Presidents Day Protest

Yesterday in Woodstock, VA

Historic Shenandoah County Courthouse. 

Hundreds of People Showed Up.

Reflection. (Linking with Wordless Wednesday on Tuesday)

Mural for a Rain Barrel

Last week I took Charlie to W.O. Riley Park for a walk. I saw a colorful fence at a picnic shelter and went to investigate.

There is an enclosure with a mural on three sides. It represents the river and there’s a sign. 

SLOWING DOWN WATER

This tank catches the shelter rooftop rain runoff and stores it. The water in the tank can then be used on nearby plants or slowly released back into the ground, promoting natural filtering and cleaning it of pollutants. This demonstration project exists to educate the community on how individual households can contribute to improving water quality in the North Fork of the Shenandoah watershed.

Did you know? One inch of rain that falls on a 1000 square-foot roof provides 600 gallons of rainwater.

This display is a project of the Friends of the North Fork and the Town of Woodstock with funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. There is more information on the FNFSR website.

Monday Murals

Blog Post #9000

Nine thousand is a huge number of blog posts. I’ve been blogging for over 19 years, almost every day.  With any luck, I’ll make it to 20 years. Perhaps at that point I’ll cut back and skip a day here and there. 

Today I looked back at earlier anniversary posts. Post #1000 happened on Lynn‘s birthday so I shared two pictures of her. 

In order to save space, I’m combining some of the photos into collages. I used the web version of Photocollage for this. 

I didn’t find a post labeled 2000, but this picture of me is from a post that was close to that. 

Post #3000 showed my childhood home and a chalet that was home many years later. “I’ve always lived in Virginia,” I wrote.

I created a computer image with a squirrel as a background because the title of this blog is “The View from Squirrel Ridge.”  I gave it the title when we were living in the chalet on a ridge in Basye. 

A photo of me at Breaks Interstate Park appeared in #4000.

Post #5000 has pictures of me, my sister Peggy, and younger daughter Marie.

I didn’t find a post labeled number 6000 but one close to it had pictures of a visit to Shenandoah National Park. 

Post #7000 had one picture and I used a special effect that looks weird to me now. I think I was getting tired of showing my face, but anniversaries are a good time to re-introduce myself in some way. This is a screen print of the first part of the post.

Post #8000 featured a visit to a goat farm in West Virginia.

Sharing with Mosaic Monday

These posts covered some of my most frequent topics: Shenandoah, Family, and Animals. Somewhat in contrast to those, the post that gets the most hits is my 2014 one about the three towering crosses near the interstate. I think that people who drive on I-81 are often curious about their striking appearance. They are maintained by Restoration Fellowship Church.

If you have read this far, thank you! Many of my readers are fellow bloggers, and I apologize that I am not as punctual on commenting as I would like to be. If you have any tips on how to comment efficiently yet meaningfully, let me know. 

Saturday Critters and an Appreciation of Government Workers

This post has two parts. First we’ll look at Shenandoah National Park and then we’ll get a brief report from Charlie.

Skyline Drive is the fabulous road that runs the length of Shenandoah National Park. I am fortunate to live a half hour from there, so I purchased a pass and visit there often. 

When I was a child, we lived within three hours of the park, and my parents brought us up here several times a year. My father worked for the government. I mention this because I really appreciate our government workers. Right now many of them have lost their jobs or fear losing their jobs. This includes forest rangers and park service employees. This is heartbreaking. These are good people who’ve done a great job. They are more dedicated than the fools who brought about this chaos.

Reintroducing Charlie: My dog was one of thousands of beagles rescued in 2022 from the Envigo breeding facility in Cumberland, Virginia. This process began with an undercover investigation by PETA that found animal welfare violations so severe that the government eventually closed down the operation. The Humane Society assisted in finding homes for almost 4000 dogs. I appreciate the work of the organizations and the government employees who got the dogs out of a horrible situation.   

Charlie’s Update: <<We got some more snow this week, but it melted pretty fast. I don’t like getting my feet cold or wet. 

One day we were in the car and I changed the radio station with my nose. Mom was surprised, but so was I.

The highlight of my week was going to Sadie‘s house and playing with her. Miss Deborah threw a ball for us and gave us toys. Mom took some pictures with her phone, but most of them were blurred because Sadie and I were running and playing. So exciting!

Do something fun!

Two Photos for Friday

These two photos aren't related except that they qualify for weekend blog hops. 

First, a walkway photo for Black and White Weekend.

For Weekend Reflections, I have a Valentine’s display in a store window. Actually, I was trying to keep myself from showing as a reflection, and I didn’t notice that the sky was reflected in the upper left. You probably wouldn’t see it except for a tree showing up.

