A family’s intentional approach to generate authentic hospitality in their home

All in the Family
Rodney Foster grew up building homes alongside his dad and brother in and around the Lynchburg area. After he graduated high school from Liberty Christian Academy, he attended college at Liberty University, where he earned a business degree and married his high school sweetheart, Heidi, just four weeks after graduation.

Over the years, Foster continued to work in the family business, and, in 2000, he joined forces with his dad and became a partner. When his dad retired, Rodney took over Foster Builders.

“I picked up a tool belt and kept going,” Rodney said.

Most of what they build are custom homes, but they have done some commercial designs as well. With three guys on his crew, this small family-owned and -operated business gains a majority of its customers from grassroots marketing efforts, such as word-of-mouth recommendations from friends, church members and repeat customers.

“They call back because he’s honest and a hard worker,” Heidi, Rodney’s wife of 20 years and office manager, said. “He designs around the families’ needs. It’s part of Rodney’s ministry.”

Heidi has transitioned into the company’s office manager by handling all the bookkeeping and managing rental properties. By default, she has even become an interior designer for some of their clients’ houses. Having a lot of experience in her own home, sometimes by trial and error, she has gained the knowledge to assist homeowners with color choices and aesthetic finishes, trying to keep the style cohesive throughout the house by steering them in the right direction. In jest, Rodney said Heidi’s official title is “Boss Lady.”

“It’s one way I can help him,” Heidi said. “It gives me another purpose.”

The couple has two girls and one boy—Bailey, 14, Dalton, 12, and Emme Sue, 8.

The children attend New Covenant Schools, where Bailey plays volleyball, Dalton plays lacrosse and all three play basketball. As a family, they all stay quite busy, but they are devoted in setting aside time for each other.

“We’re big into having family dinners,” Heidi said. “We have devotions after dinner.”

A Work in Progress
The Fosters have taken their business to heart and are now living in the sixth personal house that they’ve built for their own family, in essence creating a blank canvas to design and practice on. Though they say it’s a work in progress since there are still areas to be finished, they enjoy designing for themselves. Rodney jokingly said, “When the Lord takes us, there will be a ‘For Sale’ sign in our front yard.”

The most recent home the Fosters built is a 3,500-square-foot house in Forest that became a family endeavor with four bedrooms, five and a half bathrooms and a two car garage. On the main floor, they have one guest room.

Rodney and Heidi were purposeful to include all the children in the entire process. As they began to build, their son Dalton helped his dad pour the footings and add the trim to the house. He even got to help inside with some design elements, such as the reclaimed wood wall they added in their living room. The wood came from the flooring of a barn in Spout Spring that Rodney had previously torn down. They also allowed the children to help with decisions such as picking out paint colors. Each child has their own room, as well as a separate bathroom, which also gives them each a canvas to play with. With their growing ages, they felt it was necessary to have a lot of bathrooms in the house—an added perk to having a dad as a builder. Their son Dalton got an added bonus in his room with a loft area that has both a ladder and stairs leading up to its high ceiling for easy access. His loft bedroom is a unique space where he can lounge and hang out with friends, growing with him into his teenage years.

From a design standpoint, the Fosters say they are drawn to décor with a modern edge that has a mix of rustic. Everything in their home has a matte finish, including their floors, which are hand scraped, since they don’t care for polished finishes.

They purchased their floors from Piedmont Floor Design in Forest. They chose honed Brazilian marble counters for their kitchen, pantry and laundry room, while the bathrooms received a combination of granite, soapstone and marble from Spectrum Stone Designs, LLC in Concord. The kitchen is home to simple Design-Craft brand white Potter’s Mill Shaker style cabinetry from Pinnacle Cabinetry & Design in Wyndhurst. Their oversized island and Butler’s Pantry, a small service and storage room between a kitchen and a dining room, was given a rustic gray hue known as appaloosa—a specialty finish achieved by combining several elements like distressing, antique brushing and spatter, consisting of gray undertones and charcoal brushed highlights. The tile backsplash adorns a handmade subway tile, which was the only shiny element they incorporated as a way to balance all the matte finishes and reflect the under-mount lighting. The light fixtures they selected are all new from Timberlake Lighting but have a vintage industrial aesthetic. In the master bathroom, they incorporated a newer design element found in the marketplace by installing heated porcelain tile floors that are meant to look like wood. On the exterior of the house, Rodney built the home’s front porch beams and ceiling in all cedar and used tongue and groove pine ceilings on the screen porch and balcony off the master bedroom. Innovative Stoneworks LLC in Rustburg did the rock work on the exterior of the house along with the home’s fireplace.

