Welcome

Welcome to Harding Place Cozy Cottage

The Cozy Cottage is located just 1/4 mile from the city limits of Blacksburg, Virginia, the home of Virginia Tech.

The Cottage is a renovated farm house planned to provide a comfortable environment for family, friends, and guests. The Cozy Cottage is available for vacation rental with variable rates depending on the season or activities of the dates.

Winter rates are set to make it attractive for parents to visit their VT student, or for Blacksburg natives to come home for a visit. The West Virginia Winterplace ski resort is about a 1-1/2 hour drive which is almost to Tamarack, W. VA.'s marketplace of premier crafts.

There is also a lot to do in the Summer around Blacksburg:mountain photography, hiking mountain trails, visiting museums, eating at one-of-a-kind restaurants, or rocking and reading on the front porch of the Cozy Cottage. Deer can be seen about every morning and the mountain climate make Blacksburg mornings invigorating.

Peak-season weekends are VT graduation and Hokie home football. While rates are higher at these peak times, staying at the Harding Place Cottage is comparatively affordable, and the proximity to Blacksburg and VA Tech is a real bonus.

Learn more by checking out  http://www.craigslist.com,  Virginia, New River Valley, Vacation Rentals or  http://www.cozycottagevirginia.weebly.com

Coming Home

Coming Home

Reminiscing September 15, 2006

Today, I drove Dad’s 1979 GMC truck to the refuse dump/recycling center. I drove down Ryan’s curve, up through Happy Hollow, out Mt. Tabor road, down Bishop Lane, up Hwy 460 and then into Coal Bank Hollow. The trip was about 3 miles long, and because I didn’t want to distribute my trash over the scenic countryside I never got in high gear. The return trip was even more interesting because I turned wrongly on Bishop road going the other way from where I had traveled it before. I give you these travel details to illustrate that you don’t go straight to anywhere in Montgomery County, Virginia. In my short trip I could see sets of mountain ranges in every direction with a different view at each turn. This is the heart of the Appalachian Mountain Range. Just a few miles from Coal Bank Hollow, one can get on the famous Appalachian Trail that meanders along ridge tops of these Eastern Mountains from Maine to Georgia.

I was taken with the beauty of this pre-fall. Technically it is summer but in the Virginia Highlands there needs to be more seasons to describe the climate adequately. It was sweltering hot just a week or so ago and it will probably be that way again before serious leaf fall. But for now it we have the green of spring, the yellow (Golden Rod) of late summer and the coolness of fall, not cold but the kind of cool that makes you enjoy physical activity outside. I had the windows down and at my slow pace the breeze was refreshing. It almost made the trip to the dump something to write home about.

I turned 66 last month. I left Blacksburg when I was 23. Why? I had graduated from Virginia Tech, for one thing and I wanted to further my education at a Western university. But still I ask, why? I thought, “I’ll bet Daniel Boone had some of the same interest that I experienced when I was younger.” “What’s beyond that mountain? What adventures lie ahead? If I leave can I find my way back? Those were real questions for me and I have a career full of stories. But more importantly, I have a large family that still recognizes that they have roots in these Virginia Mountains.

What is it like to return to the mountains? It is not a complete return but the times at home have been more frequent and of a longer duration than in previous years. I still see the beauty of God’s creation, but the journey has given me new eyes. What were mono colored green mountains now look like waves of the ocean with differing hues of blue, green and gray. The clouds can change from soft and fluffy to dark and bold in what seems to be a flash.

Since I’ve been away barren and back woods places have become prime building sites. Properties that once had rows of peach and apple trees now have columns of houses. The mottled pink and white colors of the springs-past have given way to the symmetry of rooftops. And I wonder if the people that have swarmed to the mountains appreciate the place that now holds them. I hope they respect and work to achieve a balance between use and preservation of this colorful region.

My journey has also given me new insight to the people of the region, my kin and my neighbors as well as the “foreigners “ that have moved in. Foreigners don’t necessarily mean from another country. It’s just that they are “from off,” i. e. “not from around here.”

Some of what I saw as normal black/white/gray has taken on soft shades like the mountains. Most folks with whom I grew up were from Scotch-Irish decent. But they had been away from the motherland so long that they were no longer Catholic, in fact they were almost anti-Catholic. As I grew up I probably had little thought about diversity (probably had never heard the word) . But if I did it would have meant something like people from Floyd or Carroll counties that moved in or real foreigners that had relocated from another state. The English of natives often shocked foreigners who failed to recognize the Celtic terms and phrases ( although somewhat modified) that have stayed with mountain people. And around here folks communicate as Jesus communicated. They tell stories, some are true, some mystify, some make a point, others just stimulate a laugh or another story. The best stories understate the main point and some do only what a native story teller can do; cause one to laugh at the antics of the teller or people of the region. If outsiders told the same stories they would be “making fun.”

Coming home as a stranger to strangers is an interesting journey. May I have eyes to see and ears to hear and appreciate the new colors that blended traditions and modern advances produce.

The red eye of rhubarb

I walked by my rhubarb patch and it looked like aliens were peeping  through the ground. They were either watching me or checking the weather to see if it was safe to come out for St Patrick's Day. Rhubarb is one of my favorite fruits and its emergence in Virginia in March is a sure sign of spring. (Is rhubarb a fruit or a vegetable? It looks a lot like celery or Swiss chard. But you don't eat it like either, the leaves look like greens but are poisonous and the stems need to be cooked with a lot of sugar to be palatable.)

Whatever rhubarb is it makes good fruit desserts. I like it as a sauce, prepared like apple sauce. But my favorite is rhubarb pie. I've tried it with blue berries and strawberries and the pies were good- but for my taste it is hard to improve upon straight rhubarb.
Spring is almost here!

Winter Sketches

It is only the second week of March, less than 2 weeks until the day the calendar says is the first day of spring. But winter is slow to put off her mantle, especially in West Virginia. We drove through the Mountain State on our way to Blacksburg. It almost appeared the amount of snow was a state option: West Virginia still looked like a winter wonderland with the slopes at Winter Place brilliant white ribbons. From our interstate vantage we could see some of  the roads less traveled with white surfaces.

The brilliant sun which had been on vacation most of the winter warmed most of our trip with temperatures in the 50's except when we crossed the more than 3000 feet summit of Flat Top Mountain. Even with the warm temperatures it did not appear to make thaw flow excessive. The last of the winter snows had preceded our trip by several weeks but the thick white blanket gave a wonderful contrast to the brown and gray trees that protrude from the slopes. The snow seemed to melt first around the tree trunks giving each tree a clerical collar. The trip presented many pen and ink drawings with features of the landscape revealed that are obscure in other seasons. As we crossed into Virginia it appeared the Old Dominion had opted for less snow than had fallen on WVA.  On the North side of US 460 the brown and gray hues of bare fields and woodlands welcomed us while patchy snowscapes could be seen on the North facing slopes and higher elevations. The power line right-of ways still looked like the ski slopes we had passed earlier.

The sparkling New River looked playful. The lively waters rested in calm pools before taking an exhilarating slide over the banks of rocks. Soon the trees will begin to take on a slight blush before leaping into spring. The trip will soon offer a new set of technicolor paintings.

A Unique Web Site

Check this out! http://the crookedroad.org

History of Blacksburg

Blacksburg was a significant regrouping place as the early settlers moved west.  http://www.blacksburg.va.us/ has an interesting history lesson.