From Stark to Soft

Images for Weekend Linkups

Black and White Weekend 

Skywatch

Reflection 

Floral Friday and Garden Affair

Iris have begun to bloom. My bleeding heart have been blooming for several weeks. 

Oh! Historic Garden Week begins tomorrow.

Another History Truck

This year is the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, so special events and exhibits are taking place. In late March, I posted pictures of the Freedom Truck that visited Middletown. It turns out that Virginia has its own traveling exhibit, and it was in Woodstock on Saturday. 

Since I grew up in Virginia, I’ve studied Virginia history, yet the exhibits here told many stories that I had not heard before. I was impressed with how interesting it was.

For those who did not grow up here, I should explain that the first permanent English settlement was Jamestown in Virginia, established in 1607. There were already people here, of course, Native Americans. The Jamestown settlers would not have survived without the early cooperation of the Powhatan tribe. 

The exhibit tells stories of Native Americans and enslaved people, along with the expected stories of our founding fathers like George Washington. 

Other events are planned in Virginia in the coming months, and I’ll probably attend a few of them. 

Backyard Birds, Mid-April

American robins have been hopping all over my neighborhood. They don’t visit the feeders because they prefer hunting for food on the ground. 

There hasn’t been anything new at the feeders. A female cardinal and a grackle have been monopolizing the food. 

A Pause in Forestville

Forestville is a village in Shenandoah County that dates to around 1760. I have shared pictures of Forestville before, but not recently.

The Old Forestville School.

The reason I passed through there today was that I drove to my accountant’s office to sign my income tax forms that he prepared. It was a relief to get that done, even though I had to part with thousands of dollars. Fortunately, my taxes were not quite as high as I had feared.

This may have been my most complex tax return ever, at least in my eyes. I spent many hours organizing my records before I even took it to Mr. Yoder to complete. I have often done my own taxes, but I wanted to be sure every detail was correct. Not only did I sell the condo in 2025, but this represented the final sale in a series of tax-deferred exchanges. They started with an investment property in Prince William County, which I eventually sold after moving two hours away. That was too far to keep an eye on the property, so I bought a townhouse in Woodstock. Years later I sold it and bought an investment condo in Edinburg. This past year, I grew tired of being a landlord. I sold it after the tenants moved out. 

Tax-deferred exchange properties can be a great investment, but when you finally sell them, there are taxes to pay, and profit is based on an adjusted basis, not just the price you paid for it. There is also past depreciation to add in, and that’s the part that I don’t feel comfortable with computing.

I complicated my return by deciding to itemize deductions. I haven’t done this in years, and since I was originally not planning to, I didn’t keep those records in my tax folder. I had large medical expenses to calculate, mostly because I had a lot of dental work plus expensive prescriptions. I won’t start ranting right now about how limited the Medicare schedule is for prescriptions, but I have certainly complained to my family about this. 

Anyway, taxes are done. I will put all my file folders away tomorrow.Tonight I rest!

Spring Beauties and a Park Mural

Maurertown, VA

My dog loves to go to parks to walk and investigate. Sometimes we visit Shenandoah County Park, partly because it is near a recycling center. There are various paths to walk there, so it’s not the same experience each time.

The first picture shows wildflowers we call Virginia spring beauties, although it has other nicknames. I just read about them and found that Native Americans consumed the roots, both medicinally and as a starch. The Iroquois believed that eating the raw roots would prevent conception. 

I took a picture of Charlie in front of a mural there, and wasn’t going to share the mural again until I realized that I last posted it in October, 2014. That’s long enough that few will remember it. Students painted it the year before that. 

Monday Murals

In case you don’t recognize the disc golf target, here’s one in the park. The players aim a plastic disc, which we used to call a frisbee. The rules are modeled after golf, and I often see a boy or man practicing by himself. 

I posed in front of the mural too, using the timer on my phone so that I didn’t need both hands.

Pink Dogwood

Not a Perfect Header Collage

At least It's Colorful.