“We don’t like fancy,” Heidi said.

“Our houses are not lavish or overdone. We like rustic, but not country. I like things that look old.”

Paying it Forward
For nearly nine years, the Fosters were heavily involved in an organization called Young Life—a program that connects middle school, high school and college students with adults that reach into their world and build bridges of authentic friendship. Before she was married, Heidi had a family who took her in and left an impact on her life. The Fosters have taken her life lesson and now use it as part of their ministry to others.

“During my last two years of college my parents moved to Indiana, and our neighbors, the Quesenberry family, offered for me to live with them,” Heidi said. “I lived there until I got married, which was four weeks after graduating college. They didn’t charge me anything and just treated me like family. I cooked for them occasionally and helped around the house, but I was in school full-time and working full-time. They really became my second family.”

Heidi recalls the family as being kind and generous not only to her and Rodney but to everyone in their Poplar Forest neighborhood.

“I watched them care for many around them in need. They have true servants’ hearts. So they are really the reason that we have opened our home to others. It has been such a joy to give kids a temporary home until they are able to get established on their own just like the Quesenberry family did for me. It was a gift I could never repay to them, but maybe we can just pay it forward to someone else.”

Over the years, they have housed nine young adults for an extended period of time, which they fondly refer to as their “cellar dwellers.” The young adults are usually associated with the Young Life programs at Randolph College, Lynchburg College or Liberty University. Typically, their “cellar dwellers” are nearing the end of college, getting their master’s degree or just in between seasons of life.

“We’ve been to so many weddings,” the couple said. “It’s a lot of fun. It keeps you young.”

“We open our house to people that need a home—a B&B,” Heidi said.

“We are intentional about making it a place where people feel at home. They’ve become family. We let God bring the ones that would be a good
fit for our family.”

Though they love to open their house, they say that their children come first so they take some safety precautions. They filter each tenant through a series of personal recommendations.

The Fosters also welcome out-of-town guests to stay at their house during big events, such as graduations. It’s not uncommon to find 70 to 80 people gathering in their home for a large party or devotional group. Currently, Heidi’s parents are living in their basement, exemplifying their desire to extend hospitality. As they fondly say, “We’re everyone’s Foster family.”

A unique element the couple included in the home is an area they refer to as the Butler’s Station. This area includes a beverage fridge and coffee makers. Across from that is a counter that becomes a prep space with a pocket door they can close off to hide clutter. As a builder, they have access to everything, but they wanted to keep things simple, yet efficient.

“We were intentional with all our sitting areas—give them a burger and talk about problems,” Rodney said. “It’s what we feel like we’ve been called to do.”
In all their hospitality, the Fosters are also very intentional about making sure the “cellar dwellers” contribute to the family during their stay. They don’t ask them to pay rent, but they set up guidelines and ground rules. They must keep their space clean and pitch in as a family member would. They ask the females to babysit or cook weekly and their male tenants often go out to work with Rodney. Heidi said she enjoys teaching some of the young women who don’t know much about the kitchen how to cook. The kids also seem to enjoy the additional guests and welcome each of them into the family. The Fosters say the older students often mentor their kids and become like much older siblings.

“The Lord has blessed,” Rodney said.

With the serene colors and wide open space, this soothing and tranquil home not only ushers in calm emotions aesthetically, but allows the Foster family to do their part by welcoming all guests with open arms and freely share their lives with all who enter.

For more information about Foster Builders, Inc., email Fosterbuilder@gmail.com or call 434-832-1116. You can also visit their office located at 115 B Tradewynd Drive in Wyndhurst.

Heather Cravens is a Lynchburg native with 10 years of experience in the interior design industry, including owning Becoming Designs. Heather is passionate about creating environments that inspire and build families through the hospitality of their home. She mirrors that passion with her own family by spending time with her husband and their one-year old son.

Natural History Meets American History in the Shenandoah Valley

On a Aug. 13, 1878, a small, entrepreneurial group of explorers discovered what would become known as Luray Caverns. The group, made up of the town tinsmith and other local men, had been looking for a cave that summer—so much so that townsfolk had dubbed them the “Phantom Chasers.”

Until that hot, summer day, they’d had no luck, and at least one man was ready to give up on the quest. However, as the story goes, they decided to give it one more try. That’s when one of the men, in an area that had already been explored, felt cold air rushing from the ground.

What they found beneath the surface were great rooms full of stalactites and stalagmites and an underground lake reflecting the formations like a giant mirror. What they also found was a natural marvel that would attract people from all over the world.

“We were very fortunate early on,” John Shaffer, public relations director for Luray Caverns, said.

