Typical Woodstock Folks?

Shenandoah County

The black and white picture is legit. The second and third images are computer-generated. The funny thing about them is that I asked the Dream AI app to draw a typical resident of Woodstock, Virginia.  The first picture it showed me was this horse. I laughed, and then I clicked the “Regenerate” button.

It produced the image of a large man in a plaid shirt. Okay, I can accept that as a correct answer.

Skywatch (Not Today)

Our skies are now so hazy that it makes my eyes burn and itch. It could be worse, of course.

This picture is from Saturday, when the sky was clearer. 

It was tricky taking this because I was walking Charlie and of course he would give the leash a tug just as I got ready to take the picture.

 

Canada Geese Plus a Mention of Weather

After a fairly dry spring, we got some much-needed rain over the past few days.

 I’m sure the wildlife was glad to get water to drink and replenish the waterways.

Here we see some Canada geese.

Speaking of Canada, they sent us more than just geese. The smoke from the wildfires has reached us again. Looking outside, I see a pinkish haze. We are fortunate, though, because Virginia is a long way from those fires so we are getting less smoke than many places. If I knew how to send rain to Canada, I would be glad to do so. 

Meanwhile, Texas and Oklahoma are seeing very high temperatures. I hope they get some relief soon.

We Visited Two Parks in Woodstock Today

Fairview Park

Seven Bends State Park

Wordless Wednesday on Tuesday 

 

A Farm that’s Long Gone

Claven Lane, Middletown,  VA

This photo came up in my Facebook memories from this date in 2016. The buildings had deteriorated and would be removed by the Park Service. 

The old farm is now part of Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park. A Civil War battle raged across this land in 1864. 

 See my 2017 post about this site.

Artfest 2023

Woodstock’s ArtFest was yesterday. Rain arrived right after I did! But the booths were under tents, so the festival survived the rain and soon the sun came back out.

Like last year, attendees were invited to work on a mosaic that will be a publicly displayed mural.

Mosaic Monday / Murals / Blue Monday

I put a few pieces in the sky myself.  This is the third mural in the series. The other two are already on display.

 

Linkups and Pets

For Saturday’s Critters, I decided to show you my ophthalmologist's dog. Last time I saw her, she was a little puppy, but this week she was big and still spending workdays in his office. She greets the patients and plays with dog toys.

For Weekend Reflections, I have a picture I took today in Woodstock. Then I’m going to turn this over to Charlie because I am tired and need a nap.

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Hello, it’s Charlie. I went to Woodstock with Mom, but I didn't like that she put me in a harness so I took it off in the car. 

In other news, the yellow cat is still my friend.

Isn’t she pretty? She walks slow because she has three legs instead of four, but she gets where she wants to go.

Well, Mom said she is going to bed so I am going back to sleep. Be good!

Braids and Flowers

These vines caught my eye because they look like they braided themselves against the tree. 

Today I ran some errands in Edinburg: Recycling, paid my internet bill, and visited the library, where I saw these flowers.

Sharing with Floral Friday, 
Black and White Weekend, 

Garden Affair.

River and Rainbow Collection

Skywatch: We’ve had two days of much-needed rain, so I'll start off with this rainy day photograph of the Shenandoah as seen from a low water bridge

 The second picture is computer-generated by an app called Dream. I suppose the similarity to the actual scene could be due the large number of photos that were taken from that same spot. AI draws from various pictures, reassembling elements from a variety of sources, supposedly avoiding making a copy of someone’s work. I prompted it to produce a picture of the Shenandoah River.

The rest of today’s images are also computer generated. Because this is pride month, I created various images that included rainbows. I specified different styles because this is an experiment as I play with “artificial intelligence.“

Turdus Migratorius

The American Robin is a cute bird. I think it deserves a nicer latin name than Turdus migratorius, but that’s not up to me.

 I’m making this a short post tonight because my eyes are bothering me. I went to the ophthalmologist today and they used the drops that dilate my eyes and that left them blurry. I was very glad that it was a rainy day so I didn’t have to deal with bright sunshine tormenting my dilated pupils.

Sunday with my Girls

Since we had a three day weekend, Marie was able to come for a quick visit. Lynn drove down on Sunday and we went for a picnic in the state park.

 

We also went for a ride to the Strasburg area. We stopped in Maurertown to see Clark Kent. 

 

It’s always a delight to visit with my daughters. Also, Marie took over the dog walking duties for a day, which gave me a break.

Inside a Mall

A week ago I showed some murals from the Manassas Mall. I mentioned there were a couple more, so here they are.

These are part of the Murals@Mason project, Mason being George Mason University. Here we see that the town of Manassas was established in 1853.

Next to it is a long mural with a music theme. I had to use the Pan function on my phone to get it all in.

Across from these murals is a shop that looks like everything is splattered with paint. It is, because it offers craft activities and one of them is a style of painting that I don’t quite understand, except that it is pretty messy.

I got the impression that games and activities are keeping this mall alive. I stopped shopping in malls years ago because I realized that they mainly catered to teenagers. 

Mosaic Monday / Murals