Found Market owners (and family members) Cindy, Elliott, and Kelsey Gillan. (Photo: John Robinson)
Found Market is in its slow season.
The bakery, eatery, and marketplace started as a basement-based shortbread outlet, and its giftable goods and sundry stock make it a natural stop for holiday shoppers. Over the last several months, Found has been going all out, not looking at the forest for fear the trees would fall on them.
“The holidays are our crazy season,” says Elliott Gillan, who owns the market with his mom, Cindy, and sister, Kelsey. “But it’s given us a good chance to figure out what is truly our max capacity. Now that we can gather ourselves, we have an opportunity to regroup.”
While they regroup, the Gillans have thought a lot about what their close-knit business is exactly. The answer? “Complex.”
The family still sells its shortbread—flavors include classic honey, pecan button, salted rosemary, almond espresso, and many more—items that go well with shortbread, and other baked goods. But Found is also a sandwich joint, gourmet grocery, and gift shop.
Oh, and they’ve got plants. Lots of plants.
“The common thread is basically what we have done our whole life,” Elliott Gillan says. “I grew up on an organic farm where we raised our own herbs and had plants all around the house, so it’s not weird to incorporate them. We see this place as a reflection of us.”
The organic-farming Gillans started baking for crowds about seven years ago as The Bees Knees Kitchen. Their shortbread caught on, and the family ran a home oven 24/7 to keep up with demand between catering gigs. Three years ago, they opened their brick-and-mortar spot in the former C’ville Market location, with mom Cindy creating recipes while handling the bookkeeping, sister Kelsey overseeing marketing and online orders, and brother Elliott running the kitchen day-to-day.
The Gillan’s current 3,000 square foot space, tucked into a Carlton Road strip mall, is 10 times bigger than their previous bakehouse. But the spacious new digs come at a cost. Found doesn’t get the foot traffic other lunch locations enjoy. So the Gillans have tried to make themselves a destination marketplace.
“We wanted to create an environment…a communal space. Trying to find that on the Downtown Mall would be a million dollars a month,” Elliott Gillan says. “I always say we’re like a feeling, a space where people want to just be for different reasons.”
Tom Bowe, owner of Take It Away, says the beloved sandwich shop “always focused on the house dressing from day one.” (Photo: Amy and Jackson Smith)
Take It Away will open a new location in the Dairy Market food hall this summer, but the beloved sandwich shop won’t break with tradition, according to founder and owner Tom Bowe. Bowe says he and his team will roll out the recipe that’s made his restaurant a Corner institution for more than 27 years.
But what, exactly, is that recipe? One condiment, says Bowe. We “always focused on the house dressing from day one.”
Take It Away’s dressing is a simple combination of mayonnaise, whole grain mustard, herbs, and spices. But the sauce’s uncanny ability to liven up sandwiches has anchored a menu that’s changed little over the years. From traditional turkey and ham to signature sandwiches like the Wertland Italian—genoa salami, swiss cheese, banana peppers, roasted tomatoes, and red onion—Take It Away’s handhelds are made with all-natural meats and cheeses, served on fresh bread and garnished with veggies like sprouts, cucumbers, arugula, and romaine lettuce.
In addition to excellent eats, Bowe says he’d also like folks to take a feeling away from his deli, the feeling that they’re part of a community.
“We don’t make people stand in line and treat our customers like livestock,” Bowe says. “We like to provide a party atmosphere, let people mill about the store, and hang out till their name is called.”
Bowe believes his signature sauce and Take It Away’s atmosphere set the place apart from other Corner sandwich shops and “gourmet” sub slingers. But of course not everyone agrees. The shop’s small interior can fill up quickly, and the party atmosphere can verge on chaotic. Plus, can you really keep crafting sandwiches for nearly 30 years without making a few changes?
Years ago, Bowe considered tinkering with his house dressing. Could he make his mayonnaise in-house? Maybe a different store-bought mayo could save him a few bucks and still cut the mustard?
The answer was “no” on both counts. The sauce’s cream base, which Bowe won’t name, had to stay the same. “We use a different blend than you find in supermarkets, with higher egg content that holds together better,” Bowe says. “I’ve never been able to find another one that’s good.”
Bowe says his new location will feature minor tweaks. He’ll update his color scheme to be more contemporary, and expand his hot sandwich offerings. Think pastrami reubens with Take It Away’s signature dressing and a “good Cuban.”
