Down by the Riverside

North Fork of the Shenandoah

 Skywatch / H2O Thursday

The heatwave continues. Fortunately, I know of several shady places where I can take Charlie for a sniffari walk. Beagles love sniffing new things and it helps tire them out.

There is a short section of trail at Seven Bends State Park that is shady and has places to rest. The shade makes the heat tolerable.

Ducks Relaxing

Mallards

Although I don't have anything clever this week for Wild Bird Wednesday, I want to support the linkup by posting something. All I've got is mallard ducks, a common species around here.

I am still struggling with my vision, although it has been seven weeks since cataract surgery. I don’t see as clearly as I used to, and my right eye gets strained from working extra hard to make up for the blur in my left eye. I had side-effects from the prescription eyedrops and stopped taking them. I have a call in to the doctor’s office. 

Meanwhile, I depend on my phone’s camera to focus for me. It seems that it gets thrown off sometimes by mist rising from water, or perhaps from the glare. I am also concerned that I might be making pictures too bright or too dark because right now, everything seems super-bright to me. 

 

Gardens of Glass

An Exhibit at the MSV

Wordless / Tuesday Treasures

Muralist at Work, Edinburg

This afternoon was quite hot so I decided that Edinburg Town Park was a good place for Charlie's adventure. There we can walk in the shade of tall pine trees.

The park also has a softball diamond, playground, tennis court, and a swimming pool. There were lots of people enjoying the pool, many of them teenagers. I was surprised to see what looked like a mural on a wall inside the fenced area, so I stepped closer. A young woman was painting a mural. She was dressed for the hot weather. Perhaps she would get in the pool to cool off.

I was able to take a few pictures through spaces in the chain-link fence. I thought she might be painting an eagle, but when I zoomed in on the image, I could see that it was a mallard duck. I’ll look at the completed mural when I go to that park again.

We took our walk under the trees and sat in the gazebo. From there, we can see the town water tower.

Mosaic Monday / Murals

Three Old Photos

Since today is Father's Day, I'm sharing a few old family pictures. I copied these using the PhotoScan app, which takes four shots and combines them to eliminate most of the glare.

The snapshot of my little sister Peggy and my dad is one that I took with my first camera. The next one is of my parents many years later.

I believe my brother-in-law took this last one. By that time, my dad was in a wheelchair. Life passes so quickly and then fades away.

Critters, Family and a Little Bit of Justice

Guess what? It's time for an update from Charlie!

Hi, I am a beagle and I don’t particularly like posing for pictures. I do like to lie in the sun, and I love to see other animals. This week I saw birds, rabbits, dogs, a groundhog, and cats. Mom did not get a picture of the cat because it came by and rubbed me and then ran off. So here is a computer-made picture of a cat.

Caturday / Critters

Look at this moth that landed on Mom’s shirt! She left it outdoors so that it would be okay. 

In other news, Mom gave me the biggest chew toy I ever saw. She didn’t let me keep it for very long, and I think she threw it in the trash can. She said it was a dog bed, but it didn’t smell right to me. Stuffing flew everywhere! 

Well, yesterday Mom got a new phone. It looks just like her old one, except the old one is cracked. Her daughters got it for her. When I was in daycare yesterday, Lynn came over to set up the phone.

They picked me up from the veterinary and we went home, but Lynn tried to take me out of the car and it scared me, so I jumped in the front seat and tried to get out through the window, but it was glass. I was worried that Lynn might take me back to the place where they got me a long time ago. Lynn was with my mom then and I never want to go back to that place. Mom says they it has been closed down and not to worry. The company that ran it had to pay $35 million because they did not treat us dogs well at all. I could tell you more, but it was sad and very scary.

I think I’ll go to sleep now, here on the couch, next to my mom.

Curl

 This handrail in Winchester has a fancy ending.

The Sky at 9 PM

I didn't feel like going back outside tonight, but Charlie insisted. I think he wanted to see if any of his dog friends were out there, but they weren't, although we heard a dog barking in somebody’s backyard.

There was still a touch of blue in the sky. The weather has been warm this week, but not unbearably hot. Next week is supposed to be much hotter. We haven’t had rain all week, so I told the man who was going to cut my grass tomorrow not to come, because the grass has not grown since he cut it last time.

Skywatch

Nineteen Years of Blogging

Blog Post #8741

I began blogging on this day in 2005. That was a long time ago and it feels like it. Since then, I have moved four times and gotten divorced. I have also gotten a lot older.

When I started this blog, we were living in Glebe Harbor in a rambler facing a cove. I could watch birds from the deck, but that was the main thing the place had going for it. The internet connection was horrible because it was over an aging phone line, and pictures took forever to load. For that reason. I only posted occasionally and I shrunk my photos before posting them.  Often I composed a post offline and drove to the library to upload it. 

We were also a considerable distance from any real shopping. I had to drive over an hour to buy dog food because one of my dogs was allergic to chicken and the other was sensitive to grains. By the end of the summer, we were ready to move back to our smaller home in the mountains.

Some of the pictures I posted in 2005 were modified in Photo Deluxe, a predecessor to Photoshop Elements. Here are a few, small in size due to the slow speed in uploading and downloading pictures. 

Thank you to everyone who follows this blog and takes the time to comment. I love hearing from you.

Another Eagle Flies Free

A young bald eagle was released last week at Seven Bends State Park. Staff from the Wildlife Center of Virginia brought her here after rehabilitating her. She is a juvenile bald eagle who was rescued when she was found unable to fly.

I was excited to go even though I attended a similar event last year. Unfortunately I had left my old Nikon turned on and the battery was too low, so I took another camera that does not do as well with bird photos. Add that to my continuing vision problems and the pictures are not as sharp as I'd like, or at least not to me. I'm not sure I can tell though!

Note that juvenile bald eagles do not have the distinctive white feathers on their heads. 

She did not go very far at first. She flew across the road to a fence and stayed there for a while. When a small bird started dive-bombing her, she flew over to the cornfield and disappeared.

 

Look above her in the final picture to see the bird that was harassing her.  I guess size does not matter as much as sass. 

Skyline Overlooks

Shenandoah National Park

Wordless / Mosaic

Bonnie Blue Pig

Winchester, VA

The Bonnie Blue Bakery is well-known in Winchester. When I stopped to take a picture of the mural, the sun was really bright. I dialed down the contrast for the second picture using the Photos app in hopes of making it easier to view the painting.

Monday Murals

 

My Backyard Garden

The previous owner of my house maintained a vegetable garden in this space. I have no talent for growing vegetables, so I scattered a bunch of flower seeds.

 

We had plenty of rain in early spring, so the flowers did well. Now we are in a dry spell so I need to get out there and water the gardens. 

Floral / Sunday Best