think she just discovered the most amazing place on the planet! You see it in her face! That face is a reminder of how we should be. This world can take away that spark if we allow it. Humans are explorers at heart, yet we unfortunately forget that sometimes. Without exaggerating, we’ve hiked every local trail from Caledon to Germanna. We like to review each trail based on natural beauty, historical interest, solitude, ease of access, etc. Here’s our top ten ranking and why: 1. River Heritage Trail – ease of access, great river views, nice distance, multi-use. This trail gets the top score because it’s the most versatile and provides the most enjoyment/diversity for people of all ages,

abilities and experience level. 2. Quarry Trails – sense of solitude/wilderness, challenging terrain, great river views, multi-use. We’ve hiked all these trails many times and enjoy feeling like we’re out in the middle of n o w h e r e . 3. Germanna Trails – solitude, river trail, old growth trees, history. This is a hidden gem. The trail goes up a rock outcropping and provides excellent views of the Rapidan River. Very few people hike here. 4. Chancellorsville Trails – multiple trail opportunities, solitude, history, nature, close to home. There are multiple ways to enjoy this park, including a couple of “secret” trails that most people don’t take the time to hike. 5. Caledon Trails – forests and beach, solitude. We usually picnic at the beach spot and make a day of it. 6. Lake Anna State Park Railroad Ford Trail – amazing lakefront trail, great views, easy, many coves. Other Lake Anna trails are also worth checking out, including equestrian friendly trails. 7. Spotsylvania Courthouse Battlefield Trail – history, beautiful meadows, rolling hills. We got married here so it had to make the top ten. 8. Ni River Trail (Salamander Loop) – Family friendly, close to home, solitude, Ni River. This is the trail you go to for a “quick fix” of nature when you don’t have a lot of time. 9. Motts Run Reservoir Trails – unlike any other local place we’ve been, feels like you’re at summer camp, solitude, great lake views, nice river at trail’s end. We’ve even rented a boat here and enjoyed picnics on the lake. 10. Wilderness Battlefield Trails – solitude, nature, rivers, surprises. Hope you enjoy our Ott Mountain videos/photos/stories of local trails! We invite everyone to check out “Ott Mountain” on Facebook/YouTube and join the fun! Kevin Brown shares up-to-date local trail news and photos as administrator of the "On the Fredericksburg Va Trails" Facebook Group front porch fredericksburg

April 2017

Lori Izykowski

ON THE PORCH Guest Porch Editorial

Front Porch Fredericksburg is a free circulation magazine published monthly by Olde Towne Publishing Co. Virginia Bigenwald Grogan, Publisher.

April 2017

On the Trails

part of the community

Go Tell it on Ott Mountain!

BY Lori Izykowski

By Kevin Brown

messages

Front Porch So happy to see our former residence; that I dearly loved, featured as the December mystery house (211 Caroline St).

Front porch fredericksburg

Diane and Ted Clark Virginia Thank you for your continuous support of live music and the arts in the burg. Lou Gramann

So what is Ott

April 2017

Historic Garden Week

Chatham Manor

Featuring Homes & Gardens of the Fielding Lewis Estate By tricia garner

You are cordially invited to join the members of the Rappahannock Valley Garden Club and their friends for Historic Garden Week in Fredericksburg! This year’s tour, entitled “Fredericksburg’s Kenmore Valley Neighborhood Walking Tour”, features homes and gardens built on land which was formerly part of the original estate of Colonel Fielding Lewis, now known as Kenmore Plantation. Surveyed by George Washington in 1752, the farmland slowly became subdivisions as early as 1853. As the growth of Fredericksburg accelerated westward with the establishment of the “State Normal School” on the heights above, the city chose to annex the valley. This walking tour is a lovely stroll along Sylvania Avenue, Sunken Road, Franklin Street, Littlepage Street, and Madison Street. Special events will take place throughout the day and will include flower arranging demonstrations, Plein Air artists painting in the gardens, a horticulture exhibit,

refreshments in the garden on Madison Street, and tours of private courtyards located behind the courthouse downtown. For one week in April, over 26,000 visitors tour homes and gardens across Virginia during the height of the blooming season. The Garden Club of Virginia’s most well-known public event, Historic Garden Week is a beloved spring tradition which encompasses 30 tours organized and hosted by member clubs. Coming originally from England, early Virginians brought with them an inherent love of the land. They created splendid plantations with noble homes and handsome gardens. Without organized protection of this irreplaceable inheritance, the Garden Club of Virginia foresaw its inevitable destruction. Starting in 1929, they made it their most important work to preserve our state’s historic public gardens. The first tours were organized to support restoration work at Kenmore in Fredericksburg. From

Monticello, Mount Vernon, Bacon’s Castle, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, to the State Arboretum in Winchester, to name just a few – a full diversity of gardens is represented in the GCV’s projects. Tour proceeds continue to fund the restoration and preservation of more than 40 of Virginia’s historic public gardens and landscapes, a research fellowship program, and a new initiative with Virginia State Parks. The Garden Club of Virginia was instrumental in establishing these parks, also in 1929, the year of the first Historic Garden Week. The nation’s only statewide house and garden tour has created an economic impact over the last 45 years of over $425 million. Fredericksburg ‘s Kenmore Valley Neighborhood Walking Tour will occur on

Tuesday, April 25, from 10 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Tickets are available in advance ($35) until Monday, April 24 at noon, and include all events. They are available at Monkees of Fredericksburg, Salon 730, Lydia’s, Whittinghams, Virginia Hill,

artisans , art & History By carolyn van der jagt before her death at age 7. It is believed that a family member, possibly her sister Mary, completed the work. Evidence suggests that a portable printing press was also used at Chatham during the Civil War. On April 8th, a local printer will

Fredericksburg Visitor Center, and Spotsylvania County Visitor Center at Massaponax. Tickets on the day of the tour may be purchased at the tour headquarters, Cossey Botanical Park, 1601 Littlepage Street, for $45. Cash, check or credit cards are accepted. More information about the local tour and Historic Garden Week may be found at www.vagardenweek.org. This information was compiled by Tricia Garner, immediate past president of the Rappahannock Valley Garden Club. She considers Fredericksburg’s Garden Day to be one of her favorite days in the year. The members of the Rappahannock Valley Garden club greatly appreciate the community friends who assist them as hosts and hostesses throughout the day.

Garden Week in FXBG Kenmore Valley Neighborhood Walking Tour April 25 , 10a - 5 p

Join approximately 35 local artisans and artists on the grounds of Chatham Manor on April 8 th from 10 am to 4 pm while they showcase historic and modern artistic skills and passions. Artisans, Art, and History, presented by Friends of Chatham and the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, is designed to be both educational and fun for the local community, especially students and their families. The program is sponsored, in part, by a Stafford County Challenge Grant and the Virginia Commission for the Arts. This event highlights some of the historic roots of art and artisans at Chatham. Built in 1771, the big house at Chatham stood at the center of a sprawling plantation sustained largely by the efforts of enslaved people. Among them were men and women of immense skill—carpenters and woodworkers, seamstresses, spinners, and blacksmiths. Other tradesmen also were known to have labored and lived at Chatham. Many of these crafts and skills will be demonstrated throughout the day. The April 8th program will also include the exhibit of one of the few textiles known to have an association with 18th-century Chatham. The sampler of Patsy Fitzhugh, a young daughter of Chatham’s original owners, will be on display at the house for the first time, on loan from the Arlington House. Patsy started the sampler at Chatham not long

be demonstrating letterpress printing from wood type on a proof press. In addition, there will be a bookbinder performing 18th and 19th century bindings of journals and original reproduction books. He will be binding books and speaking about the development of printing and bookbinding in Virginia. At intervals throughout the day, National Park Service historians will conduct short programs that explore how the historic residents at Chatham-enslaved and free--used trades and crafts to help sustain the plantation, its operations, and its image as a place of power and prosperity. But, the arts don’t merely reside in history. Certainly, the arts are alive and vibrant in our area, exploring new methods and new avenues. Modern artists also will be demonstrating their talents during this community event in comicbook art, decorating your bag, using trash or recyclables for art, and much more. Throughout the day, some artists will demonstrate painting and sketching, and visitors will have opportunities to create a few “masterpieces” of their own. April 8, 2017 is guaranteed to be a fun-filled day with something to spark the interest of the artist in each of us. So, save the date and come out to celebrate the arts at Chatham Manor on Saturday, April 8 th from 10 am to 4pm with our community! visit www.friendsofchatham.org or email us at friendsofchatham@gmail.com Carolyn Van Der Jagt maintains the fredericksburgarts.org website (formerly arts along the river.org) and is the Presdient of the Arts & Cultural Council of the Rappahannock.

Large or Small, I Sell Them All! Dreaming of Fabulous City Living? Let’s Make It Happen!

601 LAFAYETTE BLVD

roxburyfarmgarden.com MAIN: (540) 373-9124 NURSERY: (540) 371-8802 SUZY STONE

We Have All Your Gardening Needs Since 1929 Come Shop With Us! 6

April 2017

Front porch fredericksburg

Mobile:540.847.0630 Office: 540-898-2900 suzystone22@gmail.com C21redwood.com

Reflections on Nature grandeur, Power, & Humor By Collette Caprara

My inspiration for my exhibit as Brush Strokes Gallery's featured artist in April is dubbed “Reflections on Nature.” The images in this show are inspired by the photography of an across-the-miles cousin, Jeff Byer. My title connotes both the experience of optical reflections as well as the emotions and thoughts that are elicited by the wonders of the natural world. In this series of oil paintings, I hoped to capture how the visual phenomenon of ripples accentuates the three-dimensional quality as well as the form and grace of the actual subjects. A pair of turtles climbing along a tree trunk in the wetlands are echoed by alluring, seemingly abstract patterns of their reflected image. Geese in flight, skimming the waters of a pond leave viewers to decide whether they are witnessing a take-off or a landing. And two legendary black swans drift together in a treeframed cove of water to the point where their graceful necks seem to form a heart. My cousin Jeff is one of those “hybrid geniuses”—part engineer and part artist. We collaborated unexpectedly some years back when I was inspired to publish an oral history of my mom’s family called “Byer Family Memories.” When I sent out a call to the extended family for any photos, I learned that "engineer-Jeff" had responded to his own calling to preserve our family history. He had meticulously constructed a miniature scale model of the farmhouse where my grandparents had raised their 13 kids and where our aunts, uncles, and cousins had gathered every year for reunions— times filled with Polish story-telling and plenty of pierogis. I dedicated one section of that book to showcasing different views of Jeff's craftsmanship. Since that time, from the continuous stream of Jeff's photographs

that I have viewed on Facebook, I know that he shares my enchantment with the transforming delights of nature—from the grandeur and power of a waterfall to the humorous antics of critters that call out to the viewer for a light moment of anthropomorphizing! He might even share musings of mine like these “reflections” on sights in nature that convey a lesson for life. The image of a sturdy weed that has taken root and managed to emerge through the tiniest crack in a concrete road is a testament to the power of the life force. And a blanket of tiny flowers on a remote forest floor that spring forth, each with perfect patterns of colorful petals, seems to tell us “Always give your best, even though there may never be a viewer to take note of your beauty.” Collette Caprara is a local artist and writer. Brush Strokes Gallery, 824 Caroline Street . Opening reception for "Reflections on Nature" First Friday, April 7, 6 to 9 pm.

Own The Movie A 40-minute film with aerial and underwater photography that tells the story of the Rappahannock River from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay.

DVD $14.95; Members $11.96 www.riverfriends.org 540-373-3448 3219 Fall Hill Ave.

front porch fredericksburg

April 2017

Historic Garden Week

Chatham Manor

Featuring Homes & Gardens of the Fielding Lewis Estate By tricia garner

Garden Week in FXBG Kenmore Valley Neighborhood Walking Tour April 25 , 10a - 5 p

Large or Small, I Sell Them All! Dreaming of Fabulous City Living? Let’s Make It Happen!

601 LAFAYETTE BLVD

roxburyfarmgarden.com MAIN: (540) 373-9124 NURSERY: (540) 371-8802 SUZY STONE

We Have All Your Gardening Needs Since 1929 Come Shop With Us! 6

April 2017

Front porch fredericksburg

Mobile:540.847.0630 Office: 540-898-2900 suzystone22@gmail.com C21redwood.com

Reflections on Nature grandeur, Power, & Humor By Collette Caprara

Own The Movie A 40-minute film with aerial and underwater photography that tells the story of the Rappahannock River from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay.

DVD $14.95; Members $11.96 www.riverfriends.org 540-373-3448 3219 Fall Hill Ave.

front porch fredericksburg

April 2017

“I Have A Friend” A unique family bond

April 2017

Virginia Organizing

April Cover artist

by christina ferber

By Laurie Black

Perhaps the greatest gift we can give others is our time. Senior Visitors volunteer, Nancy Wright, has been giving her time to seniors in our community since 2008. The time Nancy and other volunteers give to seniors has a wonderful ripple effect, having a positive impact on the senior, the senior’s family, the volunteer, and the whole community. Nancy has been visiting Josephine for over a year. Josephine lives with her granddaughter, Phyllis, and her family. Phyllis glowingly reports that having Nancy visit her grandmother is so helpful and “a real joy.” With a busy household, kids in school and different schedules, Phyllis explains, “It is so nice that my grandmother has a special someone to visit with. Nancy is so encouraging and kind, and is there to focus on her.” Phyllis goes on to say that Josephine is quiet and reserved, but visits with Nancy are a great stimulation for her mind and a distraction from her chronic back pain. Nancy speaks just as highly of Josephine and her family. “Josephine’s family is very kind and accepting. I always feel welcome in their home. Josephine and I are both from Pennsylvania, so we can talk about our Pennsylvania roots. Sometimes Josephine shares family pictures and memories with me. We look at magazines, put puzzles together, and I read to Josephine every time I visit.” Nancy says that they also enjoy looking at recipes and talking about food they both enjoy. Once Nancy purchased all the ingredients and Josephine directed Nancy on how to make meat balls “the old fashioned way.” Then Phyllis cooked them and they all enjoyed them over pasta! When asked how often she visits, Nancy replies, “The Senior Visitors Program asks that volunteers give an hour a week, but I sometimes extend my visits.

