A JMU Mural with Mountains

Harrisonburg

I spotted this mural yesterday while driving through Harrisonburg. I was there to show Marie the campus for James Madison University, and also to introduce her to the juicy burgers at Five Guys. Years ago she shopped in the sprawling big box store district of the town, which of course, left her with the impression that the place was ugly. The historic district, however, has charm.

We drove past the new buildings of JMU on the southeast side of the interstate highway, and after passing the Arboretum, I saw the mural at a hotel parking lot. The script says James Madison University and there’s a logo of the school mascot on the left. 

Monday Murals

After crossing over I-81, we drove past a slightly older part of the campus, turned onto Main Street, and saw the historic district with the dignified old campus buildings. This school was founded in 1908 as a teacher’s college. It became James Madison University in 1977, and now serves more than 23,000 students.

From there I headed east to Shenandoah National Park (see yesterday’s post). But first we had to stop on Charlie‘s behalf, for a walk in Rockingham Park.

Oops! The sign says “No Dogs Allowed!” Too late, we were already there! I made a joke about “Snoopy, Come Home,” but then had to explain the movie reference. 

Views with Charlie and Marie

My younger daughter visited today. Marie has to go home early tomorrow because of something called a job.

We went to Harrisonburg for lunch and then drove up to Skyline Drive. We stopped in Rockingham Park to walk Charlie and there we had a view of the Massanutten Mountains. 

The views from Skyline Drive were very hazy. I didn’t bother to take pictures of them. I already have hundreds of photos from there that I took on clear days.

We stopped at Byrd Visitor Center, and I remembered to take some pictures of Marie and Charlie.

Mosaic Monday

I wanted Marie and Charlie to pose by the statue of a CCC worker, but Charlie did not want to get close to it.

Charlie’s July 4th Post

Happy Indogpendence Day! I am a free dog and I refuse to live in a cage! I had to live in one for a long time when I was a puppy. It was a bad place with mean people, and the government closed it down. There is a dog farm in Wisconsin that is closing now, and I am glad that those beagles will be free. 

At first, it’s scary being free because everything is new, but if you are lucky, you get to live with a nice person or a family and they treat you right!

This was a hot week and we only went to one park. We walked in the shade and went to the picnic shelter.

Here is a fancy picture for Caturday.

Today was very hot until a storm came through. The rain missed us, but we got wind and dark clouds and thunder. Since it was not a good time to go to the park, we went to visit Sadie. She has some fun toys.

Tonight there was some boom boom noise so I howled and made it go away.

A West Virginia Town, Reflected

This is Thomas, West Virginia. I took this picture some time ago and just came across it in my ridiculously large collection of digital photos.

Evening Sky Over Rooftops

We have passed the longest day of the year, which is sad in a way because I love long days. On the other hand, today was so hot that I was glad when the sun went down because it is unpleasant walking Charlie when the temperatures are in the nineties. 

A Slow Week for Birding

Although I don't actually go birdwatching like Stewart and David, I enjoy taking pictures of birds when I get a chance. Right now, my feeders are down except for the hummingbird feeder, and I haven't seen one yet, so I didn't get any bird photos in my backyard. The only one I took this week was this snapshot that I took while walking the dog.

I felt this post needed a more colorful picture, so I went back to my pictures from this time of year in 2020 and found this one of mallard ducks and a killdeer. 
 

Today the heat wave reached us. The temperature reached 97°F (36°), and it’s predicted to get even hotter. I did a small amount of yardwork before 10 AM, and by that time it was already getting uncomfortably warm and humid. Fortunately, my home has central air-conditioning, but even that is not as cool as it normally is. I’ve got the ceiling fan on. I just hope the power stays on and the AC doesn’t break down. 

Cool, Clear Water

The City Daily Photo theme for July 1 is "Water."

I set up a shot for the theme while I was watering roses. We’re looking at airborne drops of water that I sprayed from the hose. The evergreen trees in the background produced a Christmas tree look. I was hoping to form a rainbow, but I guess the sun was not at the right angle, although it was behind me as needed. I have created a small rainbow with a hose a few times in the past. It appears that some of the individual drops in this picture formed spots of color.

So far, our county is not under mandatory water restrictions. We’ve had a drought, but we received some rain over the past few days. Temperatures are going up very high tomorrow and are expected to stay that way until the weekend, when we may get some rain.

Dan, can you see that big, green tree?
Where the water's runnin' free
And it's waitin' there for you and me?
Water, cool, clear water?

(Lyrics by Bob Nolan, Recorded by Various Artists.)

I’ll close with a shot of the North Fork of the Shenandoah. 

Bright and Caloric

Front Royal, VA

This ice cream stand was closed, but their beach decor caught my eye. Moving closer, I saw flip-flops pictured along the top, and a tropical beach in the bottom mural, featuring a surfer, someone flying a kite, and people riding a bike.

Sharing the parking lot was a food truck serving Salvadoran and Mexican food. It looked appealing.

A car was parked nearby with an honest bumper sticker.

Bird Post #1318

Yes, there are 1,318 posts tagged Birds on this blog. In my early years of blogging, I didn’t make any particular effort to photograph birds, but took their pictures when they caught my attention. This scene with a great blue heron is from my first year of blogging, 2005.

The rest of today’s pictures are collages of selected bird photos from recent years. 

Late June with Charlie

Hi! Someone commented that I don’t smile much, but actually I do. Here is my sly smile.

Here is a cat design for Caturday. 

We had a couple days of rain this week. This picture was taken by the door camera, which is not on the doorframe because it fell down, so Mom put it on a shelf. Anyway, she took me out for the morning walk, and she started down the steps, but I saw it was raining so I stopped. I don't like getting wet. I refused to go out until the rain let up.

On another day, we had a different problem. We were going to go to the state park, but the roads were jammed with cars and trucks. There was a problem on the interstate, so the Valley Pike was full of vehicles and the side roads were very busy too. We went to Lowe’s instead, and I smelled the flowers and things in the garden center.

Yesterday we finally went to Seven Bends State Park after the rain let up. You might notice that I have a new vest. It’s just like my other summer vest, but it is purple like my new leash.

This week we saw rabbits in the neighborhood. I want to chase them, but Mom won’t let me.

Today I went to Sadie’s house. Here you see I’m talking to her, but she jumped up and tried to kiss me. I don’t want to be mean to her, but I wish she would stop.

People say I’m good looking, but that’s not always a good thing.