“The Smithsonian sent a team to work on it. A writer from the New York Herald came down. Trains were beginning to take hold in eastern America and many excursions came, bringing people from the northeast.

It became very popular early on.”

Since then, Shaffer said, “10s of millions” of people from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries have visited Luray Caverns. On a single day in the 1880s, there were 10,000 visitors. According to Shaffer, it’s the most-visited, ticketed attraction in Virginia and the “fourth largest cavern in the country.”

Guided tours of the privately-owned caverns are offered seven days a week and last about an hour. Visitors travel as far as 160 feet beneath the earth’s surface and see countless formations, some of which are millions of years old and take hundreds of years to grow a single inch.

Each tour ends with a performance by the Great Stalacpipe Organ. The massive lithophone—think glockenspiel or xylophone—was created by Leland Sprinkle in 1954. Rubber mallets gently strike stalactites and stalagmites to make 37 perfect tones.

While the instrument can be played like a pipe organ, it’s usually operated by an automated system. The organ’s playlist includes Sprinkle’s favorite song, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.”

But the wonders in Luray, population 4,000, don’t end there.

A caverns ticket also includes admission to The Car and Carriage Caravan Museum, located near the caverns. There, visitors will find a dazzling array of antique cars, horse-drawn carriages and other conveyances. “Some of the most iconic cars,” as Shaffer put it.

On the self-guided tour, there’s everything from a primitive 1840 Conestoga wagon to a flashy 1925 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost once owned by silent film star Rudolph Valentino. Other highlights include a 1727 Portuguese Nobility Carriage, touted as the “oldest carriage on display in the western hemisphere,” and a Baker electric car, made in 1908.

The ticket also is good at the Luray Valley Museum, located a short walk from the caverns. There, the museum and its adjacent historic village tell the story of the Shenandoah Valley in the 18th and 19th centuries.

In the museum, there are exhibits on Native American, African-American and Civil War history, along with a collection of 18th- and 19th-century cast-iron wood stoves. The “plate stoves,” as they’re called, are decorated with animal, biblical and other themes.

Visitors also will see pottery, painted blanket chests, hand-painted and lettered birth and death certificates, samplers, quilts, printing presses, tools and other items that were part of Shenandoah Valley pioneer life.

Outside, visitors will find a host of 19th-century buildings, among them a meeting house, blacksmith’s shop, farm house and African-American schoolhouse. The buildings were moved from various parts of Virginia and reconstructed in Luray. There’s also a cafe, which offers food and Shenandoah Valley wine, and a gem mine for the kids.

When leaving the caverns area and heading into Luray proper, it’s impossible to miss the most prominent landmark in town, the Luray Singing Tower. Inside the 80-year-old tower is a 47-bell carillon—think church bells—that’s played by a musician called a “carillonneur.”

Free concerts are held regularly, summer and fall.

The two-mile-long Hawksbill Greenway is a popular place in Luray to enjoy the outdoors and spot birds, butterflies and other wildlife. Trail users have reported seeing several varieties of herons, kingfishers and other birds, along with muskrat, beaver and mink.

Hawksbill Creek, from which the greenway gets its name, is a “Class A” trout stream, stocked with trout from October through May. Licensed fishermen may fish the creek year-round. There’s also a youth trout-fishing tournament held each April. The event reportedly draws hundreds of children and spectators.
Numerous other events are held along the greenway each year, including evening concerts in the summer and a Turkey Trot footrace on the Saturday before Thanksgiving.

Along the greenway and on some buildings and structures in Luray, visitors will see colorful murals. The murals are painted by school children and local artists. “It’s still an ongoing project,” Jeff McMillan with Luray Downtown Initiative, said, adding the murals are a way “to make your town unique.”
While Luray is only about two hours from Lynchburg, there are many lodging options for those planning a multi-day visit. One is the Mimslyn Inn, which began welcoming travelers in 1931. Caverns PR director and Luray native Shaffer told a story about the Mimslyn, more specifically about one of its famous visitors.

According to Shaffer, in the summer of 1936, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor, were in Luray to dedicate nearby Shenandoah National Park. The president announced he would be camping in the park, or as Shaffer put it, “in a beautiful presidential tent.”

Having none of it, Eleanor told her husband she would be staying at the Mimslyn.

At the Mimslyn, guests may stay in one of two “Roosevelt Suites.” There also are standard guest rooms, cottages and the “Manor House,” which sleeps 20. The inn has two restaurants—Circa ’31 and the Speakeasy Bar & Restaurant—both of which have a Prohibition-era theme. The Speakeasy also has live music several times a month.

