Sky, Lake, and Altered Flowers.

Willy Nilly Friday

1. This scene is one I saw as I drove out our street late this afternoon. I took out the camera to take a picture of the moon, but I also took this one of the entire scene and I like the way it looks.

Skywatch Friday; Through My Lens.

2. This scene and the next are both from our day trip to Cacapon State Park in West Virginia. I posted a couple of pictures from there last Friday. We were only there about two hours, but the light was great for lake pictures.

By the way, in that same post was my photo of a Metro Station that was selected by Black and White Weekend as one of 6 to spotlight.

3. Reflections in Cacapon Lake.

4. I modified this lily using the PicsArt app.

Sharing with Floral Friday and Friday Bliss.

5. Since I am showing altered flowers, here's some that I combined in a PhotoCollage and then filtered in Photoshop.

Mosaic Monday.

Fences with Snow, Fiery Run Road.

On Tuesday, I shared some pictures of farms along Fiery Fun  Road. Let me show you some more scenes from that exciting little ride.

Sharing with Fences around the World.

A Dwarf Peach Tree and a Suet Feeder

Wild Bird Wednesday.

Three years ago we planted a small tree in memory of our cocker spaniel. It's a patio peach and we placed it near the deck. I chose a spot near the bird feeders so the birds can perch on it. I can watch them from a window and take pictures as long as they don't see me.

Here we see a white-throated sparrow and a Carolina wren. And then there's the junco. He's perching on one of the higher branches in order to get close to the suet feeder. Normally he doesn't go for the suet because he finds seed that have fallen on the ground. (Larger birds and squirrels drop a lot of seed!) Unfortunately, the seed feeders were emptied soon after the snow storm, and the ground was covered by snow. I didn't get a path dug out to the feeders until yesterday.

In the meantime, the only feeder with food left in it was the upside-down suet feeder. Woodpeckers and chickadees are able to cling upside down on the wire grid and pick out suet.

The slate-colored junco does not cling like that. But he can fly up and grab a little tidbit, then return to the branch. I watched him do this repeatedly.

I learned to anticipate what he would do and get pictures of him in action.

Want to see it again?

Not So Wordless Wednesday.

Snowy Day, Fiery Run.

Today was a nice day for getting some winter pictures. I decided to drive down a country road and see if I could get some farm pictures. I chose Fiery Run Road because I recalled that it circled around and came back out on Route 55. I'd seen the signs several times but I had not idea how large that loop was.

I saw a sign marking the Appalachian Trail. This trail runs from Maine to Georgia and a long section of it is in Virginia. The were multiple prints of boots, so hikers had been through there.

I did see some nice farms.

 Here the road turned left and got more narrow, but it looked clear so I continued. Soon I questioned that decision because after the road entered deep shade, it was covered in packed snow, although it had been plowed. I passed several farm lanes but could not turn around because they were not cleared and were still covered with at least 8 inches of snow.

I knew not to stop while going uphill and continued at a decent pace on the quiet road. But then a car appeared as I went up a hill on a single-lane stretch of road. There was a ditch on my right and not enough room to pass without getting stuck, so I had to stop. He stopped. I tried to inch forward but my wheels spun on ice. Uh oh! He was not backing up.

I decided to talk to the young man who was driving. He said he had 4-wheel drive and could possibly get past me if I drove in the ditch. Uh, no. Then another vehicle drove up behind me. It was a modest-sized delivery truck with chains on his big tires. He said the road gets worse before it reaches the main road. He offered to back up so that I could back up to a better spot. Okay, thanks!

The other driver said there was a place to turn around just past the top of the hill. So that was the plan. The truck backed up, I backed up ... slowly and very carefully. The other driver flashed his lights when he saw I had reached a place where he could easily get past. He did, after cautioning me to stay on the gas pedal to get up the icy hill. I did, and soon found a clear place to turn around at an intersection. After turning, I took a picture of a red barn from a safe spot at a stop sign. The truck caught up. I waved and turned back the way I came. It was much easier going down frontwards! Soon I was back on clear pavement. 

I hope Tom appreciates my efforts today to get Backroads pictures!

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard

Wordless on Tuesday.