Pete Morelewicz

Giving Us a Voice

I am not a care provider, but I feel comfortable sitting with Josephine while Phyllis goes for a walk or runs an errand.” Phyllis agrees, “Nancy is so flexible. I never know when something will come up, so I appreciate that Nancy is willing to come at different times when we need to reschedule. And I’m comfortable if I need to go out, knowing that my grandmother will be here having quality time with Nancy.” Nancy went on to explain, “Volunteering fills a need in my life. We have developed a unique family bond. Josephine’s family is like an extension of my family.” Phyllis and Josephine also feel like Nancy is family. Sometimes the three of them will have lunch together or celebrate a holiday or birthday together. Phyllis affirms that the Senior Visitors Program has been a wonderful experience for their family. They are so grateful for Nancy’s cheerful friendship and the connections they have made in the community through the Senior Visitors Program. April is a fitting time to pay tribute to Nancy, the many volunteers who serve in the Senior Visitors Program, and all the volunteers who serve in any April is capacity in our community. National Volunteer Month - a time to recognize and celebrate the time, talents, and support volunteers contribute – bringing strength and unity to our community. Thank someone you know who volunteers or become a volunteer this month! For more information call Mental Health America of Fredericksburg at (540) 371-2704 or visit their website at mhafred.org to download volunteer or senior applications. Laurie Black is the Administrative Ass’t for the Senior Visitor’s Program

Front porch fredericksburg

Do you want to take a more active part in your community, but wonder how to really make a difference? Virginia Organizing was created for just that reason: to empower us with tools to take action and create lasting change. Virginia Organizing is a non-profit, grass-roots group that offers opportunities for community members to speak up and address issues that affect their quality of life. This non-partisan organization’s mission states that it strives to get people to work together toward change in a nonviolent, democratic way. “I started with Virginia Organizing because it really is about making change,” says August Donahue, a Virginia Organizing leader. “As we put our agenda forward each year, we look at stakeholders, as well as the likelihood of success, in order to make the change the community asks for.” Virginia Organizing works on national and statewide issues, but each chapter looks at community needs and addresses those local issues as the main part of their yearly agenda. The local Fredericksburg area chapter has addressed issues such as disparities in disciplinary action within our schools, which resulted in the recent memorandum of understanding between the Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Department and Spotsylvania County Schools. They have also worked to have a mural changed in order to better represent community diversity. “There is a wide gamut of things that we do. Through workshops and marches, as well as voter registration days, we work to help the community speak up for themselves,” says Eunice Haigler, another leader in the organization. “We welcome members of the community to come to us with concerns that are important to them, because one of our main goals is to give people a voice.” Workshops that Virginia Organizing holds range from topics such as dismantling racism to restoration of rights, and they also teach members how to lobby and write letters to the editor to advocate for change. Nationwide and statewide issues such as immigration, social security, healthcare and voter’s rights are also addressed within the organization. “One of the reasons I love Virginia Organizing is that people have the freedom to choose an issue that they are passionate about, and we give them tools

By A.E. Bayne

to effect change,” says Donahue. “If there is something you want addressed, we are happy to listen and decide if it is something we truly can work toward.” Meetings are held on the 3rd

Pete Morelewicz is a new face on the Fredericksburg arts scene. After twenty years of working as a graphic designer in Washington, D.C., Morelewicz and his wife, Christine Henry, recently moved to Fredericksburg so that Henry could be closer to her job at UMW and so Morelewicz might pursue something he felt he couldn't in D.C., a career as an

Wednesday of each month at the headquarters branch of the Rappahannock Regional Library. You can learn more about the organization at . w w w . v i r g i n i a organizing.org/category/chapters/frederi cksburg/ or on their Facebook page: Fredericksburg Virginia Organizing. The next big event for the Fredericksburg chapter is an Adult Easter Egg Hunt at Kenmore Park on April 22 nd from 1 to 3 pm. It is open to those 18 and over and will be an opportunity to feel like a kid again, and maybe even win some great prizes in the process. Purchased tickets will help them continue their mission of empowering others. To find out more about the event or to purchase tickets, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/adulteaster-egg-hunt-tickets-32931750753.

From Morelewicz Postage Stamp Series of

artist. His cover image represents that new direction.

Morelewicz says his work is traditionally everevolving and represents whatever catches his eye. He describes the cover piece, a screen print that he made on his laptop, as inspired by his background and love of architecture. Creating the image allowed Morelewicz to discover his neighborhood and the architectural treasures that surround him in his new home. He says, "The best inspiration is local. I have an architecture degree, so I have a fascination with buildings and built environments. The buildings in the image are those in our neighborhood that stand out. The foreground is the river, behind which are the streets that move away from it. The last image in is the”Purina Tower, w” which is fairly imposing and super iconic. I've drawn it oversized and out of scale, the only 3D thing in the piece, tilted off axis, in shadow, because that's how dominant it is. It feels like it's watching over us." Morelewicz's work covers a wide variety of blank note cards mediums, including graphics, photography, mixed media and paint arts. He has a mild obsession with Bob Ross, whom he credits with his early forays into painting.

Discover more of Morelewicz's designs at www.printjazz.com. Welcome to the neighborhood, Pete!

A.E. Bayne is a writer, artists, and educator who lives in Fredericksburg. She publishes Fredericksburg Literary and Art Review and is a partner in the Fredericksburg Independent Book Festival.

Morelewicz found what he calls the perfect foil to his graphic design work in Washington, D.C. when he began delving into letterpress arts. He says, "While sitting in front of a computer all day, I missed the tactility of design. I started collecting letterpress equipment, as well as the lead and wood type and accoutrements that go with it. I would escape to the basement of our house in D.C. and mess around with letterpress. You have so much control with the computer; you can shrink the text or change the kerning slightly to make it fit, but you really don't have that using a piece of metal. Letterpress forces me to change design ideas. The letterpress, with its physical limitations, becomes part of the design. It allows me to use a different piece of the creative brain."

THE

FREDERICKSBURG LAMP Only Available At

The Copper Shop 371-4455 1707R Princess Anne

Behind Silk Mill Like Us on facebook

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April 2017

“I Have A Friend” A unique family bond

April 2017

Virginia Organizing

April Cover artist

by christina ferber

By Laurie Black

Pete Morelewicz

Giving Us a Voice

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By A.E. Bayne

to effect change,” says Donahue. “If there is something you want addressed, we are happy to listen and decide if it is something we truly can work toward.” Meetings are held on the 3rd

From Morelewicz Postage Stamp Series of

artist. His cover image represents that new direction.

Discover more of Morelewicz's designs at www.printjazz.com. Welcome to the neighborhood, Pete!

A.E. Bayne is a writer, artists, and educator who lives in Fredericksburg. She publishes Fredericksburg Literary and Art Review and is a partner in the Fredericksburg Independent Book Festival.

THE

FREDERICKSBURG LAMP Only Available At

The Copper Shop 371-4455 1707R Princess Anne

Behind Silk Mill Like Us on facebook

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April 2017

Everything Greens

Walk for Mental Wellness

it really does take a village

raising funds & awareness

THE POETRY MAN - By Frank Fratoe

Smith Run (Near Where I Live))

The soft current flows here and waterweed ripples gently along a shore of high trees that swing over the hillside daring us in their emergence to join them whole once more and then take our world back awash with clouds drifting in orange, green, silver air as April enhances outgrowth when Smith Run becomes alive transfiguring seed from void because spring has returned consolidating our kinship to the heritage of millenniums.

Frank Fratoe lives & writes in the city. He has written poems from the heart for Front Porch for the past 7 years.

By beth pulley Youth Farm Program takes off at Downtown Greens Did you know: More than 1 in 3 children in the U.S. are overweight or obese. Exposure to nature can reduce stress levels by as much as 28 percent in children. Kids spend more than 7 hours a day with various electronic media. Outdoor exercise improves mental and physical well-being more so than indoor activity. These facts from the National Environmental Education Foundation (www.neefusa.org/health) point out the importance of providing meaningful outdoor activity to young people. With the help of many community supporters, Downtown Greens’ Youth Farm Program (YFP) kicks off this month as a group of neighborhood children meet up to do some urban farming. The young farmers come from mixed socio-economic backgrounds, but most are economically disadvantaged 3rd, 4th and 5th graders who meet weekly

Join the 2017

Snead’s Farm

CSA

Pickup Starts May 1st

Bring a little sunshine to a senior’s life! Too many seniors feel lonely and isolated.

By Lenora Kruk-Mullanaphy Individuals and teams will gather Mental Health America of th Fredericksburg’s (MHAF) 10 Annual

for

YOU can make a difference by volunteering to visit a senior in the Fredericksburg area. Volunteer training is provided & no special skills are required.

Kathy Vining, DTG Board of Directors President accepting the Duff McDuff Green, Jr. funds from Lisa Biever and the Community Foundation after-school and during the summer to developing a money-handling class for the work in the garden. They’ll be planting, young entrepreneurs. Roxbury is donating weeding and harvesting their urban gardening equipment, Good Turn Earth Company is donating compost to the vegetable garden, and once a month Virginia Community Food they’ll go to the farmers market to sell garden, Connections and the Fredericksburg their produce. Another monthly Farmers Market are donating tokens and occurrence will be the creation of a farm to table meal for the young participants vendor space to our young farmers. Sarah Perry, and their families with guidance from a director at guest chef from the community Downtown Greens, suggests several ways They’ll sell items to that you can support the YFP: Help in the farm garden! During April the Fredericksburg Area Community Supported Agriculture and May, volunteer in the farm garden for Project.Foode and Kickshaws will be “Farm Fridays” from 9 – 11 a.m. every purchasing items to add to their dishes. Friday. Contact us for other times to This program has received help: downtowngreens@gmail.com generous support from the community. A - Buy some fresh, organic produce from the young farmers every first Saturday, major gift from the Duff McDuff Green, Jr. from May to October, at fund from the Community Foundation of the Rappahannock River Region will cover the Fredericksburg Farmers Market. All the costs of many essential pieces of the proceeds go back into the program to help sustain it. It also will give the children a program; Community Bank of the Chesapeake is another financial participant as sense of pride and accomplishment. wish Foode, Mercantile and Chef Joy Check out our are list (http://bit.ly/2n0EmOI) to see if you Crump and TM Land, Inc. (which was one of the first program backers). Many community are getting rid of any of the items we need. members have also joined in support. North Stafford High School’s Beth Pulley is a free-lance writer living Horticulture program is raising all of the in the Northern Neck. seedlings for the program, and the Community Bank of the Chesapeake is

The Senior Visitors Program is a FREE community service program of Mental Health America of Fredericksburg. Visit mhafred.org or call 540-371-2701

“Walk for Mental Wellness” at Hurkamp Park in Fredericksburg from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., May 13. Including a one and threemile walk, it offers face painting, vendor booths, entertainment and refreshments. A silent auction features spa treatments, restaurants gift certificates, artwork, crafts and more. Shona DiPaula and her family participate in the Walk in memory of their mother, Basabi DiPaula, an advocate for removing the stigma from discussing mental health topics. “My mother said when she was growing up mental wellness wasn’t something people talked about, and she couldn’t communicate what she was going through without feeling like they thought she was ‘crazy,’ which left her feeling isolated,” said Shona, 21, a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. “For much of her life, she felt she shouldn’t and couldn’t talk to individuals in her life about mental health, but in the past few years she became more open in telling her

Where Customer Service and Title Insurance Become One

Jewell Wolterman 1320 Central Park Blvd, Ste 200, Fredericksburg, VA 22401 540-907-0574 www.elitetitleva.com jwolterman@elitetitleva.com

The Snead’s Farm CSA aims to provide the highest variety and biggest value of any area CSA. In addition to a bountiful supply of fruits and vegetables, you’ll also have exclusive opportunities, like the chance to pick your own berries here at the farm, discounts at the farm stand on CSA pickup days, see our animals close-up, and much more.

WHAT DOES A SNEAD FARM CSA SHARE INCLUDE? Snead’s Farm CSA shares include fresh produce from our farm as well as from C&T Produce, Stafford Co., The Canning Farm & Steve Minter Farm, King George Co., Agriberry of Hanover Co., Timber Ridge Fruit Farm, Frederick Co. & Braehead Farm, Fredericksburg. Partnerships allow us to offer a wider variety of items in our weekly boxes.

Information, Benefits, & Application: www.sneadsfarm.com/csa 10

April 2017

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Wills and Trusts Provide for Incapacity Trusts for Minor Children Wealth Preservation Trusts Avoid Probate AhearnEstateLaw.com

540/371-9890

Mental Health America of Fredericksburg Executive Director Rita Girard (from left) joins Team DiPaula—Shona, Mina and Lana DiPaula-- and Rachel Richard during the Ninth Annual “Walk for Mental Wellness” in Fredericksburg. story for herself and in the hope of helping others.” For Basabi, the Walk was an important aspect of the process of accepting herself. When she passed away just before last year’s Walk, her daughters and friends created “Team DiPaula” to support the cause so dear to her and raise awareness for people in the area. Shona and her younger sisters, Mina and Lana, received donations from family and friends, earning the top team award for raising more than $2,500. “MHAF sends a clear message that it’s okay to have mental health needs, and it’s okay to ask for help--and that’s why I personally support it,” said Shona. “If just one person with mental needs sees us walking, and it helps them realize they aren’t alone, that makes it worth it.” MHAF Board President Chris Muldrow said over time he’s learned mental health and wellness issues affect far more people and run much deeper than most individuals acknowledge. Despite years of work by many mental health professionals and volunteers and major improvements in public understanding of how to deal with mental health issues, there’s still a stigma preventing people from getting the help and support they need. Muldrow, a member of the MHAF board for six years and chief executive officer of Rambletype, a Fredericksburg business, hopes through MHAF’s work his family, friends and community are better able to find help when they need it. “While MHAF is partially funded by localities and grants, many of its programs are paid for by community contributions,” said Muldrow. “MHAF has a great record of putting contributions to work in our community. The Walk is one of the primary events to bring the

community together to find that support.” Founded in 1955, MHAF is the oldest nonprofit 501© (3) charitable organization that addresses all aspects of mental health and mental illness. Its programs include the HelpLine, suicide prevention training, the Senior Visitors Program and support groups. The “Walk for Mental Wellness” registration is 9 a.m. and start time is 10 a.m. For information about the Walk, online registration and sponsorships, visit email http://www.mhafred.org/walk, or mhafdir@mhafreed.org ritagirard@mhafred.org, or call (540) 371-2704. 10th Annual Walk for Mental Wellness May 13, Hurkamp Park, 9-1 12 Online registration and sponsorships, visit http://www.mhafred.org/walk Lenora Kruk-Mullanaphy is the president of Lenora Kruk-Mullanaphy Public Relations/Writing. .

Encouraging Volunteerism Since 1997

front porch fredericksburg

April 2017

Everything Greens

Walk for Mental Wellness

it really does take a village

raising funds & awareness

THE POETRY MAN - By Frank Fratoe

Smith Run (Near Where I Live))

Frank Fratoe lives & writes in the city. He has written poems from the heart for Front Porch for the past 7 years.

Join the 2017

Snead’s Farm

CSA

Pickup Starts May 1st

Bring a little sunshine to a senior’s life! Too many seniors feel lonely and isolated.

By Lenora Kruk-Mullanaphy Individuals and teams will gather Mental Health America of th Fredericksburg’s (MHAF) 10 Annual

for

YOU can make a difference by volunteering to visit a senior in the Fredericksburg area. Volunteer training is provided & no special skills are required.

