Loudoun Magazine Spring 2011

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You’ve Waited Long Enough!

It’s Time to Take Life’s Next Step.

Ted Visnic

Life in Detail

Creighton Farms Golf Course SP RING

2011

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Ted Visnic (301)309-6470

Mobile Link

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2/24/11 9:16 AM

Spring 2011, Vol. 10, No. 1 19301 Winmeade Dr. Suite 224 Leesburg VA 20176 703.771.8800 • Fax: 703.771.8833

PUBLISHER

Norman K. Styer nstyer@acnpapers.com EDITOR

Therese P. Howe theresehowe@hotmail.com MAGAZINE DESIGNER

Elizabeth Phillips Pinner GRAPHIC DESIGNERS

Christopher Allison Bill Getlein ACCOUNT REPRESENTATIVES

Leslie Barker Colleen Grayson Paula Grose Tonya Harding Kym Harrison Vicky Mashaw Andrea Ryder Cindy Spencer Susan Styer ContributORS

Anne Altieri, Michelle Delgado, Jeff Mauritzen, Buzz McClain, Meredith Bean McMath, Margaret Morton, Cecilio Ricardo Jr., Lalaine Estella Ricardo, Caroline Reno Wilder LOUDOUN MAGAZINE (ISSN 1537-0356, USPS 022-697) is published quarterly by Leesburg Today and American Community Newspapers, LLC Chris Shertzer Northern Virginia Group Publisher LOUDOUN MAGAZINE (ISSN 1537-0356, USPS 022-697) is published quarterly by Leesburg Today, 19301 Winmeade Dr. Suite 224 Leesburg VA 20176. Advertising rates available upon request. To subscribe or obtain assistance with a current subscription, call (703)771-3328. Subscription price is $25 per year. Single copies $4.95. POSTMASTER, SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO LOUDOUN MAGAZINE, PO Box 591, Leesburg,VA 20178-0591. Periodicals postage paid at Leesburg VA and at additional mailing offices. Copyright 2009 by Leesburg Today. All rights reserved. No part of LOUDOUN MAGAZINE may be reproduced physically or electronically without the written permission of the publisher.

LOUDOUN MAGAZINE is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork.

All real estate advertised herein is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act.

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L o u d o u n M a g a z i n e

2/25/11 12:12 PM

th

Ob ha

an extraordinary place inspired by an extraordinary man

Washington’s premier luxury gated community | elegant custom-built villas from $1.5m | loW-maintenance living on spectacular 1+ acre lots | aWard-Winning Jack nicklaus signature golf course* | Just 20 minutes from dulles airport

www.creightonfarms.com | 703-957-4800 *Access to and use of existing or planned recreational amenities is not included with the purchase of real estate and requires separate club membership, which is subject to application, approval, and payment of applicable fees and dues. Juno-Loudoun LLC is the owner and developer of the project. This is not an offer to sell property to, or a solicitation of offers from, residents of NY, NJ, CT, OR or any other state that requires prior registration of real estate.

A Southworth Community

Obtain the property report or its equivalent, required by Federal and State law and read it before signing anything. No Federal or State agency s pjudged r i n gthe 20 1 1 if any, of this property.

3 has value,

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2/24/11 9:18 AM

“

“

You’ve Waited Long Enough!

It’s Time to Take Life’s Next Step.

Ted Visnic

Life in Detail

Creighton Farms Golf Course SP Ring 2011

1-5 SPRING2011 LM.indd 1

Ted Visnic (301)309-6470

Mobile Link

1

2/26/11 9:20 AM

Spring 2011, Vol. 10, No. 1 19301 Winmeade Dr. Suite 224 Leesburg VA 20176 703.771.8800 • Fax: 703.771.8833

PUBLISHER

Norman K. Styer nstyer@acnpapers.com EDITOR

Therese P. Howe theresehowe@hotmail.com MAGAZINE DESIGNER

Elizabeth Phillips Pinner GRAPHIC DESIGNERS

Christopher Allison Bill Getlein ACCOUNT REPRESENTATIVES

Leslie Barker Colleen Grayson Paula Grose Tonya Harding Kym Harrison Vicky Mashaw Andrea Ryder Cindy Spencer Susan Styer ContributORS

Anne Altieri, Michelle Delgado, Jeff Mauritzen, Buzz McClain, Meredith Bean McMath, Margaret Morton, Cecilio Ricardo Jr., Lalaine Estella Ricardo, Caroline Reno Wilder LOUDOUN MAGAZINE (ISSN 1537-0356, USPS 022-697) is published quarterly by Leesburg Today and American Community Newspapers, LLC Chris Shertzer Northern Virginia Group Publisher LOUDOUN MAGAZINE (ISSN 1537-0356, USPS 022-697) is published quarterly by Leesburg Today, 19301 Winmeade Dr. Suite 224 Leesburg VA 20176. Advertising rates available upon request. To subscribe or obtain assistance with a current subscription, call (703)771-3328. Subscription price is $25 per year. Single copies $4.95. POSTMASTER, SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO LOUDOUN MAGAZINE, PO Box 591, Leesburg,VA 20178-0591. Periodicals postage paid at Leesburg VA and at additional mailing offices. Copyright 2009 by Leesburg Today. All rights reserved. No part of LOUDOUN MAGAZINE may be reproduced physically or electronically without the written permission of the publisher.

LOUDOUN MAGAZINE is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork.

All real estate advertised herein is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act.

2

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L o u d o u n M a g a z i n e

2/26/11 9:20 AM

th

Ob ha

an extraordinary place inspired by an extraordinary man

Washington’s premier luxury gated community | elegant custom-built villas from $1.5m | loW-maintenance living on spectacular 1+ acre lots | aWard-Winning Jack nicklaus signature golf course* | Just 20 minutes from dulles airport

www.creightonfarms.com | 703-957-4800 *Access to and use of existing or planned recreational amenities is not included with the purchase of real estate and requires separate club membership, which is subject to application, approval, and payment of applicable fees and dues. Juno-Loudoun LLC is the owner and developer of the project. This is not an offer to sell property to, or a solicitation of offers from, residents of NY, NJ, CT, OR or any other state that requires prior registration of real estate.

A Southworth Community

Obtain the property report or its equivalent, required by Federal and State law and read it before signing anything. No Federal or State agency spr i n gthe 20 1 1 if any, of this property.

3 has judged value,

1-5 SPRING2011 LM.indd 3

2/26/11 9:20 AM

KHOVA0

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2011 . VoLuMe 10 . nuMBeR 1

Table of Contents

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FeaTuReS 22 VINTAGE 2010

by Dezel Quillen

Local winemakers say 2010 was a very good year and eagerly await tasting room reactions.

35 CIVIL WAR WOMEN

by Meredith Bean McMath

The war that split the nation also created rifts – and unions – in Loudoun households.

40 BEYOND BEACH VACATIONS

by Buzz McClain PHOTO BY MEREDITH BEAN MCMATH

Families should look beyond regional and even national borders when planning their travels this year.

dePaRTMenTS 6 CALENDAR 10 ARTS

•

by Michelle Delgado

Run Rabbit Run Theater to serve up comic fare at Grandale Farm Restaurant.

12 NEIGHBORS

by Buzz McClain

The Loughs of Lovettsville have built a rugby field of dreams.

14 DINING

by Caroline Reno Wilder Cozy up to an English tradition in Loudoun’s tea rooms.

27 HEALTH & BEAUTY

by Lalaine Estella Ricardo Hillsboro mother demonstrates importance of parents being their kids’ medical advocate.

51 HOME & GARDEN

by Anne Altieri

ABOUT THE COVER

Locavores propel Grow Your Own

Aylesbury Antique Center and

movement to the nation’s backyards.

Tea Rooms in Leesburg serves an authentic English experience.

Photo by Jeff Mauritzen.

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58 LEESBURG FLOWER & GARDEN SHOW

by Margaret Morton The annual weekend festival entices

Fol

gardening enthusiasts to historic PHOTO BY CECILIO RICARDO JR.

downtown Leesburg.

L o u d o u n M

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*Sale term fees NY. V

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The Best Of Loudoun County!

EVERGREEN RESERVE IN ASHBURN

Residences at Dulles Parkway in Ashburn

loudoun county

ashburn

neighborhood

1+ Acre Estates from the Upper $700’s* Final Section Now Selling!

• Single family homes just off the Loudoun County Parkway • Beautiful wooded open spaces • 3,570 - 5,403 sq. ft. • 4 BR • Up to 4 ½ BA • 2 - 3 car garages • Hardwood foyers • Libraries • Crown mouldings • GE kitchens with islands • Owners’ suites with sitting rooms, walk-in closets & garden baths.

PHONE: (866) 407-1068

• Just off the Dulles Toll Road & Loudoun County Parkway (Exit 7) • Upscale mixed use community with planned shopping & dining • 1,596 - 2,689 sq. ft. • 3 BR & 2 BA • 1-car garages • 9' ceilings • GE kitchens • Spacious owner’s suites with walk-in closets • Much more!

Phone: (888) 551-6828

KHOV.COM/EVERGREENRESERVE

khov.com/dullesparkwaycenter

RASPBERRY FALLS IN LEESBURG

GREENFIELD CROSSING

Information Center Now Open!

Single Family Homes from the mid $500’s.* Villa Series from the mid $400’s.* Luxury Town Houses from the mid $300’s.* • On Braddock Road off Route 50 • Convenient access to major employment centers throughout region • Brand new elementary & middle schools coming soon • New Harris Teeter 2 miles away.

KHOV.COM/GREENFIELDCROSSING PHONE: 888-557-0426

Follow us on:

townhome style condominiums from $289,990*

Single Family Estates from $579,990.* • Approximately 34 single family 1/4 - 1/2 acre estate homes • Convenient to the Leesburg Outlets & Dulles Airport • Easy access to the business corridor of Route 7 & 28 • Only 9 miles from the Maryland state line • A short drive to the quaint specialty shops & restaurants of the town of Leesburg.

PHONE 888-551-6844.

SALES FROM EVERGREEN RESERVE.

KHOV.COM/RASPBERRYFALLS

MHBR #3149

*Sales must originate by 2/28/2011. Earnest money deposit required at contract. Not to be combined with any other offer. See sales consultant for details. Prices, terms and features subject to a change without notice. Prices reflect base prices and are subject to change. Lot premiums may apply and community association feesspr are required. i n Closing g 2cost 0 assistance 1 1 valid only with the use of K. Hovnanian American Mortgage and approved title companies. Offer not good in CT, NJ and NY. Void where prohibited.

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KHOVA01110036_LM_8.125x10.875c_Layout 1 2/23/11 9:28 AM Page 1

The Best Of Loudoun County!

EVERGREEN RESERVE IN ASHBURN

Residences at Dulles Parkway in Ashburn

loudoun county

ashburn

neighborhood

1+ Acre Estates from the Upper $700’s* Final Section Now Selling!

• Single family homes just off the Loudoun County Parkway • Beautiful wooded open spaces • 3,570 - 5,403 sq. ft. • 4 BR • Up to 4 ½ BA • 2 - 3 car garages • Hardwood foyers • Libraries • Crown mouldings • GE kitchens with islands • Owners’ suites with sitting rooms, walk-in closets & garden baths.

PHONE: (866) 407-1068

• Just off the Dulles Toll Road & Loudoun County Parkway (Exit 7) • Upscale mixed use community with planned shopping & dining • 1,596 - 2,689 sq. ft. • 3 BR & 2 BA • 1-car garages • 9' ceilings • GE kitchens • Spacious owner’s suites with walk-in closets • Much more!

Phone: (888) 551-6828

KHOV.COM/EVERGREENRESERVE

khov.com/dullesparkwaycenter

RASPBERRY FALLS IN LEESBURG

GREENFIELD CROSSING

Information Center Now Open!

Single Family Homes from the mid $500’s.* Villa Series from the mid $400’s.* Luxury Town Houses from the mid $300’s.* • On Braddock Road off Route 50 • Convenient access to major employment centers throughout region • Brand new elementary & middle schools coming soon • New Harris Teeter 2 miles away.

KHOV.COM/GREENFIELDCROSSING PHONE: 888-557-0426

Follow us on:

townhome style condominiums from $289,990*

Single Family Estates from $579,990.* • Approximately 34 single family 1/4 - 1/2 acre estate homes • Convenient to the Leesburg Outlets & Dulles Airport • Easy access to the business corridor of Route 7 & 28 • Only 9 miles from the Maryland state line • A short drive to the quaint specialty shops & restaurants of the town of Leesburg.

