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Dear Friends:
I spent a wonderful weekend at my home in Mathews, Virginia. It’s a rare weekend that I don’t have a show in the fall, and I very much enjoyed working in my studio and my flower bed. I live on Horn Harbor, which is a tidal creek on the Chesapeake Bay. The Bay estuary is teeming with life, and I get to see all kinds of waterfowl like seagulls, pelicans, ducks, geese, herons, and egrets. Swans are bit unusual here, though, so I was delighted when a whole family of them came right up to the edge of my property. They were just so beautiful and elegant! I’m so glad I was home to see them!
Mama, Papa, and nearly grown cygnets. Cygnets are baby swans. They don’t turn white until they’re mature.
This one is a true beauty!
My oldest son John and his wife Maureen, standing on my dock, came to visit. They enjoyed the swans, too. On the other side of the creek in the background is my daughter Patty’s house. Look at those magnificent magnolia trees! In the summer they have gorgeous, creamy white flowers that smell heavenly.
It was truly a weekend of treats for me, because my friend Carol Megill from Pennsylvania came to visit me, too. Carol is a member of the Three Rivers Moss Chapter of the P. Buckley Moss Society and has been involved in the Chapter’s fundraising efforts for The Association for Children and Adults with Learning Disabilities (ACLD) of Greater Pittsburgh and The Tillotson School for over twenty years. She is also one of our number-one docents. For more information on the work of Three Rivers Moss and ACLD, please see my November 19, 2008, newsletter.
Carol came down to the Tidewater, Virginia, area to attend the wedding of one of her sisters, and took a side trip to Mathews to visit me and take a tour of The Moss Portfolio. Pictured, L. to R.: Jake Henderson, President of The Moss Portfolio and my business partner; another of Carol’s sisters, Sandy Steele; me; Carol; and Sandy’s husband Bob Steele. Carol and I are holding my new Kris Kringle print for this year, which is a giclée on paper titled The Toy Tester.
The Toy Tester will make its debut this weekend, October 9-11, at the P. Buckley Moss Museum in Waynesboro, Va., during our Museum Open House and Barn Show. I hope to see you there! It’s the perfect time to visit the Valley. The trees are colorful, the fall flowers are in bloom, and the air is clean and crisp.
Just in time for Halloween! Another print that will make its debut this weekend at the Museum, Witches Three is a giclée on paper.
It’s time for another chapter focus. This week’s focus, in addition to our mention of Three Rivers Moss, is on Moss in the New River Valley, which is named after the New River. The New River is 300 miles long and winds from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, through Virginia, and into West Virginia. Moss in the New River Valley members hale from the Counties of Carroll, Floyd, Montgomery, Pulaski, and Wythe and the Cities of Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Galax, Hillsville, Radford, and Wytheville in southwestern Virginia. There are also several members from West Virginia.
Part of the Blue Ridge Parkway shares the same area as the New River Valley. The Good Road—Blue Ridge Parkway 75th Anniversary features, top to bottom and left to right: Peaks of Otter, the Farmstead at Humpback Rocks, Explore Park, Mabry Mill, the Blue Ridge Music Center, the Cone Manor House, the Linn Cove Viaduct, Linville Falls, and Looking Glass Rock. Also included are a stone bridge and the rhododendrons that one sees so prevalently along the Parkway.
The New River is among the oldest rivers and one of two rivers flowing northward. The New River is connected to the amazing story of Mary Draper Ingles, who lived on land that is now part of the Virginia Tech campus. In July of 1755, Mary and several others, including her two young sons, were kidnapped by Shawnee Indians and taken some 800 miles away. Mary was able to escape, along with another woman, and walked back home over a six-week period, returning in late November of the same year. Sadly, one of her sons died in captivity, but the other survived and returned home after seventeen years. Mary’s story is one of courage and miraculous survival against nearly insurmountable odds, and it is strong people like her who helped start our great country. The New River was declared one of fourteen Heritage Rivers by former President Clinton in 1998.
Moss in the New River Valley was chartered in 1992. Each year their main objective is to help the children and adults in need in the New River Valley. They have performed substantial fundraisers during their seventeen years of existence. Their most recent project is selling the third printing of their very successful and popular cookbook New River Reflections with P. Buckley Moss. Charities that have thus far benefited from the sale of this cookbook are Flying Changes of Virginia, a therapeutic horseback riding program for children aged 6-18 from across the New River Valley with behavioral/emotional issues or disabilities; Presbyterian Children’s Home of the Highlands; and the local American Red Cross. The Chapter is in the process of sponsoring two scholarships at two local community colleges for students furthering their education to a four-year college, majoring in special education. Many thanks to Moss in the New River Valley for all they do on behalf of others!
I’ll be in Waynesboro, Virginia, this coming weekend for my Museum Open House and Barn Show. Waynesboro’s annual Fall Foliage Festival will also be in full swing this weekend, and I can hardly wait. While the trees in Mathews are just barely starting to show their fall colors, the trees in the Valley should be peaking soon.
Reflections of Fall depicts Crabtree Falls in Nelson County, Va., which is part of the George Washington National Forest. My children know this part of the George Washington National Forest very well. Crabtree Falls is a favorite hiking spot. The falls are approximately 1,200 feet high and supposedly the tallest east of the Mississippi. The falls feature a 70-foot cascade, as well as a series of five major cascades with additional smaller ones. Reflections of Fall will be released during my Museum Open House and Barn Show October 9-11. For more information, please contact the P. Buckley Moss Museum at 1-800-343-8643.
Last Friday the Seven Hills Art Club from the Lynchburg area of Virginia visited the P. Buckley Moss Museum and took a tour. I understand from the Museum staff that they asked a lot of really good questions, and I hope they’ll come again when I’m there so I can meet them. L. to R.: Beth Colville, President; Ginny Van Gurp, Vice President; Lois Coward, Secretary; Robert Copelan, Treasurer; Gail Copelan; and Peggy Hillman.
I need to make a correction. In last week’s newsletter, I mentioned that Designer Art & Framing in Russell, Kentucky, was having a Show without Moss this past weekend, October 2-3. It turns out that their show isn’t until October 16-17. I’m sorry for the confusion!
Dreams of Glory will be released during Designer Art & Framing’s Show without Moss October 16-17. For more information, please contact the gallery at 606-833-1380.
Love,
Pat
The Moss
Portfolio
74 Poplar Grove Lane
Mathews, VA 23109
(800) 430-1320
©P. Buckley Moss 2009