At Hawksbill Trading Company, located on Virginia Avenue next to the railroad tracks, shoppers can buy local arts and crafts, produce and baked goods, and decorative, antique and vintage items.

The cooperative and business incubator opened in January 2016. There are currently more than 40 vendors, a number that co-op president Jay North said “keeps growing every day.” Hawksbill Trading Company is open seven days a week, and there are open-air farmers and crafters markets on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

History buffs will find much to love about Luray and the surrounding area. In addition to the Luray Valley Museum, there are numerous Civil War Trails markers in the area. One of these markers is located at Willow Grove Mill, a large, red-painted millhouse that was burned by Union Gen. Philip Sheridan’s troops in 1864.

On Monday mornings or by appointment, visitors to Luray may tour the Massanutten School. The circa-1880, one-room schoolhouse is located next to Luray’s public library. Tours begin at 11 a.m.

Outside the schoolhouse, although not in its original location, is a slave auction block that was once used in Luray. According to an adjacent interpretive sign, the sandstone block “was used as a perch for slaves about to be sold at auction” and “is said to be one of the few now in existence.”

The biggest annual event in town is the Luray Triathlon, which attracts athletes from all over the U.S. The 2016 triathlon, which has both sprint- and international-distance races, will be held on Aug. 20 and 21 at Lake Arrowhead Park.

The park is located about four miles outside of downtown Luray and is a popular place for swimming, boating and fishing. “It’s super hilly,” Kelly Zitzer, tourism associate with the Luray-Page Chamber of Commerce, said of the course. “It’s very popular because it’s very challenging.”

The Page Valley Fair opens the same weekend as the triathlon and runs through Aug. 27. Zitzer said there also will be live music in town that weekend. “Triathlon weekend is our main weekend,” she said. “The start of the fair, hundreds of athletes in town and live music that weekend. It’s super busy. It’s really fun.”

By Suzanne Ramsey

However you say it, this tasty treat is in season now

One of the season’s brightest, juiciest, edible products is tomatoes. Right now is the time to grab some to enjoy in a number of ways, from sliced thick and piled high between two soft pieces of white bread, to chopping for salads, to making cooling, refreshing gazpacho.

Tomatoes have an interesting historical footnote to Lynchburg. Turn back the calendar a few centuries, the fruit (yes, tomatoes are a fruit and not a vegetable) wasn’t brand new to America, but it wasn’t common in the 18th century. Many folks regarded tomatoes suspiciously because the plant was a member of the poisonous nightshade family.

The 1791 Miller-Claytor House in Lynchburg is colloquially called the Tomato House because local legend has it that Thomas Jefferson shocked folks there by eating a tomato to dispel such rumors.

Many folks may be surprised to know the chilled, tomato-based soup, gazpacho, has strong Virginia roots.

In fact, an early recipe called “Gaspacha-Spanish” appeared in Mary Randolph’s The Virginia Housewife cookbook in 1824; she may have heard about the dish from her sister who lived in Spain.

Randolph writes:
“Put some soft biscuit or toasted bread in the bottom of a salad bowl, put in a layer of sliced tomatas with the skin taken off, and one of sliced cucumbers, sprinkled with pepper, salt, and chopped onion; do this until the bowl is full, stew some tomatas quite soft, strain the juice. Mix in some mustard and oil, and pour over it: make it two hours before it is eaten.”

Tomato Types
There are many types of tomatoes, from the tiny grape, teardrop and cherry to the big, sliceable beefsteak. Here are a few styles you are likely to find in the area:
• Better Boy: a large, textbook, juicy tomato
• Floramerica: a medium-to-large, bright red tomato
• Heirloom: a catch-all phrase for the many types of non-cultivated tomatoes
• Oxheart: a medium, lumpy, intensely flavored tomato
• Supersweet: a medium, very sweet tomato

Tomato Tips
• This isn’t a beauty contest. Some tomato types, especially heirloom, are not only not pretty; they are pretty ugly.
• Check for ripeness not by looking at color but by smelling the blossom end (opposite the stem end); you should pick robust, tomato notes on the nose.
• Pick tomatoes heavy for their size that are full and not shriveled and without bruises.
• Do not refrigerate tomatoes; keep them stem-side down in a cool, dark place.
• Use tomatoes within a few days of picking.

By Patrick Evans-Hylton

Café Bliss lives up to its 
name with crafty coffee drinks 
and a delightful menu

If I were to have a holiday honoring one of history’s most influential fellas, it would be National Kaldi Day. Who is Kaldi, you ask?
According to folklore, he is an Ethiopian goat herder who, upon investigating why his four-legged friends were prancing about the fields, found they were high on caffeine from eating the cherries from a bush.

