It's Love Your Pet Day

I don't know who comes up with all these special days, but Flash and I are playing along by posting  a selfie.

Sharing with Sepia Saturday and Camera Critters

Random Five Photos for February

Since I have a surplus of random photos,  I picked five for the Willy Nilly Friday blog hop. The first one shows Front Royal's Main Street, which is not as busy as it once was. Traffic has been routed around it for years by way of a bypass, but it's still popular with locals as well as with tourists who visit for history or antique shopping.  Sharing with My Town Shoot Out.

Our snow has pretty much melted but I needed a picture for Photo Friday's "White" challenge so here's one from a few weeks ago. I realize there's more shadow than white here, but I'm referencing the expression "white as snow."

Photo #3 is a sunset for Skywatch Friday. We are blessed with a west-facing view so I am able to spot sunsets from our living room.

Photo 4 is not for a linkup. It's a decades-old picture I took of my sister and her daughter with my mom in the background. 

Last of all is a meme I made today because I am tired of seeing "click bait," especially memes that ask you to "Like" and "Share."   

Only people with a special ability can read this. If you can, share it so your friends
can see you have this characteristic.

Walking at Strasburg's Town Park

In Shenandoah County, Virginia

Sharing with Good Fences

and Signs, Signs

and Thoughtless Thursday

Tips: Bird Feeders for Photography

If you like taking pictures of birds, you probably love being able to photograph them from your windows. Over  the years I've increased the number of feeders in my yard so I get to watch the birds and squirrels during the winter. (I don't feed them in warm weather because bears are attracted by bird seed!)

Here are a few tips I've picked up along the way.

1. Set up feeders in clear view of your window, but not so close that you'll invite rodents to your doorstep.

2. Try to place them around the same distance from the window so that you don't have to refocus constantly. (This is important if your camera is painfully slow at focusing like my Nikon P510 is.)

3. Have at least one window without a screen in it that has a clear view of the feeders.  Keep the glass clean and place the lens close to the glass.

4. Select photogenic feeders and poles. I have a squirrel-proof feeder too — well, squirrel resistant. (Nothing is totally squirrel proof!)  Provide both seed and suet and keep the feeders well-stocked when snow is forecast.

5.  Provide additional places for birds to perch, especially if you aren't blessed with nearby trees that have open branches.  Here you can see a metal tree-sculpture plus a little branch that I stuck in the ground as an extra perch.

Although not all birds will perch on my devices, the ones that do can look charming! Photos of birds at feeders become repetitious so  other poses add variety. 

We even planted a little shrub this fall that I chose for it's attractive branches. I selected it's location to be the same distance from the window as my feeders.

Bonus tip: If possible select a window that's shaded or at least not facing the sun most of the day. Glare can be a problem. If it is, don't worry. The position of the sun changes and sometimes clouds move in, so just wait a while. If the birds' favorite time to visit is at the time of day when sunlight hits the window glass,  you might even consider an awning.

Of course, on a mild day you can go outside, sit quietly, and wait. Position yourself in the shade or use a lens hood.  The bolder birds will come back to feed.

Sharing with Wild Bird Wednesday and The Bird D'Pot

and Camera Critters

Pond Patterns: Ice

Sharing with Black and White Wednesday 

and Water World Wednesday and Wordless Wednesday

Trees along the North Fork in Winter

Sharing with NF Trees and Bushes
and Wordless Wednesday on Tuesday

Barns of Fishers Hill

Fishers Hill is a hill but it's also the name of a town and a Civil War battlefield. All of these are in Shenandoah County near Strasburg. I'm typing "Fishers" without an apostrophe because that's how the highway department spells it so that's what you see on modern maps.

The first time I saw the town of Fishers Hill, I was charmed by it. The red barn by the creek, the old mill, the country store... how cute!

In this third picture the old barn has almost disappeared so you may have to look closely to see what's left of it.  See more Fishers Hill posts. 

By the way, we had a couple inches of snow yesterday but today it has just about melted away.

Sharing with The Barn Collective and Our World Tuesday

and Through My Lens

It's the Third Monday in February

The Good, the Random, the Fun

The Good: It's President's Day, so I'm sharing this sculpture of George Washington as a young man. This stands on the grounds of his office in Winchester, Virginia, which he used while supervising the construction of nearby Fort Loudoun in 1755-56. The fort was built to protect the town during the French and Indian War.

The Random: At Sylvia's Pets in Harrisonburg, there's a long mural over the fish tanks showing aquatic scenes.  I'm sharing this with Monday Murals, which always has fun and interesting artwork to enjoy.

The Fun: The town of Woodstock has a new sculpture,  a hiker made of stones. The artist is Craig Gray and he calls this Pac-Man – he represents a backpacker.

Strasburg Christian Church

On High Street, Strasburg, VA

It's really cold here! I was able to photograph the church from the comfort of the car but I had to get out to get a picture of the walking tour sign across the street.

Historic Strasburg, Stop #8

"The Christian Church (United Disciples of Christ) was organized in 1856. Services were held in a school house at the corner of Holliday and High Streets or in homes. The first part of the church was erected in 1872 and remodeled in the Romanesque Revival style in 1912.

In 1872 James Sonner built the house at 187 High Street for his family. He is considered to be the master builder of Victorian homes in Strasburg. Notice the unique decorative details he used on the house. For many years this was the home of Jack Crawford, a distinguished resident and renowned collector of Indian artifacts.

