One big change is that I got to grill tonight!
A few days after our household goods arrived, I unpacked the grill tools and our Texas Longhorn grill cover.
Oooh, happy memories!
I exist by cooking on the grill!
The best food is grilled on the patio while overlooking the garden.
GRILL LOST BETWEEN TEXAS AND VIRGINIA
Anticipating grilling meals again, I looked onto the deck at the grill…which wasn’t there.
Perplexed, I suddenly I realized the grill never arrived with the rest of the stuff.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t even find it in the inventory.
Uh oh, how did that slip by? I’m usually on top of every detail as is the moving crew.
I had a vague memory of the last two items hauled onto the moving van in Texas: the grill and the basketball hoop apparatus.
And then they drove off and I returned to my empty house full of memories…
If it’s not on the inventory, there is no proof so there is no financial remedy for the mishap…
Since nothing ventured nothing gained, we called the moving company.
Surprise, surprise, they knew exactly what we were talking about!
Because those massive moving vans hold goods for several households, everything must be tagged accordingly.
As the driver delivered household goods between Texas and Virginia, he found the grill…untagged.
KINDRED SPIRIT
For him, that was a happy problem, because he enjoyed making use of it on roadside stops to grill his dinners…better than truck stop fare!
Hey, a kindred spirit!
Now that the driver knew who the owners were, he told us to research a replacement price, which we did.
After reporting that to him, the driver sent us a check with more money added for the inconvenience to us. Awww….
FIRST GRILLED DINNER ON THE DECK
After purchasing and assembling our grill, we placed it in the perfect out of the way corner of the deck, convenient to the French patio door for quick ins and outs while managing dinner tasks in the kitchen.
Immediately, I planned dinner on the deck, a second story architectural Virginia beauty from which we can enjoy much scope for the imagination.
I’m so glad we landed a house with one of these second story decks, definitely good bones.
Looking into my pantry and refrigerator to see what I could throw together, I decided to grill orange serrano marinated chicken and peaches, sauteed orange garlic sugar snap peas, with garlic polenta.
I cooked enough for leftovers: chicken salad for lunch and polenta fried with parmesan cheese to side with another meal.
After grilling the evening’s dinner, we each took a plate dished up at our kitchen island to our patio table on the deck.
I love that the sun sets on the other side of the house, so we can enjoy dinner in the shade of summer.
This was our first meal at our old patio table on the deck, overlooking the beautiful Virginia greenery, watching the colorful birds and frisky squirrels.
It was wonderful to have grilled food again!
In San Antonio I usually grilled once a day because it’s warm there most of the year.
I suspect that grilling in Virginia will be more rare due to shorter summers.
Got to make the most of my grilling opportunities!
GARDEN INSPIRATION FROM FIRST WALK IN OUR NEW NEIGHBORHOOD
After dinner we extended our garden experience by taking our first walk in the beautiful neighborhood.
This area is huge…the largest neighborhood in Virginia.
Who knew we found the only Texas-sized neighborhood in Virginia!
Lots of interesting streets named after Scotland and 18th century British military, ranging from Island Fog Court to Cold Stream Guard Court.
Even the neighbors had imagination.
At one house we saw two parked cars in the driveway with vanity plate, one for Clark Kent and the other for Lois Lane.
Most of the colonial houses with picket fences had gardens set against rolling hills, hence the name of our neighborhood, in the Scottish…through which nature trails took us to the creek below the neighborhood.
We were getting lots of ideas!
I can’t get over how fragrant Virginia is when the honeysuckle blooms everywhere!
I want some in the backyard!
WE TEXAS-FIED OUR NEW GRILL
Once returning home, our grill was cool enough to close and cover.
Pulling out our prized Longhorn Texas grill cover, it made us happy to see it from the family room and kitchen every time we walked by
Check our header photo for a peak at that Texas-fied grill.
I need to remember to capture a better photo of that.
Most fun in the header photo alongside our Texas Longhorn grill cover, is our new colonial bird bottle that I got at auction in Colonial Williamsburg.
After six weeks, our house is coming together, reflecting who we are.
EPILOGUE
Finally got a great picture of the grill with our Texas Longhorns grill cover…in the first blizzard of the season.
Several blizzards later we broke the record with a grand total of 60 inches of snow!
