Final February Dog Report

Hi! Charlie here. I hope you had a good week.

One day we took a short walk on the wetlands boardwalk in Woodstock.

We saw some mallard ducks, but the creek was a muddy greenish color so Mom made the picture black and white.

Mom says that this is the last day of February, and soon it will be spring. We imagine that the colors will be bright and the ducks will celebrate.

Ducks can fly. If I had wings, I could fly with them and have adventures.

There are still birds that come to the feeders in our yard. The cardinals eat a lot!

Mom got this thing that is supposed to have a smell that makes dogs calm. The smell seemed okay to me, but it gave her a headache so she unplugged it.

Today we went across the river to Seven Bends State Park. The sun was bright and the weather got warm, so other dogs and people were there.

I like the smells at the park. And we saw children playing.

After that, we went to the car wash. I’m not scared of it because I’ve been there before. It makes noise and sprays water, but I stay dry inside.

I don’t have much else to tell you. I spent one day at the kennel and I spent an afternoon at Sadie’s house. Oh, I got a new doggy seatbelt and it’s short, which makes me sit on the part of the seat that makes the seatbelt alarm go off. Luckily, we still have the longer one. I like it because it lets me jump through the space between the front and back seat. That makes Mom frown, but I think it’s fun!

Tennis Court, Monochrome

 W. O. Riley Park

This was two weeks ago when the snow was melting. Now the snow is gone except for spots where it was plowed into big piles. 

The wet pavement lost color in the snow and puddles, so I went ahead and converted the first picture to black and white. I also took a picture of a dry detail because I liked the shadow. I wasn’t satisfied with it, though, until I angled it and cropped it.

Arnold Newman Exhibit

Museum of the Shenandoah Valley

Yesterday I went to Winchester to see a new photography exhibit of work by Arnold Newman. He was one of the great portrait photographers of the 20th century. 

The images are wonderful. After viewing so many, I could recognize techniques that he used repeatedly: dramatic lighting, posing a subject to show their work or personal life, using architectural features to build a composition, and cropping carefully. 

While I was at the museum, I also took pictures of indoor lighting for a local photo group challenge.

At the end of the day, I picked up Charlie from daycare at the veterinary. He still can’t stand to be by himself very long. Here’s a picture that I took outside the building. The shadow on the fence caught my eye.

Merganser Ducks

Shenandoah River

These pictures are from February 13. I took them with my cell phone and could not tell what kind of ducks I was seeing until I cropped the pictures. They are "common mergansers." They don’t seem that common to me because most of the time when I see ducks around here, they are either mallards or domestic ducks.

The females have copper-brown heads. I saw these from the canoe launch at Seven Bends State Park. 

I searched my photo files for ducks to see if I had other mergansers, but mostly mallards came up. Also, the word Duck came up on a couple of signs which I don’t really understand. This first one was on the rear window of a car.

There was also this sign at a country club.

South Fork, February

Shenandoah River State Park

Bike Repair Tools

Wordless Wednesday on Tuesday / Mosaic

Happy Hounds Mural

 Harrisonburg 

Since I like dogs and I collect photos of murals, I went out of my way to find this one on Waterman Drive. The artist is Laura Thompson of RealCreative Studio.

Monday Murals

From Horrible to Hopeful

Luray, VA

American slavery was, of course, a horrible institution. Here we have what is said to be a slave auction block, where enslaved people were displayed for potential buyers. 

The Narrative of Bethany Veney is a short and fascinating [online] autobiography of an enslaved woman who lived in the area and faced auction but managed to avoid being sold into a new (and potentially worse) situation.

Read the text on Historical Marker Database.

We can find a more hopeful piece of Luray history on West Main Street. The Andrew Jackson school was built for Black students a century ago. It now serves as a recreation center for the community and also has a museum that’s open on Saturday afternoons.

The school was not named for President Andrew Jackson; it was named after a local Black businessman. This was a Rosenwald school, one of over 5000 schools built in the south with support from communities and Julius Rosenwald in partnership with Booker T. Washington. It functioned as a school until 1959.

Changing Weather with Charlie

A Beagle's Week

Hi! The cold weather finally changed to nice weather. Most of the snow melted this week, and then rain came and washed it away. 

We still had snow on Sunday and Monday when Marie was here. I think Mom already told you that I took her for a walk in the state park.

After that, we went to Front Royal for hamburgers and I even got ice cream! Mom took us to Shenandoah National Park for our picnic. I took Marie for another walk.

Look what we saw in the picnic area! They are like tall dogs, but they are called deer.

Deer  like to lie in the sun like I do.

Marie had to leave that day, and I spent some time with Deborah and Sadie. One day, I went to daycare. On another day, Mom took me to the county park for a walk. Much of the snow had disappeared.

Mom says we could get more snow, but I have seen enough of it already. It’s very cold on my paws, and my friends are not outside so I don’t get to see them.

Meeting in the Middle

Yesterday morning I took Charlie out for a walk and was surprised to see of a variety of work vehicles lined up along the street. They were different colors with different logos, so it seemed unlikely that they were there a single home repair job. I counted 14 vehicles, mostly pickup trucks, and there could’ve been more parked around the corner.

There was a meeting going on in the middle of the street. I assume most of these people are contractors. A man was addressing them, probably someone from the town public works department.

Then they walked down the street looking at the curb inlets for the storm drains. I don’t know whether the town is soliciting bids for repairs or whether they’re going to gather a crowd to try to tackle all these jobs at one time.

It would’ve been more fun if this had been a flash mob, and music had started, and all these people would’ve danced!  For now, I’m calling this a “tour de sewer.” 

Snowy Day at the Play Area

Seven Bends State Park

This was taken last week. Now the snow had mostly melted. 

The childrens’ play area is on the Hollingsworth side of the state park. It has a theme of features of the area around the park. This structure represents a swinging bridge. Normally it’s a little farther off the ground, but we had seven inches or so of snow and ice.