The Miller House on Cougill Road

 Middletown, VA

I put the name of the road in the title of the post because Miller House is a common place name, plus I have forgotten the name of the road several times when I was trying to find this historic site. It is mentioned in written accounts of the Battle of Cedar Creek (1864). This property is on the corner of Mineral Road and faces a railroad track.

The property was recently acquired by the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, which will preserve it and possibly open it for tours. 

I’ve written about this place before (see the 2009 post about it). The ruins that are close to the road are sometimes referred to as a mill, but they are actually the ruins of a smaller house that was styled similar to the one that still stands. I photographed the smaller house in 1997, and it was still standing, but just barely. I suspect it predated the larger house, but I don’t know when they were built. 

I saw a photo of a lovely painting by artist John Chumley of the smaller house. I’ve seen an exhibit of Chumley’s work (see this post). He died in 1984.

I’ll spare you my rant about how the park service and others keep calling the ruins a mill when it was actually a brick house. Instead, allow me to complain about the update I just downloaded today on my iPad, OS 26.2. Things look different and I’m getting too stubborn to deal with changes all the time! The Photos app doesn’t have the parallax correction in the same way and I’m going to have to view a video to find out how to straighten lines. This probably doesn’t matter to most people, but I tend to take some photos a bit lopsided with my cell phone, partly because I’m trying to walk the dog and take a picture at the same time. So then I straighten them out on the iPad. I may have become picky when I was taking photo classes years ago, and we used medium format and leveled the camera with a bubble like a carpenter uses. It seems extreme now, but I learned a lot from that experience.

On the plus side, the Photos app now has a place to click to open the picture in “Extensions,” and one of them is SKRWT, which I downloaded some time ago. I can modify receding lines in that and then go right back to Photos. I like the ease of Apple’s Photos app, especially since I no longer subscribe to Photoshop. I don’t like paying for subscriptions. They add up, and my income doesn’t go up because I’m retired. Or maybe that’s an excuse and I’m just cheap!

Cat, Beagle, and More, for Saturday Critters

Let’s start with a picture for Caturday. I used PhotoEditor to add a filter and frame. The cat was available for adoption and we saw it in Petco.

I know Charlie’s fans like to hear his report so I’ll turn this over to him.

<<We went for a ride today. I saw people holding signs

But this post is about critters so here is a big one for you

Big cattle look scary. You know what else is scary? The mean cat! We came home from a walk at night and it was waiting for us on our front porch. I got up the courage to start up the steps and it hissed at me! I stopped and looked and then it ran off. I was glad to get safely inside.

Here’s a small animal that’s kind of funny. It’s a gray squirrel. They can move fast, but sometimes they just sit still and eat the birdseed.

Mostly, I had a good week. I went to visit Sadie a couple of times. Mom took me to different parks to walk and sniff. Yesterday we went to the state park, but it was really cold so we didn’t stay very long

When it’s cold, I had to curl up in my chair. I think I’ll do that now.

Reflection Intruding

I was taking a picture through a window and the sky was behind me.

This image reminds me of a double exposure.Years ago, I traveled to Florida to take a short course taught by Jerry Uelsmann, master of the double exposure. He did amazing things with photo manipulation, long before digital photography was invented.

Supermarket Skywatch

After physical therapy this morning, I stopped at Food Lion to pick up some vegetables. The cashier invited me to take some free flowers. They were past their prime, but still pretty. I got a bouquet for myself and one for Deborah, who was taking care of Charlie while I was gone.

The second picture shows a sunset from the same spot, but looking in a different direction. I took that photo in late December.

 

Birds in Trees, Birds on Feeder

Years ago, I went on a guided nature walk in Huntley Meadows. It was late winter, so the colors of the warmer seasons were not there to delight us. Our guide told us to look up at the trees in the winter. With the leaves gone, we could easily see birds and squirrels, and also the buds of leaves that would be coming out in spring.

I have remembered that, and found that bare trees can look especially nice at sunrise or sunset.

These pictures were not taken on the same day, but I took them both while I was walking Charlie. I think it’s the same tree.

The Birdfy camera continues to take automatic pictures of birds. Here we see a junco.

