Martinsville – Life In & Around Martinsville-Henry County

A Onesie Party, a Popup Art Sale & a Daintea Pairing

Somewhere there is an inventory manager scratching his head at the sudden demand for animal-themed onesies in Axton, Virginia.

At least, we’d like to think so.

Mountain Valley Brewing threw such a successful onesie/pajama party this past Friday that it may become an annual event. After all, a lot of people have onesies. now.

Some people wore pajamas. Some people wore a onesie. Some people wore normal clothes. The winner wore traditional red long johns with a blasting area warning on the back flap. Owners Herb and Peggy were Beatles-themed with a walrus and an octopus.

The temperature was perfect for the event. Cold enough to wear something warm but warm enough to not need a bath robe accessory. Brett Bass played old country (think old Hank) and Daddy Q’s BBQ food truck provided hearty BBQ dinners complete with ho cakes.

Saturday was glorious. Warm and sunshine-y. It was a perfect day to take a hike or catch up on deferred yard work. Sunday was more weather-challenged but packed with things to do.

Martinsville UP has been organizing these pop up art sales in Uptown Martinsville and they’ve been very successful. This one was held at 20 Walnut Street, just across from the circus mural and a door or two down.

The sale was from 12 to 6 and we had rain, snow and sunshine all in that span. Henry’s Fresh Roast warmed up visitors brewing up samples of sumatra coffee and selling whole bean bags and macaroons.

Henry’s Fresh Roast Sold Macaroons and Coffee

Next to Henry’s Fresh Roast was a very shy artist. I didn’t catch her name but, if you like her work, you can follow up with Martinsville Up, the organizer of the event, to find her.

Fused Glass Artist Aleen Wilson (whose studio, Gallery 22, is next door) had a selection of functional glass art and hanging pieces. Her specialty is fused glass but she’s been teaching me stained glass over the past few months. She’s very versatile. If you are interested in any of the pieces pictured below or would like to commission something in particular, her contact info is (276) 806-7186 and aleen.gallery22@gmail.com.

I particularly liked this piece that looks like a fish to me.

WoodWoRx had a beautiful display of jewelry. I really failed them in the photo department because their display was so striking and my photos were so … not. They have many good photos on their Facebook page and I encourage you to check them out.

Their earrings are incredibly lightweight. One of these pair will start working its way to an owl-loving friend in Houston next weekend.

Kay Martin Wagoner is the artist behind Kalela Designs. I have a fondness for her screen-printed glass art but take a look at her Facebook page to see a variety of different glass art as well as faux leather earrings!

Screen Printed Glass Plaque by Kay Martin Wagoner

Glass Fusion Screen Printed Art Piece by Kay Martin Wagoner

Charm Cat is the greeting card business of local Bassett water color artist, Ashleigh Pritchard. She is a phenomenal artist and has a great sense of humor that she has combined in her greeting cards and blank note stock. Her website is set up for online orders so be sure to check it out.

Charm Cat Watercolor Stationery and Fine Art

Last but certainly not least, Grattan Creek had a large selection of handcrafted soaps and wood work for sale. They also have online ordering available through their web site.

Besides the lavender, honeysuckle, and olive oil bars you may have heard of before, they also have several beer soaps made with hops from Henry County’s Mountain Valley Brewing. Lime Ginger Sour Beer, Cedarwood & Sage, and Bourbon ‘Backy are all beer soaps that boast the amino acids, antioxidants, and antibacterial benefits that come from the hops and the rich lather that comes from the carbs and sugars in the beer.

Handcrafted Artisan Soaps from Grattan Creek

They also had some beautiful wood work that I don’t see currently available on their website.

Bowls, soap savers, bottle openers, burnishing rods, BBQ grilling hooks, and even birdhouses are available online but you will have to contact them directly about the grinders. If you’re local, they also have items for sale at Black Dog Salvage in Roanoke.

Grattan Creek’s Display at the Pop up Sale

The snow started in earnest on the way out to Mountain Valley Brewing to the Beer Pairing with Daintea. To be honest, I had no idea what Daintea sold. I know that they are new and have a shop on Rives Road, just before the bridge, on the Walgreens side of the road. They’ve been open awhile now but I just haven’t made it by. All I knew that they sold was bubble tea and I don’t even know what that is.

