Third Installment
Betsy and friends escape frozen Virginia for a week of hunting in warmer climes. We bring you Installment Three of her daily blog, exclusive to Foxhunting Life.
Don Palus and Jackie Burke are ready for the Ball!
I know we need the rain, but, for gosh sakes …who ordered El Nina?
Just as the weatherman warned, one hundred percent chance of cold, nasty, persistent rain today. Whiskey Road Master David Smith swore at last night’s party—a humdinger of a time at new Folly downtown on Laurens Street (precious classic housewares and nifty interior items)—that the hunt would go on, weather or not. My crew consulted briefly at bedtime last night and agreed to put off a decision until the morning.
We heard the rain pelting the tin roof of our cottage all night, and it was without dissent that we collectively decided to can hunting. I heard from several other Hunt Weekers who bailed, too, and we saw more Hunt Week folks around town when we went in to check out the Aiken village,
We went to the famed Track Kitchen at the Aiken Training track and grubbed out with the scruffy racetrackers and a couple passels of event girls (obvious by their **** ball caps and Rolex sweatshirts, in addition to the hint of mascara). Dawn had her first serving of grits (she’s from New Jersey), and everybody got their fill of good, ol’ country cookin’. My stomach still sort of hurt late in the afternoon, but, golly, it was worth it!
Afterward we went to Boots, Breeches and Bridles and shopped. We found a notice about a Phillip Dutton (five-time Olympian) clinic Monday, and I retrieved an email from Kentucky friend and artist Ouisha McKinney (she of the cute horse and fox theme woolens and ceramics) who is having a trunk show at a local shop Monday through Wednesday. She hopes we can come and I assured her I’d bring a crew.
At the risk of being boring, we mostly napped away the rest of the afternoon and each dove deeper into our respective books and projects. Jackie worked on a pastel drawing of our horses collected under the lovely big live oak tree at the Full Gallop Farm entrance, Dawn and Maggie went to look at real estate, I slept like the dead in my chilly back room and worked on a needlepoint belt I’m making. Don took Jackie out shopping for … err … unmentionables she needs for under her clingy ballgown for the party tonight. Everybody except me is going. It’s at Woodside Plantation downtown, supposedly a really nice spot with a great band. Cheshire/Whiskey Road’s Ann Torreyson is in charge and has promised an excellent evening.
I’m napping a bit more because I have a late (early?) date to pick up my boyfriend Tom in Columbia when he arrives in the middle of the night. He’s coming down from his home in Fairfax for the second half of Hunt Week, his first time in Aiken, though he did his masters’ degree at nearby University of South Carolina over in Columbia. I brought X for him—his favorite horse. Tom grew up hunting with the old James River Hunt in southside Virginia. His dad, a Navy admiral, was stationed at Newport News when Tom was a young teen, and he grew up riding with the late Phil Stafford, Master of James River and one of Virginia’s legendary horsemen in his day. Tom took up hunting again when we began dating last summer and has now completed nearly a full season with our home hunt, Old Dominion Hounds in Virginia. To be continued….
Posted February 5, 2011
Photo is of Don and Jackie headed out for the ball. Meow.