That bush? The coffee plant. Those cherries? The fruit in which coffee beans are ensconced in. Connect the dots, and we have a truly blissful concoction that helps us hang on, especially in the mornings.

Find your bliss at Café Bliss, a delightful coffee shop in downtown Lynchburg. There is brewed coffee and enough espresso drinks to make Kaldi and his herd of goats dance in delight. Caramel Latte? Yes, please.

There are also plenty of noshes to enjoy too, like a Milk Chocolate Truffle Pie we recently saw offered from the display case. Other sweets, as well as sandwiches, round out the offerings. Blissful, indeed.

Do you have a favorite dish at a local restaurant? Tell us about it! Email the name of the dish and restaurant and a few words about why you love it to LL’s food editor, Patrick Evans-Hylton at Patrick@LynchburgMag.com

By Patrick Evans-Hylton

When steamy summer days settle in, the fun is over for some gardeners. It’s time to duck off to the beach or tuck into air-conditioned houses.

But not so for this gardener. Admittedly, it’s sticky business keeping up with watering, weeding, deadheading and clearing debris from spent perennials to make way for the succession of acts in summer’s spectacular flower show. Lady-like “glistening” doesn’t come close to capturing the sweaty, earthy look I sport after a few hours of summer garden labor. So if you join me as a summer gardener, remember to drink lots of water and pause for frequent cool-down breaks as you orchestrate the show.

And the glorious show is well worth the work! Summer gardens boast a breathtaking array of blooms in a riot of exuberant colors, sizes and shapes, as well as abundant edible yield.

But before getting carried away by summer’s bounty, let’s backtrack and start with the garden’s bones. The key to a successful landscape isn’t simply lush greens and colorful flowers to catch the eye. It’s the structural framework that organizes our plant material and transforms it into a cohesive visual delight. Some structural elements are natural—large trees or rocks, a pond or steep slope; some are constructed—walls, fences, terraces, pools, pathways, gazebos, arbors and seating groups. Some pre-exist and define garden options; some are added.

So how do we go about creating good, strong “bones” for an effective garden design?

Purpose of the Garden
First, our design must meet our needs and goals—what we want from our garden. Looking back through time, we recall simple and functional layouts of kitchen gardens for culinary and medicinal purposes.

Polar opposite goals were boasted by majestic Renaissance gardens of European castles and palaces, such as the Boboli Gardens in Florence and Sudeley Castle in England. And modern-day gardens may seek to fulfill multiple purposes: aesthetic pleasure, personal enjoyment, respite, environmental sustainability and more.

Climate, Terrain and Horticultural Requirements
Whatever the purpose, garden structure is dictated by what we can actually grow in our climate and the size and topography of the space—whether it’s flat or hilly, sunny or shady, wet or dry, windy or sheltered. And we need to amend the soil to suit our plant choices.

We also want to look at how our terrain relates to the surrounding landscape. If it offers the borrowed beauty of a breathtaking vista of mountains or a neighbor’s garden, we’ll certainly want our layout to take best advantage of these attributes. Or a fence or “green screen” can hide a less appealing view.

Boundaries and Surfaces
Property lines, location of the house, other structures and driveways establish garden boundaries. We may also install fences or walls to protect our property from interlopers, winds, or unsightly views, to create microclimates, or purely for aesthetic reasons.
Within our parameters, we can design new shapes and spaces and modify existing ones by subdividing into several smaller gardens. In my backyard, I have a gazebo garden, sunbather sculpture garden, barn garden, St. Francis garden, kitchen garden, and…well, you get the point. Garden boundaries beg to be changed. Every year, I add a new garden or expand an old one in search of more sun or shade, for new plant varieties, or by redesigning a border curve or pathway.

Lawns remain a staple in Central Virginia, although the current national trend is toward more naturalistic planting design with native plants or wildflowers in lieu of expanses of turf. Other trends include using wood chips, gravel or pebbles to create breathing spaces between heavily planted areas and installing permeable surfaces for driveways and terraces to eliminate excess surface water runoff into our storm sewers, streams and rivers. If you’re not already a convert, you may want to explore these trends and become part of the fast-growing “sustainable landscapes” movement.

Culture, Style and Taste
The next step is to consider basic historic garden designs and choose your own personal style. Your preference may be a Persian or Islamic garden divided into a perfectly symmetrical pattern of four equal sectors with channeled water as a critical element for both irrigation and aesthetics. Or you may be drawn to Chinese and Japanese garden designs that are no less controlled, but offer a more organic, curvy and naturalistic asymmetrical design—or the Zen garden with rocks, moss and raked stones.

