A Week in Virginia

 At Tom and Evelyn’s House

We are spending several days visiting in Virginia after our recent birding trip in Cape May. Evelyn and Tom have made a number of changes to their house recently, such as painting the kitchen white and replacing the flooring. It’s all a lot of fun to see what’s happening here.

Evelyn and Tom are big fans of the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, and they have two wonderful
silk-screen hangings that they recently brought back from Japan.

They saw an art exhibit titled “All About My Love,” which is currently on view in Tokyo.
A few years ago, they saw one of the famous Infinity Mirror Rooms for which this artist is very well known. I enjoyed learning more about her and her work.

Kusama was born in 1929, and her list of accomplishments is huge. This image is from her web page,
where much of her work and life are documented: yayoi-kusama.jp/e/biography/index.html

A New Dumpling Maker

Here’s how it works: there’s a place for flattening a ball of dough.

In a different press on the gadget, you place the flattened dough with a ball of filling.

The gadget folds and crimps the dumpling. It’s actually quite time-consuming!

Evelyn made two fillings: one with mushrooms, the other with pork. She made 64 dumplings.

Dinner: dumplings, stir-fry vegetables, and a few other garnishes.

A Few More Things to Do

Evelyn and Tom are at work most weekdays. Monday, a holiday, was the day we went to the National Zoo in Washington, around 45 minutes from their home in Fairfax. Another day, Len and I walked at Burke Lake Park nearby.

Burke Lake.

The zoo was fun!

I’m also reading a very long and interesting book:
Palo Alto by Malcolm Harris, which was published earlier this year.

And we watched the first two episodes of the new Great British Baking Show.
It seems better than last year, so far, though I slept through one of the showstopper challenges.

Photos © 2023 mae sander