I wrote about these con­certs in greater detail a cou­ple years ago, but just wanted to remind you about them and post a link to this year’s sched­ule. The end up sum­mer is sneak­ing up — only five more Wednesday evening con­certs left. Enjoy!

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8-4-2010 ETA — Blueberry sea­son is long gone in Northern Virginia. Mark your cal­en­dars to start look­ing into local farms next May!

Hooray! It is blue­berry pick­ing sea­son again! We picked 10 pounds Saturday morn­ing to restock our freezer and are still eat­ing fresh berries by the hand­ful.  Everyone I know who vis­its seems to be com­plain­ing about the gnats and rec­om­mend­ing dryer sheets to keep them away. Otherwise, they still come away rav­ing. We were excited to find a port a potty on site this year… potty access is always a plus on any adven­ture with lit­tle kids.

Here’s the scoop from pre­vi­ous years:

Eagletree Farm & Vineyard
15126 Harrison Hill Lane
Leesburg VA 20176 (map it)
(703) 777‑5954 or
(703) 851‑0699

Loudoun Valleys Office of Rural Economic Development says:

Eagletree is a pri­vate set­ting with a per­sonal touch.

These folks are right. Located off Rt. 15 north of Leesburg — you turn off 15 like you are going to Temple Hall Farm and then fol­low the U-PICK signs — the set­ting is so pri­vate that I at first felt like I was tres­pass­ing in someone’s back yard, but that is exactly what makes the pick­ing expe­ri­ence so wonderful.

Eagletree’s pick your own blue­ber­ries are $4 per pound this year and worth every cent. They are tasty and the expe­ri­ence of pick­ing is per­fect. I have been twice and both times it was a serene expe­ri­ence. No chaos, no crowds, no short­age of blue­ber­ries… just a nice lit­tle fam­ily expe­ri­ence and some yummy blue­ber­ries to boot.

If you are look­ing to round out your blue­berry pick­ing expe­ri­ence with some lit­er­a­ture for lit­tle peo­ple, check out Robert McCloskey’s Blueberries for Sal. It’s been a favorite since my child­hood… so much so that I feel I am short­chang­ing my chil­dren if I don’t man­age to hunt down their lit­tle metal buck­ets so that they can hear their blue­ber­ries go “Kerplunk!”

eagle tree pond picking blueberries

fine print blueberries

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Now that we are fos­ter­ing a dog I meet local fam­i­lies at adop­tion day each week­end and some have shared sto­ries of recently los­ing a pet. I tear up when I hear them. Our won­der­ful vet is involved in a Pet Remembrance Candle Lighting Ceremony in Leesburg next week, and I offered to help get the word out. The event will be held at St. James’ Episcopal Church (14 Cornwall Street NW Leesburg 20176) at 6:00 P.M. on Friday March 5th. The dead­line to include your pet’s photo in the slideshow has passed, but you and your fam­ily can still attend to remem­ber a pet together and put a pic­ture of your pet on the Memory Board. Here are some details straight from the flier:

This year mar­ket he 5th International Pet Remembrance Candle Lighting Ceremony. Pet lovers in Loudoun County first par­tic­i­pated in this cer­e­mony in 2009. Please join us once again to help con­tinue the tra­di­tion in hon­or­ing all beloved pets who have passed on, are lost, or have been sep­a­rated from their family.

Join us in the Fellowship Hall of St. James’ Episcopal Church at 6:00pm for light refresh­ments, to hear read­ings and music, and to enjoy inspi­ra­tional thoughts from our spe­cial guest, the Reverend Bonnie J. Berger. Rev. Berger is an inter­faith min­is­ter, spir­i­tual life coach, and hos­pi­tal chap­lain who is excited to help build this tra­di­tion in cel­e­brat­ing the human-animal bond! The can­dle light­ing cer­e­mony will occur at 7:00 pm. All human mem­bers of your fam­ily are invited to attend but please leave your four-legged fam­ily mem­bers at home!
Feel free to bring a pic­ture of your pet along to be included on the Memory Board.

If you can­not attend our cer­e­mony, please feel free to e-mail us your pet’s name and pic­ture so he or she can still be included in the slide show. We also encour­age you to join us at home by light­ing a can­dle for one hour at 7:00 pm. We hope you will find com­fort know­ing that other pet lovers world­wide will also be light­ing a can­dle on the same date, in mem­ory of their lost pets!

If you have ques­tions you can reach Dr. Krisi Erwin of the Leesburg Veterinary hos­pi­tal at this email address.

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