Other design choices, influenced by the Renaissance period in Europe, also feature geometrical, rectilinear and axial plans.
The backbone of the classical Italian garden is a central axis with cross-axes leading to sculptural focal points, and evergreen plants are used to form patterned knots or parterres. These, as with Persian gardens, may be filled with flowering plants, such as roses, or left open.

Perhaps you’d even like to try your hand at creating a human-scale version of a grand and formal French Renaissance or Baroque garden with elaborate highly-stylized parterres, topiaries, and espaliered trees and shrubs pruned into improbable shapes and sizes that defy nature.

But a less rigid, more relaxed approach seems to be the mainstay of our local aesthetic. Most local gardens tend to take their cues from the English landscape garden style popularized by Lancelot “Capability” Brown, Gertrude Jekyll’s “garden rooms” with overflowing herbaceous borders, and noted Southern landscape architect Charles Gillette.

Should you prefer a more modern, minimalist garden style featuring little more than sleek lines of hardscaping in stone, hardwood or rendered walls, the planting style is simple with a few drifts of one or two plants, such as interesting ornamental grasses, to highlight summer bounty.
For today’s gardener, anything goes. We are free to choose formal or informal, traditional or modern designs—or an eclectic style. Taste is personal, so we home gardeners can design what feels right for us.

Putting It All Together
Experts advise developing a long-term plan and detailed strategy and then placing plant “bones”—trees, evergreen hedges, anchor plants. We can create our own design and plant it ourselves or hire professional landscapers for challenging areas. I’ve done both.
If we are unsure of soil conditions or what to plant, we can always seek free advice from the Hill City Master Gardener Association (434-455-3740; www.hcmga.com).

When planning, we want to define circulation patterns and areas for living, playing and other functions—some practical and some purely sensory. We’ll want to select materials complementary to our homes and embrace principles of design for scale, proportion, repetition, sequence, variety and balance. And, of course, we don’t want to forget the garden view from inside the house!

If you love formal gardens, a simple design could be a trimmed evergreen hedge of geometric shape enclosing a flowerbed filled with summer-blooming flowers. Or, if you prefer, you could define borders and beds by trenching edges between beds and grass, outlining with edging plants or hardscaping.
You may even wish to create a Shakespeare garden, memorial garden, white or red garden or any other creative theme that lights your fire! Have fun and add a secret garden or other elements of surprise!

When putting soft flesh on those garden bones, for a more abundant, bountiful look, choose plants with a variety of texture and form. Mix low, medium, and high; spire, creeping, mounding; and create focal points to draw and hold the eye. Envision how the succession of bloom, scale and speed of growth, and combinations of plants will affect the appearance of the garden. Oh, and don’t forget to consider how maintenance requirements relate to available time and funds.

Finally, add garden furniture that suits your lifestyle—tables and chairs for entertaining, play places for the little ones, and serene spots for meditation. If you enjoy garden art, go for your style—whether classical statuary, contemporary sculptures, or whimsical rust art. (I love them all in my garden.) And don’t forget the value of safety lighting and spotlighting.

Bounty!
Some gardeners, including myself (I confess), start digging with a general vision, but without a formal game plan and will always find a home for any plant that’s a gift or strikes our fancy. The important thing is that your garden is YOURS, reflecting your personality with plant material that makes you happy. If you love a plant, even if others call it a weed, go ahead and enjoy it in your garden, as I do.

The “Country Cottage Garden” concept sparked my flame and has been right for me and our colonial-style house. My summer garden is filled with blooming roses and countless varieties of perennials, most conspicuously hundreds of daylilies—robust perennials, easy to grow and boasting a variety of bold, cheerful colors.

And all came from 10 original plants gifted by a neighbor.

My latest craze for summer bounty is tough care-free native plants that thrive on summer heat and survive drought—butterfly weed, milkweed, Joe Pye weed (that “weed” word again), summer phlox, Rudbeckia, and so many more. Borders and beds overflow with an abundance of flowers successively blooming from June into fall. They speak to me not of formal grandeur but of grace and casual charm.

Then as one cluster of blooms drifts into another, creating a natural summer lushness, they sing the word “bounty” to me.

And at the end of the day, I sit on the terrace with my glass of wine and savor their beauty.

Words & Photos by Susan Timmons

We know why Irish eyes are smiling; they are spying a proper cup of tea and delightful nibbles at the newishly-opened Kathleen O’ Byrne’s Irish Tea Room. The eatery is located in Boonsboro Shopping Center.