PHONE 888-551-6844.

SALES FROM EVERGREEN RESERVE.

KHOV.COM/RASPBERRYFALLS

MHBR #3149

*Sales must originate by 2/28/2011. Earnest money deposit required at contract. Not to be combined with any other offer. See sales consultant for details. Prices, terms and features subject to a change without notice. Prices reflect base prices and are subject to change. Lot premiums may apply and community association feessare p required. r i n Closing g 2cost 0 assistance 1 1 valid only with the use of K. Hovnanian American Mortgage and approved title companies. Offer not good in CT, NJ and NY. Void where prohibited.

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Calendar

SPRING 2011

MARCH

MARCH 20 WATERFORD CONCERT SERIES: IGOR BEGELMAN AND LARISA GELMAN CATOCTIN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, WATERFORD Clarinet and bassoon duo Igor Begelman and his wife, Larisa Gelman, will launch the start of the concert season for The Waterford Foundation. Their performance begins at 4 p.m. Tickets for the concert are $25; subscription to all four concerts in the series is $80. Kids younger than 12 are admitted free. For more info and to purchase tickets online, visit http://www.waterfordfoundation.org.

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Photograph courtesy of Leesburg Today

MARCH 26 EASTER EGG HUNT & MARSHMALLOW HARVEST GREAT COUNTRY FARMS, BLUEMONT Shake off the winter blues and come view the spring chicks and baby animals! Find out if marshmallow peeps grow on trees, and pick a couple to roast on a bonfire. The annual egg hunt will feature more than 3,000 eggs filled with treats.

MARCH 27 Toddlers 3 years and younger will EASTER EGG HUNT start at 11 a.m., IDA LEE PARK, LEESBURG children 4 to 6 years at 11:30 a.m., and kids 7 to 10 years will begin at noon. For more info, visit www.greatcountryfarms.com.

MARCH 26 LOUDOUN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: CENTENNIAL CELEBRATIONS VIRGINIA ACADEMY, ASHBURN Soprano soloist Ah Hong performs Verdi’s Overture to La Forza Destino, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in G Major. Prior to the 7:30 p.m. performance, there will be a pre-concert lecture at 6:30 p.m. and String Workshop at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for seniors 65 and older, and free for youths 18 and younger. Purchase online at www. loudounsymphony.org.

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MARCH 26-27 AMERICAN GIRLS FASHION SHOW/TEA PARTY NATIONAL CONFERENCE CENTER, LANSDOWNE The Blue Ridge Speech and Hearing Center in Lansdowne sponsors this fundraiser featuring the characters from the beloved American Girl dolls series. Every girl will receive a gift bag with wands, trinkets, and accessories for their American Girl doll. An American Girl vendor is also on site for purchases and questions you may have. Shows and tea parties take place from 11 a.m.-4 p.m.; admission is $60 per person. For more info, call 703.858.7620 or visit the website at http:// TheAmericanGirlFashionshow.org/.

MARCH 27 LOUDOUN’S GOT TALENT FRANKLIN PARK ART CENTER, PURCELLVILLE Help choose the top three winners of the Youth Music Edition concert, which is open to musicians in grades 9-12 who are amateur instrumental or vocal performers in Loudoun. Winners will be selected by a panel of judges and the audience. Scholarships of $1,000, $500 and $250 will be awarded to the top three winners, and the first place winner will perform at a future LSO concert.

Performance begins at 3 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for seniors 65 and older, and free for youths 18 and younger. Purchase online at www.loudounsymphony.org.

MARCH 27 EASTER EGG HUNT IDA LEE PARK, LEESBURG Things will be hoppin’ at Ida Lee, where candy-filled eggs, prizes, entertainment and more will all make this an event to remember. In addition to the egg hunts, there will be unlimited rides on a jumbo slide, jump climb & slide, rock climbing wall, obstacle courses, face painting, and other amusements. Be sure to bring your camera for photos with the Easter Bunny! Event takes place noon-4 p.m.; tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at the gate.

Parents and kids older than 8 years admitted free. For more info, visit www.idalee.org.

APRIL

APRIL 1-3 LOUDOUN LYRIC OPERA: FAUST, A DEVIL OF AN OPERA FRANKLIN PARK ARTS CENTER, PURCELLVILLE The county’s resident opera company brings to life the story of Dr. Faust, who makes a deal with the devil and trades his eternal soul for knowledge, magical powers and the love of a beautiful young girl. Stage direction

by Amanda Devlin-Knowlton and musical direction by Cuong Hung Van. Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors, $15 for students. Purchase online at www. franklinparkartscenter.org LOUDOUN

M AGAZINE

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The Dif ference is

Gulic k Grou p at B R AMB LETON Homes in our New American Series live large; windows bathe the open floorplans with sunlight, making every room inviting and cozy.

With flexible spaces, potential

for a three car garage and possibilities for indoor-outdoor living, these plans provide versatility to families and empty-nesters alike.

These homes were crafted for a luxury lifestyle.

Very few sites remain. Call 703.327.4123

Gulick

or email Brambleton@gulickgroup.com to set up a private tour of our fully-furnished

The Dif ference is

model home. Visit www.gulickgroup.com for more information.

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APRIL 10 LOUDOUN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: SPRING CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERT FRANKLIN PARK ARTS CENTER, PURCELLVILLE Enjoy the second chamber concert of the season, which will include popular and serious works from all periods. Program details were unavailable as of press time; please visit www.loudounsymphony.org for more info and to purchase tickets.

APRIL 13 UPPERVILLE GARDEN CLUB DAFFODIL SHOW BUCHANAN HALL, MIDDLEBURG Floral fans won’t want to miss this American Daffodil Society-accredited horticulture competition, featuring thousands of daffodils of all sizes, colors, and forms, posed and submitted by amateur daffodil growers.

Amateur growers are invited to exhibit. The event takes place 2- 5 p.m. For more info, visit www.daffodilusa.org.

APRIL 16-17 LEESBURG FLOWER & GARDEN FESTIVAL TOWN OF LEESBURG The historic downtown area will be transformed into a gardener’s paradise, with amazing landscapes and gorgeous gardens filling the streets. More than 100 vendors will be showcasing their landscape designs, gardening supplies, outdoor living items, plants, flowers, herbs and more. A variety of food, music, children’s entertainment and crafts also will make this event a weekend not to miss. For more info, visit www. idalee.org.

APRIL 17 LOUDOUN HUNT POINT TO POINT OATLANDS HISTORIC HOUSE & GARDENS, LEESBURG Participate in a Loudoun family tradition and bring a picnic to the races at this 360-acre historic site. Visitors may bet on any number of races while enjoying their picnic from home, or the fruits of several on-site food and beverage vendors. Gates open at 11 a.m.; post time is 1 p.m. General admission is $5 per person, or $50 for subscriber parking, which admits one car and four adults. For more info, visit www.loudounhunt.com.

APRIL 18 HISTORIC GARDEN TOUR MOUNT GILEAD Loudoun’s contribution to the 78th Annual Historic Garden Week of Virginia will be a tour of historic structures and gardens in this once-thriving mountaintop town.

From 10 a.m.-5 p.m., guests will get the opportunity to explore one of the most charming, scenic areas of Northern Virginia on a fine spring outing in the countryside. For more info, including ticket prices and how to purchase, visit www.VAGardenweek.org.

APRIL 18-22 HISTORIC GARDEN TOUR OATLANDS HISTORIC HOUSE AND GARDENS, LEESBURG Join the estate’s head gardener, Carla Johnston, for a rare guided tour of Oatlands’ remarkable 4-acre, tiered garden at 11a.m. or 1 p.m. During Historic Garden 8

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week, boxed lunches are also available by reservation.

Call 703.777.3174 for more information or to make your reservation Dress for walking, some stairs and hills. Fee for guided tour is $10, and cost for boxed lunch is $13.50.

nstein’s On the Town, Ricketts’ Chicago, and more.

Performance begins at 4 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for seniors 65 and older, and free for youths 18 and younger. Purchase online at www. loudounsymphony.org.

APRIL 24 FAIRFAX HUNT POINT TO POINT MORVEN PARK, LEESBURG Watch top jockeys and exciting horses thunder around one of the finest tracks in the area at this annual tradition featuring food, crafts and art vendors as well as children’s activities such as a bounce house, pony rides and more. Or compete in one of the three tailgate categories: Hunt Country Chic, Down Home and Putting on the Ritz. Gates open at 11:30 a.m.; post time is 1:30 p.m. For more info, visit www.fairfaxhuntraces.org.

MAY 15 JAZZ & JULEPS OATLANDS HISTORIC HOUSE AND GARDENS, LEESBURG The estate’s spring fundraiser features a tented cocktail party with jazz, dancing, heavy hors d’oeuvres, and the opportunity to wander Oatlands’ garden on a fine spring evening. A silent auction and raffle add to the excitement. Come enjoy good company and a good party from 4:30-7:30 p.m. while supporting Oatlands’ mission of conservation, preservation and education.

Call 703.777.3174 x115 for more info.

MAY

MAY 7 LOUDOUN SYMPHONY YOUTH ORCHESTRA SPRING PERFORMANCE STONE BRIDGE HIGH SCHOOL, ASHBURN Some of Loudoun’s most talented youths offer a musical evening of classical pieces, including Rossini’s William Tell Overture, Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Debussy’s Petite Suite and more. Admission is free; performance begins at 4 p.m. For more info, visit loudounsymphony.org.

MAY 8 WATERFORD CONCERT SERIES: BACH SINFONIA CATOCTIN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, WATERFORD Celebrate Mother’s Day with a concert presentation of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, performed by The Bach Sinfonia, a group The Washington Post called “one of the area’s most important chamber ensembles.”

Ingrid Matthews, music director of the Seattle Baroque Orchestra, will perform as guest solo violinist. Their performance begins at 4 p.m. Tickets for the concert are $25; subscription to all four concerts in the series is $80. Children younger than 12 are admitted free. For more info and to purchase tickets online, visit http:// www.waterfordfoundation.org.

MAY 14 12TH ANNUAL TASTE OF GREECE DOUKENIE WINERY, HILLSBORO Celebrate Greece with the Bazaco family and Doukénie staff at one of the winery’s signature events of the year, featuring authentic Greek food, music, dance and family tradition. Enjoy outdoor wine tastings, vineyard tours, Mounted Horse Games, face painting and more.

Tickets are $25 for adults, $10 for children and designated drivers. The event takes place 12-5 p.m., rain or shine. For more info, call 540.668.6464 x 202.

MAY 14 LOUDOUN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: ‘JAZZ IT UP’ BENEFIT CONCERT VIRGINIA ACADEMY, ASHBURN American Idol contestant and Bluemont vocalist Maddy Curtis joins pianist Daniel Lau and the Loudoun Ballet Tango Dancers in performing a musical and dance selection that includes Anderson’s Blue Tango, Ber-

MAY 21-22 SPRING FARM TOUR Tour the Loudoun countryside from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. each day on this self-guided journey at participating farms.

You can buy spring seedlings and plants for your home; say hello to farm animals and greet spring babies; tour a winery; learn how food gets from the farm to your table; and much more. To have a brochure mailed to you or for more info, visit www.loudounfarms.org.

MAY 21-22 9TH ANNUAL COOLEST HOTTEST JAZZ FESTIVAL CHRYSALIS VINEYARD, MIDDLEBURG It’s a weekend of jazz performed by the area’s hottest bands; the best of local barbecue; cheese and hocolates from Virginia’s most highly regarded producers; exquisite jewelry; fine art; and more. Enjoy the festivities from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. For more info, including admission, visit www.chrysaliswine.com.

MAY 30 STRAWBERRY JUBILEE GREAT COUNTRY FARMS, BLUEMONT Bring the kids for one of the most popular strawberry festivals in the area! On the agenda for the day: upick strawberries, mazes, hay rides, rope swings, slides, catch-and-release fishing, the infamous Pie Eating Contest and Tart Toss, photos with the Royal Strawberry Princess and the 7th Annual Diaper Derby, when babies from 4 months to 9 months crawl to the finish line to win great prizes. For more info, visit www. greatcountryfarms.com.