The Senior Visitors Program is a FREE community service program of Mental Health America of Fredericksburg. Visit mhafred.org or call 540-371-2701

Where Customer Service and Title Insurance Become One

Jewell Wolterman 1320 Central Park Blvd, Ste 200, Fredericksburg, VA 22401 540-907-0574 www.elitetitleva.com jwolterman@elitetitleva.com

Information, Benefits, & Application: www.sneadsfarm.com/csa 10

April 2017

Front porch fredericksburg

Wills and Trusts Provide for Incapacity Trusts for Minor Children Wealth Preservation Trusts Avoid Probate AhearnEstateLaw.com

540/371-9890

Encouraging Volunteerism Since 1997

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April 2017

Rotary Club Just a bunch of old guys? By kyle snyder & Nick Cadwallender Rotary is just a bunch of old guys who get together each week and talk business, right? Hell no! ~ at least not at our club. We are 113 men and women from their mid-20’s to mid-80’s of diverse backgrounds. Our club is one part of an international service organization with 1.2 million members. We started back on “23 February 1905, so professionals with diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas, form meaningful, lifelong friendships, and give back to their communities.” We get together each week to have fun and get stuff done. Stuff like helping to build the Hurkamp Park Wall, donating a boat to Friends of the Rappahannock to patrol the river, funding and maintaining the rose garden at the Fredericksburg Area Museum and supporting the restored gardens at Chatham. “Rotary has been a valued partner, assisting with the restoration of the Pan Statue and providing financial assistance for educational programs in the gardens,” says Nancy Fahy of The Friends of Chatham. The club has supported numerous education programs: we’ve given dictionaries to every 3rd grader in Spotsylvania, read with Lafayette Upper Elementary kids and provided college scholarships to worthy students. One of the most rewarding for the club was Paul supporting Burudian refugee Niyungeko through Germanna’s nursing program. After years in refugee camps and denied an education in his homeland, he has achieved a Master’s in Nursing. “Completing my nursing degree was an accomplishment of my childhood dream to help people improve their health,” said Niyugeko. Club members have been Salvation Army bell ringers, provided Thanksgiving meals to families in need and staffed the Community Dinners at Fredericksburg Baptist Church. We’ve provided college scholarships, YMCA grants, and money for the MS Walk and so much more for our local community. And then there are all the projects we have supported worldwide. In Burkino Faso we built an orphanage; in Honduras we funded eye clinics; in Kenya we stocked a school library; in Fiji, New Zealand, and Nepal we provided funds for disaster relief. And

April 2017

then there’s the work of Rotary International that we support with our aforementioned 1.2 million Rotarians worldwide. We’ve tackled polio eradication and in the process negotiated cease fires in areas of conflict like Sudan and Afghanistan in order to conduct immunizations. How important is this feat? In 1988 there were 350,000 cases of polio. There have been three reported cases this year. There’s more work to do. The World Health Organization says, “Failure to eradicate polio from these last remaining strongholds could result in as many as 200,000 new cases every year, within 10 years, all over the world.” And now we are taking on the challenge of providing clean drinking water to desperate communities around the globe. All this is accomplished with funds the club raises through community events like its Annual Christmas Parade Pancake Day, the Trip of Your Dreams Auction, and now our newest fun event, The Fredericksburg Beach Music Blast. We are the Rappahannock Fredericksburg Rotary Club known as the “morning club.” Check us out at RappRotary.org. We meet for breakfast every Wednesday from 7:00 -8:30. Talk to a Rotarian and have them bring you along to see how 113 men and women have fun and get stuff done. Here’s where you, the Front Porch reader, come into the picture. We need you to come out on April 29, 2017 from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. to dance to the rhythm of the best beach music bands on the East Coast. We’re kicking it off with local favorite Steve Jarrell, followed by: The Catalinas, Ammon Tharp and the All Stars, and The Tams! There’ll be shag lessons, a car show, and a moon bounce for the kids. Last year we had about 500 attendees. This year we are predicting about 1000! So put on those dancing shoes, shake off the winter blues and come on down to the Fredericksburg Fairgrounds. Buy your tickets today, make a donation (use the ticket link) and see all the other community members who are supporting us at Fredericksburgmusicblast.com. Nick Cadwallender and James Kyle Snyder are two of the 1.2 million Rotarians in the world. Edited by k. jeanne fraser

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Season’s Bounty where are you spring? By vanessa moncure Usually by this time of the year, I'm deep into one or another of my annual “spring cleaning” projects. Pretty simple jobs I've managed to avoid until I think, “oh, finishing XYZ would be a great Spring Cleaning Idea”. Organizing old photos on rainy days, preparing garden rakes, tools, tomato cages, - finding that sunny day to repaint faded shutters or wash outdoor furniture - packing up heavy coats to the dry cleaner’s and usually a rug or two dropped off at the carpet cleaner’s - which then exposes more than a few dust bunnies and corner spider webs...and uh, oh….how did that trim get so beat up? Hmmm….Just a touch up with Antique White semigloss….but wait? It doesn't match? So now I need to paint ALL of the trim and doors?? Not all Antique Whites are the same? So goes my Spring. Usually. But it's been an unusual spring, weatherwise, this year. My daffodils have experienced rain, hail, sleet and snow - and that was just in one day! My recipe files are usually transitioning nicely from winter hearty stews, soups, roasts and collections of root vegetables to broths and sprinklings of micro greens, just waiting for that first fresh rockfish fillet and sweet strawberry salad. But somehow not this year, when March Madness is possibly referring to the thermometer. And no outdoor furniture will see me braving 35-mph wind gusts with wind chills in the ‘20s washing it down for a spring outdoor supper - remember the coats are at the cleaner’s. Even the grill is looking a bit dispirited this month. So how about a few recipes to remind you that Spring really will be with us soon, my Old Farmer’s Almanac promises us that! CHEESE RAVIOLI IN FRESH HERB BROTH and a few other ideas Do you keep fresh wonton wrappers as a kitchen staple? If not, buy a package, usually found in the fresh produce aisle, and be amazed at all these little wrappers can do. Spice up ground chicken with fresh grated ginger and snipped chives, an egg and several splashes of mirin and oyster sauce - moisten wrapper edges, fill with a teaspoonful of chicken mixture and poach in chicken broth for homemade wonton soup. Use the same filling for potstickers - fry in a slick of canola oil in pan just until browned, then pour a cup or so of chicken broth over the potstickers, cover and poach 8-10 minutes until cooked through. Garnish both with snipped chives. Yum!! Now for the CHEESE RAVIOLI-Mix together 1 1/2 cup mixed Gruyere & Swiss cheeses, & one-third cup soft goat cheese, 1 tablespoon butter, 2 tablespoons finely minced parsley, S&P and 1 egg until well mixed. 24 wonton wrappers. Place 1 teaspoon cheese filling in center of wrapper, moisten edges of wrapper with water. fold edges to form triangle,

pressing edges to seal. Repeat, keeping filled wrappers moist covered by lightly dampened towel. In large saucepan or Dutch oven, bring 6-8 cups chicken broth to the boil. Slice one-half pound asparagus into 1-inch diagonal cuts, add to stock. When stock returns to the boil, remove stillslightly crisp asparagus, divide between 6 shallow bowls. Then, working in batches, simmer ravioli about 2 minutes each, also dividing between bowls. Ladle stock in bowls, sprinkle with fresh grated Parmesan cheese & minced parsley. Fresh peas can be substituted for asparagus if desired. WILD CAUGHT SALMON WITH FRESH HERB SAUCE For 4 servings, you'll need four six-ounce salmon filets. Sprinkle them lightly with S&P and a light dusting of flour and set aside while making the leek sauce. These are the last garden leeks of the season - finely chop about 3 cups leeks, white and very pale green leek only. Make sure the leeks are completely cleaned, rinsing layer by layer - even one bite of sandy grit will ruin your sauce. Melt 4 tablespoons butter in large skillet and sauté leeks over medium low heat until softened, 10-15 minutes. Turn heat to high, add one cup white wine or vermouth and boil about three minutes or until liquid is mostly reduced. Stir in one cup heavy whipping cream and reduce until thickened to sauce consistency. Add S&P if needed, 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley, one-half tablespoon fresh minced tarragon and 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, cover to keep warm. Melt 4 tablespoons butter over medium high heat in large skillet. Sauté salmon skin-side down first about 3 minutes per side or until fish flakes easily. Spoon sauce in bottom of shallow bowl plate, place salmon atop and sprinkle with chopped parsley or chives. Serve with asparagus or fresh baby peas. ALMOND TUILES WITH FRESH BERRIES, CONE-F FILLED LEMON CURD Just 4 ingredients for the cookies, French for “tiles”, as the traditional tile roof shape is formed by draping over a rolling pin while the cookies are still warm. Roll these into a cone-shape, fill sparingly with imported lemon curd and lavishly surround with fresh spring berries. Preheat oven to 400F. Cover baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners and as cookies spread, don't crowd the baking sheet. Cream together 5 tablespoons softened butter with 1/4 cup sugar. Stir in 1/3c up flour with 1/3 finely minced or grated almonds. Form into a dough, drop by teaspoons onto baking sheet, flatten with a fork dipped in cold water. Bake 6-8 minutes or until edges are browned, then roll into cone shape and cool on metal rack. Makes about twelve to sixteen cookies. Enjoy!

Olde Towne BUTCHER Corner of William & Charles Streets Downtown Fredericksburg 540.370.4105 www.oldetownebutcher.com Hours Monday - Saturday, 9am to 9pm; Sunday, 11am to 6pm Keith Lebor Proprietor

Serving Breakfast Sandwiches 10am ~ 11:30am Lunch 10am ~ 4pm Open Monday ~ Saturday 10am - 4pm 540.371.2233 www.thevirginiadeli.com 826 Caroline corner of Caroline & George Streets

Become a Friend Advocate ~ Donate ~ Volunteer

540~479~4116 1013 Princess Anne Street , FXBG

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April 2017

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Olde Towne BUTCHER Corner of William & Charles Streets Downtown Fredericksburg 540.370.4105 www.oldetownebutcher.com Hours Monday - Saturday, 9am to 9pm; Sunday, 11am to 6pm Keith Lebor Proprietor

Serving Breakfast Sandwiches 10am ~ 11:30am Lunch 10am ~ 4pm Open Monday ~ Saturday 10am - 4pm 540.371.2233 www.thevirginiadeli.com 826 Caroline corner of Caroline & George Streets

Become a Friend Advocate ~ Donate ~ Volunteer

540~479~4116 1013 Princess Anne Street , FXBG

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April 2017

Cooking With Kyle Shrimp Ceviche by james kyle snyder

The Soup & Taco,

Cheers to Spring Fresh

Local

Etc.

Organic

Since 2004

813 Caroline St.

309 William Street

Fredericksburg, VA

540.371.9999 BISTROBETHEM.COM

Will Be Back in July & August! Call for Info

Serving Traditional Mexican, Tex-Mex Food and Something More!! Tuesday to Saturday 11am-9pm Sunday 11am-6pm

Ceviche (suh-vee-chey). What a fun word. Although traditionally a South American dish, I tend to pronounce it with an Italian accent just for fun. Maybe it should be a thicker, Spanish-Moorish accent for authenticity, or Peruvian / Ecuadorian where it is argued the dish arose during colonization Spanish. Regardless of the correctness, pick a favorite accent or two and try it a few times changing your accent. It’s a great and fun word that can easily produce a smile or laugh around the dinner table. Now that the piercing chill of late March is over, my food thoughts start to turn away from the heavier winter stews towards lighter spring-like salads. A favorite around the house is shrimp ceviche over kale (although arugula or spinach do very nicely) with half a seasoned avocado. This takes a little dayof preplanning or it can be made the night before. We make a pound—or two—at a time and use it as a main or just a snack. The availability of almost all fruits and vegetables year round has made the world more local – although I advocate sourcing your ingredients close to home as they come into season locally. We don’t grow many avocados around here so I get them where I can. Ceviche is not difficult to make. Heat 2 quarts of water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Prepare an ice bath of 1 qt water and 1 qt ice. The shrimp will only be parboiled (short for partially boiled) for 30 seconds and then straight into the ice bath so it must be readied before cooking. Rinse 1 pound of peeled and deveined shrimp under cool water. I like 26-30 shrimp (26 to 30 shrimp per pound). The smaller the shrimp, the shorter the parboil. Do not over parboil your shrimp. They will become rubbery. (A fancy way to serve this dish is to divide

April 2017

the shrimp lengthwise creating two long shrimp-shaped halves. This lessens the parboiling time to 15 seconds. It also produces a cute curly-q shrimp.) Once the unseasoned water begins to boil, place the shrimp into it for the aforementioned 30 seconds, remove it and put it straight into the ice bath to hold. Making the marinade is quick as well. While the shrimp is holding, in a nonreactive bowl or Ziploc bag combine: 2 Tbsp salt, 3/4 cup lime juice (juice from 46 limes), 3/4 cup lemon juice (juice from 2-3 lemons), 1 cup finely chopped red onion, and, if you want some traditional spice, add 1 Serrano chili minced, ribs and seeds removed. All that is left to do is combine the chilled shrimp with the marinade, cover (seal) and wait. The acid in the citrus juices will actually finish “cooking” the parboiled shrimp to citrusy zesty perfection. Have fun with the flavors! Add cumin, orange, tangerine, or pineapple juice, coriander, or Moroccan spices to the marinade. This dish is very versatile and can easily be made into your own “secret recipe.” Traditionalists do not parboil. They just use the juice. I prefer the parboiled texture and consistency. Light fish can be turned into ceviche too. This is a great tool for your kitchen toolbox. Now put it all together. Lay down a bed of kale. Season it or use a light vinaigrette if you like; I let the ceviche do that. Halve an avocado lengthwise and lightly season it with S&P (made by blending 1 cup kosher salt and ¼ cup ground black pepper). (Call a friend and sit back to enjoy a simple, easy, and delicious spring treat. Be well! Kyle Snyder appeals to your palate and your other senses when it comes to good, simple, healthy eating Edited by K.Jeanne Fraser

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374-0443 www.shopwhittingham.com 1021 Caroline Street

WELCOME TO OUR GREAT OUTDOORS It’s Beautiful ~ Night and Day!