The tradition of taking tea—fueled by this side of the pond’s love affair with the PBS television show “Downton Abbey”—is alive and well here.
The tone is set with lovely pastel hues on the wall and accented across the space. Whitewashed cabinets hold stacks of cheery cups and saucers. Tables are adorned with fresh-cut flowers. Crisp linens drape across laps.

There is tea, of course, and scones and other pastries served on elegant stands with curds and clotted creams and jams. Another offering steeped in tradition: delightful finger sandwiches, elegantly cut and trimmed of crust. Look for heartier fare, too, like bangers and mash.

The room not only feeds the body but the soul. There are heartwarming afternoon tea times to share with friends, as well as children. There are special events—not just for mum but for dads too, including a menu for Father’s Day that included a classic prawn cocktail, scotch eggs and beef tenderloin glazed with herb butter and served with creamy horseradish sauce. And there are gatherings that celebrate literary giants, like Jane Austen.

But most importantly, Kathleen O’Byrne’s Irish Tea Room adds another delicious layer onto the wonderful cuisine scene in Lynchburg.

Kathleen O’ Byrne’s Irish Tea Room is located in Boonsboro Shopping Center, 4925 Boonsboro Rd., Lynchburg. Call 434-473-5983, or visit www.facebook.com/CatherineOByrnesIrishTeaRoom.

By Patrick Evans-Hylton

Occupation: Rising Junior at Appomattox High School and this year’s top winner at the Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!) competition.
Resides: Appomattox, Va.

Tell us about the business you entered into the YEA! competition.
True Dimension Education is the Netflix for high school course selection. Within a school district, we will collect student data and predict which courses a particular student will be successful in. Our software does this by utilizing a machine-learning algorithm similar to what Netflix uses to predict movies.

Were you surprised they granted you the most money, $1,500?
I was definitely surprised! I had no idea that they saw so much value in my company. I’m very grateful for the investor panel and more specifically, Stefanie Prokity, a very established education technology entrepreneur.

Where did you get the idea and inspiration to create True Dimension?
When I began the YEA! Program, I knew I wanted to help K-12 education. Each year, about 1.3 million students drop out of high school in the United States. That’s one student every 20 seconds.

How did you become involved in computer programming/software creation?
I began building websites when I was in seventh grade. My computer marketing teacher introduced me to HTML. Since then,
I have developed about 40 freelance projects for my clients. Software has been a fairly new addition to my interests. I wish I would have started learning about software much earlier!

Did you always have a knack for technology?
Not necessarily technology, but I have always been curious. Curious in how things work, interact and help society.

What’s next for True Dimension?
True Dimension is currently seeking our seed funding round. We have raised around $15,000 from grants and investors. We will need some additional funds to fully build the software. We are also filing for a provisional patent to protect our software. Since the company was founded in November, our team has grown to include five co-founders. The team consists of four high school students and one long-time region 2000 educator, Jason Clark.

As you look ahead to your future, what are your goals and aspirations?
I hope to become a serial entrepreneur and philanthropist. K-12 education is my passion, and I hope to significantly lower the dropout rates within the public school system.

What’s something most people don’t know about you?
I absolutely love Latino pop music. I frequently listen to Don Omar’s Danza Kuduro when working on True Dimension. We are part of a co-working office environment, which I named ‘KuduroX,’ combining my favorite song and favorite start-up accelerator, GoogleX.

What are some of your favorite things to do with your friends and family?
Nick Mendoza, a True Dimension co-founder, and I frequently go into the city and capture some pretty unique shots. Photography is our side business, and we love the unique combination of Lynchburg, which allows both cityscape and nature photography.

Name the top spot you like to visit in the area.
I love downtown Lynchburg. Most of the meetings involving True Dimension’s software development take place in a historic Lynchburg building, currently the home of Sharp Top software.

So it sounds like you would one day like to start up your business in Lynchburg?
Of course! True Dimension plans to move into the city once we deploy the software.

What does the phrase “Lynchburg Living” mean to you?
Lynchburg Living is the spirit of the Lynchburg community. It has been a pleasure to work with the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance and many of the other businesses within the area.

When I showed my stepdaughters (ages 8 and 10) my first Letter from the Editor in the June/July issue of Lynchburg Business, they had a couple of questions. First, ‘What is a Letter from the Editor?’ 
(And while I envisioned this explanation being very simple, it actually took 
me a few tries to get it right.)

Second, they wanted to know as they skimmed the page, ‘Did you talk 
about us?’ (You’ve gotta love kids. They keep it real.) I was so relieved I could show them the “mention” I included about them playing in their room on a Sunday morning.