JUNE 4 VIRGINIA WINE COUNTRY HALF MARATHON BREAUX VINEYARDS TO DOUKENIE WINERY Start the morning with an invigorating 13.1-mile race through rolling vineyards and country lanes along Virginia scenic byways. The race starts at 7 a.m., followed by a Wine & Music Festival where runners will join family and friends to enjoy food, entertainment, the awards ceremony, and wine tasting from Loudoun’s finest vintners. For more info, visit www. run4virginiawine.com.

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Arts

DINNER THEATER SERVES UP COMEDY

The gett

BY MICHELLE DELGADO

Spirited laughter filled the room, provoked by absurd lines read in prim British accents. Abruptly, the phone rang, and everyone looked up, surprised faces breaking into smiles and more laughter as the actors were recalled to the present time and place: Run Rabbit Run Theater’s first read-through of Oscar Wilde’s comic gem, The Importance of Being Earnest.

The upcoming dinner theater adaptation will be performed April 29 through May 15 at Grandale Farm Restaurant in Purcellville. The event is a variation on the restaurant’s tradition of dinner theater. By offering a buffet event that requires fewer servers, ticket prices are kept low: $45 for a gourmet dinner and dessert buffet, theater ticket and gratuity.

“This is a Grandale Farm event rather than a dinner experience,”Author Clark, Grandale Farm's executive chef and co-owner, says.

For Meredith Bean McMath, Run Rabbit Run's managing director and prize-winning playwright, dinner theater presents a unique set of challenges. “On a stage, the fourth wall is the invisible wall between the audience and the stage,” McMath says.“People have a lot of fun breaking that fourth wall. In dinner theater, you’ve automatically broken the fourth wall, so you really have to be careful to delight your audience without frightening them.”

The performance will be held in the restaurant's large event room, with the set fanning out from a corner performance space.

Award-winning artist and Hillsboro resident Laney Oxman, whose work is featured at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts as well as the

FOR MORE INFO For more information about the performance, visit the website at www. rrrtheatre.org.

To make a reservation, visit Grandale Farm Restaurant’s website at www.grandalefarm.com, or call 540.668.6000.

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ma skil

Go MA

to se you you you

PHOTOS COURTESY OF RUN RABBIT RUN THEATER

FROM LEFT, GARRETT MILICH AS JACK, MADDY CURTIS AS GWENDOLEN, SUZANNE JOHNSON AS CECILY AND CHRISTOPHER SAUNDERS AS ALGERNON IN THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST.

Corning Museum of Glass, designed the vibrant but simple set pieces to reflect McMath’s hyperrealistic interpretation of the play.

“The space that we’ll be performing in is almost like a thrust stage,” cast member Garrett Milich says.“We’ll be in a designated performance area and also mingling in the audience.

All of our entrances are through the audience, through the dinner area.”

Every aspect of the play has been designed with the audience’s proximity in mind.

“The audience loves being able to see the actors up close and feel as though the performance is being given just for them,” McMath says.“To add to it, this one is set in 1895, and the costumes are going to be truly wonderful. That’s the era of the lady’s puffed sleeves and huge hats, and the audience is going to be able to see the costumes’ details.”

At its heart, the plot is simple: Jack loves Gwendolen and Algernon falls in love with Cecily. But Gwendolen and Cecily both dream of marrying a man named Ernest. Jack and Algernon both pose as Ernest, but the truth comes out when the characters converge during a weekend in the country. The story threatens to spin out of control as a host of comical characters introduce further twists in the two couples’ courting.

McMath handpicked the cast for their comic timing and group dynamics. Among the cast is Maddy Curtis, whose melodious singing voice landed her on FOX’s hit show American Idol last

FROM LEFT, CHRISTOPHER SAUNDERS AS ALGERNON, SUZANNE JOHNSON AS CECILY, DIANE EL-SHAFEY AS LADY BRACKNELL, MADDY CURTIS AS GWENDOLEN AND GARRETT MILICH AS JACK IN THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST.

year. Curtis will play Gwendolen, and along with Milich as Jack Worthing, the lead roles are rounded out by Christopher Saunders as Algernon Moncrieff and Suzanne Johnson as Cecily Cardew.

Grandale Farm Restaurant neatly parallels Run Rabbit Run's focus on local resources. Like all of their menus, the menu for the Earnest performances – which will include several entrée op- Get the free mob http:/ / gettag tions and a pastry bar – features produce grown and harvested on site.

“Locally grown gourmet food and locally grown gourmet actors,” McMath jokes.“A unique Loudoun product.”

LOUDOUN

M AGAZINE

2/24/11 7:58 PM

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Neighbors

steve lough’s BY buzz mcclain

I

t’s a beautiful spring afternoon in Lovettsville. The sun is reflecting off the metal tops of silos that tower over old barns; in the near distance a pair of palominos grazes in a mottled pasture; and closer in, in the small subdivision, there’s the reassuring scent of newly mowed grass in the air.

A typical Saturday in the country.

Suddenly a brisk shout interrupts the bucolic quiet as a masculine voice barks,“Engage!”

Sixteen men dressed in shorts, knee socks and tight jerseys understand the command and waste no time barging together, in two very orderly eight-man packs, bent at the waist and locked together at head and shoulders. Each set of eight shoves with all their might to drive the other set of eight off the white oval ball that has been rolled underneath them.

In a moment, somehow the ball materializes behind the team in black jerseys and a man standing behind the bent players grabs it; in one swift motion he throws it, bullet-like, to more players behind him. One of them catches it and runs. And is chased by a horde of fast, large men.

There is more shouting as the ball advances down the field and soon there is a tackle, and the furious scene that ensues involves much banging of bodies, followed by more tackles and, eventually, a break-away run down the sidelines that results in a score.

There’s a kick through the white goal posts and much cheering. Soon, a whistle blows indicating the end of the game and before too long both teams, sweaty and a bit bloodied, share a beer-and-barbecue party on the sidelines, the pleasant nature of it astonishing and unlikely given that just a few minutes earlier these 30 grown men were trying to maim each other.

But that’s the nature of rugby football, the 179-year-old English game personified by its “elegant violence” and its remarkable camaraderie, even among the most aggressive of opponents.

The team in black is Western Suburbs Rugby Football Club, one of the few adult teams made

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up of players from Northern Virginia. The team’s motto, visible on T-shirts and bumper stickers, is “Go hard or go home!” but for Steve Lough, he already is home.

This full-size rugby pitch, bigger than a regulation football field, with 25-foot goal posts and a Porta-Potty off to the side, is on a good portion of the 4 1/2 acres that make up Lough’s yard. His four-bedroom house is adjacent, so close that the team puts pads on the exterior east corner, under the front porch where spectators enjoy covered “box seats,” to prevent injury should someone get tackled into the brick wall.

It’s a risk the team is willing take, as having a privately owned home field is a definite advantage, according to club President Jeff Bush.“We save between $100 and $200 a game since we don’t have to pay for a county field,” he says.“But we really save money with the social afterward since we’re not dealing with a commercial establishment. We can bring in our own food and beer.”

“It’s a field of dreams,” says Rhonda Lough, Steve’s wife.“That’s exactly what it is for Steve.

And people come. I’m always amazed when a tour bus full of Japanese rugby players shows up and they say, ‘We’re from New York.’ You came from New York to my house? It never ceases to amaze me.”

Steve Lough has been playing rugby since 1978 and has been around the world playing the sport. When Steve and Rhonda spotted the lot they would build on eight years ago,“you could have seen the cartoon bubble over Steve’s head: ‘I bet I could put a rugby field on this,’” Rhonda says with a laugh.

It would be enough if “Lough Field” was just Western Suburb’s fall and spring home pitch for matches with teams from all over the MidAtlantic (the team practices in Chantilly). In recent years Lough has formed an under-19 rugby club made up of players from several high schools, including Stonebridge, Briar Woods, Loudoun County, Loudoun Valley and Woodgrove; the team competes for the state championship each spring.

“We would love to get the attention of Heri-

tage and Tuscarora (high schools),” Lough says, since you can never have enough talent to draw from for a competitive side.

And, we hesitantly ask, how does Rhonda feel about the additional rugby company?

“I think it’s good for these boys to have a place to go; there’s nothing to do out here, really,” she says, and she sounds like she means it.

“The parents are grateful that their kids come to my house to practice every Tuesday and Thursday. Their parents at least know where they are

and what they’re doing. To me that’s a big plus.”

If the kids can’t drive, Rhonda has been known to drive to the bus stop to ferry them to practice. This kindness isn’t surprising given that her job with Loudoun County Public Schools is as parent liaison. “I help parents with whatever they need,” she says.“I help people pay rent. I buy groceries. Just about anything they need.”

She put the rugby population to good use last year by hosting a food collection that benefited local families.

The Loughs have two children: Amanda, who turns 13 in March, and Brandon, who turns 17, also in March. You can’t help but notice Brandon L o u d o u n

M agazine

2/25/11 11:31 AM

PHOTO BY CECILIO RICARDO JR.

WESTERN SUBURBS PLAYERS BUTT HEADS IN A SCRUM WITH SEVERN RIVER LAST FALL.

is tall, like his father. In fact, he could be a rugby player.

“He plays for the high school team,” Rhonda says.“I have to say the one thing that makes me feel really good about all this is that Brandon has shown interest in TOP, MIDDLE, BOTTOM PHOTOS BY THERESE P. HOWE it. If nothing else I get satisfaction that he feels like he fits and he belongs and there’s spring, using your grills, swimming in your pool something that excites him. And what man and challenging your septic system. wouldn’t want their son to love rugby? It’s every “I knew rugby was going to be a battle I guy’s dream, isn’t it?” would never win,” Rhonda says. “Am I crazy Maybe, but it isn’t every woman’s dream to about rugby? Am I a ‘rugby wife’? No. Do I care have a 120-yard, white-lined rugby field on the side of your house attracting more than 100 play- that a bazillion people come to my house? No, I ers and spectators several weekends each fall and don’t really care. And the good thing, because it’s S p r i n g

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2 0 1 1

at my house, I don’t have to be there if I don’t feel like it. I can leave. And if I want to be there, I can just go inside and shut the door.”

As for the septic system,“the men have to use the Porta-Potty,” Rhonda says firmly. “But the ladies always know they can come in to use the bathroom. That’s the unwritten rule.”

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2/24/11 8:04 PM

THE TABLE IS SET AT AYLESBURY ANTIQUE CENTER AND TEA ROOMS IN LEESBURG

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L o u d o u n

M agazine

2/24/11 8:03 PM

COZY UP FOR TEA TIME B Y C A R O L I N E R E N O W I L D E R P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y J E F F M A U R I T Z E N

LOCAL TEA HOUSES SERVE A CHERISHED TRADITION

A

steaming pot of aromatic tea, good company and the absence of a schedule make afternoon tea an event to be cherished in our mad-dash culture. From buttery scones with clotted cream to the fine accoutrements of tea such as exquisite bone china, the experience of a leisurely tea can be as brilliant as the morsels

served. No need to hop the pond either. Or don white gloves. The altogether refined and relaxing pleasure of afternoon tea is happily accessible in these Loudoun establishments.

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2/24/11 8:05 PM

AYLESBURY’S TEA ROOMS IN LEESBURG

A Country Tea

W

hile it’s known for its outrageous ham biscuits, Thanksgiving sandwiches (scrumptious – I’ve had one) and made-from-scratch pies, Little Apple Pastry Shop Inc. in the sleepy Village of Aldie also features an afternoon tea service in its upstairs loft area. According to affable owner Kay Pitts, the shop serves what she calls a country tea – by reservation, starting at $25 per person.

While lovely lace tablecloths and fresh flowers adorn the tables, it’s the sweet and savory array of delectables and fragrant teas that encourage losethe-watch lingering here. From the scones and cupcakes to the quiches and finger sandwiches, everything is made from scratch.

According to Pitts, Little Apple Pastry Shop features several tea menus from which to choose, including a dessert-only menu. Another menu may have more pastries while another may have more fruit. Pitts’ variety of finger sandwiches includes cucumber and cream cheese, chicken salad, and pineapple and cream cheese rolled in toasted pecans.

For Pitts, who gets up at the brutal hour of 2 a.m. daily to bake the shop’s tasty assortment of goodies, putting on a tea service is a labor of love.

