Still 'walking Sydney streets"

Alan Waddell passed away in 2008 but his sons continue to update the website with pictures from his walks.
Since this is probably the closest I will ever come to visiting Australia ? it's a pleasure to continue to be able to 'walk with Alan' in spirit.  I followed his website for years.

UMM..Maple Syrup :)

I haven't updated since we visited the Highland County Maple Festival on March 19th ,too busy enjoying March Madness (Yay! VCU ! way to go so far :)

We went with my husband's brother and his family, first to Eagle's Sugar Camp , as we usually do, and of course got some Maple doughnuts..the glazed kind,  maple fudge, and Maple Syrup..which I had over my French toast this morning,yum!

and then headed back to the Sugar Tree Country store  which is where we always get

 maple cream, maple candy, apple butter, and yet another kind of maple donuts. 

Highland county is so beautiful,as you can see in these pictures, taken in the parking lot near the Sugar Tree store, located in McDowell,VA.

and then we headed on over to Monterey,VA, which is the hub of the Maple Festival. this pic below is looking Toward downtown Monterey.

and this picture below is looking back towards the mountains we'd just come over to get there.

I neglected to take any pictures of all the craft booths in downtown Monterey, was too busy wandering through the booths and enjoying looking at all the crafts..and did I mention that we also stopped to eat maple funnel cakes ?

Oddly, although the Maple festival is also famous for buckwheat pancakes, I've never eaten them there in all these years, as my husband is not a pancake lover, and the lines are usually extremely long to wait to get pancakes.

One of the pleasures, for me, of traveling over every year is also that once we get into the mountains, we listen to Alleghany Mountain Radio  They have a mixed playlist, from bluegrass to 50's and 60's,etc. and there are lots of 'oldies' to sing along with as you're traveling thru the mountains (my family suffered thru this part of the trip,lol, as I cannot carry a tune at all!)

I found a nice write-up of the festival on the blog of an area blogger/reporter, Lynn Mitchell, HERE
which you might also enjoy reading.

and that's my round-up of our visit to the Maple festival for this year:)

Our Neurotic Dog:)

So we took Brownie (above) and Riggo to a park with a creek running through it the other week, and that was when we learned that Brownie is Terrified of ..bridges,lol.
We approached the first bridge and she started pulling backwards on the leash, but we were finally able to coax (ok,'drag') her over..but when we came to another bridge, she just came to a complete stop and absolutely refused to go over!
Finally, Tony spotted another bridge further down where there was no traffic crossing, so he took her down there and Picked Her Up and Carried Her halfway across the bridge..while Riggo and I approached from the other end, and we were finally able to persuade Brownie to finish crossing the bridge, with Riggo alongside her.
Hilarious :)

Woot! It's March..that means Maple Sugar festival time :)

Yes, it's once again the month when thousands of folks descend upon a little town in Highland County,Virginia to celebrate the annual Highland Maple Festival
We'll be going again this year:)