It turns out that, while Daintea does sell bubble tea, they also make fresh pastries and savory treats. They worked with Herb and Peggy to pair up four of their selections with four brews from Mountain Valley and they did a superb job. Peggy said that they discovered that “bold goes with bold”.

I particularly liked the garlic bun paired with the porter but the strawberry tres leche with Kookie Rooster (hints of coconut) was incredible as well.

Going clockwise: Garlic Bun, Pork Lumpia, Strawberry Tres Leche, Chicken Empanada

The event was only scheduled from 1 to 2 but the pairings were so good and the company so excellent that the one hour stretched into several. I haven’t had such a nice time in a long, long while.

This was very close to a perfect day. Even with the far-less-than-perfect weather.

I hope it is a harbinger of the spring and summer that’s on its way.

The Very First Henry County Fair

We recently saw the very first Henry County Fair. At least, I think it was the very first county fair. Comments on one of the local paper’s Facebook page sugggested that with questions like “Since when have we had a county fair?”.

It was pulled off beautifully and, if this had been a normal year, I think it would have been a big hit. However, this was not a normal year. The annual Martinsville Oktoberfest that was to be held just a week later was cancelled over Covid concerns. From the comments I saw, there was just a general confusion over why sometimes Covid is treated as a concern and sometimes it is not.

The fair was held Wednesday through Saturday at the Martinsville Speedway. A friend and I went on Friday, September 24th, shortly after it opened at 4 o’clock. The Valley Star Credit Union 300 was to be held the next day so the track itself was busy and loud until 6 o’clock. That gave us a couple of hours to kill before the shows started.

Infinity Acres had a petting zoo set up on the lawn just off of the fair grounds. Handlers walked around with the llamas and I’ve seen photos of the camel actually touring the fair.

For 25¢ you could get a Dixie cup of food for the goats. Stand too close to them and they’ll pretty much each anything (like purses, camera bag straps, etc). They would stretch their necks out hopefully whenever anyone came close.

After the petting zoo, there was a tent of the typical judged entries – canned goods, quilts, art, crafts, etc. I got so absorbed in the variety of the entries that I completely forgot about my penchant for taking photos. That rarely happens.

We watched them setting up the soundstage.

There was a tent offering covid vaccines.

We bought some fried oreos and lemonade. I don’t think that my friend cared much for the fried oreos.

And we rode some rides.

Finally, 6 o’clock rolled around. The cars on the track stopped and the shows started.

The first show was the Great Lakes Timber Show. They demonstrated a lot of what you could see in competitive lumberjacking. In one of the first feats, they used a chain saw to quickly whip up a number of small chairs that they handed out to the audience.

Timber Lakes Show Hands Out Little Chairs Cut by Chainsaw

They called on an audience member and showed how incredibly quickly they could saw through a log.

An Audience Member Helped with the Two-Person Saw

And then another audience member was invited up to try to log roll.

In the finale, one of the team got up and performed a fantastic log roll perfectly scripted for laughs.

Next up was Circus Shane’s Rock-N-Circus. He juggled. He did acrobatics. He invited kids up to be part of the act.

And then he jumped off a 65 foot platform. It was a very high-adrenaline show.

The last show was Josh Shilling and Mountain Heart. A Martinsville native, Josh and Mountain Heart put on a brilliant show. Josh is a local boy who went out and has made his way in the music world and there was a tangible excitement to hear him play for us. He and Mountain Heart did not disappoint. He is an excellent pianist and then he stood up and took up a guitar. Judging by the instruments, you know they played a little bluegrass.

By the end of the night, my camera was dying and we had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The sequence of shows would start up again later in the evening. We kept waiting and hoping for crowds to show up but the turnout seemed meager compared to what we expected. I don’t know if there was some political drama that kept crowds away or if there was a fear of covid or something else entirely.

I do hope that they have the fair again next year. Although I failed to get any pictures inside the Exhibit Hall, both my friend and I are excited for next year and are thinking of what we do well enough to be able to enter. She’s got what it takes to enter several categories.

Local Races for 2020

A runner friend recently asked me to look up some local races and send her links so she can arrange a visit and a run at the same time. This seemed like something that might be useful for others too so here are the coming race links that I sent her. I used to run and I’ll include some pictures from past races where I have them. Continue reading Local Races for 2020

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