Going to See a Zedonk

We’ll start with a picture of Charlie at the Bark Park in Mount Jackson. I filtered this in PicsArt and then added a border in Photocollage.

Charlie is still nervous about riding in the car, but after he runs around at the dog park, he calms down and rests. Last weekend we started our adventure by going to the dog park and then driving further south to the pumpkin patch at Court Manor. I’ve been there before but I really wanted to see their zedonk. 

It was their final weekend of the season. My plan was to just see the animal from the parking lot and take a picture, since dogs are not allowed in the petting zoo area. 

Some friendly goats came up to the fence, but I wanted to get a closer look at the zedonk, So I bought a ticket and went inside. Charlie was resting in the car and the temperature was cool enough to leave him there for a few minutes.

The zedonk’s mother was keeping an eye on him. He’s a year old and his father is a donkey. The owner does not know which donkey is the dad. This animal only has stripes on his legs, but some zedonks have more stripes.

There are also called zonkeys, and sometimes have been bred on purpose in order to produce a hybrid that can be trained like a donkey but has the disease-resistance of a zebra. 

I snapped some pictures of other animals, of course.

Charlie was waiting in the car, fairly patiently. He looked out the window as we left.

Photographer’s Home and Studio

Little Washington, VA

Last weekend was the annual Rappahannock Studio Tour. I never have time to visit all the art studios because they are spread out over a wide area, and some are in homes located on winding mountain roads. This time I only went to the main gallery in the town of Washington and two studios. 

Deborah had volunteered to watch Charlie and Frank was not feeling well enough to take a day trip, so I went by myself. It takes over an hour to get there, even longer for me because I stopped to take pictures of the fall foliage. Usually, I don’t visit the photographers’ studios because I am pretty well steeped in photography already, and I don’t like to miss the paintings. 

There were a couple of photographs in the main gallery that stopped me in my tracks, so I decided to see more by that photographer, Charles Tompkins. His education includes classes at the Ansel Adams Yosemite Workshop, and it shows in his work. He has mastered tonality and lighting. Although I have taken a ton of photo classes, I never had the budget for fancy equipment or the motivation to work long hours by myself, although I certainly spent a lot of time making prints with other students in classes. I did work in two portrait studios, but I didn’t earn enough to pay the bills that way.

The other exhibit I chose to visit was north of Flint Hill on a narrow country road that had me wondering if I had accidentally turned onto an old logging road or a cow path! But that’s part of the fun of a studio tour, seeing new places that you would never venture into without a destination.

I would have loved to visit some of the artists that I’ve seen in the past and purchased paintings from, but I wanted to get home before dark, and also pick up Charlie before he wore out his welcome. He loves going to Deborah‘s and playing with her dog, but sometimes he gets anxious and that can be tiresome.

Brass Door Handle

I noticed the reflection on the door and took a picture. The shadow reminds me of a silhouette of a horse.

Skywatch: The First Week of November

The first week of November isn’t over yet, but I want to show you these before I forget.

Now that the days are getting shorter, I’ll probably take more pictures of sunsets because I will often be coming home at that time, or walking the dog. That may be the only positive thing I can say about these short days. I like sunshine. 

Charlie is Four!

Happy Birthday to Charlie!

He has no idea what it means to have a birthday. I bought him some special treats. Otherwise, we didn’t celebrate much because I was in pain. I had physical therapy this morning and it did not turn out well. My back muscles went into a spasm and I couldn’t get up without help.. My back has been hurting ever since. Right now I’ve got a heating pad on it.

In other minor news, the male house finch finally joined the female on the feeder that has a camera. He stayed to the far left and flew off after a few seconds.

 

Speaking of birds, here is some student artwork that I saw in Rappahannock County on Saturday. 

Ginkgo Gold 2025

Virginia State Arboretum, Oct. 29

Wordless

Choosing the Future

Vote, while we still have democracy!