Mon-Thurs 11am-9pm Fri & Sat 11am-10pm Sun 11am - 9pm Bar open until 2am everyday

Locally Owned Irish Pub and Restaurant 200 Hanover St. ~ 373-0738

Phone: 540-899-0969 soupntaco@yahoo.com

The Sunken Well Tavern

Flavors of Fredericksburgl hometown food tour experience

By M.L.Powers I’m not sure how I missed this exciting food idea. I have travelled quite a bit, and would have loved to experience this in some of the historic cities that I have visited. Now though, first on the list will be our own hometown food tour experience. The business, aptly named Flavors of Fredericksburg has already signed up about twelve food establishments, all of which have historical influence. This is the interesting part in that you will be able to sample a taste of the restaurants’ offerings, and then be enlightened as to some of the local history surrounding the buildings. Even if you are not one that is particularly interested in history, the food alone Regina sounds well worth the tour. Kenner (above) is the new owner of the food tour company. She has lived in Fredericksburg for 28 years, so is familiar with much of downtown and the onslaught of new eateries. Regina told me about some of the food tours that she has experienced to include international sites such as Italy. Fredericksburg has come into it’s own over the last ten years, with restaurants offering all types of cuisines. The downtown is brimming with fun places to experience. In fact, it’s hard to decide sometimes, the choices are so many. This tour will show off some of the lunch choices to start, and depending on how it takes off, they may offer dinner tours. The tour presently will start at 10:30 AM and will go for approximately 33.5hours. The entire experience will encompass about 1 and 1/4 mile. They intend on starting at the Rising Sun Tavern for a “spot of tea” and a short talk on the tavern’s beginnings. If you haven’t experienced this site, it’s highly interesting to hear about accommodations in the 1700s compared to our present Marriott and modern hotels. Then it’s on to Eileen’s Bakery,

which was a church prior to Eileen purchasing the building a few years back. Some of the other restaurants include the Rec Center, Spencer Devon, Castiglias, Orofino, Sprelly, Taste, Olde Towne Butcher, Whittinghams and the Fredericksburg Museum. Regina is one of the many creative and hard working members of our community, who seems to have an endless amount of energy to put into this endeavor. She has help though, from a supportive husband. Gil Kenner had been in sales for most of his working career, but also attends UMW part time, completing a degree in Historic Preservation and Museum Studies. Gil is the driving force in the history portion of the project. Regina told me he researched all of the buildings, and has some entertaining tales to tell along the way. They have a lot of great ideas for future tours including a children’s tour, possibly a coffee tour and then eventually dinner tours at some of the high end restaurants. Information on purchasing tickets can be found at their website. www.flavorsoffredericksburg.com ML brings us the unexpected & new food experiences in the ‘Burg

Easter Brunch Buffet Eat Well Drink Well Live Well 720 Littlepage sunkenwelltavern.com 540-370-0911

Sunday, April 16, 9am ~ 2pm $25 per adult; $12 ages 4~12 Reservations Required 540-373-8300 ~ www.marriott.com/fkrcy 620 Caroline St. FXBG, VA front porch fredericksburg

April 2017

Cooking With Kyle Shrimp Ceviche by james kyle snyder

The Soup & Taco,

Cheers to Spring Fresh

Local

Etc.

Organic

Since 2004

813 Caroline St.

309 William Street

Fredericksburg, VA

540.371.9999 BISTROBETHEM.COM

Will Be Back in July & August! Call for Info

Serving Traditional Mexican, Tex-Mex Food and Something More!! Tuesday to Saturday 11am-9pm Sunday 11am-6pm

April 2017

Front porch fredericksburg

374-0443 www.shopwhittingham.com 1021 Caroline Street

WELCOME TO OUR GREAT OUTDOORS It’s Beautiful ~ Night and Day!

Mon-Thurs 11am-9pm Fri & Sat 11am-10pm Sun 11am - 9pm Bar open until 2am everyday

Locally Owned Irish Pub and Restaurant 200 Hanover St. ~ 373-0738

Phone: 540-899-0969 soupntaco@yahoo.com

The Sunken Well Tavern

Flavors of Fredericksburgl hometown food tour experience

Easter Brunch Buffet Eat Well Drink Well Live Well 720 Littlepage sunkenwelltavern.com 540-370-0911

Sunday, April 16, 9am ~ 2pm $25 per adult; $12 ages 4~12 Reservations Required 540-373-8300 ~ www.marriott.com/fkrcy 620 Caroline St. FXBG, VA front porch fredericksburg

April 2017

CALENDAR of events

april 2017… National Volunteer Month…..Pick an Organization & Volunteer! Saturday, April 1

27th Annual Multicultural Fair, UMW,10a-5p an entire day devoted to multicultural entertainment, children's activities, international and American food, and ethnic craft vendors Sunken Well Brunch 9a-2p Fredericksburg Fine Arts Show @ Dorothy Hart Community Center, 10a-8p Explore the amazing talents of 80+ local artists and their artistic visions through nearly 300 paintings, drawings, photography, mixed media and more. The exhibit will not only enrich your imagination but funds raised will go to help the youth in our community do the same. Find that special piece of that speaks to you and purchase it for your home or business. Legume Live Music, 8-10p

Sunday, April 2

Sunken Well Brunch 9a-2p Fredericksburg Fine Arts Show @ Dorothy Hart Community Center, continues 10a - 4p LICKITY SPLITZ with Special Guest The Jonny Grave Band at Hard Times Cafe-Four Mile Fork April 2nd @ Hard Times Cafe-Four Mile Fork,9p

Thursday, April 6

Islamic Cultural Celebration Banquet Keynote Speaker: Dr. Safiya Samman

First Friday, April 7

Opening reception at Brush Strokes Gallery, 824 Caroline St, for "Reflections on Nature" featuring artist Collette Caprara, 6 to 9 pm. Dimensional Expressions - Annual Juried Exhibition @ Artful Dimensions Gallery winners announced, @reception Peter Pan (or the Boy Who Would Not Grow Up) @ Stafford High School Auditorium, 7pm The Art of Stoneware Reception @ PONSHOP Studio and Gallery, opening reception 6-9p. Join us in appreciating the PONSHOP potters, as well as welcoming a new ceramicist, Ahnalisa Reavis, to the lineup. New work will also be on display by artists Scarlett Pons, Rachel Ruddle, and Matt James. FCCA Members Gallery, Charlotte Richards, “Rabbits & Their Artist” opening reception, 6p Brush Strokes Gallery, Collette Caprara, “Reflections on Nature”, opening reception. 6p Art First, Sandra Kennelly, “Eye Candy”, opening reception, 6p

Tuesday, April 4

Grateful Dead Night with a live performance by the Brokedown Boys Sunken Well Tavern

Wednesday, April 5

Open Mic at the Rec Center 8 pm .Scott Wagner hosts the coziest and best sounding open mic in Fredericksburg. Sign up starts at 7, music at 8. 213 William St. Sunken Well Trivia tonight starting at 7:45pm ~ Come and match wits against the finest minds in Fredericksburg! Compete for Honor, Glory, and Prizes!! Live Music @LaPetite Auberge, 311 William St, 8midnight. . No cover. lapetiteaubergefred.com

Saturday, April 8

Sunken Well Brunch 9a-2p Art, Artisans & History @ Chatham Manor, 10a 4p. Join approx 35 local artists as they showcase historic and modern artistic skills & passions

Furniture and Books-a-Million, neighboring the Spotsylvania Mall. For more information see website: theritesofspringwinefestival.com

Peter Pan (or the Boy Who Would Not Grow Up) @ Stafford High School Auditorium, 7pm

Saturday, April 15

Legume Live Music, 8-10p

Sunday,April 9

Sunken Well Brunch 9a-2p UUFF Gallery, Helen Ramsey, “Art From The Heart”, 10:30a - 12:30p Rites of Spring 8th Annual Wine Festival @ The Village, neighboring Spotsylvania Towne Centre, 11a-9p This location is on the grass near Arhaus Furniture and Books-a-Million, neighboring the Spotsylvania Mall. For more information see website: theritesofspringwinefestival.com

Monday, April 10

Nerd Nite @ Red Dragon Brewery, 1419 Princess Anne St. 7pm fredericksburg@nerdnite.com.,

Tuesday, April 11

First Day of Passover. Passover is the Jewish celebratory feast that honors the emancipation of Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. Traditionally, Jewish families gather on the first few nights of Passover for dinner and the Seder ritual, in which a family or community retells the story of the liberation.

Wednesday, April 12

Open Mic at the Rec Center 8 pm .Scott Wagner hosts the coziest and best sounding open mic in Fredericksburg. Sign up starts at 7, music at 8. 213 William St.

Spotsylvania Farmers Market Opening Day @ Commuter Lot at Route 3 West and Gordon Road, 8a -1pm open every Saturday through December

Sunken Well Trivia tonight starting at 7:45pm ~ Come and match wits against the finest minds in Fredericksburg! Compete for Honor, Glory, and Prizes!!

BPHS Band Spring Craft Fair and Carnival @ Brooke Point High School 10a - 3p Tons of crafts, artists and home based businesses!

Live Music @LaPetite Auberge, 311 William St, 8midnight. . No cover. lapetiteaubergefred.com

Rites of Spring 8th Annual Wine Festival @ The Village, neighboring Spotsylvania Towne Centre, 11a-9p This location is on the grass near Arhaus

Friday,April 14

Thursday, April 13

Peter Pan (or the Boy Who Would Not Grow Up) @ Stafford High School Auditorium, 7pm

Sunken Well Brunch 9a-2p

Friday, April 21

Cirque Italia @ Fredericksburg Agricultural Fair. A traveling Water Circus, technology & preforming arts are mixed to create a one-of-a-kind show.Whether it's a futuristic laser act or mesmerizing aerial performances, the show has something for all tastes & ages. www.cirqueitalia.com

Spotsylvania Farmers Market @ Commuter Lot at Route 3 West and Gordon Road, 8a -1pm open every Saturday through December

Saturday, April 22

Sunday, April 16

Legume Live Music, 8-10p

Easter Enjoy the day with your family!

Wednesday, April 19

Join the Washington Heritage Museum in conjunction with the James Monroe Museum for Colonial Academy, for students grades 3-5. 9a 12p students are invited to be instructed on cursive writing, the reading of which is essential for any historian, and activities focused on archaeology, colonial games, candle making, etiquette, architecture, and music. Students will spend one day at the Mary Washington House and one day at the James Monroe Museum Advanced registration is required. contact Michelle Hamilton at mwhouse@washingtonheritagemuseums.org or 540-373-1569 for questions. Open Mic at the Rec Center 8 pm .Scott Wagner hosts the coziest and best sounding open mic in Fredericksburg. Sign up starts at 7, music at 8. 213 William St. Sunken Well Trivia tonight starting at 7:45pm ~ Come and match wits against the finest minds in FXBG! Compete for Honor, Glory, and Prizes!! Live Music @LaPetite Auberge, 311 William St, 8midnight. . No cover. lapetiteaubergefred.com

Thursday, April 20

Cirque Italia @ Fredericksburg Agricultural Fair. A traveling Water Circus, where technology and preforming arts are mixed to create a one-of-akind show.Whether it's a futuristic laser act or mesmerizing aerial performances, the show has something for all tastes and expectations.All ages. visit www.cirqueitalia.com

Kid's Festival & Open House @ Rising Sun Tavern, Students ages 6-18 are invited to enjoy free admission with a paid adult admission at the Rising Sun Tavern. Join us and enjoy colonial games in the garden from 12-4 PM.

Sunday, April 23

Sunken Well Brunch 9a-2p

Friday, April 28

Fredericksburg Songwriters' Showcase concert series presents an evening of original acoustic music with Lara Herscovitch, Kirsten Hazler (of Haze & Dacey) and a surprise guest, 8pm, LibertyTown Arts Workshop, 916 Liberty St downtown. $10. More info at www.burgsongs.org or 540-429-0999.

UUFF Gallery, Helen Ramsey, “Art From The Heart”, 10:30a - 12:30p

Saturday, April 29

Fred Area Museum, 2 pm - 3 pm, children and their families are invited to join us for Children on the Homefront, an afternoon of interactive, fun projects that focus on our community's involvement during the tumultuous years during WWII. Historic Town Hall

Legume Live Music, 8-10p

Fred. Area Museum Grand Re-opening ribbon cutting @Historic Town Hall at 4:00 will start the festivities, followed by a reception in the galleries until 6:00 pm-free and open to the public. Virginia Organizing Adult Easter Egg Hunt at Kenmore 1 to 3 pm. It is open to those 18 and over and will be an opportunity to feel like a kid again, and maybe even win some great prizes in the process. Purchased tickets will help them continue their mission of empowering others. To find out more about the event or to purchase tickets, visit www.eventbrite.com/e/adult-easteregg-hunt-tickets-32931750753

Spotsylvania Farmers Market @ Commuter Lot at Route 3 West and Gordon Road, 8a -1pm open every Saturday through December

Sunken Well Brunch 9a-2p

Spotsylvania Farmers Market @ Commuter Lot at Route 3 West and Gordon Road, 8a -1pm open every Saturday through December Mary Washington House Plant Sale 10a -4p. The sale will be going on during regular touring hours from April 22-30 and admission to the garden is free during Garden Week. Cirque Italia @ Fredericksburg Agricultural Fair. A traveling Water Circus, where technology and preforming arts are mixed to create a one-of-akind show.Whether it's a futuristic laser act or mesmerizing aerial performances, the show has something for all tastes and expectations.All ages. visit www.cirqueitalia.com Earth Day On the Rappahannock @ Old Mill Park Enjoy dozens of environmental exhibitors, live music, great food, birds of prey, hands-on activities, and so much more along the beautiful Rappahannock River! , 11a -4p

Monday, April 24

St. James' Spring Opening, A warm welcome awaits you in this splendid 18th century gentlemen's home. St. James' House was built by James Mercer, Mary Washington's attorney. St. James' has been lovingly restored and filled with an outstanding collection of antiques. $

Wednesday, April 26

Sunken Well Brunch 9a-2p

"Boil the Frog", a theatrical performance featuring stories of local survivors of domestic violence. Smott Memorial Library, 9533 Kings Hwy, King George, 1pm. Info call 373-9372

Sunday, April 30

Sunken Well Brunch 9a-2p UUFF Gallery, Helen Ramsey, “Art From The Heart”, 10:30a - 12:30p

If you are reading this 237th issue of FPF, thank an advertiser as we celebrate our 20th year of continuous publication! If you are an advertiser, list your events. Deadline for May 2017 issue is April 20th. To submit events go to frontporchfredericksburg.com/submit

Live Music @LaPetite Auberge, 311 William St, 8midnight. . No cover. lapetiteaubergefred.com

3091Fans (& Growing) Want You to Join

Front Porch on 16

April 2017

Front porch fredericksburg

front porch fredericksburg

April 2017

CALENDAR of events

april 2017… National Volunteer Month…..Pick an Organization & Volunteer! Saturday, April 1

Sunday, April 2

Thursday, April 6

Islamic Cultural Celebration Banquet Keynote Speaker: Dr. Safiya Samman

First Friday, April 7

Tuesday, April 4

Grateful Dead Night with a live performance by the Brokedown Boys Sunken Well Tavern

Wednesday, April 5

Saturday, April 8

Sunken Well Brunch 9a-2p Art, Artisans & History @ Chatham Manor, 10a 4p. Join approx 35 local artists as they showcase historic and modern artistic skills & passions

Furniture and Books-a-Million, neighboring the Spotsylvania Mall. For more information see website: theritesofspringwinefestival.com

Peter Pan (or the Boy Who Would Not Grow Up) @ Stafford High School Auditorium, 7pm

Saturday, April 15

Legume Live Music, 8-10p

Sunday,April 9

Monday, April 10

Nerd Nite @ Red Dragon Brewery, 1419 Princess Anne St. 7pm fredericksburg@nerdnite.com.,

Tuesday, April 11

Wednesday, April 12

Open Mic at the Rec Center 8 pm .Scott Wagner hosts the coziest and best sounding open mic in Fredericksburg. Sign up starts at 7, music at 8. 213 William St.

Spotsylvania Farmers Market Opening Day @ Commuter Lot at Route 3 West and Gordon Road, 8a -1pm open every Saturday through December

Sunken Well Trivia tonight starting at 7:45pm ~ Come and match wits against the finest minds in Fredericksburg! Compete for Honor, Glory, and Prizes!!

BPHS Band Spring Craft Fair and Carnival @ Brooke Point High School 10a - 3p Tons of crafts, artists and home based businesses!

