Hello Virginia

 Paint it again, let the horse from the stable.

I'll see you again when I am able. 

. . . Another year has gone by.

-Johnny Selman, "Goodbye Virginia"

Virginia is such a gorgeous state in a thousand different ways.  I will always be proud to say I grew up in a small Southern town in Virginia called Martinsville, and I would not change that for the world.  The friends from there are one-of-a-kind.  They are the kind of friends and the kind of people you will know forever and ever, and that will never, ever change. 

I love that Virginia has a very predictable (for the most part) set of 4 seasons.  The bright green summer, which is undoubtedly always blanketed by dense humidity, rolls into a much-welcomed Fall, where trees grace the streets with Hokie colors and the air is as crisp as a Granny Smith. 

The Fall always seems to leave too quickly, followed close in it's tracks by Winter, which comes and stays awhile, sometimes a LONG and gray while.  As much as I adore accessorizing with hats and scarves, I am over it after awhile.  For being our shortest month, I feel like February goes on. And on. And on. 

Then, those daffodils poke their perky selves up through the soil, the pollen coats the windshields and attacks my allergy eyes, and the vegetables start to taste AMAZING.  It's grill season.  It's vegetable season.  It's pedicure season.  It's my 2nd favorite season (Fall is #1 in my book). 

Let's raise a mango margarita to beautiful Virginia.