Bowe hopes the outpost will attract clientele who shy away from the student-heavy Corner location. Still, he isn’t trying to forget on which side his bread is buttered.
“Students are a huge part of our identity,” Bowe says. “I’m wired differently. I like the crowded streets when the students are here. It adds a certain excitement and vibe, and it’s kept me in business.”
Photo Courtesy of Steve Trumbull / CVILLEIMAGES.COM
THEN: Spudnut Coffee Shop, opened 1969; closed December 2016.
NOW: Quality Pie, opened July 2018.
It’s fair to say Spudnut Coffee Shop, formerly located at 309 Avon St. in Belmont, was a C’ville institution. And when the owners announced its closure in late 2016, it was a sad day for potato flour donut lovers everywhere.
The original Spudnuts was founded more than 2,000 miles away in Salt Lake City in 1940 by brothers Al and Bob Pelton. In 1946, the pair started franchising locations nationwide.
Richard Wingfield and his wife Fay opened Charlottesville’s branch in 1969—his daughter Lori Fitzgerald and husband Mike would keep the legacy going when they took over the shop in 2005. While Lori said the donut bakery was still doing well as a business as of late 2016, she expressed a desire to move on. “Sometimes you feel like it’s time to do something else,” she told C-VILLE Weekly.
Before Spudnuts, in the early 20th century, a dwelling occupied the site where the current one-story commercial building sits, according to city records. The “utilitarian” but still iconic white concrete block and brick structure that we see now was built around 1961, after the Belmont Bridge was completed.
Quality Pie, purveyors of baked goods, sandwiches, and small plates (and sometimes donut-shaped beignets—#spiritofspudnuts), took over the old Spudnuts space in summer 2018, led by chef Tomas Rahal, formerly of Mas Tapas.
Spudnuts had more than 600 outlets in North America across its lifespan. But when the Charlottesville shop closed, it was one of the brand’s last remaining locations on the East Coast.
Photo Courtesy of Conscious Capitalist Group Foundation
Many organizations—for-profit and not-for-profit—get their start out of a desire to seize a market opportunity or fulfill an unmet need. Similarly, the Charlottesville-based Conscious Capitalist Group Foundation launched because no other organization was providing what it does—entrepreneurship, community engagement, and career readiness training that young people need to not only prosper in life and work, but develop a spirit of “giving back.”
Robert Gray and Derek Rush, both Albemarle County natives, founded Conscious Capitalist Group in October 2019 as a way to lift “opportunity youth” out of poverty and help them become not only productive citizens, but business leaders and change agents who then learn to pay it forward in the future. (“Opportunity youth” is defined as people 16 to 24 who are in the transitional years of their life but aren’t enrolled in school or participating in the workforce. According to the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions, approximately one in nine Americans in this age group falls into that category.)
“I think we need more young people in entrepreneurship at an early age because the skill sets that come with entrepreneurship are critical thinking skills,” says Gray—like making good decisions, being good leaders and team members, and other skills that impact everyday life. Social entrepreneurship specifically, he adds, teaches young people how to make the world a better place to live, and “leave their community in a better place than it was before.”
Both Gray and Rush grew up in the Esmont area, an impoverished pocket of generally well-off Albemarle County, where Gray says the poverty rate is notably above the average for Virginia, so he understands the importance of having better resources in place to help young people.
“We’re both entrepreneurs, and we know what entrepreneurship did for us, what type of skill sets it equipped us with, and so we want to use those skill sets to basically reach back and leave a ladder for other people coming from similar situations as us,” adds Gray, who is a first-generation college graduate—he graduated from Saint Augustine’s University, earning a degree in political science. More recently, before co-founding Conscious Capitalist Group, he was a pathway coach at City of Promise in Charlottesville, where he created and led a youth social entrepreneurship training camp in the Westhaven neighborhood.
The programmatic pillars of the Conscious Capitalist Group—its Youth Social Entrepreneurship Leadership Academy and Beyond the Bars Re-Entrepreneur Leadership Academy—are built around providing leadership, financial literacy, career and business development, and social entrepreneurship training. Y.S.E.L.A. runs in classrooms, after-school programs, youth camps, college campuses, and community centers, and partners with other nonprofits, like the Cherry Avenue Boys & Girls Club and Charlottesville Abundant Life Ministries, while the Beyond the Bars program partners with facilities like the Blue Ridge Juvenile Detention. Youth interested in participating can also apply at consciouscapitalistgroup.org.