Many state and local elections take place today. Sometimes we get so focused on national politics that we forget that local politics are very important. 

Local candidate’s positions can be hard to decipher when we don’t see much about them in media. I feel our school board is important, but it was tricky trying to figure out what the candidates actually believed. They often speak in generalities or clichés. I had to read between the lines, and hope I made the right choice.

Shopping Mall Mural

 Leesburg, VA

This mural was painted a year ago by artist Leilani Romero. I don’t go to Leesburg very often because it’s over an hour away and the traffic can be heavy.

This is at the entrance to the outlet mall, which is not in historic downtown Leesburg. It’s on the east side of town, whereas I would come in from the west.

Leesburg used to be a charming old town, but now it’s surrounded by crowded commercial development. I did not actually shop in the mall because I don’t need that kind of stuff. I think I went there years ago and didn’t find anything I wanted.

Mosaic Monday / Murals

Orange You Glad It’s Autumn?

Golds and oranges stand out this year.

Massanutten Range from Seven Bends State Park.

Shadow Shot / Sunday Best

Long Branch Lane

Endless Caverns Road

A Quick Critter Post

This is the last day of Daylight Savings Time, And some say that we get an extra hour of sleep tonight, but that's not the case when you have an animal to take care of. Charlie will still get up at dawn if he feels like it, and he'll still need to go outside promptly. I'd better get to bed.

I saw this butterfly today. We haven’t had a hard frost yet and flowers are still blooming, for now. 

Here’s Charlie looking handsome at the dog park.

 And here is a beagle who looks like Charlie, but it’s done with artificial intelligence.

A Breakfast Place

The November 1st theme for City Daily Photo is “Breakfast.”  I puzzled over how I could depict this. My own breakfast is usually a protein shake, and I tried photographing it, but really it just looked like beige foam.

I don’t normally photograph food, so I didn’t have breakfast food pictures in my files. I’m not a “foodie” and I have multiple food allergies, so meals to me are sustenance rather than something that excites me. 

I remembered that I had a couple of pictures from a restaurant from a few weeks ago. This is one of the chains that is known for breakfasts, and has waffle in its name. Another breakfast chain has pancakes in its name. 

I don’t think I had been in this particular place before, but I stopped in for lunch on the way to an art show. I was surprised to see that they had a modern version of a jukebox.

Bridges at Capon Lake

Hampshire County, WV

The metal bridge over the Cacapon River is no longer open the vehicles, but is maintained as an exhibit. It is a Whipple Truss bridge and was first erected in 1874.  A structural engineer named Squire Whipple is known as the father of iron bridges because he figured out out how to build strong metal bridges by mathematically analyzing forces and stresses in structures, incorporating double intersection diagonals into the truss design. 

Nearby is a more modern bridge that was built in 1991.

Fish Paddling a Kayak

Woodstock, VA

Our state park staff won second place in the town’s annual pumpkin character competition. They created a fish paddling a kayak. 

On Tuesday I stopped at their office in town to take a picture of the unique creation just as these friendly rangers showed up. (How’s that for timing?) After I congratulated them, I asked them to pose with the kayak and pumpkin-head fish.

Charlie and I had just come from Seven Bends State Park, where we both like to walk. The river was quite low. We did get some rain the next day and last night, so that may have relieved the drought a little.
 

A Bird and a Deer

October is a few weeks earlier than the time that I usually start feeding birds. I decided to put out a handful of black thistle seed (nyjer seed) because it can take a week or so for the birds to discover the feeders. Today I checked the feeder camera app and saw that one bird has found it.

It appears to be a female house finch. The male is much more colorful, and I hope to see him soon. 

The camera takes videos, and I saved these images by holding down the progress bar and saying, “Siri, make a screen shot.”  I cropped these and increased the contrast. 

There were two short videos showing that a deer came by one morning. I live in town, but not far from what I consider the edge of town. There’s a farm a few blocks from my house, but the forest is much farther away.