The barns shown here are near the town of Strasburg, Virginia. The brick church is in town on Ash Street. It is the Strasburg Assembly of God.
March 31, 2019
Barns and a Brick Church
The barns shown here are near the town of Strasburg, Virginia. The brick church is in town on Ash Street. It is the Strasburg Assembly of God.
Sharing with InSpired Sunday
and The Barn Collective.
Labels:
Churches,
Farms,
Shenandoah
March 30, 2019
Various Animals, Late March
It's time for Saturday's Critters and I'm starting off with some deer I saw in Shenandoah River State Park. They stared at me briefly before heading for the safety of the woods.
Next is a dog we saw in a little gallery.
Today is also Caturday, I'm told. I filtered a picture I took of a shelter cat.
Below that is a sign I saw in the shelter. Take care around cats; they can scratch. I actually got scratched by a cat the other day.
Squirrels can scratch too, but this one looks friendly enough. (Don't try to pick him up though!)
Let's go to Rockingham County for the last two shots. I was surprised to see donkeys in an unfenced yard in Massanetta Springs.
It was starting to rain when we saw mallard ducks in Bridgewater.
March 29, 2019
Park Views, Wetlands, Blossoms
1. The entire length of Skyline Drive reopened today. The ice is gone from the roads and the fallen trees are finally cleared. Now we can drive the length of Shenandoah National Park and see views like this.
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Skywatch: Sunset over Page County. |
3. From there, I turned and looked up the lane and saw some people walking on Wilkins Loop.
Blandy is a beautiful park with an educational mission. It is a research and learning facility, open to the public and also known as the State Arboretum of Virginia.
4. Here's a pond on the other side of the lane.
5. We have plenty of water but no serious flooding. I've seen photos of the terrible flooding in other places, especially Nebraska and Madagascar. To me it is obvious that the world can expect more of this because there's more moisture in the atmosphere, the result of melting glaciers. Yet many people don't believe in climate change and refuse to consider preparing for it.
Well, people laughed at Noah too.
6. Spring is finally here! We are seeing early flowers and the trees are coming back to life.
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Floral Friday and Friday Bliss. |
Labels:
Gardens,
Lakes and Ponds,
Monochrome,
Recreation,
Shenandoah,
Sunsets
March 28, 2019
New Viewing Deck in Wildwood Park
We've been to Bridgewater many times and it was always a little frustrating that a fence blocked the view of the North River rushing over the dam. Recently the park was improved with an observation platform, making it easy to get unobstructed photos of the river. We stopped by there on Monday to see it.
Rain arrived shortly after we did so we didn't stay long, plus the light was getting dim for pictures. But I'm thankful that the view at this nice park has been improved. The overlook is called Downrush Vista. The roar of the water is a wondrous sound!
From here, the North River flows down to Port Republic, where it joins the South River and becomes the South Fork of the Shenandoah.
Sharing with Fences and Thankful Thursday.
Labels:
Creeks and Rivers,
Shenandoah,
Signs
March 27, 2019
March 26, 2019
March 25, 2019
Colorful Commerce Street, Culpeper.

They are behind St. Stephen's Episcopal Church along a parking lot wall. I was surprised by how many there were.
The church has a building next to this where, among other things, volunteers distribute food to people in need.
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Monday Murals and Mosaic Monday. |
Labels:
Arts and Crafts
March 24, 2019
Barns and a Baptist Church, Strasburg.
Themes and memes remind me to photograph subjects that I might otherwise drive by without really noticing.
Barns are not only picturesque, but they are also vanishing as the years go by. Some get replaced by housing and others just fall apart after they are no longer needed. Farming has changed and is often done on a large scale using modern methods.
Churches are also picturesque. I like seeing their windows and the steeples reaching for the sky.
Esbie Baptist Church was built in 1913. I found this information on Shenandoah Stories.
Labels:
Churches,
Farms,
Shenandoah
March 23, 2019
Birds and Animals on National Puppy Day.
Saturday's a good time for sharing critter pictures, and I just downloaded some from my game camera. There were hundreds of photos of geese walking by, but this one caught them flying off. Unlike Canada geese, white geese don't fly very far.
The best night photo on the card was this one of a deer. (I cropped all three of the game camera photos since it does not compose, it just shoots when it senses movement.)
We have a possum in our yard who comes out at night. He appeared in a number of pictures but since he is small, they were mostly not clear.

The bird in the vertical shot is a goldfinch. It looks dark because the finch sock cast a shadow on it.
Next we see a mallard duck and then a male cardinal.
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I'd Rather Be Birdin' |
Frank is thinking about getting a cat so yesterday we visited the SPCA in Winchester. I see that they have an "Adopt a Unicorn" event coming up!
We saw some nice cats but he wants a black kitten.
The Caturday blog hop challenges us to post a digitally altered photo of an animal. All I did to this vertical shot was to duplicate the layer and use a Diffuse Glow filter in Photoshop.
Although this post already has plenty of images, I wanted to share a squirrel photo.

March 22, 2019
Water, a Worm Moon, and a Little More
1. This pretty pond is along a back road near Long Branch.
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Weekend Reflections |
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Black and White Weekend. |
I leaned my camera against a post to hold it still because I'm out of the tripod habit. Out of seven images, only two showed good detail. I used a zoom lens and later cropped the image.
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Skywatch Friday |
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Signs, Signs. |
Labels:
Creeks and Rivers,
Lakes and Ponds,
Monochrome,
Photo Techniques,
Signs,
Skies,
Trees
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