The Sun Sinks Slowly in the West

This evening I was on my way home from grocery shopping and the sky was so pretty that I pulled off in somebody’s driveway to take a picture

I’ve been struggling with the daily news, and I remind myself to look at the bigger picture. Our troubles will come and go. The planet will continue. We need to protect what we can. 

I fear that our country has become a laughing stock. The monkeys have fired the zookeepers and taken over. It’s painful and embarrassing. I feel bad for all the people who are losing their jobs. Many of us are feeling insecure about our income and the likelihood of skyrocketing prices. 

Meanwhile, I’ve downloaded a couple of apps. One is Bluesky, a social media app. My handle is my first initial and last name. The other is 5 Calls, which makes it easier to call your elected representatives. 

Well, life goes on. I allow myself to cry, but then I pull myself together. I can only do a little, but if we all a little, it adds up.

Snow Junco

The snow we got yesterday was less than predicted and also less than many other parts of Virginia got. That’s okay with me because I didn't have to pay someone to clear my driveway and sidewalk. It was melted on both by 11 o'clock this morning.

Dark-eyed juncos often visit the feeders in winter. Sometimes called snowbirds, they are fairly small and rather round.

I took a picture of some trees at 8:30 in the morning. The temperature quickly rose above freezing, and much of the pretty snow melted away. We’re supposed to get a little more tonight.

I took another picture at 11:20 this morning. I aimed to get the mockingbird in it, and later when I brought the picture up on my screen, I saw the female cardinal on the right.

By the way, my birdfeeder camera stopped working again. It did not take any pictures this morning. I think the cold temperatures last night made it shut down somehow.

Tired of Winter

It snowed all afternoon. Our temperature was above freezing for much of that time so we haven’t had a lot of accumulation so far. There’s about 3 inches on the ground. Augusta County, where Lynn lives, got a lot more. We could get more during the night, I hope not. I’m tired of the snow.

I’m tired of a lot of things. I’m tired of reading bad news. I’m tired of my knee hurting. I’m tired of dental problems and vision problems. And I’m tired of being tired. 

I didn’t do much this afternoon, just washed some laundry and walked the dog. This morning I went out to the store before the snow began. Then I felt exhausted. Well, yesterday was busy. I took Charlie to Seven Bends State Park for a walk, and then in the evening, I had a meeting at the Friends of the North Fork office.

Charlie is doing better in the car, but I keep an eye on him and give him snacks. He seems to be getting curious about what’s going on outside the car, which is a lot better than being fearful.

I was glad that the flooded river had receded and the bridges reopened.

North Fork of the Shenandoah 

I should have some more bird pictures to share tomorrow.  I got the camera charged on the Birdfy feeder and turned back on. I don’t know why it turned itself off. 

Here’s a picture of a squirrel on the feeder. The motion-activated camera takes videos, and sometimes I make screenshots to share. For this picture, I paused a video using a finger and then said, “Siri, can you make a screenshot?” Click! There it was! I just had to crop it. 

L-U-R-A-Y Mural

Along Hawksbill Creek

When I was planning to drive through Luray last week, I looked up the location of a new mural. That town has an impressive number of murals and I have photographed quite a few of them. I saw that there was a new one where Virginia Avenue crosses Hawksbill Creek. When I got there, I found a parking spot and realized I had been there before and had taken pictures of a mural under the bridge. But that was four years ago, so I decided to walk a little ways and see if there was another one.

I found it in the underpass across from the older mural. There was no way to get a straight-on image so I had to make do. Illustrated letters spell out the name of the town.

I walked through and photographed each letter. They include a train because this is a railroad town. Inside the R is a scene from Luray Caverns. At the far end is a painting of the “singing tower,” which has a carillon that still plays music. 

Monday Murals / Mosaic

The Bridges at Bixler’s Ferry

Near Luray

This is on the South Fork of the Shenandoah. Bixler’s Ferry Road crosses on the bridge to the right, but at one time it crossed on that very low bridge in the center. A section of the low bridge has been removed, allowing canoes and kayaks to navigate through. 

There is a parking lot here for people fishing. (I actually have a state fishing license just so that I have a right to park at boat landings while I’m taking pictures. I’ve never been questioned, but I do know a photographer who was instructed to leave a boat landing. Vehicle space is limited and the state wants to have space available for vehicles towing boats.)

I think the ferry landing was located here. I looked for details and found some other information. Bixler’s Ferry was once named Pixler’s Ferry. A man named Peter Pixler lost his pension from the war of 1812 when he changed his last name to Bixler. In 1870, his house was washed away when the river flooded. (Source: Forerunners by Harry Strickler, found on Google Books.) I also saw several publications that mentioned evidence of an Indian settlement and mounds nearby.