This collage is an experiment. Maybe I will do it again with a better understanding of how to proceed.

I used digital images that I created using AI and combined them in PhotoCollage. I tried another app first, but it was not intuitive and I didn’t want to waste time trying to figure it out. Since I could not create the long image that I wanted, I combined two collages using Adobe Photoshop. 

My intent was to create a social media header that reflected my blogging interests. Out of curiosity, I asked Claude, an AI app, to list my top 10 interests based on my blog posts. It actually did a decent job. (I won’t get into why I think Artificial Intelligence is a misnomer, but I will say that its attempt to be ingratiating sounds insincere.)

So here is “Claude’s” analysis:

<<What a lovely blog! Based on the recent posts and post labels, here are your top ten interests as they come through in The View from Squirrel Ridge:

1. Birds — birdwatching, feeders, and identifying species like cardinals, finches, and sparrows comes up constantly 

 2. Dogs — Charlie is clearly a beloved companion and frequent star of the blog 

 3. Nature & Wildlife — squirrels, deer, cats, farm animals, and all kinds of critters 

 4. Gardens & Flowers — visiting gardens, photographing blooms, seasonal plants like Virginia bluebells and redbuds 

 5. Photography — the whole blog is built around daily photo-sharing 

 6. The Shenandoah Valley / Local Exploration — state parks, Woodstock, Strasburg, Winchester, and the surrounding area 

 7. Trees & Skies — a recurring subject in posts and photo linkups 

 8. Civil War History — you have a whole separate site (civilwarfieldtrips.com) and it appears as a post label 

 9. Arts & Crafts / Murals — street art, decorations, and creative sights you encounter on outings 

 10. AI / Technology — you have a separate AI image blog (Imagecroft) and tag posts with “Artificial Intel” 

It’s a beautifully consistent blog — clearly a daily practice you’ve kept up for many years!>>

I see that I left an important image out of the collages: a beagle! I did have one in the first attempt, the one I abandoned. I’ll just have to try again another day and put Charlie’s picture in it.

Oh, wait! I have some beagle pictures so…

Mosaic Monday

Another Critter Collection

Hi! It's Charlie here with a report and animal pictures. 

Today I spent a lot of time with Miss Deborah and Sadie. We had fun!

 Here’s a cat that lives in my neighborhood.

Yesterday Mom took me to the state park along the river.

On the way home, we drove past a farm. I like to see cows from inside the car. Some of them like to see me too!

Here’s a squirrel that looks friendly, but it doesn’t come close enough to say hello.

I hope you got to see some friends this week.

Tall Grass and Clouds

The tall decorative grasses are still almost colorless, as though winter pulled out all their green life, but soon they”ll be replaced with new green shoots. 

We had a frost warning last night, but it didn’t happen, and temperatures this afternoon were warm. I have a comfortable chair on my deck, and I sat out there for a while, soaking up the sunshine. 

This picture is from a few blocks away.

Open for Spring

Winchester, VA

The gardens of Glen Burnie have reopened for the season.

The walk down to the water garden is far enough that I took a cane with me. I’m still having mobility problems, so I was glad to have it for the walk back up the hill. 

Virginia bluebells and spring bulbs were blooming around the pond. 

Two Birds as the Feeder Season Ends

My supply of sunflower seed is gone now, and I am not going to replenish it until fall. I still have a little nyjer seed left, so the finches can feast for another week or so. There’s natural food available that birds can enjoy. Feeders carry a risk of spreading illnesses among birds, plus they can attract unwanted animals. We probably won’t see bears here like we did in the country, but certain rodents are a concern. I will still be refilling the water dish and putting out sugar water for the hummingbirds.

The white-throated sparrow has a striking yellow stripe over each eye. The males and females have the same coloring, so birders look for behavioral clues to determine the gender.

I’ve shown a female cardinal multiple times, but I wanted to show off the magnolia tree in bloom. It’s not actually in my yard; it’s across the property line in the neighbor’s yard.