Live Music @LaPetite Auberge, 311 William St, 8midnight. . No cover. lapetiteaubergefred.com

Rites of Spring 8th Annual Wine Festival @ The Village, neighboring Spotsylvania Towne Centre, 11a-9p This location is on the grass near Arhaus

Friday,April 14

Thursday, April 13

Peter Pan (or the Boy Who Would Not Grow Up) @ Stafford High School Auditorium, 7pm

Sunken Well Brunch 9a-2p

Friday, April 21

Spotsylvania Farmers Market @ Commuter Lot at Route 3 West and Gordon Road, 8a -1pm open every Saturday through December

Saturday, April 22

Sunday, April 16

Legume Live Music, 8-10p

Easter Enjoy the day with your family!

Wednesday, April 19

Thursday, April 20

Sunday, April 23

Sunken Well Brunch 9a-2p

Friday, April 28

UUFF Gallery, Helen Ramsey, “Art From The Heart”, 10:30a - 12:30p

Saturday, April 29

Legume Live Music, 8-10p

Spotsylvania Farmers Market @ Commuter Lot at Route 3 West and Gordon Road, 8a -1pm open every Saturday through December

Sunken Well Brunch 9a-2p

Monday, April 24

Wednesday, April 26

Sunken Well Brunch 9a-2p

"Boil the Frog", a theatrical performance featuring stories of local survivors of domestic violence. Smott Memorial Library, 9533 Kings Hwy, King George, 1pm. Info call 373-9372

Sunday, April 30

Sunken Well Brunch 9a-2p UUFF Gallery, Helen Ramsey, “Art From The Heart”, 10:30a - 12:30p

Live Music @LaPetite Auberge, 311 William St, 8midnight. . No cover. lapetiteaubergefred.com

3091Fans (& Growing) Want You to Join

Front Porch on 16

April 2017

Front porch fredericksburg

front porch fredericksburg

April 2017

history’s stories

HUGH MERCER By Ralph “Tuffy” Hicks

OUR HERITAGE

A monthly look at the Central Rappahannock Heritage Center collection

By Sara Poore and Michael Lewallan

By john reifenberg

Justice John Marshall under his command. He soon received a letter signed by John Hancock appointing him Brigadier-General of the Continental Army. Hugh Mercer was responsible for the construction of Fort Lee on the New Jersey side. There has been speculation that Mercer was the father of the plan to cross the Delaware River at the Battle of Trenton December 26 1776. On January 3, 1777 while leading his men at the Battle of Princeton, New Jersey he was surrounded by British troop who mistook him for George Washington and he was bayoneted seven times. He was carried to the Thomas Clarke house where died nine days later, January 12, 1777 and buried. His body was re-interred in Philadelphia’s Laurel Hill Cemetery in 1840. Famous direct descendants of Hugh Mercer were Virginia Governor John Mercer Patton, his sons Col. Wall Patton CSA and Col George Smith Patton CSA. Gen. Hugh W. Mercer CSA., General George Patton USA, and Johnny Mercer (song writer) Dedicated to memory of: Phil Heim, Bob Jones, Mary Dickerson & Jim Self Tuffy brings us little known historic facts each month in this space.

“Darling, I am so anxious to receive a picture of Karen. I do so terribly much want to see her at or at least a large picture of her...I love you truly with all my heart and all the rest of me and shall forever. Kiss Karen from her loving Dad.” From Bill to Virginia, November 26, 1941

This letter is an attempt to bring to the forefront a local grassroots organization whose mission is to preserve historically valuable material and make it available to the public for research. The Central Rappahannock Heritage Center, located in the old gymnasium at Maury Commons serves the region in this way. Begun in1998 with a small dedicated staff, the Center began actively collecting records from its main focal area of the Central Rappahannock Region which is comprised of Caroline, Stafford, King George, and Spotsylvania Counties, along with the city of Fredericksburg. Beginning in 1998, the first small group of volunteers began to collect and professionally inventory, record and archive thousands of court records, along with some large personal collections such as the one obtained from the family of Frank and Emily Stearns. (The Stearns collection alone required 46 archival boxes, with each box harboring many folders, and each folder containing many names and places). The early volunteers performed yeoman’s work and it is admired to this day. volunteer staff Presently, the all-v continues to process and archive new collections three days per week, adding to the extensive database of the Center from the opening bell at 10 a.m. until the closing of business at 4 p.m. The Heritage Center has grown over the years to include over 45 active volunteers. And with over 66,000 archive records, 8,400 photographs and slides, and a library of over 3,000 books/records, the Center’s claim of being the region’s largest repository of local history appears intact. All of the material and information is available to researchers, with very few

April 2017

Reopens to the Public!

a grassroots organization

Fredericksburg is known worldwide as the home of the Washington family. Many stories have been written about young George Washington growing up across the river in Ferry Farm. In his later years at Mount Vernon with his many visits to his mother’s home on Charles Street and his spending evenings at the Masonic Lodge where he was initiated a Mason. Washington had a friend that was his equal in many ways, his name Hugh Mercer. Hugh Mercer came to live in Fredericksburg in 1760, moving from Pennsylvania. He and Washington had become friends during the Seven Years War in 1755. He was born in Scotland in 1726 where he grew up and became a doctor. George Washington’s mother became one of his patients after he opened an apothecary and practice in Fredericksburg. Mercer became one of the most well know Physicians in the area with many patients that would travel many miles to his office in Fredericksburg. Mercer married Isabella Gordon of Fredericksburg and they had five children. A fact not well known is that George Washington sold Ferry Farm to Hugh Mercer around 1774. Mercer wanted to spend his later years along the Rappahannock River when he retired, that would never be due to his death in the Revolution in 1777. With the Revolution on the horizon on November 17, 1775, Mercer was appointed Colonel of the 3rd Virginia Regiment with James Monroe, and future Chief

Fredericksburg Area Museum

Front porch fredericksburg

exceptions or restrictions. The archives may be located online at crhcarchives.net. Not to be overlooked is the Center’s genealogical resources. We harbor thousands of court documents including marriage licenses, deeds, deed books, plats, chancery suits, wills, lists of decedents, land books, and numerous other types of court documents. In addition, the Center holds a vast collection from the renowned genealogist Isabel Martin Wermeyer. Her works are voluminous and housed in excess of 74 boxes. The Heritage Center also contains hundreds of books, with many covering Virginia genealogy and which spotlights many area families. To further pique ones interest, when on our website, click on the tab entitled “Search the Archives” and then “Random Images”. As mentioned earlier, we house thousands of photographs spanning many generations that cover a myriad of subjects. Anyone with a genealogical or historical bent would have a grand time exploring the documents and photographs, books and periodicals preserved at the Center.

After 24 months, the Fredericksburg Area Museum (FAM) will reopen its doors to the public on a fulltime basis! The Museum has gone through a complete overhaul – relocating operations and the collection from the Catherine W. Jones McKann Center to the 1816 historic Town Hall. Historic Town Hall has always been a central icon on Fredericksburg landscape—and of the Museum itself. Buildings acquire historical status through events, celebrity association, architectural style or simply age. Fredericksburg’s Town Hall has all this and more. Completed in 1816 to anchor a busy port on the Rappahannock River, it did triple duty as a governmental, commercial and social hub. It witnessed the clamor of a bustling marketplace and fiery political oratory, entertained the Marquis de Lafayette and hosted merrymakers. It endured the cannonades of the Civil War and suffered the cries of wounded soldiers. It is, in short, a time capsule of our remarkable little Burg’s last two centuries. A great challenge for the FAM’s staff was creating space in Town Hall to safely store the collection. The first floor, originally the outdoor marketplace for the town, has been transformed to an open collection storage facility. The arches that once held vendor’s wares serve as themed

vignettes. Objects fill every nook and cranny, including hanging from the rafters. This ‘open storage’ allows visitors to see objects that are normally tucked away in a museum’s facility. Along with A River Runs—a look at the Rappahannock River over time— Pleasures Past offers tidbits on the activities of the town’s citizens. The Art of Fly Fishing rounds out the first floor. The second floor will house the temporary exhibit World Aflame: A Hometown in Two World Wars. Focusing on the community’s struggles during World War I and II, this exhibit will highlight objects that define our community—including a Purple Heart belonging to Ardenne Allen Woodward of Stafford County who perished on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, Josiah Rowe’s WWI uniform, and soldier Bill’s love letters home to his darling Virginia. The Council Chamber gallery, located on the third floor, houses the objects from the PNC Legacy Collection—a recent gift to the FAM! On April 22nd, the FAM invites all to a celebration of its grand reopening! A ribbon cutting at 4:00 will start the festivities, followed by a reception in the galleries until 6:00 pm—free and open to the public. On the 23rd from 2 pm – 3 pm, children and their families are invited to join us for Children on the Homefront, an afternoon of interactive, fun projects that focus on our community’s involvement during the tumultuous years during WWII. Beginning April 23rd, the Museum is open Thursday – Monday, 10 am – 5 pm. Admission is $5.00 for adults, students and teachers $3.00, children under 5 are FREE, AAA and Seniors over 60 $4.00, Active duty military and their families are FREE. In addition, join us on Museum Monday for FREE admission

Sara Poore is the President & CEO of the Fredericksburg Area Museum. Michael Lewallan is a volunteer at FAM.

Central Rappahannock Heritage Center

John Reifenberg Retired from the National Park Service after 31 years of service. He has been volunteering at the Center since the fall of 2011. Publisher’s Note CRHC also houses every issue ever published by the Front Porch Magazine

Virginia’s only Regional Archive The Heritage Center

Maury Commons 900 Barton St 540-373-3704; crhc@verizon.net

Fredericksburg

Taking Care of Business Angela Freeman By Kevin Brown The City of Fredericksburg’s Department of Economic Development and Tourism (EDT) recently filled four positions, City Tourism Sales Manager Victoria Matthews, Conference Sales and Services Coordinator Clint Manning, Visitor Center Manager (to be) Danelle Rose, and Business Development Manager Angela Freeman. Congratulations to all! This month, we find out more about Angela Freeman who will also share her initial thoughts on the future of Fredericksburg business development. Mrs. Freeman is a business degree graduate of Hampton University, with ten years of business recruitment experience in the City of Hampton’s Economic Development office, followed by five years of experience as a government contractor. This led up to her current position, where “Angela rose to the top in reviewing more than 40 resumes. We were impressed with Angela’s public- and private-sector background, poise and on-the-ground experience in economic development,” said Tim Fredericksburg City Manager Baroody. “We know she will be a great addition to the team as we work to get more aggressive with our businessrecruitment efforts.” We asked Angela to share some initial thoughts on her new position. “My role will be to promote our Fredericksburg vision to be the hub of regional economic activity, with quality growth, innovation, and high-wage jobs in targeted industry segments. We want to increase City revenue and employment by facilitating growth in our business tax base and taxable sales. Our development efforts will be directed at new business recruitment, opportunities for existing business growth and rewarding entrepreneurship. Leveraging our city’s competitive advantages, we will identify target companies that are growing and expanding outside of their current locations, and that would fit in well here. Special attention will be given to emphasize targeted industry clusters and economic drivers—especially those unique to Fredericksburg like the University of Mary Washington, Mary Washington Healthcare, the UMW Center for Economic Development, Germanna Community College and Fredericksburg VA Main Street Inc. A significant part of my job will be to build relationships with business consultants, corporate decision makers, local brokers and developers. I will work

closely with groups like the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance, Virginia Economic Developers Association, Virginia Economic Development Partnership, International Economic Development Council, Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce, Greater Washington Board of Trade, International Council of Shopping Centers and Greater Richmond Association for Commercial Real Estate. To make our economic development strategy work, we must recognize that the region is the level at which most places are competing in the global economy. Many of the transportation, environmental, and quality of life issues affecting our local economy can only be addressed at a regional level. We will work closely with the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance and our partners in Spotsylvania, Stafford, King George and Caroline counties to help bring in new businesses. Why should businesses come to Fredericksburg? Fredericksburg offers a wonderful location along I-95, a wellregarded university, an excellent healthcare system, fantastic walkability, a status as the commercial hub of a growing region, multi-modal transportation options, a great sense of place, an authentic historic experience, outdoor amenities, good customer service, a reasonable regulatory environment, fair tax rates and excellent business retention efforts. So come to Fredericksburg! Our City is a great place to live, work, start a business and visit!” Thank you Angela, and congratulations again to you and your newly hired EDT colleagues. Kevin Brown is the administrator of the ""FXBG City Council Public Forum" Facebook Group,

front porch fredericksburg

April 2017

history’s stories

HUGH MERCER By Ralph “Tuffy” Hicks

OUR HERITAGE

A monthly look at the Central Rappahannock Heritage Center collection

By Sara Poore and Michael Lewallan

By john reifenberg

April 2017

Reopens to the Public!

a grassroots organization

Fredericksburg Area Museum

Front porch fredericksburg

Sara Poore is the President & CEO of the Fredericksburg Area Museum. Michael Lewallan is a volunteer at FAM.

Central Rappahannock Heritage Center

Virginia’s only Regional Archive The Heritage Center

Maury Commons 900 Barton St 540-373-3704; crhc@verizon.net

Fredericksburg

front porch fredericksburg

April 2017

Senior Care don’t stop laughing By Karl Karch

Lexi Grogan’s Pet Sitting Service “Your pet becomes my pet while in my care, and I care a lot!” - Lexi (540-903-0437; lexig0892@gmail.com) On facebook as “lexi grogan’s pet sitting service” Prices: Dogs - $15 per canine per visit Cats - $12 per feline per visit

A friend of mine’s father once senior living facilities from retirement said: “you might as well be happy as the communities to nursing homes. Laughter way you are.” I first heard that statement helps seniors deal with their problems, over forty years ago and will never forget enhance their relationships, and support it, especially when I get “stressed out”. It both physical and emotional health. helps me bring life back into perspective. Another benefit is that programs can be I’m certainly dating myself, but you may individually tailored to all levels of remember the cartoon strip Li’l Abner and cognitive, sensory, and motor ability. the character Joe Btfsplk. He’s the one However, the vast majority of that always walked around with the rain seniors want to remain in their home and cloud over his head. He was an outcast, many have difficulty going out. was lonely, unpopular, and Depending on the perpetually gloomy. Various studies have specific situation, this Nobody wanted to be shown that laughing and can often be very around him. I somehow smiling has a positive effect stressful to the primary remember Joe when I am family caregiver. on our body and mind. particularly grumpy. Laughter should be an Laughing reduces anxiety, Speaking of grumpy, integral part of every helps reduce pain, relaxes we’ve all heard of family caregiver and “grumpy old men”, but muscles, is a form of physical their loved one’s lives. how many heard about exercise, lowers blood pressure, Sometimes we have to “grumpy young strengthens our breathing find things to laugh children”? capacity ... and brightens our about. Think about the spirits. Various studies movies or sitcoms that have shown that laughing made you or your loved and smiling has a positive effect on our one laugh. Some older classics are “The body and mind. Laughing reduces anxiety, Honeymooners”, “I Love Lucy”, Jack helps reduce pain, relaxes muscles, is a Benny, and Red Skelton. Take time to form of physical exercise, lowers blood watch them together. Or, reminisce about pressure, strengthens our breathing some funny things that happened in the capacity (which also helps increase oxygen past. Go to the bookstore and find a joke in our body), and brightens our spirits. book or other humorous books and share According to Dr. William Fry from them together. Remember, this time is more Stanford University, a pioneer in the field than quality time together. It is very of humor research, “one minute of therapeutic for everyone, young and old. laughter is equal to ten minutes on a Michael Pritchard, a well-known rowing machine”. Laughter also makes it keynote speaker and wellness coach said it easier to handle life and its challenges. very well: “You don’t stop laughing When you are happy or even just pleasant, because you grow old. You grow old people enjoy being around you. As the because you stop laughing.” So, in this saying goes, “Smile and the world smiles dysfunctional political climate, regardless with you. Cry and you cry alone.” of your age, limitations, or health, don’t Because of the therapeutic stop laughing. benefits, laughter groups are becoming Karl Karch is a local franchise owner of increasingly popular. There are even Home Instead Senior Care, a licensed continuing education programs for people home care organization providing who want to be Certified Laughter Leaders personal care, companionship and home (CLL). Laughter programs are making helper services in the Fredericksburg and Culpeper region. inroads in senior centers and all types of

April 2017

Front porch fredericksburg

Emancipated Patients

Mind Your Mind

Doula

april is the cruelest

By Patrick Neustatter, MD Better value, more love for your pet than if you kennel board him!