“I love setting up the room and making it pretty and elegant.”

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As for the tea, Pitt brews Earl Grey but always asks what type of tea customers would like.“If they want something special, we try to find it.”

Longtime Aldie resident Barbara Baird, who eats lunch at Little Apple Pastry Shop just about every day, also enjoys the shop’s afternoon tea service. “The atmosphere is marvelous, the tea is delightful and the food is unreal. It just is a super place.”

The Loft at Little Apple Pastry Shop can accommodate up to 12 adults. Little Apple Pastry Shop is located at 23217 Meetinghouse Lane , Ste. 102, in Aldie. For reservations, call 703-327-2500 or visit www.hotapplepie.com to see their tea menus.

A Spot Of Tea

The Union Jack that flies proudly outside the charming Aylesbury Antique Center and Tea Rooms in Leesburg ensures that inside an authentic English Tea experience awaits. Karen Stroman, owner of Aylesbury, opened her shop because“you couldn’t get a decent cup of tea anywhere,”she says. The traditional tea room experience that she and her staff provide includes freshly baked scones, imported Devonshire cream, and of course, fragrant English tea. According to Stroman, the tradition of afternoon tea originated in England and“was a fill-in between lunch and

dinner. Lots of expats come in here. They see the sign out front and want to go in.”

When they do go in, the genuine article awaits.

Aylesbury’s cottage-cozy tea room is reminiscent of one you’d find in the English countryside. With walls painted a soothing green, vases filled with fresh flowers, and calming classical music in the background, Aylesbury’s intimate tea room offers a sweet respite from modern-day stress.“It gives me a good feeling to know people come here to relax,”Stroman says.

And relax they do.“Aylesbury takes me back in time to my visits to England, taking an afternoon tea, without having to fly there to experience it,” says Ashburn resident Barbara Maistros, who enjoyed a leisurely cream tea on a frigid winter day.“I’m glad to know there’s a tea shop close by in Loudoun dedicated to an authentic cream tea.”

Adding to the authenticity of its English tea experience, Aylesbury serves its signature Yorkshire tea.“It’s a good, full-bodied tea that suits most people’s tastes,”says Stroman, who hails from Watford in Hertfordshire, England.“Yorkshire Tea is one of the finer bags out there,”she adds. Aylesbury offers its guests three types of tea: Cream Tea for $8.95 a person, Full Afternoon Tea for $19.95 a person, and a Young Lords and Ladies tea (10 and under) for $9 a person.

Cream Tea, which a friend and I enjoyed, features a pot of traditional English tea served with a L o u d o u n

M agazine

2/24/11 8:05 PM

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2/24/11 9:32 AM

DAINTIES BOTH SWEET AND SAVORY ARE SERVED AT LITTLE APPLE PASTRY SHOP AND AT OATLANDS HISTORIC HOUSE AND GARDENS, LEFT

PHOTOGRAPH BY CECILIO RICARDO JR.

homemade scone, Devonshire clotted cream and strawberry preserves. Full Afternoon Tea includes a pot of traditional English tea served with an assortment of savory finger sandwiches, homemade scones with Devonshire clotted cream and strawberry preserves, a selection of imported English biscuits (cookies), and fresh fruit. Young Lords and Ladies tea affords the younger set a delightful tea experience including their choice of tea, juice or milk, and an assortment of finger sandwiches, imported biscuits and fresh fruit.

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From individuals wanting to savor a quiet tea experience with a good book to larger and lively groups, Aylesbury’s genial staff is happy to accommodate.

Birthday parties, bridal showers and baby showers are popular reasons why people come to Aylesbury for tea. The tea room will also be featuring The Royal Wedding Celebration Teas throughout the month of April to commemorate the nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Aylesbury also has plans to hold a Mother’s Day tea on Saturday, May 7.

Before or after tea, guests can browse the variety of imported items available for purchase at Aylesbury, as well as the eclectic array of antiques ranging from dishes and furniture to jewelry and clothing.

Aylesbury Tea Room, which is open Thursday through Saturday, from noon-4 p.m., is located at 212 Loudoun St., SE, in Leesburg.

For reservations, call 703-868-6935 or visit www. aylesburytearoom.com.

A

Genteel Tea

Established in the early 19th century, the splendid Oatlands Historic House and Gardens

near Leesburg, with its lush grounds and gardens, is a lovely venue for traditional afternoon tea. As a National Trust Historic Site and National Historic Landmark, Oatlands gives history buffs and tea aficionados a distinctive diversion to while away an afternoon. Tea at Oatlands is served in the charmingly rustic Carriage House. According to Director of Retail Operations Carolyn McCarthy, most of those who go to Oatlands for afternoon tea are“tea enthusiasts looking for new tea venues.”

Oatlands serves a variety of delicate tea sandwiches, including chicken salad, pimento cheese, and smoked salmon, scones served with clotted cream and red raspberry preserves, as well as sweet treats such as lemon bars, blonde brownies and raspberry strudel. Oatlands Afternoon Blend is the tea that’s featured exclusively. According to McCarthy, the tea is a black tea with calendula that was blended for Oatlands by MacNab’s Premium Teas in Boothbay, Maine.“I had people make a trip from Indiana to buy more of it,”McCarthy says.

Cost of tea, which is served at 1 p.m. on select dates, is $24.95 a person for ages 3 and older. A tour of the mansion is available at a discounted rate of $5 when an individual has afternoon tea at Oatlands. The estate is located at 20850 Oatlands Plantation Lane. For a complete schedule of upcoming teas, including Mother’s Day teas, visit www.oatlands.org or call 703-777-3174 weekdays for reservations.

L o u d o u n

M agazine

2/25/11 11:37 AM

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2/25/11 1:18 PM

42

leesburg today

Sentence

Shawn Dong told the jury that his grandmother raised him and his sister Julie, and that, at 21, he had an almost one-yearAttorney James Plowman said he was pleased old son who would not get to meet his with the outcome, and thought it was the great-grandmother.

“I just want to let you guys know, what right verdict for the situation.

Plowman said his office never considered me and my family feel, I would not want bringing Julie Dong in to testify against her anyone in this room to ever feel,” he said. “I mother, even though in a signed proffer she wouldn’t want anyone to feel that ever.”

It is that reality that Plowman told the implicated Kim Dong in the homicide.

“You never know if you’ve got an uncer- jury to take back with them to deliberations.

“How do you measure the love of a tain witness,” Plowman said, adding he wasn’t sure if Julie Dong would try to lie or not. mother? How do you put a value on the “They are mother and daughter, and there is love of a grandmother for a grandson?” he a bond there that I wasn’t sure I could break asked. “I am asking you to consider what was taken away from this family prematurely. The through.”

Before the jury retired to deliberate random phone calls, the smiles. All of those sentencing, Plowman asked each member to intangible things that are now reduced to memories.”

Keller Williams of Leesburg consider how Hoang may have suffered as sheRealty In Suite her statement died.

50 Catoctin Circle, NE, 101 to the jury, courtappointed defense attorney Lindsay Hendrix “Did Mrs. Hoang know who her killers Va. Leesburg, 20176 were? Did she know it was her own daughter asked jurors to consider Kim Dong, the View Our Homes At: person. and granddaughter?” he said, noting Hoang’s “Kim is a very low functioning person,” death was very different from other types BarryHarloweRealty.com of murder. “This was up close and very Hendrix said. “She had to rely on her mother Mobile 703-881-6051 her entire life. She wasn’t able to provide her personal.” mail Shawn to: barryharlowe@kw.com Speaking for his family, Dong, own shelter, food or clothing. She wasn’t able Kim Dong’s son, told the BarryHarloweRealty.com jury there were to get or hold a job. She wasn’t allowed to no words to express what his family is going handle her own money.”

Hendrix reminded the jury that Kim through.

“I can best explain it as a never-ending Dong sought the approval of the detectives pain that me and my entire family will have who questioned her.

“Remember her demeanor with the to live with for the rest of our lives,” he said. detectives. Even though she’s in custody, she “There is nothing we can do to change it.” is still relishing in their attention,” Hendrix

Barry Harlowe

Continued From Page 10

Honest and Dependable

february 5, 2010

said. “She wanted someone to be kind to her. Dong’s attorney Michael Harrington said it That’s what she wanted.” was Hiep Dong who made a judgment about Hendrix also asked the jury to consider who may have killed his mother, and then all that had changed in 20 years, and what relayed that to police. Based on his judgment, that time actually meant to the course of their police focused on Kim and Julie Dong as lives. “My guess is, even if you remember suspects. where you were 20 years ago, you certainly In his closing argument, Harrington don’t remember what you were doing every made note full analysis was not done of the single of those 7,300 days.” pillowcase that was used to cover Hoang’s Throughout the trial the commonwealth face during the stabbing, including checking said, looking at all the evidence, there is for Kim Dong’s DNA and blood evidence only one conclusion the jury could reach: that would have been coming from Hoang’s that Kim and Julie Dong acted together to mouth, nose and the face abrasions. He also intentionally cause the death of Hoang. Kim told jurors of a piece of tape that was on Dong’s defense attorneys argued Julie Dong Hoang’s throat, but was not analyzed after it acted alone and Kim Dong only confessed to was removed from her body at the medical try and save her daughter. examiner’s office.

Kim and Julie Dong killed Hoang “If Julie committed this crime alone, around midnight Wednesday, July 23, 2008, my client is innocent. Doesn’t she deserve to and then ransacked her room looking for keys have all the evidence collected?” Harrington to a car that had been a point of contention asked. “There were certain things that were within the family, and ultimately packed their available, but that just weren’t done.” personal belongings in the car and fled.

Plowman noted, “you could list pages The two women ultimately were appre- and pages of what we don’t know,” but asked hended in New Mexico after police were able the jury to determine if those unanswered Gift Certificates to track a purchase at Tenorio’s Travel Center questions are material to the case, or if there paid for with Hoang’s credit card, which was is still enough evidence to prove Kim Dong’s missing from the home.Leesburg’ Police later learned Consignment involvement. AsShop. to the defense’s theory of the s Premiere the murder weapon might have been dropped said and therethe wasshopper. no evidence Always providing a lovely experience forcrime, both Plowman the consignor in the trash at a rest stop in another state, but presented that showed Julie Dong committed shop.com it has never been found. ConsignmentBoutique the crime alone.

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2010: O

By Dezel Quillen

A Very Good Year

f all the things a consumer looks for on a wine label, the vintage year is one of the most important, yet one of the most overlooked. A wine’s vintage is the year the grapes were harvested. It’s a bottled expression of everything that happened over the course of the growing season – from springtime bud break to fall harvest.

In Virginia, Mother Nature sees to it that no two growing seasons are alike. Each year, varying weather conditions introduce a new set of challenges for local winegrowers that in the end has an influence on the wine you and I will eventually enjoy.

Consider this: You can have the same producer, the same fruit source (vineyard) and the same winemaker, who uses the same viticulture and winemaking techniques, and each year, his or her wines are going to be different.

One year, there may be too much rain during harvest season, producing lean and soft wines. The next year may be warm and sunny with moderate rainfall, producing riper and more balanced wines. Have you ever had a wine from your favorite producer that you thoroughly enjoyed, while the next year's release of that same wine had a slightly different taste and/or aroma that you didn’t enjoy as much? We call this vintage variation. Wine is an agricultural product, and the quality and style will change from year to year due to the variation in the weather as well as other factors, both in the vineyard and in the winery.

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “Good wine is made in the vineyard.”

If this saying is true, then Loudoun County grape growers have every reason to have high expectations for the 2010 vintage. It doesn’t take long to reflect back and think about the sweltering summer of 2010. Lawns and

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Winemakers anticipate an exceptional vintage

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PHOTO BY THERESE P. HOWE

PHOTO BY DEZEL QUILLEN

PHOTO COURTESY OF BOXWOOD WINERY

FROM LEFT, JORDAN HARRIS IN TARARA WINERY’S WINE CAVE THIS WINTER; MARK AND VICKI FEDOR IN THE VINEYARD AT NORTH GATE VINEYARD LAST SUMMER; AND BOXWOOD WINERY WINEMAKER/VINEYEARD MANAGER ADAM MCTAGGART OVERSEES THE PUMPING OVER OF FULL TANKS OF GRAPES LAST FALL.

gardens required frequent watering to stay alive, air-conditioning units worked overtime, and who could forget the stink-bug invasion? All of this was the result of an unusually warm and early spring followed by a long, hot summer. This, combined with drought-like conditions, kept winegrowers on their toes throughout the growing season as such conditions present advantages and disadvantages.

