First Critter Report of Spring

 Hi, it’s Charlie! The week went by quickly. Our weather has gotten pretty nice, although it rained yesterday.

Did you know that Queen Elizabeth I had a small beagle?

AI Picture for Women’s History Month

Spring is here and we see lots of birds. I haven’t been able to get close enough to one to sniff it. They are strange creature.

We saw some more sheep.

This is a short report because it is already bedtime. Happy spring! 

No Bones About It

This print shop in Strasburg often decorates their window. Here you can see the daycare building across the street reflected quite clearly.

Yellow Signs of Spring

Daffodils in Winchester

Forsythia in Front Royal

Skywatch / Floral Friday

Grackle Visits the Feeder

These are stills from a video that was automatically recorded by my Birdfy device. There are unfortunate glare spots because the sun was shining on the lens, including a round orange spot that makes it look like it has a red breast like a robin. I can’t avoid placing the camera where it gets sunstruck because the only direction that never gets direct sun is north, and that would be looking toward my neighbor’s window. 

This bird has character! The long beak and bright eyes give it a cartoonish look, so I found it worth the trouble to make still pictures from the video. Actually, this isn’t difficult once I download it. I just stop it where I want and tell Siri to make a screen shot, which I crop and save.

Speaking of Siri, she failed at identifying the bird when it faced downward, guessing that it was a beetle or a bear!

A Bit of Green for St. Patrick’s Day

Although it was very cold today, I took Charlie for a short walk at Seven Bends State Park this afternoon. I saw that the Virginia bluebells are getting ready to bloom. They are often found along rivers because the conditions in floodplains are ideal for their growth.

The sign for the trail is green. Gokotta is a Swedish word that refers to waking up early in the morning to listen to the birds sing and enjoying nature.

Sorry, Charlie did not pose because he was busy sniffing the ground in order to figure out what dogs had been there previously. 

Here’s an AI drawing of a beagle dressed for St. Patrick’s Day. 

Belonging in Harrisonburg

These murals are both on a wall that faces a parking lot across from the Discovery Museumin Harrisonburg. They both have a red border, but the style is quite different.

Downtown Harrisonburg is an interesting place to visit, although a series of one-way streets can make navigating a challenge.

Murals

Patsy Cline Park

Winchester, VA

This park was just opened in late summer of 2025. I didn’t know it existed until the other day. This afternoon I went looking for it.

The park features a modest amphitheater. A path connects it to Shawnee Springs, or you can walk up to the house on S. Kent Street where Patsy lived with her mother. It’s currently a museum.

Patsy was a singer from Winchester and had several hit records in the 1950s and 60s. Tragically, she died in a plane crash in 1963. 

Mosaic Monday

Charlie’s Report with Sheep Pictures

Hi, it’s Charlie! Here I am at the dog park in Strasburg. This was mostly a good week except it got cold again and then yesterday afternoon the wind blew so hard that we couldn’t go to a park at all. 

Mom takes a lot of pictures of me. She used a solarize filter on this one. Ha, I look blue!

One day I was so good that we went to Strasburg and to Petco and to Skyline Drive.

We found the Appalachian Trail. I wanted to hike to the end, but Mom said no. She said that dogs don’t get along with bears, which is not fair because I get along with almost everybody.

This afternoon we went to Mount Jackson, but first we stopped so Mom could take pictures of some sheep.

Then we went to the dog park in Mount Jackson. A black dog came to play with me. Her name is Stella and she can run pretty fast.

I’ll close with a picture of me in the car.

Cedar Creek from Bowman Mill Road

 Near Strasburg

I took Bowman Mill Road last week for a change of scenery. It’s a winding country road, so it takes longer. It crosses Cedar Creek on a  low-water bridge. 

The first time I saw that bridge was decades ago on a Civil War field trip. A Confederate army crossed here in 1864 when they carried out an early morning attack on a Federal encampment near Middletown.

Water / Reflections / B&W

Ricochet Weather

March madness could refer to Virginia weather. We had early spring weather, but winter came rushing back. 

Yesterday was unseasonably warm, with temperatures in the 80s. Today the temperature dropped to 33°F. It was the greatest drop in temperature over a 24 hour period in 90 years! And it snowed this morning! 

Flowers had already started to bloom.

Yesterday was warm. I took Charlie for a ride and he actually did very well in the car. We’ve been working on his fear of the car for over three years. He finally seems to be enjoying himself.

We took a walk in Strasburg. I wanted to get a few pictures of the “Signs of Fascism” demonstration. It takes place on Wednesdays in varying locations.

I heard one man in a pickup truck call them effin’ communists. They responded with “Have a nice day!” 

At the risk of stating the obvious, name-calling is not productive. Education can be, but it has a long way to go in rural areas. This is not a political blog, but some issues are too big to ignore.

Last night it rained, and it was still raining this morning. When I tried to take Charlie for a walk, he turned around in the driveway and pulled me back to the house. He did not like the cold rain. Well, I was taking him to daycare after breakfast anyway because I had a physical therapy appointment. 

I was there doing assigned exercises when someone said it was snowing! It snowed hard for a little while, but by the time I left, it had turned back into rain. 

I went shopping and use the “Gas Buddy” app to find the cheapest gas around. The price has gone up by forty cents a gallon since the latest war started in the Middle East. 

The rain stopped this afternoon and the sun came out. After I picked up Charlie, I stopped behind the county recreation building to take a Skywatch picture. The temperature was still cold.

Blog Post #9400: House Finches

 This male house finch kindly posed for my Nikon. The rest of today’s pictures were automatically taken with the Birdfy feeder cam.

Male and Female

This last shot was taken on a snow day. You can see why it’s easy to confuse the house finch with a purple finch. I’m not positive about this last one, except that house finches are very common here in Virginia and can be seen year-round. 

Article: House finch vs. purple finch.

New Valley Health Building

Strasburg, VA

I’ve been linking up to a blog hop called Wordless Wednesday on Tuesday on a fairly regular basis. Recently Sue, the hostess, announced that she is going to discontinue blogging. I thank her for hosting for a long time.

There are other blog hops called Wordless Wednesday, so obviously, I can link up somewhere else. The idea behind these link parties is to let other people see your blog. I enjoyed hers because she always shared interesting pictures of her own and also showed thumbnail pictures for each participant.

The number of people posting blogs appears to be declining. There are easier ways to share your thoughts and pictures on social media, but often your work gets lost in the crowd. I like the structure of blogging, and the interaction with others who have similar interests. I appreciate all of the hosts and hostesses out there in the blogging world.

Quilt Mural

Luray, VA

This is on an exterior wall of Hawksbill Trading Company. I’m not sure I should call it a mural, as it is mounted rather than painted directly on the brick. I did not find information about it, but it has words to inspire the viewer and represent community values.

The name Hawksbill refers to nearby Hawksbill Creek, which apparently originates in a gap on Hawksbill Mountain, a popular hiking destination in Shenandoah National Park. 

There are a number of murals in Luray, many of which I have shown. There are still some I haven’t found yet. Here’s one that is along Hawksbill Creek that I shared previously in 2020, but the view was partially then obscured by foliage.

Monday Murals