Walsh It was when Mandy Restivo-W had her son, as a home birth with a midwife, but also with the aid of a doula, that she started thinking about being a doula herself. Started thinking “I can do this” Despite a long, hard, 24 hour labor, mainly because her baby’s head was facing forward not back (”sunny side up” in smart-ass obstetric slang) she is sure she avoided shipping off to the hospital, and finishing up as a cesarean section, because of the doula.

A Little Known Birth Assistant A doula is a non-medical, or lay birth assistant, who provides practical and emotional support to pregnant couples. Currently only 6 per cent of births use a doula in the US. But Mandy’s background in management of sexual assault, domestic violence and women’s studies, seemed to put her in a good position to become one herself. After doing a doula certification course and with some 40 deliveries she has her own company and website the “Brainy Birth Doula“ (http://brainybirth.com/#about). She leads a busy life attending births anywhere from Fredericksburg to Washington. She also juggles parenting and many good deeds through church and social organizations - “I’m not one to not get involved” she told me rather ruefully. Despite just coming off a busy week of four deliveries (and she echoes my own observation that babies are cussed things, and tend to be born at the most inconvenient times), which involves her being in attendance from when labor is fully established, for the delivery, and a couple of hours after, she was energized and enthusiastic when I “interviewed” her in the back room of Agora Downtown Coffee Shop. Her service also includes being available by phone to parents before and after delivery. Being a childbirth educator, lactation consultant, and she teaches a 1

day course at Mary Washington Hospital about the basics of delivery – which she calls “the Cliffs Notes version of birth.” She and two colleagues have also recently started a “Birth Language” class, which “identifies the four languages of birth: Intuition, Movement, Touch, and Vocalization” noting different couples use very different means of communication during labor – and the right kind of communication is important for a good birth she says. She also has “Stillbirthday” training as a Certified Birth and Bereavement Doula, with special training in helping couples who have miscarried or had stillbirths, where “I fall back on my crisis intervention experience.”

Prepared Parents Have Better Outcomes With an emphatic language that would do justice to a presidential tweet, she notes on her website she helps “couples have AMAZING birth experiences” with an expert and soothing presence minimizing the risk of needing intervention – as in her own case. Or if intervention or pain relief is needed (and overall, 67% of women delivering have an epidural these days, she notes) it can often be minimized or delayed by the use of doula techniques like massage, and she likes to use a rebozo - a traditional Mexican shawl, that can be used as a wrap to provide support. When you do have to have some kind of intervention, couples feel better if they have discussed such a scenario beforehand – which is more likely using a doula. “It makes people feel better if they feel they have autonomy and choice” Mandy notes. This is all part of her enthusiasm for involving both mother and partner as much as possible in the whole process - in contrast to the old days where the mother would be doped up with chloroform, the father sent out the room to pace the halls or drink in the local pub, and the baby be kept from them for 10 days “to avoid infection.”. Involvement of couples as much as possible makes for much better parents she notes. The “innovation” of doulas is a touch of “back to the future” in my view. Reverting to traditional style birth attendant is steering us in a healthy direction from the medical profession dominated, more technological birth that modern medicine is foisting upon us. Patrick Neustatter is the Medical Director of the Moss Free Clinic.

By Barbara Deal “April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain. Winter kept us warm, covering the earth in forgetful snow, feeding a little life with dried tubers.” ~TS Elliot, “The Wasteland”

For some, the onset of spring can magnify the feelings of desperation and hopelessness. That in-your-face fresh color ,plants, wetness and smells provide a harsh backdrop. In fact, more suicides occur in April than at Christmas. Think about that. At least in the barren cold of winter, that lonely desperate chill matches one’s insides. This also reminds me of a Dylan’s song, “Visions of Johanna”.. “Louise, she’s all right, she’s just near…she just makes it so concise and clear,… just makes it so clear that Johanna’s not here.” And we can and do turn to poetry and art and song to convey and explain the ineffable of human experiences. Unlike us ordinary humans, those Creatives take us to Truths, unspeakable and unnamed. And not just hard Truths but also tender and subtle ones. That joy of recognition! “Oh! THAT is what I feel”…. My roommate in college was a great fan of Dylan Thomas “The Force that Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower” and “Rage Rage Against the Dying of the Light”. So today, I am reaching to the poets for thoughts on seasons and change, hope and death. I cannot omit Leonard Cohen, now on the other side. “It is you my love, you who are the stranger”. Where is that Force and where does that Rage come from? What is it that breaks one and strengthens another? Sometimes it just seems so random. Who lives? Who dies? Who fights? Who quits? Is there some kind of salty resilience in our

bones or is it purity ole stubbornness that pushes us onward? Which is will and which is succumbing? The biggest lie Depression tells is that everything is the same and nothing will ever change. The truth is really, nothing is the same, not now, not then, not tomorrow, not yesterday. Into the past, memory can freeze things but even memory is fluid. Was he a good Dad? Is she a good child? Did I make a mistake? Would I change the past? It is the artists, the songwriters, the poets, the musicians who accompany us on our own little map along the way. Stuck in my craw lately has been this: “The meaning of life for the Buddhist, is death”. Yes I guess so, and everything else is just how. Seek and you will find. Go Downtown, find a Creative.

Barbara Deal MA, LCSW is a psychotherapist at Alliance Therapy Center, (540) 373-9577

The Natural Path Holistic Health Center

~Nature’s Sunshine Products ~Quantitative Fluid Analysis ~VoiceBio Analysis ~ionSpa Foot Detox ~Zyto Bioscan Compass Natural Products for Health & Wellness Barbara Bergquist, CTN Board Certified Traditional Naturopath

891-6200

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4413 Lafayette Blvd. Fredericksburg front porch fredericksburg

April 2017

Senior Care don’t stop laughing By Karl Karch

April 2017

Front porch fredericksburg

Emancipated Patients

Mind Your Mind

Doula

april is the cruelest

By Patrick Neustatter, MD Better value, more love for your pet than if you kennel board him!

Barbara Deal MA, LCSW is a psychotherapist at Alliance Therapy Center, (540) 373-9577

The Natural Path Holistic Health Center

891-6200

www.thenaturalpath.us

4413 Lafayette Blvd. Fredericksburg front porch fredericksburg

April 2017

Rabbits and Their Artist Charlotte Richards

Helen Ramsey

Sophia Street Pottery Throwdown

Art from the Heart

festival featuring local & regional artists

By Dawn Whitmore

Charlotte Richards has been activity in the art community since she became the first art teacher in Spotsylvania back in 1966. She spent her time visiting galleries, taking art classes and then inviting artist to speak to her students, all with goal of becoming a better teacher. She would retire from education in 2005, once retiring her focus became her own artwork, exhibiting and competing in area art shows. Richards loves to paint in series. She describes her painting as large and free, with a desire to color outside the lines. “My current artwork is free flowing, abstract and full of energy and movement,” shares Richards, “A combination of both drawing and painting with colors swirling in and our of the animal form.” The animal form, she mentions and has become a staple of Richards’

It’s always more fun in the Scenter of Town!

Essential Oils Liquid Herbs Reiki Reflexology Aromatherapy Custom Blending Aroma-Therapeutic Massage Harmonic Resonance Therapy

artwork is the rabbit. She has painted rabbits in various forms for years. Richards’ explains her latest series has a gestural approach with free-flowing strokes. This series has rabbits running, jumping and hopping, and more abstract. In some instances, the rabbits appear to be jumping off the canvas. Richards’ expounds on her rabbit paintings, “You might say they resemble the cave paintings of Lascaux.” When asked what is the one thing you want people to know about your art, Richards’ responds: “I paint what I’m passionate about; something inside me has to say…I want to paint that!” Since retiring, Richards is focusing on what is desires and is passionate about, to include painting, jewelry making, traveling both in the U.S. and abroad. You can encounter Charlotte Richards’ rabbits during April in the Members’ Gallery at Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts at 813 Sophia Street.

By A.E. Bayne Helen Ramsey describes her show at UUFF Gallery in Chatham "as a miracle come true." Though she has been painting since the early 1990s, Ramsey says she has shown her work sparingly around town, primarily through the Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts. Art from the Heart is Ramsey's first solo show and serves as a retrospective of the septuagenarian's work, highlighting her development as an artist over nearly thirty years of practice. Anita Holle, UUFF Visual Arts Committee Chair, says she was intrigued when Dick Toye, a mutual friend, introduced her to Helen. An artist herself, Holle was fascinated with Ramsey's development and changing techniques. Since Ramsey had a large body of work from which to choose, Holle found herself struggling over which pieces to put in the show. Her goal was to show Ramsey's progress as an artist, so Holle chose pieces representing Ramsey's different phases, some realistic and some abstract. Ramsey was inspired to begin painting when she had a dream of her mother. She says, "You won't believe this, but her face was zoomed in just like you would do with a camera. She had this paint on her nose, like someone had taken a two-inch brush and swiped her nose with it. All that day it bothered me so much. I didn't know what she wanted me to do, and I was restless inside. Up in the cabinet, I saw a can of white spray paint. I took it outside and started spraying the kids' picnic table. I felt better after that, and I knew she wanted me to paint. I've been painting ever since." Relaxation is what keeps Ramsey returning to painting time and again. She says, "It's magical, too. You'll be painting a bird, and all of the sudden it just looks like that bird is going to take off and fly. Another thing, when people comment and enjoy your work, it makes you feel good that it's made them happy. It feels good

By dan finnegan

Trista Chapman of Sophia Street Studios

photo by Cliff Satterthwaite when people like what you're doing." Ramsey says she thinks her work has improved over the years, and local renowned artist Cliff Satterthwaite is a mentor and fan. As a self-taught artist, Ramsey says she has relied on study and practice, reading books on technique and watching video recordings of painters, such as Bob Ross. Ramsey has sold pieces from her home over the years, and she offers classes for children and adults from time to time.

Trista Chapman of Sophia Street Studios is pleased to announce the first annual Sophia Street Pottery Throwdown to be held on June 10th in the 1100 block of Sophia Street in downtown Fredericksburg, Virginia. Featuring local and regional artists working with clay, this festival provides an opportunity for the community to meet local potters, see demonstrations of a variety of techniques

as well as an opportunity for children and adults to get their hands dirty at the 'hands on' area. A wide variety of work will be for sale. Music will be provided by Larry Hinkle and Friends and a raffle will be held for a collaborative pot made by Dan Finnegan and decorated by Trista Chapman. Trista Chapman has been making her whimsical and uniquely colorful pottery (see above) in Fredericksburg since 1995 and is the founder of the annual Empty Bowls Fundraiser in aid of Empowerhouse.

Sophia Street Studios is one of Fredericksburg's oldest art establishments and has fostered the talents of numerous local artists. Exhibitors include: Dan Finnegan, Trista Chapman, Jon McMillan, Scarlett Pons, Neal Reed, Christine Lush Rodriguez, Misha Sanborn, Beth Sperlazza, Lee Hazelgrove, Nancy Ross, Anna Mueller Branner, Steven Summerville, Kevin Rodrigue, D.D. Lecky, Rachel Ruddle, Christina Bendo, Misha Sanborn, David Camden, MWC student booth, Liberty Town booth, Scott Campbell ( Richmond Clay) This event will be held 'Rain or Shine', Mark your calender...You will want to be at this interactive event!

Dan Finnegan in his studio deep in the woods beside his 2 chambered wood-ffired kiln For further information contact: Trista Chapman Sophia Street Studios 1104 Sophia Street Fredericksburg, Virginia 22401 540-2 208-2 2422 Dan Finnegan is a renowned potter of over 40 years. His work is included in numerous collections, museums and publications in the US and UK. At Left Teapot by Dan

To view this one-o of-a a-k kind retrospective, visit UUFF Gallery on Sundays between 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. through the month of April 2017. You may also request a private viewing by calling (540) 310-4 4001.

A.E. Bayne is an writer, artist, and educator living in Fredericksburg. She publishes Fredericksburg Literary and Art Review and is a partner in the Fredericksburg Independent Book Festival.

Dawn Whitmore is a landscape photographer and writer who lives in Spotsylvania. Learn more by visiting her own FB: facebook.com/dewphotographypage or her website at www.dewphotographyva.com

Products ~ Services ~ Classes 907 Charles Street, Downtown thescenteroftown.com 22

April 2017

Front porch fredericksburg

front porch fredericksburg

April 2017

Rabbits and Their Artist Charlotte Richards

Helen Ramsey

Sophia Street Pottery Throwdown

Art from the Heart

festival featuring local & regional artists

By Dawn Whitmore

It’s always more fun in the Scenter of Town!

Essential Oils Liquid Herbs Reiki Reflexology Aromatherapy Custom Blending Aroma-Therapeutic Massage Harmonic Resonance Therapy

By dan finnegan

Trista Chapman of Sophia Street Studios

A.E. Bayne is an writer, artist, and educator living in Fredericksburg. She publishes Fredericksburg Literary and Art Review and is a partner in the Fredericksburg Independent Book Festival.

Dawn Whitmore is a landscape photographer and writer who lives in Spotsylvania. Learn more by visiting her own FB: facebook.com/dewphotographypage or her website at www.dewphotographyva.com

Products ~ Services ~ Classes 907 Charles Street, Downtown thescenteroftown.com 22

April 2017

Front porch fredericksburg

front porch fredericksburg

April 2017

Art in the Burg Sandra Kennelly “Eye Candy”

Art is a Gift from the Heart

Stories

Name This House

of fredericksburg

Identify this mystery house and you could win a gift certificate from a downtown merchant.