The abnormal weather pattern accelerated the growing season, producing an early harvest for many growers by two to three weeks.

The results have been riper, more concentrated wine berries and optimal flavors, but some reduced yields. Overall, the 2010 Loudoun County growing season is shaping up to be an exceptional vintage.

THE GRAPEVINE

Jordan Harris

General Manager and winemaker, Tarara Winery The wines from 2010 have the greatest potential for quality that we have seen. The whites show incredible promise. The best wines of 2010 will far surpass any other recent vintage in Loudoun, including 2007. However, poor picking decisions could have led to some green and lean wines with high alcohol. In the spring, we will release three 2010 wines. Our Charval, which is a blend of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, Petit Manseng and Roussanne, is far rounder and lusher than past vintages. Our Rosé is very “big” for a Rosé, almost Gamay-like, with more white pepper and dark fruit than our traditional Rosé wines. Also, there has been a lot of demand for us to make a “stainless fermented” Viognier, so we did this year. Come out this spring, enjoy the beautiful views, and try our new wines.

Nate Walsh

Winemaker, Sunset Hills Vineyard The hot and dry 2010 season provided us with extremely ripe fruit and subsequently rich, powerful, concentrated wines. Wine drinkers will most likely 24

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compare the 2010 wines with those from 2007, and will anxiously wait to see which next vintage will bring us such big, bold reds. Our first 2010 releases will be in the spring. We’ll release our 2010 Sunset Rosé, our 2010 Viognier and our 2010 Chardonnay.

These wines are all highly perfumed, heady and quite intriguing, so I’m interested to see how people will react in the tasting room.

Stephen Mackey

Co-Founder and winemaker Notaviva Vineyards One challenge that we faced with our Viognier harvest was the accelerated rate of sugar development immediately before harvest. Where we typically see 1-degree brix increase per week, the late summer heat drove the sugar levels to unprecedented highs faster than we have ever seen. Rather than ameliorating (diluting) the juice at fermentation, we selected specific yeast strains with high alcohol tolerance to ensure healthy fermentations.

We chose to embrace the fantastic varietal characteristic we achieved and will balance the alcohol content by blending with lower alcohol varietals.

The resulting wines will show intense bouquets and silky textures.

Mark and Vicki Fedor

Owners, North Gate Vineyard The 2010 harvest and vintage stood out in our minds in that it had a very different rhythm than any other in the last eight vintages. Usually there is a 6-8 week marathon-like pace to it; endurance and focus is key over a long period of time. In 2010, it was more like a couple of 100-yard dashes or a mile run. Everything came in two to four weeks early, and everything seemed to be harvested on a compressed schedule. It was amazing! The complete harvest actually lasted about two weeks! The grape quality was good, although it wasn’t just a “crush, press, and ferment into amazing wine” (like 2007) kind of year. Flavors were excellent, but sugars were high and acids were low. Careful attention needed to be placed on balancing the wine. The one white grape that seemed to stand up pretty well to the heat last

year was Petit Manseng. It held its acid very well, has great aromas and flavor. North Gate is planning on releasing a 2010 Petit Manseng table wine this spring. Look for it in our new tasting room!

Rachel Martin

Executive Vice President, Boxwood Winery The trend for the vineyard growing season was set early in March, warmer and dryer than usual with quality sunshine through the summer (less haze caused by humidity than normal). The warmer than average weather through March caused grapevine bud development to be at least 10 days ahead of normal, resulting in a longer growing season. We avoided two frost events at the end of April and early May that could have been very detrimental. There wasn’t any significant rainfall between the end of May and the end of September, and temperatures were at or above normal. The outcome was fully mature grapes with high sugars and extremely concentrated flavors; the wine-loving public can expect fantastically concentrated wines with a lot of complexity from the 2010 Boxwood Winery vintage!

Dean Triplett

Operations Manager, Willowcroft Farm Vineyards The hot, dry weather made for some very intense wines with much greater than normal sugar levels.

The early harvest gave us fruit that ripened right in the middle of the hottest portion of the season.

Fortunately, our elevation on the Catoctin Ridge gave us some relatively cool evenings, which helped retain varietal character in the wines. Our soon-tobe-released Chardonnay Cold Steel has a vibrant true Chardonnay nose with clean citrus palate and finish. Our Traminette is very floral on the nose with a nice palate and long finish. Our Albariño is much different than our first production from last year. Still, the peach nose, minerality and crisp finish should be a crowd-pleaser. Our Claire dessert wine is 100 percent Petit Manseng and has huge tropical fruit flavors and a lingering unctuous finish.Visit our tasting room this spring and try these wines.

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Two Spectacular Mother-Daughter Tea Events Hosted by and to benefit

Cinderella Tea Party November 12, 2011

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A merica n Girl Fashion Show & Tea

Sip iced tea and lemonade, taste fancy tea sandwiches and desserts, and enjoy an outstanding show.

The American Girl Fashion Show features your daughter’s favorite American Girl dolls on stage modeling styles of yesterday and today. The Cinderella Tea Party features everyone’s favorite Princess characters dancing to popular Princess tunes.

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Tickets on Sale Now at www.TheAmericanGirlFashionShow.org For more information on Blue Ridge Speech & Hearing Center and sponsorship opportunities please visit www.speechhearing.org Blue Ridge Speech and Hearing Center is the only nonprofit providing audiological services, speech therapy and occupational therapy to Loudoun County’s residents in need.

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HILLSBORO MOM PLAYS MEDICAL ADVOCATE B Y L A L A I N E E S T E L L A R I C A R D O P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y C E C I L I O R I C A R D O

J R .

MOTHER’S SEARCH FOR ANSWERS COMES UP WITH SON’S RARE DIAGNOSIS

T

wenty-four hours after Thomas Lyons was born, he still had not opened his eyes. When his mother, Susan Lyons, was being discharged from the hospital, she wanted to know why and was told that it wasn’t an unusual condition for newborns; he was otherwise a healthy baby. Susan and her husband, Shawn, were told to see a pediatric ophthalmologist

a couple of days later. The pediatric ophthalmologist had no answers for the Hillsboro couple, who were becoming increasingly concerned about Thomas. He had not opened his eyes those first five days of life. The couple was then referred to another ophthalmologist later that week. Unable to sit idle while waiting for the next appointment, Susan began to look for answers she wasn’t getting from the doctors.

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“

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MANY DOCTORS GIVE GREAT CARE. YOU DON’T NEED TO HOP ON A PLANE TO GET GOOD CARE, BUT YOU DO HAVE TO FEEL COMFORTABLE WITH YOUR DOCTOR.

Dr. William Katowitz

SUSAN LYONS SEARCHED THE INTERNET FOR CLUES ABOUT THOMAS’ CONDITION, AND CAME UP WITH A DIAGNOSIS LATER CONFIRMED BY SPECIALISTS.

“I got on my computer and I would Google ‘my baby doesn’t open his eyes’ or ‘baby’s eyes don’t open fully,’” Susan says. “I found lots of pictures online, and saw that Thomas looked like a lot of those kids.”

It didn’t take Susan long afterward to determine that Thomas had congenital ptosis (pronounced TOE-sis), which is caused by weakness or nonexistence of the levator muscle that raises the eyelid, or damage to nerves that control those muscles. In those early weeks of Thomas’ life, Susan and

Shawn would gently try to pry open Thomas’ eyes, but they would stay “open” only a few millimeters and only for short periods of time. It appeared as if he was opening his eyes by pulling up his brow muscles and tilting his head back in order to see.

“When I told this to our pediatrician, he said that ptosis seemed to be an unusually rare possibility,” Susan says. The couple was told that ptosis was a diagnosis of exclusion; doctors had to rule everything else out first before determining a ptosis case. “It’s so rare, I think the doctors in Loudoun County hadn’t seen that before.”

“At least the doctors were honest enough to say they didn’t know what was going on,” says Shawn, an assistant principal at Pinebrook Elementary School in Aldie.

The family was referred to a neurologist and a neuromuscular specialist at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC, where Thomas underwent a series of tests and probes that sent electrical pulses through his tiny body. “We didn’t know if it was a muscular or neurological problem. We just didn’t know,” Susan says. “I left every doctor’s appointment in tears.”

Susan began to question what she could have done wrong during her pregnancy. She hadn’t done anything differently during her pregnancy with Thomas than with his older brother, Patrick, who was 2 when Thomas was born. “I was starting to feel like it was all my fault.”

The neuromuscular specialist confirmed Susan’s original diagnosis: Thomas had an isolated case of congenital bilateral ptosis.

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‘THOMAS TRULY BECAME A DIFFERENT KID WHEN HIS EYES OPENED,’ HIS MOTHER, SUSAN LYONS, SAYS. ‘HE BEGAN CRAWLING, WALKING AND BEING MORE INTERACTIVE.’

There was no muscle activity in both eyelids. “At Children’s National, they told us it was ptosis, and then they gave us a pamphlet to read,” Susan says.

“Because he was still so young, they told us it was OK to wait before doing any surgery.”

In the meantime, Susan, a part-time teacher at Ball’s Bluff Elementary School in Leesburg, began researching the different approaches to treatment. She and Shawn consulted with ophthalmologists and oculoplastic surgeons at Children’s National, the Wilmer Eye Institute at John Hopkins and various private practices in northern Virginia.

“We were receiving conflicting information, the approaches were inconsistent and the advice of the doctors we met with was either noncommittal or arrogant,” Susan says. “A pediatric ophthalmologist said we should wait until Thomas was 5 before doing any surgical procedure.”An eyelid specialist in Herndon told them to come back in a year because Thomas might “grow out of it.”

At 4 months, Thomas was otherwise developing normally. He could see even if his eyelids were only slightly open. “He could follow objects placed in front of him, and he would follow us as we moved around,” Shawn says.

“And he was growing rapidly, he was eating really well. Sick babies don’t grow.”

Because of the couple’s research, they felt strongly that surgery in the next few months would be critical to his growth and development. He could lose his vision, which would affect his milestones. He might hesitate to crawl, or to walk, Susan says. “I felt uncomfortable with the advice they were giving us, so I started Googling again.”

Susan came across a Yahoo group for families of kids with ptosis. There, she found a support group and a network for sharing information. “Everyone is experiencing the same thing, so we’re able to help each other out with our stories and experiences.”

Susan stayed up many late nights, emailing doctors and surgeons around 30

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the country with questions, explaining Thomas’ condition. She found a doctor in California she was willing to go see. She also came across a textbook on Amazon. com that is used for the training of ophthalmologists. She Googled the author’s name, Dr. James Katowitz, and found him at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

On the hospital's website, she found the author’s son, Dr. William Katowitz, was also a pediatric oculoplastic surgeon.

She emailed him immediately and sent photos of Thomas. A few hours later, she received a response. The doctor wanted to meet Thomas within the week.

“We were under lots of heavy clouds for months,”Shawn says. And all of a sudden they had lifted. The heavens opened up with that first contact from CHOP.” Dr. William Katowitz was concerned about Thomas’ constant head tilt. At 8 months, the bones of the back of his neck could fuse, leaving him in a permanent“chin up”position, a condition that can’t be reversed. So on Oct. 30, 2009, Thomas had his first frontalis sling surgery to lift his lids. The surgery involved inserting synthetic slings to help lift the eyelids.

Today, Thomas is thriving. The slings are expected to stay until he is about 4 or 5, when he will be tall enough so that tissue can be harvested from his backside to replace the synthetic materials.

“Thomas truly became a different kid when his eyes opened,”Susan says. “He began crawling, walking and being more interactive.” The experience the family has had in Philadelphia is one they won’t soon forget, and they don’t give a second thought about the three-hour drives for Thomas’ appointments and follow-up.

While Katowitz sees patients from as far as Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia, he also encourages patients to form relationships with their local doctors. “Many doctors give great care. You don’t need to hop on a plane to get good care, but you do

have to feel comfortable with your doctor.”

“I’m sure the doctors at Children’s National would’ve done a fine job,”Shawn adds. “And Johns Hopkins is one of the best facilities in the country. But Susan just didn’t feel the connection to the surgeon that she felt with our doctor.”