Along with those two beautiful girls in my life, we are all anxiously awaiting a new little lady to join us sometime in August. (The girls’ questions about this topic are, as you can imagine, endless. And much, much harder to answer!)

Families. Traditional, blended, sane or just plain wacky—they come in all shapes and sizes. Like you, I wouldn’t trade mine for anything in the world. That’s why I absolutely love our focus on families and community in 
”The Summer Issue” of Lynchburg Living—because I believe the bond we 
have with our loved ones is truly the backbone of this region.

As you flip through, I hope you’ll be inspired by the Foster family in our Home department. Not only do Rodney and Heidi have so much to teach all of us about home building and home décor but they also embody their last name by opening their home to others in a selfless way. Read their story starting on page 50.

Maybe your family includes your four-legged friend, like mine does. 
(Be prepared for stories about my lazy pit bull Sadie who is scared of her 
own shadow, plastic bags and any object with a cord.) On page 22, see how 
Joyce Ann Houck, our Artist Profile, is winning national awards with her pet-inspired creations—all made with needle and thread.

And with the long days and sunshine at their peak, we have plenty of ideas for you to take advantage of the final few weeks of summer. Check out an idea for a family day trip adventure on page 135, where you’ll learn there is so much more to the town of Luray than just a cave. In our Taste feature, take a break from the backyard grill, and check out some of the best patio dining spots in Lynchburg. And be sure to “Mark Your Calendars” for a few family-friendly events in the area, a few pages over in our UpFront section.

But with all of the planned vacations, day trips, cookouts and festivals, don’t forget to embrace summertime for its simple, impromptu moments. For my family, that means a long and untimed walk with the family dog, a quick stop for ice cream in the middle of the afternoon or an endless Uno game after dinner.

Sometimes, when you least expect it, that’s when the best family memories 
are made.

Shelley Basinger, Managing Editor
Shelley@lynchburgmag.com

Mark Your Calendars: July/August

Paws in the Pool
Bring your furry friend to the Miller Park pool for a special event to close out the summer swimming season. On Aug. 20, from 12-3 p.m., dogs will be allowed to swim with their owners in the pool following its last day open for humans. Admission is $25 for each owner and their dog; $5 for any additional dogs. This event is a fundraiser for the Lynchburg Dog Park.

Smith Mountain Lake Guinness World Record Challenge
(Pictured Above) To continue celebrating the 50th anniversary of Smith Mountain Lake, the Franklin County YMCA is challenging the community to help break the Guinness World Record for the most people floating in a human chain. (The current record is 634 established in Taiwan on June 28, 2014.) The event is Aug. 6 at 10 a.m. If you want to join, you must pre-register by July 15. Cost is $5 per person or $10 per family. More information at www.franklincountyymca.org.

Family Day 40s Festival
Take the family back in time at this unique and fun history event on July 16, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The National D-Day Memorial’s annual “family day” event features life in the 1940s. Visitors will have the chance to meet with World War II veterans, view artifacts, see demonstrations and more. Adult admission is $10: 18 and under free. Discounts for veterans and active military.

Local Openings & Closings

Hello! to Fifth and Federal Barrel Station restaurant offering a Whiskey bar, craft beers and Southern fare. Expected to open late July/early August.
Hello! to Kathleen O’Byrne’s Irish Tearoom, open in the Boonsboro Shopping Center since late April. More on page 144.
Hello! to discount grocery store Aldi, open on Lakeside Drive since May.
Hello! to Café Bliss, now serving a variety of foods, gourmet coffee and organic drinks at the base of the Bank of the James building downtown. More on page 143.
Hello! to The Water Dog, a Riverside Taphouse coming to Jefferson Street in early August.
Hello! to Benny’s, set to bring “New York style” pizza to Main Street in late summer.
Hello! to The Hills, expected to open in the former Blue Dahlia on Graves Mill Road in July.

Behind-the-Scenes
There were plenty of spontaneous moments during our approximately 40 “Faces of Lynchburg” photo shoots. Photographer LaShonda Delivuk didn’t have to do too much directing when she visited Custom Structures. She arrived to find the group with a variety of props and a sketch showing her the funny photo they wanted to take! See all of this year’s Faces starting on page 83!

Safety first for photographer Jim Pile, who wore a welding mask during a shoot at Vector Space. Read more about the non-profit starting on page 69.

#LynchburgLiving
Lynchburg’s Percival’s Island is a popular spot for photos, from the picturesque bridge over the James River to the eye-catching “LOVE” artwork along the trail.

Tag your photos on Instagram and you may see them in a future issue! Just use #LynchburgLiving in your post.