Over the course of the academy, Y.S.E.L.A. participants get matched with internships, help transitioning to post-secondary education or into a job opportunity, and gain access to guest speakers, workshops, visits to area businesses, and one-on-one consultations with business professionals. At the end of the program, they also get to partake in a pitch competition, with the winner receiving seed money for his or her business idea.
Gray and Rush, both alumni of the Community Investment Collaborative entrepreneurship workshop and members of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Charlottesville initiative (Class of 2020), see social entrepreneurship and “compassionate capitalism” as a vehicle for building a stronger community and helping young people reach their full potential in the workforce and life after school, especially if they aren’t on the traditional four-year college or university track or need assistance in establishing a career or business.
“We just added the social element because we’re living in a time where I feel like every company, every business, should have some type of social responsibility,” Gray adds.
Spring is coming, and so is the Tom Tom Summit & Festival. [UPDATE: Originally slated for April, Tom Tom has been rescheduled for September 21-27, 2020.] Every year, the event mixes music, community art projects, and a plethora of innovative business ideas. We caught up with Tom Tom’s executive director, Paul Beyer, for a look ahead at this year’s fest.
Can you share any success stories coming out of Tom Tom’s business competitions?
Tom Tom’s competitions range from crowd-funded pitch nights targeted toward individuals and very early-stage small business to equity-based challenges seeking to match investors with scalable technology companies. Over the past several years, there have been hundreds of thousands of dollars invested at Tom Tom. Success at Tom Tom can mean a start-up entrepreneur receiving the encouragement to keep going—even if they don’t “win”—or an investment. Last year’s winner of the crowdfunded pitch night was Babylon Microfarms. They have continued to grow, and recently raised $2.3M in capital to expand their business.
What will help Charlottesville thrive in the 21st century on the creative, entrepreneurial, industry, and innovation side?
My dream for 21st-century Charlottesville is one in which we’re able to become a welcoming home to all types of residents—a city that is filled with opportunity, and encouraging to dreamers, creators, and entrepreneurs. In terms of opportunity, we’re beginning to make real strides here with various educational and entrepreneurial programs that level the playing field. In terms of encouragement, that is something that we as a community have to continue to get better at. In a lot of respects, Charlottesville is a very successful and affluent place, and thus it can fall into complacency. We can sometimes be a little apathetic or even negative to new ideas. At Tom Tom we really try to make sure that creators of all kinds are honored and celebrated.
How has Tom Tom been integral to pushing those qualities forward since it was founded?
I think Tom Tom’s best quality is being grassroots, which allows many people to contribute in different ways. We invite people to join our programs or to create their own to accomplish their organization’s goals. I’d like to think that creates a sense of “ownership.” Tom Tom’s goal is to create a platform that can model how stakeholders can work together throughout the year.
How do you see local organizations and artists contributing to business development locally?
One of Charlottesville and Albemarle’s best assets is a vibrant culture and quality of life— which are directly related to the artists and nonprofits in the region. We wouldn’t have anywhere near the level of startup activity if entrepreneurs didn’t want to locate here and stay here. Of course, one of my biggest concerns—one that is shared by many of our neighbors—is that our housing and commercial spaces are increasingly unaffordable, and many artists have been priced out of living here.
What sort of business-related headliners can we expect in April?
We’ll be announcing our headliners in the coming weeks. They include Bruce Katz, author of The New Localism, and The Atlantic’s Jim and Deb Fallows, all of whom write about the conditions that communities need to foster in order to have more vibrant and prosperous entrepreneurial communities. We also have serial entrepreneur Tiffany Norwood and restauranteur/chef (and UVA grad) Tanya Holland heading our way.
Libby Edwards-Allbaugh co-founded The Tax Ladies to cater to small businesses. (Photo Credit: John Robinson)
Libby Edwards-Allbaugh, co-founder and co-owner of The Tax Ladies, thinks being a woman in a male-dominated industry is a strength. “This is such a traditional, conservative field,” she says. “The people in accountancy often lack people skills; I felt I could set a more personable tone.”