Snowy Day Randoms

Random-osity

The Good: The snow stopped falling during the night and our view looked beautiful today.  The roads got plowed and we were able to go to the store this afternoon.

The Random: I made a little collage using pictures from past snowfalls.

  The Fun: This is a cute painting inside the Samuels Library. The bear is appropriate since the library is within walking distance of Shenandoah National Park.

After I returned my books, I decided to walk into the childrens' section to see if there were murals. These are above eye level, around a dome. A young man who appeared to be around 12 years old greeted me and explained that an artist painted these. He sounded professional, like perhaps he gave tours or speeches!

Monday Murals

Winter Storm Gia

It snowed all day. So far we have about 7" in accumulation, enough to look pretty. I heard some of the roads are bad. 

I didn't get out any farther than the driveway. Frank brushed snow off the car. It may get covered again before the snow ends tonight.

I took some pictures, of course. The male cardinal stands out in his red feathers.

Inspired Sunday: This church picture is from a sunny day after our last snowfall.

Williams Chapel dates to 1845. It was originally a Presbyterian Church, and became a temporary courthouse during the Civil War because the Warren County Courthouse was being used as a hospital for soldiers. After the war, it became a church again, but later served as a school. In the 1890's it became a Methodist Episcopal Church.  

The last three pictures are from today. I parked the car out near the street yesterday so that we wouldn't have too much driveway to clear if we needed to go somewhere. I like looking at the snow but I don't like feeling trapped by it. 

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Waiting for Snow

The snow was predicted to start around 10 AM. I went out this morning and filled the empty bird feeder and checked the suet feeder. From time to time I looked out the window, and even took some bird pictures through the glass. The snow did not arrive until mid-afternoon and did not accumulate until around 5 o'clock.

By that time it was too dark to get clear photos. I did get a couple of dark photos like shot #3 showing a white-throated sparrow.

Metro, Flowers, and Cacapon.

Willy Nilly Friday

1. Vienna, Virginia: This corridor is long at the Metro Station because it passes over multiple lanes of I-66. The train track goes down the median strip of the highway, ending at this station. 

Black and White Weekend.

2. This evening I sought out some color in a supermarket. Found it in the flower department and saved some samples on my cell phone.

3. I made a Photo Collage using pictures that I took there.

Sharing with Friday Bliss and Floral Friday. 

4. On Sunday we drove up to Cacapon State Park in West Virginia. The lake was very pretty, with reflections of trees and the blue sky.

5. Picture #5 shows a creek flowing into that same lake.

Have a good weekend! We are expecting snow.

Zigzag Fences at Manassas Battlefield

The park service often installs log fences at historical sites. These are called zigzag, split rail, and snake fences. In colonial and pioneer times, they were often erected because they did not need nails and logs were plentiful. Also, they went up quickly because holes did not need to be dug in the ground. If you have ever seen one being built, you may have observed how the different angles allow  the logs to support each other. 

I stopped at Manassas Battlefield on Tuesday on my way to Fairfax for a little shopping (which turned out to be not very successful). The Visitors Center was closed and gated off, but most of the other parking areas were open. People seemed to be enjoying the grounds without doing damage that I could see, in spite of the partial government shutdown.

It was a beautiful day, warm for January.

Sharing with Fences and Through My Lens.

Conservation, S'il vous plaît.

With the partial government shutdown still going on, our national parks are going unstaffed except for a few rangers driving through. We've all read stories of the western parks getting full of trash, but my observations of Shenandoah National Park are not so sad. When I was there on Saturday, I did not see any litter, although plenty of visitors were there, enjoying the scenery and taking advantage of the temporarily free admission.

After a dental appointment on Monday, I drove to Elizabeth Furnace Recreation Area in the National Forest. It was not so clean, although the litter looked like it was pretty much the fault of a small number of beer drinkers and smokers. I picked up trash in three parking lots, filling two plastic grocery bags, which really isn't a lot considering that the road through there is heavily used by locals as well as outdoors enthusiasts.

Please don't leave your trash on the ground, people.

On a more pleasant note, it's Wild Bird Wednesday!

My wildlife camera captured me filling the bird feeders.

The birds shown here are a white-throated sparrow, a Carolina wren, and a Northern Cardinal.