Ashburn Column

If you have ever read any of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books, maybe you imagined the hearty meals described in them the way I did. The idea of a farm-fresh breakfast of newly-laid eggs and salted bacon always made my mouth water. I guess it still does. Which is why my ears perked when I heard about a local farm that delivers its goods to Ashburn.

Hillside Elementary Family Fitness Night Friday May 8th. Hillside’s Family Fitness Fun will begin around 6:45 p.m in the activity room of the school.

If you look carefully, you can see a dome tent peeping over the top of St. Theresa Catholic School. It is the pied-à-terre for Principal Carol Krichbaum for the next three weeks. She hopes it will be her home for even longer: “I wouldn’t mind being up here till Christmas.”

Hundreds of local residents came out for the St. David's first annual Mercer Festival last weekend. It was filled with good old fashioned family fun.

Spring showed up in grand fashion for Dulles Little League's Opening Day Parade: clear sky, warm sun, crisp air, and the lush scent of the season’s first mowing. Jittery rookies and nonchalant veterans of all sizes mobbed the parking lot of St. Theresa's church where the DLL starts its annual parade. To a newcomer, it seemed chaos. But scattered through the crowd were team banners-- homing devices for milling players. These are no tempura-and-paper affairs, either. Every year, on every team, dedicated parents make them or buy professionally-made ones.

Last week, Ashburn's WineSmith closed its retail shop in Ryan Park. Owner Neil Smith pointed to the economic downturn as his reason for shuttering the small business. The WineSmith was doing brisk sales until last summer, when gas prices increased. That was the beginning of a long decline that Smith ended last week, saying he just did not have the capital to sustain the retail store through what appears to be a protracted recession.