The Tax Ladies, which she and partner Treat Jackson launched in 2011, specializes in small business clients. While larger businesses can hire staff or engage accounting firms, “there’s a real void for small businesses, start-ups, and nonprofits,” Edwards-Allbaugh says. The Tax Ladies’ tagline: “Your small business is big business to us!”
With the triple challenge of being a SWaM (Small, Woman-owned, and Minority- owned) business, Edwards-Allbaugh says “we spend so much time building relationships to get our name out.” She has taught courses at PVCC, works with the Community Investment Collaborative and SCORE, and participates in the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce, in addition to being active in Black Women of the Charlottesville Metropolitan Area. In January, Edwards-Allbaugh was chosen as one of four Community Fellows-in-Residence by UVA’s Equity Center to support her project to expand BWCMA’s Sister-nomic$ financial literacy program to include elementary, middle, and high school girls.
The Tax Ladies’ four full-time employees provide more than just tax help–services include accounting, budgeting, systems development, and/or back-office support. For each client, the firm develops a customized plan and charges by retainer (ranging from $69 to $800/month). The usual hourly billing model can discourage small businesses from asking for help, Edwards-Allbaugh says, while a retainer “encourages continual dialogue” and makes The Tax Ladies a true business partner.
Edwards-Allbaugh thinks the City of Charlottesville is “doing a phenomenal job–close to as much as possible” in supporting minority businesses. While The Tax Ladies is based in Albemarle County, the city’s programs “often help with infrastructure and supplies, things that are good for my clients’ businesses.”
As a Tax Lady (and a small business owner), Edwards-Allbaugh has valuable advice for entrepreneurs:
1. “Treat your business like a business.” Have a separate business checking account or credit card– commingling personal and business finances is a common mistake, and can be disastrous.
2. “Get your processes in place. You don’t have to hire a person, but you should consult with someone with expertise to find out what you don’t know.” Skimping on financial advice is also common, and usually ends up costing you money.
3. “You should be able to tell at any time, here’s what I’m making and here’s what I’m spending.” As for 2020 tax advice, Edwards-Allbaugh doesn’t expect big changes this year, given the extensive tax overhaul in 2019. But business taxes are complex, and as in every other arena, information is power. “People cheat themselves more than they cheat the government,” she says.
As trips to the grocery store become daunting, the edible offerings in nature take on greater appeal. File photos
Years ago, in the spring, I was out for a run in a rural spot and encountered an elderly man who told me he was hunting “dryland cress”—an edible plant. I was enchanted; it was like he’d stepped from the pages of that 1973 Foxfire volume on my shelf, in which Appalachian old-timers shared secrets of wild foods—plants with fabulous names like kedlick and warlock. Foods that never darken the door of a supermarket.
Though I was intrigued, I had nary a clue about how to acquire such knowledge. I did have an amateur interest in plants, though, which surged every spring. I like tracking when trees and wildflowers bloom, and each year I’ve tried to learn a few more plants’ names, whether native ephemeral flowers or hardy weeds in the lawn. Inevitably, the question of which ones are edible has become part of that learning curve.
In this strangest of springs, with the acquisition of groceries having suddenly become a worrisome, uncertain undertaking, foraging wild food takes on new immediacy. The situation neatly illustrates how dependent we’ve been on human systems for our food. In winter, if I wanted fresh salad greens, I bought them from the store. But now we’re trying not to shop more than once every two weeks. And even if a tub of greens lasted two weeks in the fridge, which it won’t, I can’t count on getting that tub in the first place. The last time we ordered groceries for curbside pickup, a third of the items we chose weren’t available. Along with our brown bags, we received a list of all the stuff we couldn’t have and would just have to do without.
It’s wonderful that the local food economy is still finding ways to connect eaters with farmers, but that system too has its limitations, and its risks—largely because of a lack of coherent guidance about how to safely conduct business. And for those who have lost their livelihoods, of course, there’s another, much deeper layer of worry around the task of putting food on the table.
Amidst all this, plants we can eat are busy growing in the yard, in the woods, and on the edges of fields. Even as nature presents one of its most frightening aspects in the form of the virus itself, it is also quietly offering sustenance and nourishment that is independent of those fragile, flawed human food systems. At my house, we’ve been eating more wild foods this year than ever before. I still don’t possess esoteric folk wisdom about plants, and most of our calories still come from the store. But I’ve read about foraging and talked with knowledgeable people and have learned, to my delight, that foraging food can be very simple, even convenient.
