Orange You Glad It’s Autumn?

Golds and oranges stand out this year.

Massanutten Range from Seven Bends State Park.

Shadow Shot / Sunday Best

Long Branch Lane

Endless Caverns Road

A Quick Critter Post

This is the last day of Daylight Savings Time, And some say that we get an extra hour of sleep tonight, but that's not the case when you have an animal to take care of. Charlie will still get up at dawn if he feels like it, and he'll still need to go outside promptly. I'd better get to bed.

I saw this butterfly today. We haven’t had a hard frost yet and flowers are still blooming, for now. 

Here’s Charlie looking handsome at the dog park.

 And here is a beagle who looks like Charlie, but it’s done with artificial intelligence.

A Breakfast Place

The November 1st theme for City Daily Photo is “Breakfast.”  I puzzled over how I could depict this. My own breakfast is usually a protein shake, and I tried photographing it, but really it just looked like beige foam.

I don’t normally photograph food, so I didn’t have breakfast food pictures in my files. I’m not a “foodie” and I have multiple food allergies, so meals to me are sustenance rather than something that excites me. 

I remembered that I had a couple of pictures from a restaurant from a few weeks ago. This is one of the chains that is known for breakfasts, and has waffle in its name. Another breakfast chain has pancakes in its name. 

I don’t think I had been in this particular place before, but I stopped in for lunch on the way to an art show. I was surprised to see that they had a modern version of a jukebox.

Bridges at Capon Lake

Hampshire County, WV

The metal bridge over the Cacapon River is no longer open the vehicles, but is maintained as an exhibit. It is a Whipple Truss bridge and was first erected in 1874.  A structural engineer named Squire Whipple is known as the father of iron bridges because he figured out out how to build strong metal bridges by mathematically analyzing forces and stresses in structures, incorporating double intersection diagonals into the truss design. 

Nearby is a more modern bridge that was built in 1991.

Fish Paddling a Kayak

Woodstock, VA

Our state park staff won second place in the town’s annual pumpkin character competition. They created a fish paddling a kayak. 

On Tuesday I stopped at their office in town to take a picture of the unique creation just as these friendly rangers showed up. (How’s that for timing?) After I congratulated them, I asked them to pose with the kayak and pumpkin-head fish.

Charlie and I had just come from Seven Bends State Park, where we both like to walk. The river was quite low. We did get some rain the next day and last night, so that may have relieved the drought a little.
 

A Bird and a Deer

October is a few weeks earlier than the time that I usually start feeding birds. I decided to put out a handful of black thistle seed (nyjer seed) because it can take a week or so for the birds to discover the feeders. Today I checked the feeder camera app and saw that one bird has found it.

It appears to be a female house finch. The male is much more colorful, and I hope to see him soon. 

The camera takes videos, and I saved these images by holding down the progress bar and saying, “Siri, make a screen shot.”  I cropped these and increased the contrast. 

There were two short videos showing that a deer came by one morning. I live in town, but not far from what I consider the edge of town. There’s a farm a few blocks from my house, but the forest is much farther away.

Peak Colors, Shenandoah National Park

 Yesterday, Thornton Gap to Swift Run Gap

Wordless Wednesday on Tuesday 

Color! Art and Foliage

 Berkeley Springs, WV

The red cardinal is painted on a wall outside a place called the Cardinal Bar. I happened to see it when I went to Berkeley Springs to view art and fall foliage. Autumn colors don’t last very long, so I make an effort to get out there and see them.

In the hills outside of town is a stained glass studio called Frog Valley Artisans. I already have a pretty piece from there hanging in my window, so I refrained from buying anything this time.  I enjoyed looking though.

 

The one I own is a landscape, but peace signs seem to be popular.

A little farther out Route 9 is a spectacular overlook, so of course, I drove out there.

Linkups: Monday Murals and Mosaic Monday

Pond in Autumn, Capon Springs

 Hampshire County, WV

Capon Springs is a charming town known for its mineral springs. It was established as the town of Watson in 1787, but eventually became known as Capon Springs after the nearby Cacapon River.

I drove there on Thursday to enjoy the autumn colors. I decided to go through Wardensville on the way home and take Trout Run Road over the mountain. On an impulse, I turned up a steep driveway to a small church that I had noticed before but had never photographed.

This is Mount Vernon Union Church near the mountain community of Perry. I was unable to find any information online except that it has a cemetery. A sign by the road says that the church is open from June through October. I imagine that the driveway becomes impassable In wintry weather. 

Filtered Cat, Monochrome Dog

Tonight my eyes are tired from driving, so I'm just going to share two pictures instead of writing a long post. First, a pretty cat that I saw today, filtered using the Becasso app.

Of course, Charlie does not want to be left out of a “critters” post, so here he is in a cheerful mood.

Abide No Hatred

Bonfire Bookstore, Woodstock, VA

I was intrigued by the juxtaposition of this flag with a reflection of the courthouse. The saying sounds almost biblical, but when I looked for the source, I read that it was written by editor Chuck Reese after a tragic event in 2017 in Charlottesville: “White faces have to look straight into the eyes of other white faces and say: I will not abide your hatred.”