Apple Tree Mural

The Apple House has been in business since 1963. Perhaps you have stopped there on the way to Shenandoah National Park.

One day as I passed it, I noticed a mural. I went back a week later to take some pictures.

The apple tree was almost lost in the shadows, so I lightened it using the Photos app. The artist is Amanda Horn, and I’ve seen her work in Front Royal.

Here’s a look at some surrounding items. As you might guess, the restaurant features barbecue as well as apples.

Mosaic Monday/ Murals

Stairway to the Tower

Blog Post 9070

The children's play space at Seven Bends State Park now has improved steps to the tower. The tower is modeled after the Woodstock Tower on top of the mountain, which is taller. 

The new steps are not as steep as they were originally designed. Although they do not match the lookout tower as closely, they are safer for children.

Charlie and I were there today for a walk. People were enjoying the nice weather, and I saw someone fishing in the river.

North Fork of the Shenandoah

Footbridge as Seen from Hollingsworth Road.

Beagles and Dinos

Today I have some unique animals to show you, but first I want to show you a new friend that Charlie made. Her name is Lucy and she was at the dog park in Bryce Resort. I could not tell them apart at a distance. Other than her gender being female, the main difference was that she had a white blaze on her forehead.

She was rescued as a stray so we don’t know if she is related to Charlie. I have seen pictures of other beagles who look just like him.

Last week, I mentioned that I wanted to find some unusual animals to share. I got a chance this week when I went to Winchester. The gardens at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley have a sculpture display called Scraposaurs. 

The artist is Dale Lewis and he created these prehistoric creatures using scrap metal.

Different Crop and Color

Outdoor Cafe

I took two snapshots of some folks at a sidewalk table. I believe they are tourists. I found the color to be a bit jarring, so I decided to convert one of the pictures to black and white. It is also cropped differently.

Do you find that the color version tells a different story? There’s an old saying that “Clothes make the man,” and although I try not to be judgmental about clothing, they can have an emotional impact.

"For the apparrell oft proclaimes the man." — Shakespeare

Sky, Trees, Mountain

The first scene is looking east toward the Massanutten Range. The second picture is looking west toward Great North Mountain. I took it while walking Charlie early this morning because I saw the hot air balloon.

These are cell phone pictures. I brightened the second one using Photoshop Express.

Mockingbird and House Finch

Wild Bird Wednesday

Well, I’m having trouble posting from my iPad tonight. I guess I need to reboot it.

Similarly, I had a problem with my refrigerator. The freezer compartment stopped freezing, and I had to throw out a bunch of food. I made sure nothing was blocking the vents. Then I ordered a new refrigerator, one with a more capacity and much nicer looking.

Suddenly, the old one started working again. Apparently ice had been clogging the drain hose and needed to defrost. Now this is a frost-free refrigerator, and I didn’t know that you really should defrost it once in a while, perhaps every year or so.  

I considered canceling the order, but decided that I really want the new one. It matches my other appliances. More importantly, prices are probably going to go up due to tariffs, and the old one might fail soon due to age.

Ha, this post was supposed tp be about birds! Well, note that the house finch is standing in front of a little house!

It was her Birthday Before it was Earth Day.

Happy birthday to Marie!

And a reminder to love our planet!

ABC and 123

Front Royal

These colorful paintings are on a childcare center.  I’ve never seen an alphabet tree, but I do recognize the yellow vehicle as a school bus.

Monday Murals

Spring Springs

I participate in a couple of online photo groups. One of them has a weekly theme, and this week’s theme is “Spring.” I couldn’t resist playing with the word, so I posted four pictures today of springs, the kind where water flows from the earth.

I took these pictures today at Orkney Springs, a beautiful place on the side of Great North Mountain. It’s been a resort since the horse and buggy days. Some of the springs are now channeled into pumps and protected by a roof. 

One of them comes out of a pipe set into a rock wall. It’s known as Chalybeate Springs or simply “the Orkney Spring.”  Chalybeate refers to water with a taste of iron, and the iron-rich water here turns the rocks brown.

This plaque includes a date of 1783, which I assume is when the spring was first written about. I don’t know when it was discovered because people of the Senedo tribe lived here long before. Although they didn’t leave written records, they left artifacts.

Most of the historic resort is now owned by the Episcopal Church and managed as a retreat center known as Shrinemont. 

Mosaic Monday

Easter Bunnies and Other Critters

A grocery store had a display of flower arrangements with bunnies. I didn’t know that was a trend, so I stopped and took pictures with my phone. 