The best lesson was that many ubiquitous weeds, things that just about everyone can identify, are edible. Violets and dandelions both have edible greens and flowers. Those redbud trees blooming everywhere you look? You can eat their flowers, too. Voila: a lovely salad, fresh and free. A little later in spring, lambs’ quarters appear—also known, for good reason, as wild spinach.
Next we learned to identify chickweed and garlic mustard, both very common and useful. Someone mentioned chickweed pesto; my mind opened further. I heard we could drink tea from white pine needles. A friend taught me to recognize spicebush, to nibble its flowers and make tea from its twigs. It seemed like one of those closely guarded secrets at the time, but I soon realized spicebush is an extremely widespread plant in our local forests.
I got a book—John Kallas’ Edible Wild Plants—and it revealed instructions for both the labor-intensive (making your own marshmallows from, well, mallow plants) and the beautifully easy (using oxeye daisy flowers as a garnish). With my kids, I read the classic My Side of the Mountain, in which a boy learns to live in the Catskills with almost total self-sufficiency: a little fanciful, but somehow reassuring, too.
My latest inspiration is an Instagram account, @mallorylodonnell, which daily supplies me with amazing new ideas (like sautéed hosta shoots). As with any wild-food information, I’ll verify these tips with other sources before I try them myself, but the empowering takeaway is that food is everywhere—taking so many more forms than we’ve been trained to believe by the standard grocery-store selection.
Also, deep forests aren’t required for successful foraging—even of gourmet delicacies. I’ve had more time than ever before for hunting morel mushrooms this spring, and I have put in my hours walking in the woods. But the only morels we’ve actually found were growing right behind our mailbox. Cooked gently in butter, with a splash of cream, they were divine: a real gift from the ground.
Entries for the JMRL-WriterHouse Poetry Contest are being accepted through April 30th. Image: Wikimedia Commons
Ongoing
Pursuing a poetry prize
Good news
For those who’ve already finished
You’ll be able to cruise
Right to April 30
A new deadline for entries
So quick, write a poem
And submit it with no fee
For a gift card, worth $200
Or a single Benjamin
For the runner-up prize
Even this will be hard
But give it a try
’Cause what’s to lose?
Entries for the JMRL-WriterHouse Poetry Contest can be submitted online at jmrl.org or by mail to WriterHouse, 508 Dale Ave. Charlottesville, VA 22902. Send questions to Hayley Tompkins at htompkins@jmrl.org or Sibley Johns at execdir@writerhouse.org.
"Dreams" by Netherlandish artist Frijke Couman is one of the pieces featured in Second Street Gallery's "Bond/Bound," which address the complicated experience of adjusting to life during a pandemic. Image courtesy the artist
Throughout the month of March, sad email after sad email landed in Kristen Chiacchia’s inbox. Art fairs postponed, gallery shows canceled, museums closed to the public—and then there were the news reports.
The Second Street Gallery executive director and chief curator decided to close her gallery on March 13, but she didn’t want to contribute to the deluge of despair if she didn’t have to.
Instead of focusing on what SSG couldn’t do for patrons and artists at this time (they’ve had to postpone four exhibitions at this point), Chiacchia and Outreach and Events Coordinator Lou Haney decided to put expertly curated exhibitions online.
And on Wednesday, April 15, the gallery launched “Bond/Bound,” on a new site, virtualssg.org. The exhibit, which takes stock of the complex, complicated experience of adjusting to life during a pandemic, is the first show the gallery has curated specifically for the web.
Haney had the idea for “Bond/Bound” as she started contemplating the dichotomy of bonding with other people—either those we’re already physically and emotionally close to, or the millions of complete strangers suddenly sharing our experience—during a time when we are bound to our homes.
One-hundred-and-eleven artists from around the world submitted work, and SSG accepted a little less than half for the exhibition, which covers a variety of media, from sculpture to collage to video. Viewers can click on individual images for a closer look, and to read the artists’ statements.