Susan says the late nights she spent at her laptop on the kitchen counter were worth it to find the right doctor.

Katowitz does warn parents to be wary of the information they find online. “It’s always a double-edged sword when you go to the Web for health information,”he says. “On one hand it’s wonderful for people to be educated. But the Internet is filled with truths and distorted truths.

You have to be careful.”

Susan says it was helpful for the family to do research on their own, and have their information confirmed by their doctors.

“If you’re putting your kid under anesthesia, you have to be 100 percent confident that it is the right thing to do,”she says, “and that this is the right place and this is the right doctor.”

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WAR ON OUR DOORSTEP

PHOTO BY CHRISTIAN AMONSON

Loudoun Women of the Civil War

By Meredith Bean McMath In May of 1861, the women of Loudoun had no time to ask themselves what they were willing to do to protect their homes, their families, their businesses. Their fathers, husbands and sons marched off to war, and they began to do what they had to do: care for a wounded soldier who stumbled into the front yard; provide bread to a runaway slave tapping at the window; spy for an army; collect grains of corn from the walkway of the local mill to have something — anything — to plant in the spring.

Life, and the choices they had to make, were difficult from the start. But visit with these women for even a brief time, and you'll find they were surprisingly independent of thought, deeply resourceful, enormously clever and incredibly generous — to the point of putting aside their political convictions for the sake of human kindness. And all this while they lived upon a powder keg.

Loudoun was a two-day ride from both the Union and Confederate capitals, stood south of a pro-Union state, was policed by Confederate John S. Mosby and served as the home base of the only Union troop ever formed in Virginia.

While two-thirds of Loudoun's white male property owners (i.e.

19th century voters) decided to secede from the Union, the other third, a mixture of Quakers and German farmers, stood by President Lincoln and the Union. Those who lived under slavery constituted about 25 percent of the population, a smaller percentage were freedmen, and s p r i n g

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PHOTO BY MEREDITH BEAN MCMATH

there was an active Underground Railroad. Spread that volatile mix over Loudoun's rolling hills and begin riding both armies through it on a regular basis, and you'll have a good idea of what life was like in the border county of Loudoun.

So what were the women thinking and feeling as they dealt with this reality? In the town of Hillsboro (spelled Hillsborough then) — a booming business town before the war — we catch a glimpse into their complicated lives.

CONFEDERATE WIVES Tom Syphert, son of a Lovettsville blacksmith, passed through Hillsborough in 1862 looking for horses for the Union Army and wrote to his cousin, saying, “the demon of rebellion has sundered old friends and severed families there.” He told his cousin that William Fritts, the shoemaker, voted with the majority of the town to support Virginia's secession from the Union, while his wife, Amy Ann, remained rampantly pro-Union.

Two of the Fritts' three sons joined White's Confederate Cavalry, while the third signed up with the 68th Illinois and more than once found himself in skirmishes across from his brothers.

Another neighbor, Dick Tavenner, voted against secession, while his wife and daughters were pro-Southern. Tom himself was there on behalf of the Union Army, but was housed by Confederate Eliza Hammerly; when 35

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PHOTO BY MEREDITH BEAN MCMATH

LIZZIE DUTTON

PHOTOS COURTESY OF WATERFORD FOUNDATION, ELEANOR HITE CONROW HEATH COLLECTION

EMMA ELIZA ‘LIDA’ DUTTON 36

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Tom left town, she was kind enough to pack him a lunch. But not quite kind enough to tell him all the Hillsborough horses were hidden in Jockey's Cave just west of town.

Other Confederate wives were more proactive than Eliza. A Mrs. Minor of Leesburg was suspected of spying for the South. She kept a friendship with Captain Means, head of the Independent Loudoun Rangers, Virginia's only Union troop.

The troop often camped on the south side of the Potomac River about a mile north of the Minors’ home, and she apparently leveraged her friendship to acquire permission to cross the Potomac River (President Lincoln forbade proSoutherners from crossing). Rumor had it she would then travel to New York to secure firearms for the Confederate Army.

Mrs. Minor often bragged that she “had Captain Means just where she wanted him.”

A UNION PAPER On the JOHN WILLIAM HUTCHINSON opposite side of the fence, there were the pro-Union women activists, chief among them the Dutton daughters, and their friend, Sarah Steer. The Duttons were a highly respected family in the Quaker community of Waterford, and their father, John Dutton, was once imprisoned for publishing an abolition-

ist newspaper called The Waterford News. When war began, the Quaker men had to flee north to avoid conscription in the rebel army. John established himself just over the river at Point of Rocks, Md., manning a general store and post office there.

The Duttons strongly encouraged their children to follow their own conscience – even if it went against the Pacifist tenet.“Weigh thy thoughts carefully for thyself,” John wrote to his youngest daughter, Anna Ellen, from across the river. “Don’t decide things are right just because the majority of people say so.”

Oral tradition says that it was John's 17-year old daughter Emma Eliza, known as Lida, who came up with the idea of a newspaper for Union soldiers. The boys in blue plodding through town looked so downhearted that she decided they needed cheering. She enlisted her older sister, Lizzie, and their friend Sarah in drafting a short newspaper, and managed to get it across the river to their father. John Dutton had a friend in the editor of The Baltimore American, and the first of what became eight editions of the little paper was soon printed up. Copies were sent to all the Union camps in the area and sold to soldiers by subscription for a dollar a year. All the proceeds were used to support medical Soldiers’ Aid Societies.

In honor of their father’s abolitionist newspaper, the girls named it The Waterford News and filled its four pages with patriotic poems, editorials, and clever columns: “WANTED: A Union commander to take charge of the Rebel Conscripting Officers.

WANTED: A few stores... with Dry-Goods, Molasses Candy and other stationery, suited to the tastes of the community. Young and handsome Clerks not objectionable.”

Serious editorials included descriptions of the various skirmishes that occurred in and out of town, followed by words of encouragement: “Let not kind words, loving tones, and love of good deeds cease to find a place in our hearts.

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Now, if ever, is the time to ‘cast bread upon the waters,’ when tired and weary ones are all around us, and starvation stares so many in the face; when loved ones are struggling with pain, and joy and happiness are hidden in the distance; when hope leaves us and misery looks at us with hollow eyes. Let us be up and doing — old and young — we have no time to idle; every quickly flitting moment is to be improved, every space filled up.”

The emotional weight of the words deepen when you learn they were written shortly after Lizzie Dutton received a letter telling her that her Union fiancé, Lt. David Holmes, had been killed at the Battle of Petersburg.

THE LIVES OF SLAVES While Quaker families were caught between pro-Union sentiment and pacifist belief, others in the area were trapped in slavery and constantly having to choose between supporting the masters that fed and clothed them, or supporting the cause that might set them free. The true stories of Loudoun slaves are hard to learn, because they were not allowed to read and write. But others met them and spoke about them in a way that helps us hear their voices.

Union Pvt. Oliver Norton, for instance, was encamped around Dranesville in 1862, when he and several Union soldiers decided to foray into enemy territory a mile or so. An abolitionist, Norton had never actually met a slave, and he was curious. The group of soldiers headed west toward Leesburg on the Leesburg Turnpike. Soon they came upon a cabin, and Norton knocked on the door.

There he met a woman who invited the soldiers in and began cooking hoecakes and bacon for them. He asked her what life was like for her here, and she told him: “She was a slave, she said, so was her husband and the children. Her master was in the rebel army and she was left in charge of her mistress, who lived in a respectable house across the way. Her husband had been taken about a month ago to work on the fortifications at Leesburg.

He had, at first, refused to go with his master and was most brutally beaten.

She showed me the post where he was tied up and told the story with an earnestness that nothing but actual experience can give.”

Later he read a little book to her children, and the mother exclaimed, “I would study 10 years if I could read like you, Massa. A black woman taught me some letters, but Massa Blaisdell took my spelllin’ book away.” Deeply affected by the interview, within a year Private Norton volunteered to become a first lieutenant with the 8th U.S. Colored Troops.

LOVE AND WAR With all the difficulties faced by the women of Loudoun — from a lack of medicine and a lack of food, to an overabundance of skirmishes and funerals

FOR MORE INFO Historian, author and playwright Meredith Bean McMath’s company, Run Rabbit Run Productions Inc., in July will produce All for the Union in Confederate Virginia, the story of Lida and Lizzie Dutton and Sarah Steer — the first of a five-year, five-play series in honor of the sesquicentennial of the Civil War. To find out more about McMath, visit www.storyroot.com or www.

RRRtheatre.org or contact her at Meredith@storyroot.com. A list of books and resources related to the stories of Loudoun and Virginia Civil War women can be found on McMath's website at http://www. storyroot.com/PAbiblio.html.

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— it is gratifying to know that love still found a way to grow within this chaos.

In 1863, a cavalry officer saw a pretty young Virginia miss and stopped to ask her for directions. The girl noted his Confederate jacket, and, being pro-Union, decided not to help him more than absolutely necessary.

PHOTO BY CHRISTIAN AMONSON But, she was a Quaker and bound by honor not to lie. So she gave him directions, but only ones a lifelong resident could understand. When she was done, the soldier quietly asked, “Miss, which side would you like for me to be on?”

She answered decidedly, ‘If you're a Northerner, I love you; if you’re a Rebel, I hate you!” He then introduced himself John William Hutchinson of the 13th New York Volunteer Cavalry, a scout for the Union army. In order to scout in enemy territory, he turned his Union blue jacket inside out to show the muslin lining and be mistaken for a Confederate. He then informed her he intended to hold her to her promise.

The true story of how John Hutchinson met his future bride was told dozens of times to Barbara Black as she sat upon her grandfather's knee.

But whenever John Hutchinson got to the part about her promise, Barbara's grandmother, Lida Dutton Hutchinson, would turn to John and say in her soft southern drawl that she had never said love… only like.

John and Lida kept up this merry argument for their grandchildren and eventually their great-grandchildren. They were married 53 years before John passed away.

Lida wasn’t the only Dutton sister to find true love. Lizzie, who'd lost her fiancé at the Battle of Petersburg, struck up a correspondence with the young soldier who'd written to tell her the terrible news. Eventually that fellow showed up at her door, and Lizzie and the former Union Lt. James Dunlop were married in 1882.

The third editor of The Waterford News, Sarah Steer, founded Loudoun's first school for the children of freed slaves, now known as The Second Street School in Waterford. And it appears the eight volumes of The Waterford News will go down in history as the only pro-Union newspaper ever written from the Confederacy, and the only Civil War southern newspaper to be written by women.

But there are only a few of the extraordinary stories of those who once lived here. Their diaries and papers can be found at Thomas Balch Library in Leesburg, the Waterford Foundation and local libraries. Knowing their hardships and triumphs may cause each of us to wonder if we would have been as brave or as clever or as strong as they, but knowing they were more like us in thought and feeling than we may have realized opens us to the very real possibility that we are more like them than we know. And considering the caliber of their feats, that's a very kind thought indeed.

L o u d o u n

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2/25/11 9:10 AM

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2011

VACATIONS

by Buzz McClain

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photo illustration by Jeff Mauritzen L O U D O U N

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Beyond the Beach S P R I N G

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go

Forget about “staycations” – this year, we want to go somewhere!

B

ut after polling the family, no one can decide on one place where everyone will enjoy themselves – the kids want to be near the water, the adults want access to nightlife, and everyone agrees they want to try something beyond the same old beach and theme parks.

With a little creativity and advance planning, a lot of adventurous spirit and an investment of just about every penny you’ve budgeted for this year’s vacation, you can do it all – even with the kids. How do we know? Because we’ve been there, done that and got the T-shirts.

INTERNATIONAL Frolicking with a ghost in France Each year since the kids have been babies we share a beach house at the Outer Banks with three other families. One year we decided all the kids finally were big enough (the youngest was 7, the oldest 12) to take them overseas, so we pooled our beach money and rented a house in the sunny Maritimes region of western France, 20 minutes from the beach and smack in the middle of historic wine country.

The house, Le Moulin des Agrilles, was secured through an online rental agency and exceeded every expectation. The stone farmhouse had been occupied by the Nazis at one point, and apparently there still was one in residence, as my daughter and her friend made an acquaintance with a ghost in their bedroom. Far from being spooked, they actually struck up conversations in broken English.