By Suzanne Scherr dimensional photographs and wall hangings will be on display for the first time.The shifting colors and appearance of dichroic glass result from layering glass with thin metals or oxides. Kennelly assembles tiny pieces of the glass, then uses a pottery kiln to fuse a wearable work of art. The unpredictability of the process sustains her enthusiasm, as does the realization that her works are worn throughout the US and overseas. For additional details about this show, please visit www.artfirstgallery.com or call 540-371-7107.

Sweet revenge and delight in the creative process continue to fuel octogenarian artist, Sandra Kennelly. One professor at the University of California,

Sandra Kennelly Eye Candy Art First Gallery 824 Caroline St. Opening Reception: First Friday, April 7 from 6 pm to 9 pm

Here’s how: Email frntprch@aol.com, Subject: mystery house Identify house address Your name, address, email. The poem below is a hint of the location of the mystery house. Good Luck!

Artists: Beverly Coates Lynn Abbott Penny Parrish Daily hours 10 to 6. Artist on site Saturdays 810 Caroline Street, Downtown Fredericksburg

Berkeley, told her: "It's a shame you'll marry and have children and never do anything with Art". She went on to receive an art degree there, raised a family, taught art and has shown her work at Art First since 2009. Each piece in this new show of sparkling dichroic glass jewelry, three

Suzanne Scherr , is an artist and the Media Contact for Art First. She can be reached at suzanne.scherr@att.net

HelenRamsey

“I found myself homeless July of package and a guy that was on the 2013 when we lost our place in street… I gave him the thermal underwear Spotsylvania and I started living in my because I already had some and I didn’t van. I was moving all the know if he did. It started furniture and stuff by snowing one day and I had myself and working 3rd a couple dollars in my “I want to be remembered shift at work while pocket so I took him to a sleeping in the van in the for if I only had one dollar pizza place and I bought daytime in the boiling and somebody asked for it him some pizza and I would give it to him.” heat of the summer. I hurt something warm to drink. my back at work and so I That way he had lost my job and then something warm in his everything just started stomach instead of eating gradually tapering downhill. I’ve been whatever cold lunch he had in his bag.” homeless since then until Friday when I “I want to be known just for got in my place. I was in the tents about a being me. I want to be known that I’m a block away from where I live now…in fact, good dad, and that I love my kids. I want I can see my old campsite from my front them to know that when I was a working I porch!” was a hard worker and I still try to do “One day I got thermal what I can. I want to be remembered for if underwear here at Micah and I had some I only had one dollar and somebody asked more at the tent- they were still in the for it I would give it to him. That’s the truth. Because if it was in my pocket and I Become a Friend didn’t spend it, then I didn’t need it.”

Advocate ~ Donate ~ Volunteer

ART from the HEART UUFF GALLERY APRIL 2017 25 Chalice Circle (Chatham), FXBG 22405 540. 310-4001 24

April 2017

Front porch fredericksburg

win downtown gift certificate

Last Month’s House: 401 Hanover Street Ed Sandtner is the Winner of a Gift Certificate from Taste Oil Vinegar Spice @ 815 Caroline St.

Oh yes history has marched past my door, forever filling my windows with reflections of joy, sorrow, and war. Look at me today and you would never know, how many people have come and gone, some so sick they could hardly move, some made better and some laid low. The vowed, skilled hands of my doctor owner, so caring a man in the 1800's. I sit on the top of the city where it all began, when the Hanovers took over Merry old England, it was so grand. My street was the first of 8 in the city, when it all started in the 1720's, later my metal roof saved me from wrack and ruin in the Civil War. Now in this modern world, my windows laugh again with children, and new paint and floors.

BJ is now working towards getting his back fixed and spends a lot of his time helping out at Micah’s Hospitality Center.

Submitted by Micah Ecumenical Ministries, a Christ-Centered Community supporting people experiencing chronic homelessness and identifying pathways to sustainable housing. Contact 540479-4116; www.dolovewalk.net; facebook

540~479~4116 1013 Princess Anne Street , FXBG front porch fredericksburg

April 2017

Art in the Burg Sandra Kennelly “Eye Candy”

Art is a Gift from the Heart

Stories

Name This House

of fredericksburg

Identify this mystery house and you could win a gift certificate from a downtown merchant.

Sweet revenge and delight in the creative process continue to fuel octogenarian artist, Sandra Kennelly. One professor at the University of California,

Sandra Kennelly Eye Candy Art First Gallery 824 Caroline St. Opening Reception: First Friday, April 7 from 6 pm to 9 pm

Here’s how: Email frntprch@aol.com, Subject: mystery house Identify house address Your name, address, email. The poem below is a hint of the location of the mystery house. Good Luck!

Artists: Beverly Coates Lynn Abbott Penny Parrish Daily hours 10 to 6. Artist on site Saturdays 810 Caroline Street, Downtown Fredericksburg

Suzanne Scherr , is an artist and the Media Contact for Art First. She can be reached at suzanne.scherr@att.net

HelenRamsey

Advocate ~ Donate ~ Volunteer

ART from the HEART UUFF GALLERY APRIL 2017 25 Chalice Circle (Chatham), FXBG 22405 540. 310-4001 24

April 2017

Front porch fredericksburg

win downtown gift certificate

Last Month’s House: 401 Hanover Street Ed Sandtner is the Winner of a Gift Certificate from Taste Oil Vinegar Spice @ 815 Caroline St.

BJ is now working towards getting his back fixed and spends a lot of his time helping out at Micah’s Hospitality Center.

540~479~4116 1013 Princess Anne Street , FXBG front porch fredericksburg

April 2017

FXBG Music Scene “haze” is clear on sondwiting

Sarah Lapp At the Crossroads of Color & Creativity By A.E. Bayne

By Lou Gramann Kirsten Hazler sang in the back of the car as a little kid and has been singing ever since. She sings this month at the April 28th Songwriters’ Showcase at LlibertyTown Arts Workshop. Part of the Richmond duo Haze & Dacey, Hazler wrote all the songs on the group’s new album, The Beaverdam Sessions. It’s now available at CD Baby, a national distributor. “Haze” can take either a sassy or silken approach when she sings. With her compelling rhythms, she makes the music fun for the audience. Like many songwriters, she straddles several styles and includes folk-pop and roots-rock in her upbeat, danceable tunes. “I’ve made a conscious effort to write lighter stuff and still be true to myself,” she says when contacted about her music. “I have written more dark, sad songs than light, happy ones, but I need to be able to play songs that people can enjoy” while hanging out with friends or attending a show. In “Sweeter than a Margarita,” she calls the cocktail sweet and tangy, exchanging down-tempo and melancholy memories for happier ones. “I turned it around by making it fun to sing and fun to listen to. In my head, when I sing it, I go to the exhilarating, happy part of the relationship.” Topics for songs, she says, are generally very personal. They may begin with a rhythm in her head, a poem in an old journal, or a mystical experience. But she can’t force the writing, and finds that a song will come when it is ready.” As a professional landscape ecologist, for example, she enjoys her career and sometimes wishes for

inspirations that are ecology-related. “But I can’t say, ‘Today I’d like to write a song about oil pipelines ripping through Nelson County.’ It’s up to the Muse, and she does what she wants. It’s hardly up to me at all. Haze’s background also includes training in intricate choral singing, and she layers additional harmonies into her recordings. “I can vocally harmonize to just about anything. If one of my friends is playing somewhere and I’m in the audience, every now and then I’ll jump up and add a vocal part. I really like weaving vocal lines in and out of each other, like the Indigo Girls.” Haze has played all over Virginia and toured up the coast to Maine last summer. She looks forward to playing for new audiences, and finds that fans will choose their own favorite songs, sometimes before they even hear her perform. “When we played at Byers Street Bistro in Staunton a few months ago, a total stranger requested my original song, ‘Corner of the Garden.’ He’d actually gone to our website and listened to my song and wanted to hear it live. That was the biggest compliment ever!” Begun in 1993, the Fredericksburg Songwriters’ Showcase presents performers on piano, guitar, mandolin, fiddle, ukulele, banjo, saxophone and other acoustic instruments. The series recently moved to LibertyTown, where music-lovers find an accessible venue with the added ambiance of beautiful local artwork surrounding them. FSS director Tres Seaver lists details at his website www.burgsongs.org.

Lapp is known for her expansive works, with standard size measuring 48” x 48”. She says, “It’s the size that works best for what I do. I find that when I work smaller I try to fit so much in that it obscures it. I also work strictly with a palette knife which doesn’t lend itself to small scale work.” Lapp says she takes her inspiration from abstract expressionism, but she has a hard time labeling her style. She says, “You could call it abstract and mixed media work, because there’s definitely different bodies in the work. There’s a body of work that’s strictly abstract oil paintings, and then there’s a body of work that has abstracted imagery worked in.” Kirsten Hazler Songwriters’ Showcase April 28th

Lou Gramann is an FSS volunteer and bakes cookies for the refreshment table at intermission.

Give a Child Something to Think About

Supporting The Arts Since 1997 26

April 2017

Helping homeless children and families in City of Fredericksburg, Counties of Caroline, Stafford & Spotsylvania 540 371 0831

Front porch fredericksburg

Books, Games, Amusing Novelties M-Sat. 10am-6pm; Sun. 1pm-4pm

Local artist Sarah Lapp has been painting seriously for about seven years, making a living by creating and selling large-scale abstract works from her studio at LibertyTown Arts Workshop.

810 Caroline Street (540) 371-5684

“I like to be able to see the hand and movement of the body in a piece of work. I also like introducing these figures into this kind of abstracted color landscape. It has a sense of timelessness for me.”

With her mixed media, Lapp says she has a departure point, a frame of reference from some sort of imagery. She has mixed media pieces that she has thought about for years before creating them. She finds that revealing when it happens and it directs the mood of the piece upon which she is working.

Lapp doesn’t mind telling her audience what her pieces represent to her. While she knows her audience will bring their own experiences to them, she sees no harm in giving them a reference point through a title or caption. She says, “They say that art is a living thing and that’s what makes it such a great podium to connect with people in the first place. I think it’s interesting to talk about what pieces mean, and I’m not offended when people don’t see my meaning in one of my pieces. I don’t ever want people to think there’s something they need to 'get.' I feel that if you respond to a piece, that’s fantastic; if you don’t, then there’s nothing wrong with that."

Lapp’s description of her process of painting sounds like that of narrative writing. Each piece evolves around tone and mood, color and character. She agrees with the analogy, saying, “I actually had a show a few years back that I titledStories; there’s very much a story that goes with each piece. It’s a story that I know before I start creating the piece, but I don’t necessarily know which story is going to come out when I’m not working in mixed media. That’s part of the enjoyment.”

Most recently, Lapp has returned to school to pursue a Master of Fine Arts at Lesley University in Boston, Massachusetts, where she is completing a low residency program which allows her to remain in Fredericksburg for most of the semester. She says grad school has further delineated the bodies of her work into strictly abstract color field or abstract expressionist influenced work versus a body that is more raw and nonaesthetic, both of which she finds exciting and satisfying as an artist.

Lapp says she came to mixed media three years ago when she was having a hard time reaching the part of her brain that would work strictly abstractly or intuitively. Lapp says the process requires many layers. She layers under and leaves a grid. She paints under the images, but also over top of them to give them what she describes as a moody, haunting memory-like quality. She says,

Lapp's current work is on display at Sunken Well Tavern through April 13, 2017. A longer version of this piece was originally printed in the fall edition of the Fredericksburg Literary and Art Review (FLAR), a regional literary and art journal published biannually by A.E. Bayne. It is available atfredericksburgwriters.com .

front porch fredericksburg

April 2017

FXBG Music Scene “haze” is clear on sondwiting

Sarah Lapp At the Crossroads of Color & Creativity By A.E. Bayne

Lou Gramann is an FSS volunteer and bakes cookies for the refreshment table at intermission.

Give a Child Something to Think About

Supporting The Arts Since 1997 26

April 2017

Helping homeless children and families in City of Fredericksburg, Counties of Caroline, Stafford & Spotsylvania 540 371 0831

Front porch fredericksburg

Books, Games, Amusing Novelties M-Sat. 10am-6pm; Sun. 1pm-4pm

Local artist Sarah Lapp has been painting seriously for about seven years, making a living by creating and selling large-scale abstract works from her studio at LibertyTown Arts Workshop.

810 Caroline Street (540) 371-5684

front porch fredericksburg

April 2017

Renew

Lexi Grogan’s Pet Sitting Service

Create a Healthy Evening Routine

by Joan M. Geisler

“Your pet becomes my pet while in my care, and I care a lot!” - Lexi (540-903-0437; lexig0892@gmail.com) On facebook as “lexi grogan’s pet sitting service” Prices: Dogs - $15 per canine per visit Cats - $12 per feline per visit

It’s All Energy tame your anxiety by christina ferber

Better value, more love for your pet than if you kennel board him!

It’s always more fun in the Scenter of Town!

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Wednesdays Weekly Crystal Bowls, Gong, Dijeridu www.Meetup.com/Sound-Immersion

Old Town’s Greatest Tour 35 Monuments, Markers, & Attractions We’ve all been there: After a long day, you order takeout or pop some manufactured frozen food in the microwave, zone out in front of the TV and fall asleep scrolling through your social media feed. It can happen to the best of us, but the lack of a healthy evening routine can be the very cause of your weight gain and unhappiness. Do not be conformed to this world with the mindset of, “I deserve to chill at the end of the day.” But be transformed in renewing your mind to think, “I am going to take control of my health and happiness.” Creating routine helps to establish habits. 1. PREPARE MEALS AHEAD OF TIME Prepare healthy meals ahead of time. A little meal prep on the weekends will mean avoiding those calorie laden takeout meals or the nutritionally devoid frozen foods and coming home to a healthy, balanced, microwavable meal. 2. EAT EARLY Having your meals prepped ahead of time will also help you eat earlier. According to the most recent research, it’s best to have the bulk of your daily calories by 3 p.m. Aim to cut off your calorie intake a few hours before you fall asleep so your body has plenty of time to digest. 3. TAKE YOUR VITAMINS Taking a high quality multivitamin may seem like take-it-or-leave-it advice, but according to the Environmental Working Group, you’re better off taking it. We all need a boost with even the best diets. Skip the drug store vitamins and seek out a ‘whole food’ vitamin. I recommend Life Extention www.lifeextention.com or Enzyme Labs www.enzymelabs.com 4. SKIP THE NIGHTCAP Research shows that alcohol negatively

April 2017

AND the Fredericksburg Battlefields Weddings Reunions Shuttles Parties Group Outings

impacts the quality of your sleep, so even if you think you drift off easier, you won’t get as many restful zzz’s. It also stops you from accomplishing greatness to build your life to the fullest. 5. SCHEDULE SOME “ME” TIME Make time to decompress. Whether that means listening to a motivating podcast on your way home, committing to a candlelit yoga class or scheduling regular sunset runs, “me time” is an essential part of a healthy evening groove. 6. DO A DIGITAL DETOX Aside from the sleep-disrupting stress that accompanies answering emails and scrolling through your newsfeed late into the night, it’s the light from your phone that can really prevent you from getting solid sleep. Your screens — including your TV, phone, tablet and laptop — all emit a frequency of blue light that messes with your body’s melatonin production, which is the chemical responsible for lulling you to sleep. UNPLUG an hour before bed. Also activate an app or setting on your device that will swap the harsh blue light for a more natural (and bedtime-friendly) reddish hue. 7. GET TO BED The most important part of your nighttime ritual is actually, you know, getting to bed. Lack of sleep is the silent thief that robs our health. Get seven to eight hours of sleep. To work toward it, treat your bedtime with the same level of priority you give your regular workouts. To help keep you accountable, enlist a “bedtime buddy,” who can help you stave off bedtime procrastination the same way your workout buddy makes sure you show up at the gym.