It's spring, and rabbits seem to be everywhere. Sometimes Charlie sees them and wants to chase them. I have to plant my feet and hold onto the leash.

Right now, Charlie is napping so I won’t wake him. Here’s a picture of him under a bench at the dog park in Strasburg. He was about to eat some grass.

I was surprised to see someone riding through that park on a horse. I saw her again a few blocks away.

Happy Easter to those who celebrate it. Hold onto hope that there will be a miracle and things will get better tomorrow.

Trying to Buy Local

This afternoon I went to Front Royal in hopes of finding a locally-made gift for Marie's birthday. There's a number of gift shops on Main Street, but I failed to find anything suitable. I'm sure she doesn't want a scented candle or a tea towel printed with a joke about drinking wine.

I ate a small lunch in the small park by Happy Creek.

I made a stop at the grocery store and then took a quick trip into Shenandoah National Park. I shopped at the little gift shop at Dickey Ridge. I wasn’t surprised that they didn’t have anything for Marie either, but I did buy a shirt for myself. It’s a long sleeve tee (and I prefer long sleeves) in blue with a bear design. I wanted to support the park by purchasing something. 

I tried to take a selfie of myself holding the T-shirt with the view behind me, but the sun was also behind me so the shirt appears too dark.

Build the Rail Trail!

🎼 The steel rail still ain’t heard the news… 🎵 
This train got the disappearing blues.

    ~ Steve Goodman

There is an unused railroad line that runs the entire length of Shenandoah County plus additional miles in Warren County. The railroad company is interested in selling it to the State of Virginia for use as a trail. There is enthusiastic public support for this idea, but there is also some opposition, and there is a competing proposal for rail with trail, which is resurrecting the railroad and putting a trail beside it. The state of Virginia is studying both ideas.

I went to a meeting on Tuesday where an update of the VDOT study was presented. Several hundred people attended. The state does not know yet how much it would cost to build a rail with trail, but they have diagrams showing what it would look like. Probably the cost would be prohibitive because additional grading would be needed, and fencing would be erected between the tracks and the trail. Additional bridges would also have to be built unless bypasses for the trail could be built along roadways.

I’d like to see the recreational trail built without further delays. No railroad company has expressed an interest in using the old rails. There are other railroad tracks providing freight service to the valley, and passenger service is available in Staunton but not heavily used. Updating the old rails for passenger trains would be very expensive. 

Freight is still carried over the other railroad lines, but even more freight volume is hauled by truck to the “Inland Port” at Front Royal.  This is a specialized depot where the huge containers which replaced old style boxcars are transferred from trucks to trains, and vice versa. These same containers are transferred to ships at seaports.  It’s remarkably fast and efficient. I think it was the opening of the Inland Port in 1989 that sparked the demise of the railroad line now in question. A short section of that line remained in service until 2020, when the publishing plant in Strasburg closed. I think it was their last customer and Norfolk Southern had continued service to it in order to honor an old contract.

The old tracks are now overgrown and deteriorating. I miss hearing the sound of the trains. When we lived in Waterlick, we could hear train passing through late at night because it blew its whistle at the road crossing. Trains are beautiful, but they’re not coming back without an economic need.

I’ve been following online discussions about the competing proposals. There are some very vocal people who don’t want a trail at all. Basically they don’t want “strangers” around. You might be surprised at how many people who have lived in a rural area all their lives are suspicious of city people. I’ve heard it expressed as the “from heres” versus “come heres.”  They even say that newcomers should go back to where they came from because they bring changes. 

Backyard Photos with my Nikon

Although the majority of my photos now are cell phone pictures, I still use "real" cameras at times. I keep the Nikon next to my back door for bird photos, simply because it has a good zoom lens.

It also has a memory card (SD card). For a long time, I always used the laptop to process pictures from these cards. After all, it has a slot and the software to make transferring easy. But I finally gave up on using the laptop, at least for now. Peculiarities of my vision make it painful to look at that screen. For some reason, I can still look at the iPad screen, although I often wind up closing my left eye, which has not recovered from cataract surgery, even after 11 months. (I’m going back to the retina specialist next week, but I don’t expect he can do much more.)

Here we see a nuthatch. They don’t mind perching upside down.

I also selected a picture of a dark-eyed junco to show today. 

The final picture shows blossoms on my neighbor’s magnolia tree. This was before the temperatures dropped below freezing and these blooms turned brown.