Each day there was a decision to be made: Who was going where with whom? Each family had a rented car – one of them a van – and whoever wanted to go to the beach could ride in the car headed that way; grownups whose turn it was to not entertain children headed to chateaux for wine tastings; and one day one car went to the finish line of one of the legs of the Tour de France.

But before everyone headed in different directions, each family contributed euros to the basket in the kitchen to be spent by the family responsible for making dinner that night. This cut down on spending in restaurants and gave 42

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parents a chance to explore the local markets and get creative in the kitchen.

Each evening everyone convened in shifts – kids first – around the dining room table with tales of what they did that day as we enjoyed fare we probably could not have duplicated at home (the baguettes from the nearby bakery and the meat from the boucherie made it easy to be the day’s Top Chef).

When the kids were in their rooms winding down – without any electronics whatsoever – whichever adult still with energy strolled to the nearby pub where we became casual friends with the proprietor and the regulars who introduced us to the discovery of a lifetime: Pineau. It’s wine made with Cognac, it’s delicious with a lovely kick and it’s made only in Agrilles. Try as we may, we still cannot get a bottle in the States.

We’ll just have to go back some day.

We discovered Le Moulin des Agrilles at www.

FrenchConnections.co.uk, an English company that caters to English-speaking “holiday makers.”

The listings offered crystal clear photos, highly detailed descriptions and, very prominently, the rental price. Fluctuating currency rates may cause your final price to change slightly if you pay in increments.

Sharing Ireland’s Splendors On the map, the drive from the Galway Airport looked like a major highway but in reality, it was a “dual carriageway” barely wide enough for our tiny steering wheel-on-the-wrong-side rental car and the speeding lorries headed our way in the other (wrong) lane.

But once we checked into Sunnybank House, a 19th century estate situated on a hill above the seaside village of Clifden, my knuckles returned to their natural color, thanks to the small “welcome” meal the house owner provided us – and a wee dram of the local whiskey didn’t hurt.

The 11-bedroom house accommodated our four families in fine fashion, with the kids sharing one wing and the grownups in another, and the twain meeting either at the dining room table or the swimming pool in the rear. With four clans sharing the rental tab, the massive house – with bullet holes on an outside wall still visible from some civil unrest in the ‘30s – was cheaper than our usual Outer Banks rental, and by sharing

cooking duties we managed to keep expenses from escalating beyond our budgets.

With four rental cars available, each day we could either caravan to a common destination or venture off in various directions in this sparsely populated region of western Ireland known as Connemara. One day we took the ferry from Cleggan to Inishbofin Island,“the island of the white cow,” where we enjoyed the exotic, rustic scenery – they call it “craggy,” and it is – and consumed a fresh seafood lunch at the Dolphin Restaurant. On another day some of the dads got away for a few hours for a round of golf – our first experience on a genuine “links” course, which means, of course, no trees; it also means the ocean breeze is blowing your ball back for half the holes, but it was worth it nonetheless.

The kids swam in the pool while the parents prepared dinner, and for kicks one night the children herded the grownups into the large L O U D O U N

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COVER PAGES: KYLEMORE ABBEY IN THE CONNEMARA REGION OF IRELAND WAS BUILT AS A CASTLE IN 1867.

BELOW: INISHBOFIN ISLAND OFF THE GALWAY COAST OF IRELAND OFFERS SWIMMING, SNORKELING AND DIVING FOR THE ADVENTUROUS. BOTTOM: SAMANTHA AND LUKE MCCLAIN POSE IN A FIELD OF SUNFLOWERS IN WESTERN FRANCE. PHOTO BY ALVARO/WIKICOMMONS

PHOTO COURTESY OF OMT ROYAN – PH. SOUCHARD

PHOTO BY BUZZ MCCLAIN

PHOTO COURTESY OF OMT ROYAN – PH. SOUCHARD

PHOTO COURTESY OF BUZZ MCCLAIN

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TOP: WHEN YOU HAVE TO HAVE THE BEACH, PONTAILLAC BEACH OFFERS SURFING IN THE SEASIDE RESORT TOWN OF ROYAN. MIDDLE: LE MOULIN DES AGRILLES, WHERE THE AUTHOR’S FAMILY JOINED THREE OTHERS FOR A SUMMER VACATION FAR FROM THE USUAL EAST COAST BEACH TOWNS. BOTTOM: FAMILIES ENJOY BEACHSIDE DINING IN ROYAN. 43

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living room where they performed a talent show they had been rehearsing that afternoon. This act of hilarious, collaborative mirth from our kids confirmed for me the suspicion that you have to get out of your normal element for creative things to happen.

Less predictable, but just as enjoyable, was the nightly stroll down Sunnybank’s steps to the village main street for an informal pub crawl.

Each night, no matter what day, there was live music in nearly every establishment, and we came away with several CDs by musicians we came to know – and who tried to teach us Irish dance.

We found Sunnybank listed with other rental properties in Clifden at the website www.Country CottagesOnline.com – follow the links to Galway, then Clifden.

DOMESTIC Orlando Without the Mouse

The next thing I knew I was on my back on a blue lawn chair, a fake beard on my face and a wig on my head, in front of a room full of people laughing uproariously at something I could not see. When I pushed some of the wig hair out of my eyes I saw a man about to pour a glass of water on my pants.

Just another victim of comedian-magician Tony Brent, your fast-moving host of The Outta Control Magic Comedy Dinner Show at Orlando’s WonderWorks complex. Yes, this time we ventured out of the usual resort and into the Orlando suburbs to see what else the central

Florida city offers besides standing in line for roller coasters and cavorting with costumed cartoon characters.

The WonderWorks building is, quite literally, built upside down and the holding area for acquiring tickets to the magic show has the furniture on the ceiling and the light fixtures on the floor. In the basement – or is it the third level? – is a 10,000-square foot laser tag emporium, a ticket-redeeming arcade and a ropes course on the ceiling (floor?) where you and the kids can climb amid the rafters 20 feet above the arcade below.

The middle floor has various activities – a space shuttle simulator, an earthquake simulator, a bed of nails – and you can spend hours in the activities for a single admission charge.

The ground floor (basement?) is home to Brent’s very funny magic show, which is accompanied by an all-you-can-eat dinner suitable for a first grader: pizza, salad, popcorn and, for the grownups, wine and beer (both cheap, but hey).

The kids and I spent another day at the Fun Spot Action Park, across the highway from the Universal Studios park, while my wife shopped the outlets. Tthe Fun Spot is a permanent carnival with a 100-foot Ferris wheel, bumper cars and bumper boats, a two-level arcade and snack bar, “Paratrooper” and “Scrambler” thrill rides, and four go-Kart tracks, three of them multi-level. It’s like riding a gasoline powered go-Kart around a vacant parking garage. The weekday we were there, the place had very few visitors, so we rarely stood in line. In fact, a

few times we jumped out of our Kart and were directed into another for an instant re-ride.

After years of seeing the billboards, we finally caved in and caught the Blue Man Group; the titular cobalt-hued trio plays their made-up percussion instruments in a theater on the outskirts of the Universal park and it proved to be a hit for young and old, particularly after mom and dad downed a couple of Jell-O shooters served in oversized plastic hypodermic plungers.

The next day we drove to Cape Canaveral for a look at the NASA complex before heading back to the airport and home the following day. Three days in Orlando and we never saw a Mouse.

By the way, somehow Brent upended the glass of water over my pants but no water spilled out. Magic!

Las Vegas With the Kids

“Dad,” my 12-year old extreme sport-addicted son told me, “indoor skydiving was the most fun thing I’ve ever done in my life. Can we do it again today?”

Luke is not one for superlatives, nor is he necessarily greedy when it comes to experiences, but this time he couldn’t help himself so yes, I relented. He soared yet again in a winged flight suit as a jet engine turbine wafted him into the air and a spotter spun him head over heels. As I watched from behind the window of the gallery, I asked myself, “This is Las Vegas?”

Even though we are not the gambling type, when my wife discovered the Hard Rock Hotel was having a sale for mid-week stays she proudly snapped up four nights – but then was at a loss

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TOP TO BOTTOM: MAVERICK HELICOPTERS OFFERS TOURS OVER AND INTO THE GRAND CANYON; FAMILY-FRIENDLY ACTIVITIES ABOUND IN AND AROUND LAS VEGAS; THE HOOVER DAM IS ONE OF AMERICA’S SEVEN MODERN CIVIL ENGINEERING WONDERS.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MAVERICK HELICOPTERS

as to what we were going to do after checking in with two pre-teens. A little investigating turned up a week’s worth of family-oriented activities, in addition to indoor skydiving: • We drove in our rental car the 35 miles to the Hoover Dam, where we parked in a covered garage, walked across the dam, took photos and marveled at the new Mike O’CallaghanPat Tillman Memorial Bridge that spans the Colorado above the dam. After that, it was lunch in Boulder City, a quaint, quiet place built for the dam workers in 1931 and worth getting off the highway to see (except if you are a pre-teen, but tough, I’m driving).

• One afternoon we enjoyed beverages and shot video at the top of the Stratosphere Tower near downtown Vegas, the tallest freestanding observation tower in the country – 1,149 feet! – and changed our minds about riding the Insanity, a mechanical arm that swings you 64 feet over the edge and then spins until you are looking straight down. Uh, no thanks. Still, we enjoyed the beverages and the 360-degree view of Nevada.

• A friend told us not to miss something I’d never heard of before: Valley of Fire State Park, about an hour northeast of Las Vegas. There’s a 3,000-year old Indian petroglyph, various petrified logs and a visitor center with interactive displays, but the main attraction are the bright red rocks. You drive through a desert, come over a rise and . . . there it is, living up to its blazing name. You drive amid these towering, Dr. Seussian structures that beg to be climbed, and guess what, it’s allowed. The kids enjoyed romping over the red sandstone while I amused myself taking photos of them on high perches with my telephoto lens.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF LAS VEGAS NEWS BUREAU

• The budget-busting climax of the week was the helicopter ride into the Grand Canyon. Yes, this one broke the budget, but not as much as a mournful night at the craps table. Maverick Helicopters picked us up at our hotel – in a van, not a chopper! – in the morning and by brunch time we were hurtling toward a modest Champagne lunch in Arizona at a picnic table deep in the canyon, but still high above the river and well under the famous Skywalk. This is where we took the photo that eventually became our Christmas card.

PHOTO COURTESY OF LAS VEGAS NEWS BUREAU

Four days in Vegas and I never played a hand of cards and only played slots when I was in the lobby waiting for everyone else to come out of the hotel room.

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TAKING THE FAMILY OVERSEAS

BY BUZZ McCLAIN e asked some travel experts for advice on taking the family overseas, and booking rental properties. Here are tips worth packing.

“Travelers should begin shopping for summer travel to France and Ireland a couple months in advance,” says Bill Miller, senior vice president of strategic partnerships for CheapOair, an online travel booking site. “They should be cognizant of what the prices are for the summer months now, and then sign up for alerts that tell them when prices go up or down. Many travel sites, like CheapOair, have options like an RSS feed feature, newsletters and social media that help travelers monitor fluctuations in price.”

Traveling with kids? Miller says use your miles when you can and make sure your children have all their entertainment needs for a long flight with them before takeoff. “Travelers can check out the onboard entertainment option of the airline they plan to fly as most airline websites will tell you what type of entertainment is available onboard the flight you are considering,” he says. “Also, most airlines now provide the capability to get onboard Internet service which is especially beneficial for those families with teenagers. An eight-hour flight with internet service and Facebook is key.”

Of course Dulles International Airport is closest, but sometimes it pays to depart from Ronald Reagan National or Baltimore Washington International Airport. His bottom line: “Each person should save at least $50 as a starting point” if venturing beyond Dulles.

A family can expect to spend the following amount – minus taxes and fees – per traveler: Paris: $588; Dublin: $477.

Now, how do you rent a house in Europe when it’s hard enough getting one in Rehoboth?

We asked Hank Hudepohl, director of vacation rentals at TripAdvisor, PHOTO BY BEN ULLMAN/STOCK.XCHNG for help. TripAdvisor has more than 100,000 listings around the world, but there are other websites you will want to explore before making a final decision.

• Put a trip leader in charge.“It’s a little bit more work than renting a beach house. The booking process is a little bit different than a hotel experience,” he says. Get someone who is devoted to the trip to be in charge.

• Ask around. “A friend of a friend is often how people find rentals. Use websites that have done some level of verification of the listing. One of the dangers of going to a free site is the low barrier to put information on the site.