At the Bakery next to the Exxon Station

Woodstock, VA

Wordless Wednesday on Tuesday 

Mural at Vault and Cellar

This mural is on the rear of a restaurant in Middletown, Virginia. It faces a small outdoor area and parking lot.

I think the bat-like creature is the legendary Mothman of West Virginia.

Mosaic Monday / Murals

The front of the building does not look like a typical restaurant, and I learned that it was built in 1890 to serve as a bank. 

The sign out front actually says “Appalachian Cuisine.” My first thought was, “What? Do they serve fried squirrel?” It turns out that that’s not on the menu, but they do serve fried catfish, venison, and a variety of unusual and gourmet dishes. 

My first husband was of Appalachian heritage, and I learned to cook his favorite foods. They were not gourmet by any means. 

Blog Post #9340

This is a ketchup, Post.

No, no! I dictated that and it came out wrong. Let me type it.

This is a catch-up post. Wow, computers are supposed to make our lives easier, but in some ways they just complicate things.

Anyway, I’m happy to report that Charlie’s friend Sadie is recovering and doing well except that she’s supposed to eat special food and she doesn’t like it. She had surgery to remove bladder stones and had to wear a cone-style collar for four days. She was happy to get that taken off, but she is still restricted from strenuous play so she had to stay on a leash while we visited today. Charlie was still thrilled to go there. 

I don’t know how Sadie got down from the couch with that sweatshirt still wrapped around her, but at least she stayed warm on this cold, windy day.

Meanwhile, I’m trying not to feel totally discouraged about the problems in our country. I’m old enough to remember the tumultuous 1960s and 70s, and this current era has a lot of in common with that one. 

Of course, we didn’t have social media then. I’m still using Facebook, although I gave up on Twitter when it became X. Sometimes I feel like I want to give up on email, but it’s pretty much a necessity. 

Social media has become divisive and it’s not an accident. There are people, and especially foreign governments, that use social media to further an agenda. When I went to school during the Cold War, we learned about propaganda, but it was not as ubiquitous as it is now that we have the Internet.

I have to remind myself that many (often most!) of the horrible comments that I see on the Internet are not sincere and may be posted by bots or trolls. It’s worth knowing more about these since studies have shown that a huge amount of traffic on social media is due to bots.

Since this phenomenon is still fairly new, allow me to share some information from a government website, CISA.

“Social Media Bots are automated programs that stimulate human engagement on social media platforms.”

Bots and trolls not only harass people and scam them, but they can harm our mental health and even our democracy. I’d say this has already happened, but awareness can help as they try to:

Don’t let the bots get you down. Avoid arguing with accounts on the Internet that are not people you know. They may not be people at all.

Several Dogs and a Bold Kitty

This is Annie, the ophthalmologist’s dog. I shared her picture before, but she has grown since then. It was nice to see her again. I got a prescription for a new pair of glasses, to replace the ones that were prescribed by America's Best. Those did not work for me at all.

Next is a young cat who has appeared on our street. Deborah was concerned that it looked very hungry, but then a neighbor started putting out a bowl of food for it. 

On Thursday I saw the cat napping in the middle of the street. I coaxed it over to the other side, but then it crossed the street and followed me home. Charlie was watching through the storm door so I’ll let him tell the rest of the story.

<< The cat came in our yard. After Mom came in the house, it looked at me for a while. I like cats so I tried not to scare it. It came up on our porch.

I talked to it using my squeaky voice. I wanted Mom to let it come in, but she didn’t.

It looked right in the door, but it went away. I didn’t see it today, but it rained all day. Maybe it was in somebody’s house.

I’ll tell you what else happened this week. I saw my friend Sadie on Monday at the vet’s office, but I haven’t seen her since then. I heard she has to rest for a few days.

We had some warm days this week. Mom took me to the dog park in Strasburg and there were other dogs there.

This is Athena and Rosie. Athena‘s brother was there too. We had fun.

I hope you are having some fun. If you aren’t, go to a park! 

Walking Past an Ice Cream Shop

Front Royal, VA

The bench is designed to look like it has whipped cream and a cherry on top.

I took this picture in December and realized that I should hurry up and post it because people are taking down their holiday decorations. I’ve taken down most of mine, except for a string of lights around a railing that got so tangled when I put it up that I’m not sure I’ll be able to get it back off!