The Local WildlifeTed (Not his real name, see below)– A fixture at Hyperion. If the building is ever sold he comes with it. Ted is the knower of all regarding lawn care, local real estate and cars with high mileage and bad paint jobs. Also a fashion …

After a series of false starts, it appears the long awaited Virginia Brewing Company won’t be opening after all. The brewery that had been planned for Winchester, VA is now strictly a live entertainment “nightclub.” Discussions on DC-Beer indicate the …

Behind Our Genteel Southern FaçadeA somewhat unusual site for Frederickburg I have to admit. The juxtaposition of a lady’s unmentionable with the old southern porch and garden in the background rates at least a short story. One has to ask–How would…

Recently we mentioned new regulations that would allow first time homebuyers in the Fredericksburg real estate market the option of using the $8,000 tax credit for closing costs or the down payment on their home purchase, instead of waiting to use it on their tax return.  We also mentioned that it would take a little […]

Earlier today I got a new follower notification from Twitter. The Tin Foil Five is now following me. It didn’t scream obvious spam link so I clicked through. It turns out that they are a local metal band. I didn’t know we had any original metal in Fred…

I sloshed my way out to our backyard rain gauge to pour out the 0.6″ of rain it had collected since I last emptied it (Monday?). I haven’t felt that degree of turf “squishiness” in mid-June for a number of years; normally it feels like that in late M…

This was the radar depiction about the time I decided to head out for a chase yesterday. SPC had our area under a severe TS watch, and this line of storms was plowing into very juicy air over the Virginia Piedmont. An hour later all of this activity …

Here’s a new ad that “Common Sense Virginia” is running (at least on YouTube, haven’t seen it on television yet):

So, they claim that Bob McDonnell took no questions during his stop in Fredericksburg (technically Stafford), eh? My question is how the heck would they know? Sure, there was guy from the group tracking McDonnell but […]

Last Monday I was one of the judges of the VA State Fair wine competition, the second year I have participated. The fair is not until autumn, but the competition takes place in advance and then the gold medal winners get to show their wines at the fair.

I am happy to report that I found the overall quality of wines to be better this year than last. There weren’t very many that I rated below a 75 (out of 100), the score that basically says the wine is not fit for human consumption. The bad news is that there also weren’t very many wines that I thought were excellent or outstanding – most were either good or pretty good. There are something like 154 wineries in Virginia now producing many different wines – we need more outstanding ones or Virginia wine will not get the national recognition that other states, like Washington, have.

There were 214 wines entered in the competition, of which I tasted about half. It’s pretty grueling, actually. By the end you just want a beer. It also becomes harder to tell the reds apart towards the end, which is disadvantage if your wine happens to land there. Still, it was an interesting experience and it’s always fun to have an influence on a wine’s future.