Garden Day and Tennis

I was lucky enough to be able to attend two garden tours this week: Lynchburg and Roanoke. These tours are a part of “Historic Garden Week in Virginia” and are hosted by local garden clubs.

I took the day off on Tuesday for Lynchburg’s tour. The Lynchburg garden club ladies did a fantastic job with arrangements for each house. Unfortunately, no photography was allowed in any home. I so much wanted to take picures of the arrangements because they were truly fabulous!

I did take pictures of each house. In Lynchburg and in Roanoke, the tour is more about the house than the gardens.

This house was surprisingly large inside. It was built in the 1940’s. The interior of this house was my favorite on the tour. It was very open and was beautifully decorated.

I toured this house on a historic tour a few years ago. It was built in 1847.

This home was built in 1885 and was originally a duplex. The current owners have converted it into a single house. It still has two staircases and two kitchens. This was my mother’s favorite house on the tour.

This farmhouse was built in 1798. I have admired this house for years and was glad to have the opportunity to see the inside. If you like fabrics with a lot of hot pink, you’d like this house. The owner stenciled dragonflies on her kitchen floor and even on her refrigerator.

The owners of this house have all sorts of pets including donkeys! Aren’t they cute??

This house was built in 1976 and was modeled after the George Wythe House in Williamsburg. The gardens here were fantastic!

Saturday was the garden tour in Roanoke. I have always wanted to do Roanoke’s garden tour and I’m so glad that I did this year. All five houses were in the same neighborhood and it was fun to walk from house to house. If I ever had to move, I’d want to live here.

We started our tour with this 1925 colonial. A young couple with a little boy live here. His nursery had a frog theme and was cute as a button.

I did not like this house at all. It was built in 1991 and was full of modern furniture. It didn’t feel like anyone really lived there. The neatest thing about it was that the master suite had separate bathrooms for the man and for the woman. The woman’s side had a pink bidet. Oh my.

This house was built in 1928. The interior must have been gutted and I can’t imagine how many millions must have been spent in remodeling it. I single man who is about to be married lives here. His “man cave” in the basement must be the envy of all of his friends.

I would love sitting on his patio.

Back view

I really liked this house and would move into it in a heartbeat. It was comfortable, pretty, and looked like a family actually lives in it and enjoys it.

The last stop of the Roanoke tour was a tour of the garden only. The people who live here have the perfect spot for parties. I loved this fireplace!

It is officially tennis season around here. USTA leagues started spring competition this week. My ladies 3.0 team has our first match on Tuesday. I’m scheduled to play #1 singles. I’m scared.

Mr. SP played #2 singles on Thursday night. He lost his match, 7-5,6-4. He felt good about how he played and it truly could have gone either way.

Mr. SP is running the Big Sur Marathon as I type this. I hope that he is having fun!

Here’s our pro playing a 5.0 match Saturday night. It was fun to watch the big boys play. I wish that I could generate some power like these guys. My pro is the one with his racket raised. He told me the other day that he has run across Mario from The Real Housewives of NYC at various tournaments.

I didn’t stay for the whole match, so I don’t know if he won or lost. He was down a set and losing the second set when I went home.

It was a great evening to sit outside and watch some good tennis.