“‘Dreams’ visualizes the feeling of self isolation for me. The desire for being close to other human beings,” explains Netherlandish artist Frijke Coumans of her photograph, in which a man lies sleeping on a bed in a pair of boxer-briefs, mannequin arms draped over his body. “Seeing videos of hugging friends and people being close to each other almost starts to feel unreal,” she writes.
Hanna Washburn, based in Beacon, New York, thought a lot about the term “shelter in place” as she created “Hive,” a soft sculpture hanging in a tree that “emulated a home, and [is] constructed from the materials of home,” including her old backpack, a rug from her childhood, two of her T-shirts, and a work blouse from her mom, all in hues of pink, red, and white.
Other statements explain how the pandemic has affected artists’ creative processes. “The gloom hanging over our global heads has filtered into my work,” writes Chris Gregson, a Fredericksburg, Virginia, artist whose black-and-blue sumi ink grid of shapes on paper is a stark departure from his usual work, which he describes as “life-confirming abstract oil paintings rooted in the joys of spring.”
“Fairies always did admire the crocodiles,” by Madeleine Rhondeau-Rhodes. Image courtesy of the artist
Charlottesville artist Madeleine Rhondeau-Rhodes submitted “Fairies always did admire the crocodiles,” a collage in which a human-rabbit figure, wearing moth wings both on its back and as clothing, carries a crocodile away from a house, against a purple-red-blue sky. “The pandemic has forced me to further retreat into my own imagination,” Rhondeau-Rhodes writes.
It’s unusual for artist statements to play such a prominent role in an exhibition, but for “Bond/Bound,” “in some cases, the statement was just as important as the work,” says Chiacchia.
Take Penny Chang’s 38-second movement piece, “If You Came This Way,” presented in black-and-white video. The camera focuses on Chang’s open palm as she spins around her bedroom, then wraps herself in an embrace, and holds her own hand. Chang’s statement deepens the viewer’s understanding of the piece: For the past 10 months, she’s been home alone, recovering from a traumatic brain injury sustained after a tree branch fell on her head in New York City’s Washington Square Park. Even before the pandemic, she knew the difficulty of isolation.
Chiacchia anticipates that COVID-19 will change the way we look at, and interact with, art. “We’ve taken for granted being able to just pop into a gallery on a Saturday afternoon, or go to a museum,” she says. And though she hopes people will once again fill those spaces when it’s safe to do so, she plans to continue adapting SSG’s exhibits for the web. SSG may even hold more online-only exhibitions.
At this point, it’s cliché to declare that a lot of great art will come out of this period in history; artists always create work as a response to the world around and within them, and the coronavirus pandemic will be no different. “Bond/Bound” offers an early look at some of this work, and how it will evolve from here. Whether some of these images become tropes of this period in time, or stand as original reactions, is impossible to tell, says Haney. But in this moment, they’re evidence of the ties that bind us.
Only 18 of the 55 licensed childcare centers and preschools in Charlottesville and Albemarle County are currently open, which means many local parents are struggling to balance working at home while caring for their kids. PC: Eze Amos
As unemployment reaches staggering levels, those of us who still have full-time jobs right now are the lucky ones. But for parents, especially folks with younger children, the fact that work has not stopped even though everything else has (including schools and childcare) poses its own problems.
This week, we talked with parents who are scrambling to educate and care for their kids while also holding down full-time jobs. Their coping methods range from squeezing in work between bedtime and midnight to calling in grandparents (and potentially putting them at risk).
“Pandemics expose and exacerbate the existing dynamics of society—good and bad,” writes Chloe Cooney, in a recent piece called “Parents are not O.K.” “One of those dynamics is the burden we put on individual parents and families. We ask individuals to solve for problems that are systemic.”
Pre-pandemic, that meant every new parent had to figure out, as if from scratch, how to manage jobs that assume workers are available 24/7, with childcare options that are inflexible, mind-bogglingly expensive, unreliable, or all of the above.
Now, the struggle to balance work and family obligations is simply more stark. It’s impossible, but we’ve collectively decided to pretend it can be done.
As the virus has highlighted our existing inequalities, some are hoping that it will also prompt sweeping changes afterwards, from paid sick leave for low-wage workers to a better health care system for all. Perhaps, too, the collective experience of having all of our children at home will inspire more respect (and better compensation) for teachers and caregivers, and policies that make it easier to have a career and a family.
With schools in Virginia closed until at least nextfall, there’s plenty of time to dream.
