Last week the Mathews cross country team had a meet over in Lancaster, which is across the Rappahannock River just past Kilmarnock.
("Just past" is a relative term which around here means "just keep on driving, you're not even close.")
This beautiful home stands in a soybean field just before you get to Lancaster High School. I had pulled over on the side of the road, as I always sometimes do, to take these shots from the car.
Lancaster evidently isn't accustomed to Chesapeake Bay Woman sorts of photographers, the sorts who are extremely paranoid prone to spontaneous roadside stops to take pictures of the lovely scenery.
They are a very, very suspicious bunch, these Lancasteronians. An older gentleman gave me a very solid stare from his pickup truck as he drove by. In the meantime two ladies in their nearby yard paced nervously, one hand over the mouth, the other on the hip, staring. I felt certain that they were all plotting a siege it was about time for me to put away the camera and head on up the road.
Anyway, the cross country meet was very successful, and the team has had an outstanding season thus far. The next two meets (on Wednesdays) will be held at Beaverdam in Gloucester.
In other high school related events, last night I attended a PTA meeting to discuss various fundraising efforts. As the meeting was coming to an end, the ladies seated at my table started chatting about this and that. All of a sudden, faster than a Sunday shopper trying to get in and out of Food Lion before church lets out, the topic went from the prom to fruit fly infestations and the various concoctions and methods that have led to their successful annihilation. I confessed to waving a white flag a long time ago since the fruit flies have actually set up shop in my icebox (aka refrigerator). Seriously. Just ask the PTA ladies.
While most were discussing the effectiveness of vinegar or bleach on the insidious insects, one very clever parent-- a newcomer to Mathews--described her own surely-soon-to-be-patented fruit fly trap. She places a piece of banana in the bottom of a glass and covers the top with a coffee filter. Then, when enough are collected, she takes the whole thing outside and shoots it with a machine gun.
OK, I made up that part about the machine gun, but that's what I would do if I had a machine gun. And knew how to use it. Even so, the flies would still be back in my house, pointing and laughing.
No, she takes them outside andshoos them towards her neighbor's house turns them loose. I, for one, was very impressed.
Even though it's no longer Ant Season, I was all set to launch into my ant infestation woes and the miracles of Terro, but it was time to go home. Maybe next time.
Only in Mathews.