Fort Street, heading south from High Street, is the old road that led to the Shenandoah River. Before a one lane bridge was constructed in 1914, travelers crossing the river used the "town ford" at the end of this road or the "river bend ford" about one mile upstream or "Jack's ford," one mile downstream. After the bridge on South Holliday Street opened in 1970, the old bridge was torn down.

The Federal style house at 201 High Street, known as Academy Hall, was built in the 1820's. The room on the west side was an early school.

Strasburg's Public Schools occupied the property to the right of Academy Hall. Peter Stover, founder of Strasburg, and his son Christian donated the lot to the town for educational facilities. From 1804 until 1992 classes were held in various buildings in the complex. The building you see today was built in 1926 to replace the Strasburg Academy, which held classrooms and the Town Hall. A fire in 1968 and the construction of larger schools at new locations brought school days to an end on High Street. It is hard to imagine that this quiet setting was once filled with the sounds of children, buses, and bells.

On this side of the street, at 192 High Street, is another house built by James Sonner. It served as a parsonage for nine ministers of St. Paul Lutheran Church from 1884 until 1981. Small reminders such as the stained glass window at the front door remain.

The residence at 144 High Street was built in 1884. All of the walls, interior and exterior are constructed of brick. The mansard roof is a distinctive feature of Second Empire architecture. This was the home of W. H. Ellifrits, Shenandoah County's House of Delegates Representative from 1960 to 1964."

Sharing with InSPRIREd Sunday and Sundays in My City

Snow Pile

Left by the Plow

Sharing with Black and White Weekend and 
Scenic Weekends and Shadow Shot Sunday

Deer in Sepia, Skyline Drive

It's too cold to walk around stalking wildlife! I took these pictures from the car in Shenandoah National Park. Deer are not particularly afraid of cars but they will run off if you get out.

Sharing with Sepia Saturday and

Saturday's Critters

A Bird's Eye View of Strasburg

Strasburg, Virginia (Shenandoah County)

View from Stoney Pointe

See more Strasburg posts.

Sharing with Skywatch Friday

Blog Post #5400

Yesterday I received my hardcover albums made from my 2015 blog entries. I used Blog2Print to upload my blog and make an attractive book. Since I had so many photos, it went over the limit of 430 pages so I had to get it split into two books, one for January to June and another for the rest of the year. This was an expensive project but to me it's worthwhile because it doubles as a family album as well as saving the blog for posterity.

I don't subscribe to the belief that anything you post online will last forever. Why should it?

Example: In the early days of AOL, I took advantage of their website hosting and created several sites. Later they stopped offering hosting services and notified members that the sites would go away. I transferred some of my pages* to paid hosting services and copied others to one of my backup drives. The latter group disappeared from the internet. They weren't particularly valuable anyway. 

Since I put a tremendous amount of time into this blog, I like to preserve it to look at later and leave for my children. Although my digital photos are backed up on various hard drives, they would be hard for me to find. Most of them are also stored on my Shutterfly account and on yearly archive CD's, but without the descriptions that are on this blog.

I've been making these books for ten years. The paper is high quality and the color rendition is good.  After the book is automatically generated, I delete the table of contents (don't need it), page through the online draft to see if anything else should be left out, and add full-size images to the front and back. 

* My oldest websites are Javins.com, CivilWarFieldTrips.com, and VirginiaPhoto.com. They have evolved since the AOL days, although I tend to neglect them now that I have a blog.

Sharing with Orange You Glad It's Friday

Frank, Flash, a Fence... and a Rare Species

Near Skyline High School

 Next to the trail near the high school is a sign describing the Madison Cave Isopod. Don't feel bad if you've never heard of it; it's rare.

"You are standing in Eastham Park, home to the Madison Cave Isopod (Antrolana Lira), a tiny crustacean that lives near underground water sources. This animal is on the federal and state threatened species lists because its habitat is very limited and often impacted by humans. In fact, this form of isopod has only been found in 12 sites in the United States and only within Virginia and West Virginia."

Sharing with Good Fences and Thoughtless Thursday and Signs, Signs

The Geese and the Guru

After January's big snow storm, there was two much snow to walk around outdoors so I spent some time taking pictures through a window. When I saw a shape across the lake that appeared to be a heron, I zoomed in so I could see it better. Yes, there he was!

I busied myself with trying to get a clear picture of him, leaning on the window frame and keeping the camera steady. (The zoom can make the camera shake enough to blur the image.) At first the geese seemed to ignore him, marching past him on the ice.

After a while, the geese turned and approached the heron. They spent some time looking a him. What were they thinking? Were they asking his advice?

After they walked away, some Canada Geese approached him. I wish I knew what was being communicated.

Sharing with Wild Bird Wednesday and The Bird D'Pot

and Water World Wednesday and Through My Lens

An Old Picture of Lynn

Sharing with Black and White Wednesday and Wordless Wednesday

Vintage Vessels

Sharing with Tuesday's Treasures and Wordless Wednesday on Tuesday

After Snowzilla

My trail camera recorded enough images of the snow to show how it receded. Since the camera was tied on a post, the images look similar.  I selected one from each day starting January 24. I made that the big image and the other ones start on the top left and go across and then down. By the last picture, the ground is starting to show.  I think all the afternoons in late January had temperature above freezing so the snow just melted down. Even now the ground out there is wet and muddy.

You can see a squirrel in several of the images. I wanted to make him more visible to you so I cropped one of them.

Sharing with NF Trees and Bushes and Camera Critters