TripAdvisor, they pay to be on the site and we’ve done a level of verification that these are real properties.”

• Read reviews by other travelers.“If you’ve got a family with small children, it’s more useful to see a review from someone else who had a family with small children and see if that property can accommodate them.”

• Expect to pay a deposit to secure the rental, then pay the balance a few weeks before arrival. Read the rental agreement closely, “and if it’s too complicated that’s probably a red flag. These things don’t have to require a lawyer to interpret them.”

• Rental fees vary, of course, but “in general, we find a typical stay of a week with a family of five that you’re going to save between 30 and 50 percent. But you could end up in a really special home and could be less of a savings.”

• Midnight snacks, breakfast, kid food and pleasurable downtime are reasons for renting a “self-catering” house.

• Be sure to find out whom to call – generally a nearby owner, property manager or caretaker – if you get in a jam. Make sure they speak English!

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mid the emphasis on eating fresh food produced locally grows an increasing desire to get back to basics — like growing your own fruits and vegetables at home. To help you get started, three local gardening experts offer their advice. Every garden is as unique as its gardener, but they all begin with the essentials. Gardeners usually plan in winter, but all is not

lost if you prepare in early spring. Vegetables need at least eight hours of light a day, so choose a sunny area close to your home. Consider also who will eat what you grow. A simple rule: If your kids don’t like them, don’t plant them. After deciding what to plant, be sure to test the soil. The Loudoun Master Gardeners program, part of the Virginia Cooperative Extension, offers a test kit

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for $10. A lab at Virginia Tech will recommend nutrients and how to balance the pH level based on what you intend to grow.

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LINNA ‘THE LOCAVORE’ FERGUSON, SHOWN AT DOUKENIE WINERY, FEEDS HER FAMILY YEAR-ROUND WITH VEGETABLES AND FRUIT (PRESERVES SHOWN AT RIGHT) GROWN ON HER 3 ACRES IN PURCELLVILLE

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s for watering your garden, “it’s better to water less frequently but more deeply,”says Debbie Dillion, urban horticulturist and coordinator for the Master Gardeners. Wet the soil to a depth of 4 to 6 inches where the roots grow, then let the ground dry to encourage them to grow even deeper.

Dillion encourages growers to use a soaker hose, which saves water while putting it right where your plants need it.

As your garden begins to grow, monitor it daily. Not only will you take pleasure in seeing what you’ve planted come to life, but you can stay ahead of pest management. If your plants have a pervasive disease, bring in sample leaves to the extension office in Leesburg and a Master Gardener will diagnose it and provide solutions.

Gardening is a peaceful, solitary activity, but meeting other growers is important, too. Dillion recommends visiting the demonstration garden in Leesburg’s Ida Lee Park where Master Gardeners conduct presentations for the public on Tuesdays and Thursdays. But her invitation comes with a warning: “We tell people to be sure they lock their car or they may come back and find it filled with zucchini from other gardeners,”she says with a laugh.

The rising interest in growing one’s own vegetables has led to improved gardening techniques, especially in smaller spaces. With limited space behind her single family home in Leesburg, Denise Palmer plants vegetables in a ground plot and three raised beds. Out front, she also adds a few small vegetable plants to an area containing herbs and flowers. This is a change from her early years in Iowa, where as one of eight children, she helped care for the family’s half-acre vegetable garden.

When she married, Palmer stopped gardening for more than a decade because the military quarters she shared with her husband and daughter had no land, but she returned to her roots 12 years ago when she moved to Loudoun County. She learned that square foot gardening — which uses small gardening tools, saves water and reduces weeding — worked best at her new home.

Mel Bartholomew’s book, Square Foot Gardening, taught her how to maximize ground and air space by planting vegetables that mature low to the ground next to plants that grow tall. Now as a Master Gardener, Palmer is the program’s authority on vegetable gardens, and she gives talks 52

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DENISE PALMER PREPARES SEEDLINGS AT HER HOME IN FEBRUARY FOR THE LOUDOUN MASTER GARDENERS’ DEMONSTRATION GARDEN.

and mentors others. For new gardeners, Palmer’s most common advice is, “whatever you’re planning to plant, cut it in half,”to spare them from being overwhelmed.

In addition to her expertise in the garden, Palmer has learned a thing or two about suburban living. When her homeowner’s association sent her a letter about the side view of her garden being visible from the street, she installed an arch arbor and planted climbing wisteria. She also became a member of the association. “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,”she says.

Of course, if you have the opportunity to leave the suburbs and move to western Loudoun, your gardening may blossom to new heights. That’s what happened in 2007, when Linna Ferguson moved from Ashburn to Purcellville to a 3-acre home affectionately named the Veggie Patch. Known as Linna the Locavore (a person who eats food locally grown), Ferguson is a certified square-foot gardening instructor, food-based landscape designer, speaker, writer and blogger (check out vafoodscaper.com). She also is a full-time website usability analyst as well as a wife and mother of three children; contributes to Examiner.com; created the Loudoun Locavores Listserve; and was a guest on the show Emeril Green hosted by Chef Emeril Lagasse.

Ferguson’s delight in growing vegetables started as a child by helping her mother in the garden, but when she had children of her own she developed an even greater awareness of the benefits of buying local food because of its nutritional value and great taste.

If given a choice between organic or local products, she chooses those locally grown because many smaller farms use moderate pest control methods and only when necessary. Online information from the Loudoun County Committee for a Sustainable Society helped her find farms, farmer’s markets, co-ops, community-supported agriculture programs, and stores in her area.

Along with tending more than 10 raised vegetable beds, a kitchen garden, a micro garden, hanging planters, a winter cold frame, a sour cherry tree and more, Ferguson has discovered a passion for speaking at local and corporate gatherings.

Enthusiastic and approachable, Ferguson wants to motivate others so they can enjoy wholesome gardening and eating as much as she does.“I can’t give people everything they need, but if I can trigger passion and creativity and curiosity, then I know that will last so much longer than my speech ever will,” she says.

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APRIL 30 WILD HARVEST WORKSHOP 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Chicama Run, Purcellville Linna “the Locavore” Ferguson will discuss the benefits of wild edibles and how to identify some of the most common ones in our area.

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s temperatures slowly mount, Loudouners weary of winter turn their eyes to spring, and no single event raises the spirits better than the annual Leesburg Flower & Garden Festival.

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et for April 15-16, this year’s regional horticultural showcase will turn downtown Leesburg into a five-block garden and provide a panoply of products and services as well as countless gardening ideas and tips for the novice and practiced gardener alike.

The annual festival of gardening, entertainment and food has become the signature event for the Leesburg Parks and Recreation Department and routinely wins regional and local awards and citations.

It’s a constant marvel not only to visitors but also to longtime county residents to see the heart of Leesburg turned into a enchanting landscape, with exquisite miniature gardens full of spring bulbs, shrubs and trees, edged with stone, brick or wood and featuring trellises, gazebos, fountains and even streams, against a backdrop of the town’s historic architecture.

That combination only adds to the event’s popularity as visitors remark on how pleasant it is to see gardens almost in a natural setting, unlike most expos where the exhibit is confined to an interior space. The landscape exhibits are judged by a panel of gardening experts, but visitors are not denied their own voice in the process, as there also is a People’s Choice award, in which patrons can note their own choice of best landscaped garden — a choice that quite often differs from that of the experts.

And it’s not only garden enthusiasts who are drawn to the event. There is a full roster of entertainment on two stages — music, dance, juggling, puppets, storytelling, magic and animal world shows — for all ages, and plenty of food vendors to satisfy hunger pangs.

Best of all, visitors can see the festival at their own pace, leisurely lingering over certain exhibits or racing in early on to get the specific plants they want, plopping down on the Courthouse lawn to enjoy some great music or taking their children to the kids’ activity area for fun and games.

It is not uncommon to see patrons taking advantage of a bench in one of the landscape exhibits for a momentary rest, while his or partner goes on a more serious buying quest.

In the early hours of the festival, kids often get towed around by their parents in buggies or wagons they have had the forethought to bring with them. There also are red wagons that can be leased for the duration of the S P R I N G

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festival available at the information gazebo in the middle of the exhibit area.

Kids need to make the most of the free ride because before long, when the plant buying gets going in earnest, it is they who are unceremoniously dumped from the wagon, to be replaced by a shrub or assortment of plants to be hauled back to the car.

This year’s festival will see a couple of changes from last year. The hugely successful wine garden, introduced for the first time last year, will be expanded. Event coordinator and Recreation Supervisor Rachael Goodwin said the wine garden will feature products from a number of breweries and wineries. Given its popularity last year, the wine garden will move to a more prominent location with better visibility on the Town Green.

That shift will move the kids’ entertainment stage and games area from the Town Green to the southern end of South Wirt Street where it connects with West Loudoun Street, and can be accessed from north and south. The move also likely will bring more foot traffic to West Loudoun.

Nonprofits have their own visibility during the festival. The Leesburg Fire Department will provide space for them to display their brochures and information about their activities. The department also plans to have a fire truck available and other equipment for young visitors on the grassy areas Call us today We look forward to your call on either side of the town garage fronting onto West Loudoun Street.

But despite the many other attractions available at the festival, it is the gardening exhibits and products that are the heart of the event.

“We’ve juried more than ever this year,” Goodwin says, noting soon after the exhibitor applications were received Jan. 12 more than 100 of the available 130 spaces had been approved and a waiting list was rapidly filling.

Interest from landscape exhibitors was also coming in strongly.

2/25/11 1:50 PM It’s a popular show with vendors as well as with visitors, and Goodwin estimated about 70 percent of those coming to this year’s festival were returning exhibitors.

“So far, it’s a good mix of old and new,” Goodwin says as she heads into the final preparations for the April show.

Admission is $3 to the show and Goodwin requested that pet owners “The key to leave Fido at home if possible, noting the frequent warm temperatures can be hard on pets left in parked cars. A limited number of red wagons can be leased from the information gazebo in the middle of the exhibit area to haul is to pay as visitors’ loot to their cars.

Parking is available in both public parking garages, but spaces to it as possible.” fill quickly. Goodwin pointed out there is ample parking available at Ida Lee Park just north of the exhibit area, - Judith Regan - Judith Regan and a shuttle runs constantly Spring Arbor Residents Catherine N.(‘04), Willie B.(‘06) & Barbara M.(‘08) between Ida Lee and Spring Arbor Residents Catherine N.(‘04), Willie B.(‘06) & Barbara M.(‘08) the festival.

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22 Culinary Sites and Restaurants

Offering a diverse range of menu selections and price points!

Complemented by wines/spirits from 10 providers Featuring fresh ingredients from 15 Loudoun County Farms CULINARY SITES • ashburn • Clyde’s Willowcreek • leesburg • Aiyara Thai Restaurant • The Dock at Lansdowne • Lightfoot Restaurant • ‘On the Potomac’ at Lansdowne Resort • Palio Ristorante • Shoes Cup & Cork Club • Tenderjacks • The Wine Kitchen • Tuscarora Mill • Vintage 50 • lovettsville • Market Table Bistro • The Restaurant at Patowmack Farm • middleburg • The French Hound • Goodstone Inn & Estate • Market Salamander • Red Fox Inn • neersville • Grandale Farm Restaurant • purcellville • Magnolia’s at the Mill • south riding • Catch 52 • Vintage 51 • sterling • Cookology • WINERIES • 8 Chains North Winery • Bluemont Vineyard • Corcoran Vineyards • Doukenie Winery • Fabbioli Cellars • Loudoun Valley Vineyards • Northgate Vineyards • Notaviva Vineyards • Tarara Winery • Willowcroft Winery • SPIRITS • Catoctin Creek Distillery • FARMS • Allder School Berries • Ayrshire Farm • Bay Haven Farm • Checkmate Farm • Great Country Farms • Greenstone Fields • Mill Road Farm • Millcreek Farm • Oakland Green Farm • Patowmack Farm • Potomac Vegetable Farm • Quarter Branch Farm • Red Hill Farm • Stoneybrook Farm • Wegmeyer Farms

To find out about this new, exciting Loudoun initiative with information on all participants and contact info, and to book your reservations now, go on-line to www.FarmToForkLoudoun.com, today!

Get Farm-to-Fork Loudoun updates in the weekly Talk Loudoun e-zine.

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