At This Artist Retreat in Lexington, Va., You Paint Your Own Vacation
Rembrandt I am not. Nevertheless, I’m residing in a room named for the Dutch artist. The well-appointed space — outfitted with a queen bed and private balcony— is one of eightbedrooms named after creative masters (Dalí, Vermeer) at the Shenandoah Art Destination, a few miles from Lexington, Va. I’ve come to unwind, work on my oil-painting technique and, as it turns out, paint a manure spreader.
Husband-and-wife owners Jan-Willem and Nancy Boer opened the bed-and-breakfast in fall 2012. The next spring, they launched the business component for which they had intended the 10-acre, two-home property: an artistic getaway where guests arrive toting paintbrushes, sketch pads and imaginative aspirations. It’s a retreat where visitors experience “a relaxed, productive feeling,” Nancy says. “Like they’ve accomplished something with their art, but at the same time they’ve been pampered.”
Read more (Washington Post Magazine, Sept. 13, 2015)
Husband-and-wife owners Jan-Willem and Nancy Boer opened the bed-and-breakfast in fall 2012. The next spring, they launched the business component for which they had intended the 10-acre, two-home property: an artistic getaway where guests arrive toting paintbrushes, sketch pads and imaginative aspirations. It’s a retreat where visitors experience “a relaxed, productive feeling,” Nancy says. “Like they’ve accomplished something with their art, but at the same time they’ve been pampered.”
Read more (Washington Post Magazine, Sept. 13, 2015)
George Washington Had Lots of Little Lambs, and His Estate Follows Suit
George Washington wasn’t sheepish about his love of sheep. In fact, America’s first president was quite proud of the fluffy four-legged animals he raised as a gentleman farmer at Mount Vernon in the mid-18th century. In a letter, he called them the livestock “in which I most delight.”
Today, visitors to the historic estate can see animals representing those that would have been present during Washington’s life, such as horses, hogs and chickens.
Other attention-getters are just a stone’s throw from Washington’s former home. Take a short walk from the main house, and you’ll probably find a crowd gathered around a fence — oohing, awwing . . . and shouting, “Baaah!”
There, enclosed in a paddock and a fenced field, are more than a dozen sheep — one of five locations on the 500-acre property where an estimated 70 sheep are kept. They snooze. They munch alfalfa and grass. Sometimes they clunk heads. A couple of them are black, some are white or brown, others have spots.
Read more (Washington Post, KidsPost, Mar. 25, 2015)
Today, visitors to the historic estate can see animals representing those that would have been present during Washington’s life, such as horses, hogs and chickens.
Other attention-getters are just a stone’s throw from Washington’s former home. Take a short walk from the main house, and you’ll probably find a crowd gathered around a fence — oohing, awwing . . . and shouting, “Baaah!”
There, enclosed in a paddock and a fenced field, are more than a dozen sheep — one of five locations on the 500-acre property where an estimated 70 sheep are kept. They snooze. They munch alfalfa and grass. Sometimes they clunk heads. A couple of them are black, some are white or brown, others have spots.
Read more (Washington Post, KidsPost, Mar. 25, 2015)
On the Job: Kate Roche, Arlington Chamber of Commerce CEO
NAME: Kate Roche
AGE: 29
LIVES IN: Arlington’s North Highlands neighborhood
PRESIDENT AND CEO: President and CEO of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce
RESUME Program associate (plus internship roles, including policy intern and meetings & member services intern) at Women in Government (2005-2007); member services manager and director of member services & development at the Arlington Chamber (2007-2013); vice president at the Arlington Chamber (2013-2014)
FIRST JOB: At Jocko’s, a pizza place in my hometown of Danville, Ill. I started at the cash register and moved on to be their youngest server.
ROLE MODEL: My mom, who passed in 2010. She raised my sister and me as a single parent. She was a big believer that we could do anything we wanted to do and she encouraged us to go out there and explore. She was really confident in our abilities and that gave us a really great foundation.
YOUTHFUL ASPIRATIONS: When I was 10, I knew I wanted to make a difference. For a long time I felt like it would be in politics or government. That’s what brought me out to the D.C. area, to go to George Washington University.
Read more (Arlington Magazine, Mar./April 2015)
AGE: 29
LIVES IN: Arlington’s North Highlands neighborhood
PRESIDENT AND CEO: President and CEO of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce
RESUME Program associate (plus internship roles, including policy intern and meetings & member services intern) at Women in Government (2005-2007); member services manager and director of member services & development at the Arlington Chamber (2007-2013); vice president at the Arlington Chamber (2013-2014)
FIRST JOB: At Jocko’s, a pizza place in my hometown of Danville, Ill. I started at the cash register and moved on to be their youngest server.
ROLE MODEL: My mom, who passed in 2010. She raised my sister and me as a single parent. She was a big believer that we could do anything we wanted to do and she encouraged us to go out there and explore. She was really confident in our abilities and that gave us a really great foundation.
YOUTHFUL ASPIRATIONS: When I was 10, I knew I wanted to make a difference. For a long time I felt like it would be in politics or government. That’s what brought me out to the D.C. area, to go to George Washington University.
Read more (Arlington Magazine, Mar./April 2015)
Street Smart: What to do in Upper Marlboro
This Maryland town was established as a tobacco port in 1706, and today the area’s market mainstay is municipal business as the county seat of Prince George’s. But scratch the surface of the approximately half-mile town and its unincorporated outskirts, and you’ll find a mix of familiar faces, atypical enterprises and tranquil settings.
Read more (Washington Post Magazine, Feb. 23, 2015) Closer Inspection: For the (Faux) History Books
Earle Havens stands in the midst of Johns Hopkins University’s George Peabody Library Exhibition Hall in Baltimore trying to decide where to begin. After all, the curator of rare books and manuscripts at JHU’s Sheridan Libraries, has 70 pieces to consider. The hall’s exhibition, “Fakes, Lies, & Forgeries,” features historical works that blur fact and fiction. Just bear in mind, says Havens, “all of this is fake.”
Read more (Washington Post Magazine, Jan. 4, 2015) |
Street Smart: What to do in Greenbelt
Sure, it’s home to Goddard Space Flight Center, but there’s much more to this Maryland municipality than NASA bragging rights. Established in 1937, Greenbelt was a New Deal product, a planned community that emphasized co-op businesses as well as a connection with nature through green public space. Those early foundations reverberate still.
Read more (Washington Post Magazine, Jan. 25., 2015) On the Job: Aneesh Chopra, First U.S. Chief Technology Officer
NAME: Aneesh Chopra
AGE: 42 LIVES IN: Arlington, near Marymount University, with his wife, Rohini, and their three kids CURRENT JOB: Co-founder and EVP of Hunch Analytics, a Ballston-based incubator for start-up companies specializing in big-data analysis in the health care and education sectors RESUME: First Chief Technology Officer of the United States (named in 2009); Virginia Secretary of Technology (2006-2009); candidate for Virginia lieutenant governor (2013); author of Innovative State: How New Technologies Can Transform Government (2014) Read more (Arlington Magazine, Jan./Feb. 2015) |