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We live in a society where anxiety seems to rule the day, but luckily there is a way out of the stressful loop that can easily become a regular part of our lives. Eden Energy Medicine (EEM) combines ancient Chinese techniques with other modalities and offers exercises to combat the everyday stressors that we encounter. When we get overwhelmed, we lose blood from our brain which can make it hard to focus. Holding points on your forehead, called the Main or Frontal Neurovascular Reflex Points can draw blood and oxygen back into your head so that you can think clearly again. Placing your hand over the points right above each eyebrow does wonders to regain clarity and balance. To train your brain to better respond to stressful situations, you can bring a worried thought to your mind while holding your hand over these points for about three to five minutes or until thinking about the thought brings you to a state of calm instead of anxiety. To get even more bang for your buck, place the palms of each hand on your cheekbones and your fingers over the Main Neurovascular points. You will be holding points that can calm feelings of worry, as well as stress. Another combination is to place your hand across your forehead covering those Main Neurovascular points and place your other hand on the back of your head directly behind your eyes. This “hook-up” helps with any thoughts of fear, as well as anxiety. Triple Warmer Meridian governs our flight, freeze, and fight response, and is often the underlying cause of stress related issues. Meridians are energy pathways in the body which were mapped

out thousands of years ago by the Chinese. When stress and anxiety show up, it is almost always related to an imbalance in our Triple Warmer Meridian. This meridian supports our ability to handle the demands of life, and bringing it into balance can create a sense of safety and calm. Luckily, there are quite a few EEM techniques that can help. One, the Triple Warmer Smoothie not only calms anxiety, but can also work with hot flashes experienced during menopause. Rest your face in your hands with your palms at your chin, fingers at your temples and take two breaths. As you breathe in deeply lift your fingers a few inches above the ears. On an exhale, circle behind your ears and press down the sides of your neck to your shoulders. As you hang your hands on your shoulders, press in and breath for two breaths. Finally, drag your hands down to cover your heart and take a deep breath. Sometimes we need a little something in the moment, and the following exercises can be done ‘under the radar’ without anyone knowing what you are doing. The Triple Warmer/ Spleen Hug is done by placing your right hand on the left side of the rib cage, and the left hand on the other arm with the pinky finger at the tip of the elbow. Wrap your hand around the elbow and take three deep breaths. Switch sides and repeat. Whatever technique you use, know that you are not alone. All of us are presented with opportunities for stress daily, but with these simple exercises, hopefully we react to those stressors in a healthier way.

ble at Availa n.com Amazo

Christina Ferber is a Certified Eden Energy Medicine Practitioner. You can find out more atwww.itsallenergywellness.com

Joan is the Director of MedFit, Medically Integrated Nutrition and Exercise at Truong Rehabilitation Center.

Front porch fredericksburg

front porch fredericksburg

April 2017

Renew

Lexi Grogan’s Pet Sitting Service

Create a Healthy Evening Routine

by Joan M. Geisler

It’s All Energy tame your anxiety by christina ferber

Better value, more love for your pet than if you kennel board him!

It’s always more fun in the Scenter of Town!

NEW

SOUND IMMERSION

TRANSFORMATION THROUGH SOUND

Wednesdays Weekly Crystal Bowls, Gong, Dijeridu www.Meetup.com/Sound-Immersion

April 2017

AND the Fredericksburg Battlefields Weddings Reunions Shuttles Parties Group Outings

Fredericksburgtrolley.com

540-898-0737

ble at Availa n.com Amazo

Christina Ferber is a Certified Eden Energy Medicine Practitioner. You can find out more atwww.itsallenergywellness.com

Joan is the Director of MedFit, Medically Integrated Nutrition and Exercise at Truong Rehabilitation Center.

Front porch fredericksburg

front porch fredericksburg

April 2017

On Stage! local chorus to be “on Broadway” by Scott Bergstrom

The Stafford Regional Choral Society enters its 16th year, drawing talented adult and high school singers from the Stafford and Fredericksburg region. Since its inception in 2001, SRCS has presented over 45 concerts, entertaining well over 10,000 patrons. Under the direction of award-winning Artistic Director Barbara Perry (who doubles as the choral director at Colonial Forge High School), SRCS presents free concerts in the area each summer and Christmastime. But perhaps the most anticipated event each year – for singers and patrons – has been the annual Spring Gala. The SRCS Spring Gala has been a fixture since 2004 and supports the SRCS mission by raising funds to provide scholarships to local high school seniors with musical interests. Each year, patrons enjoy a four-course meal tailored to complement the Gala’s theme. Patrons also have the opportunity to bid on and win a variety of unique experiences or treasures through the Gala’s silent auction, including African safari trips, sports memorabilia, tickets to sporting and music events, passes to destinations such as Disney World and Six Flags, and various other valuable items. Ticket sales for the Gala and its silent auction form the foundation for the SRCS scholarship mission. More importantly, the Gala offers incredible music in a unique way. As Angie Jones, long-time SRCS member and gala coordinator, recalls: “That first

Gala, called Downtown Cabaret, was an eclectic mix of music presented chair-side in a small downtown restaurant - a truly intimate experience!” Although the venue changed to UMW’s Seacobeck Hall and the themes have varied through the years – from 1950s-era ditties to jazz standards to songs from around the world - the Gala has remained an intimate experience ever since. SRCS Board Chairman Mark Jones adds: “One of the things I like so much is the connection we are able to make with our audience: singing a few feet away from our patrons for a song or two, pulling some of them into a bit we are doing, and talking with them between sets.” With Seacobeck Hall under renovation, SRCS has partnered with Riverside Center for the Performing Arts for this year's Gala, entitled On Broadway. Rehearsing songs that range from cherished Broadway classis to more contemporary hits, Barbara Perry noted, “We couldn't think of a more appropriate theme” for this “new” Gala venue for SRCS. As with other Galas, On Broadway will feature the SRCS main choir, various solo, small group, and men's and women's group performances. To top it off, Patrick A’Hearn, Riverside's producing artistic director who previously performed on (the real) Broadway, will make a special appearance and sing at the Gala as well. The Gala will be the evening of May 7, 2017. For more information about the Gala and for tickets, go to the SRCS website ( www.staffordchoral.org/) or call 540-899-6856. Scott Bergstrom is a music geek, sports junkie, wanna-be foodie and traveler, and proud dad who performs with SRCS and also sometimes works on water and related natural resources issues.

Fredericksburg Sketches A visual Celebration of our community

By Casey Alan Shaw

Large Selection of ESTATE JEWELRY 212 William Street,Fredericksburg 540-373-5513 Mon-Fri 9:30-6; Sat 9:30-5 jewelboxfredericksburgva.webs.com jewelbox14k@yahoo.com

April 2017

Front porch fredericksburg

FXBG’ERS Laura Donnell & Poppy Merrell

a year of growth By Jo Loving

by georgia Lee Strentz farm, which had many farm animals. Poppy feels very close to animals,especially dogs, and feels she helps them as they have no voice and she is their advocate. Poppy went to William and Mary College, is a realtor, is married with a loving dog, "Bojangles." Poppy is pictured at left giving a baby some hugs. This puppy is from a litter at the shelter which will soon be available . Laura taught school in Stafford for 14 years, after traveling around the world with her husband in the military, raising her children who are 32, and 35, traveling from California to Okinawa. " Until one has loved an animal, part of ones's soul remains unawakened." ~Anatole France

SKETCH #30: Pan Statue at Chatham This month I’d like to share a painting of a special, almost hidden, little spot in Fredericksburg. Anyone who has walked the luscious grounds at Chatham Manor has likely also “discovered” this statue of Pan but, nevertheless, where it is situated in a grove of trees gives it a quiet, timeless quality that makes it feel like you may be the first person to stumble across it in a hundred years. You won’t be able to tell from this picture, but the original painting is actually built in layers to simulate this sense of discovery. There are two plexiglass layers mounted on a canvas. That way the viewer looks through the picture to parts of the image as they are revealed underneath. With the gardens in bloom, April is the perfect time to “discover” many locations around Chatham Manor. In fact on April 8, there will be a great day of discovery at Chatham with many local artists performing tasks of a by-gone era like spinning, woodworking and blacksmithing … all with Pan looking across from just behind he trees.

Casey Alan Shaw is a local artist and Realtor. He exhibits his original artwork and limited-edition prints at Art First Gallery in downtown Fredericksburg and at www.caseyshaw.com.

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From My Porch

606 Caroline Street Old Town Fredericksburg 373-7847 www.gemstonecreations.org Tuesday - Saturday 10-5 Wednesdays until 6:30 and by appointment

Where Fredericksburg Gets Engaged

From the cheerful voice of Amy, to Laura and Poppy, the two wondrously loving women who volunteer with the lucky dogs and cats who are the objects of their hard work, time and affection. Then to the volunteer coordinator Ali Carlin, from Richmond, I was entranced. Then there is the busy, enthusiastic director, Caitlin Daley, who grew up in N. Virginia, training in N. Carolina, altogether a sweet visit with compassionate, helpful and directed people. Fortunate again, month after month, I meet unselfish people, who instead of parking in front of "the tube," are out and about, making life better for someone, and in this case they head for our local S.P.C.A, on Courthouse Road in Spotsylvania. This "No Kill," S.P.C.A., has been so successful placing dogs and cats, they are now being included in a cooperative effort bringing dogs and cats from other areas, for placement locally. The cheerfulness of the facility, the cleanliness, the toys, smiling helpful people, I really felt I was in a childcare facility for humans, until I noticed the dog and cat faces peering at me from their beds and play areas. The atmosphere is just a great place to spend a few a hours per month/week. We cannot take credit entirely in our area for our volunteers whom we meet monthly in this column, as in the past, many are "newbies" from other places. "Fredericksburger," Laura Donnell is from New Jersey, has 5 siblings and grew up with animals, is a self- professed "cat person," and Poppy Merrell is from Falls Church,has no siblings, had no pets, but did ride horses/dressage. Poppy grew up in an apartment, loves dogs, and was a dog babysitter and walked dogs for her neighbors, and volunteered at a local historic colonial

Laura has friends who volunteered at the shelter, and since she is a huge "animal person," Laura said, "cats are easier to move, when you move alot," she volunteered for the cat section. Laura is pictured above with "Edward" a large, gorgeous, black, part manx, who is available for adoption. Laura puts in from 2 to 6 hrs per week at the shelter, and likes to makes sure the cages are very clean, and "everyone gets a lot of cuddling." Thank you so much Laura and Poppy for your loving presence!! Want to volunteer? Go to www.fburgspca.org

“What lies ahead is often unknown. But keep traveling.” ~ Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind

Last month, I shared a challenge towards which I am working for this Fall – to hike the Camino de Santiago de Compostela – a physical and spiritual pilgrimage. Since last year was a year of injury, forced contemplation, and confinement, I decided that this year called for stretching, growing, challenging, and embracing life, in all its ambiguity. The pilgrimage planning and training continues, but today, I’d like to talk about another area of personal growth. In some people, there is an inner drive that pushes them to find and conquer. These folks live for the challenges in life, for something to master, to prove themselves to themselves. They’re not motivated by accolades (although they are nice), and instead enjoy the feeling of accomplishment. I am one of those people, and I’ve been fortunate enough in my life to meet others who understand this characteristic, and how to appeal to, nurture, and encourage someone who is motivated by the journey. In January, I auditioned for a part in a nearby Community Theater production. The last time I had acted was in 7th grade, when I played Mrs. Van Daan in the Diary of Anne Frank, about 43 years ago. At that tender age, I was a bundle of anxiety and insecurity. That period was also a time of creative growth. The summer before school started, I had started writing, and was learning to play the flute and piccolo in the school marching and symphonic band.

On the first day of school, I walked in to my English class, and there she was - Miss Sarah Valencino, a petite woman, wearing a bohemian peasant shirt and blue jeans, with a broad, toothy smile and a welcoming manner. She not only demanded the best of her students, she motivated them to give her their best. She also was the Drama Club sponsor. So when she encouraged us to try out. I did, buoyed by her warm encouragement, and won the part I wanted. That was the last time I performed on stage. I’ve had many public speaking gigs since then, but they were factual, steeped in reality, focused on informing and engaging, but not entertaining. So, on that evening in January of this year, I walked into the theater and tried out for their production ofDearly Beloved. Something was different this time. I wasn’t anxious. I wasn’t nervous. The intervening years had somehow given me a fearlessness, a fatalism, a what’s the worst thing that can happen? attitude. And that attitude propelled me forward. I was selected to play a wonderfully fun part, and have found within me a sense of play and fun and folly that has been missing for a long time. On opening night, I was ready, and happy, and ebullient, and realized that I enjoy acting. So there we have it: as Lailah Gifty Akita points out: What lies ahead is often unknown. But keep traveling. Thank you, Miss Valencino … who knows what’s next?

Jo Loving has three of the nine remaining performances of this play under her belt. By April 2, they’ll be completed. She’s having a blast! As she sits on the porch tonight, she can’t wait to see what new frontiers await her.

The SPCA was founded in 1943 is downtown Fredericksburg. The SPCA is currently accepting volunteers! If you have a child under 16 that you would like to get involved, consider the youth volunteer program alifredspca@gmail,com For adults, Alison Carlin,Volunteer coordinator www.fburgspca.org(volunteer) Foster a cat or dog? Adopt?Donate? www.fburgspca.org

This "Fredericksburger" is trying to figure out how to get back to the shelter to give some hugs!

front porch fredericksburg

April 2017

On Stage! local chorus to be “on Broadway” by Scott Bergstrom

Fredericksburg Sketches A visual Celebration of our community

By Casey Alan Shaw

Large Selection of ESTATE JEWELRY 212 William Street,Fredericksburg 540-373-5513 Mon-Fri 9:30-6; Sat 9:30-5 jewelboxfredericksburgva.webs.com jewelbox14k@yahoo.com

April 2017

Front porch fredericksburg

FXBG’ERS Laura Donnell & Poppy Merrell

a year of growth By Jo Loving

Casey Alan Shaw is a local artist and Realtor. He exhibits his original artwork and limited-edition prints at Art First Gallery in downtown Fredericksburg and at www.caseyshaw.com.

Your Hometown Jeweler Since 1940

On-Premise Jewelry Repair

From My Porch

606 Caroline Street Old Town Fredericksburg 373-7847 www.gemstonecreations.org Tuesday - Saturday 10-5 Wednesdays until 6:30 and by appointment

Where Fredericksburg Gets Engaged

“What lies ahead is often unknown. But keep traveling.” ~ Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind

This "Fredericksburger" is trying to figure out how to get back to the shelter to give some hugs!

front porch fredericksburg

April 2017