Wild Things, Tame Things.

I came home the other day and was surprised to see two deer as I pulled in the driveway. I got my camera off the seat, opened the door quietly, and took a few pictures, staying behind the car door. They spotted me though, and ran off.

The next picture just shows a butterfly on a thistle plant. I believe it is a tiger swallowtail, with the yellow appearing subdued because it is in shade although the background is sunlit.

The dragonfly held still for me as it was perched on the end of a twig.

The hummingbird is one that was feeding at a park visitor center. I had seen a couple of them buzzing past so I stationed myself near the feeder with my lens zoomed and focused on the feeder. It wasn't long before one of them came back. I got several blurry pictures and these two that are identifiable. Hummingbirds move pretty fast.

Sometimes you have to be fast to get a picture and sometimes you have to be patient. Sometimes you have to be both. 

The final picture is a dog that I saw today. He was with a woman who didn't mind if I took his picture. He seemed agreeable.

Sharing with Saturday's Critters and I'd Rather Be Birdin'. 

Skyline Willy Nilly.

The Willy Nilly Friday linkup gives me an excuse to post some miscellaneous images. In this case, I'm posting some from Skyline Drive because I have an excess of those. It is near home and it's beautiful, so I go up there often.

Linkups/Blog Hops, or whatever you want to call them, provide a theme to inspire a post or a single photo. I'm linking to several today, including Floral Friday and Friday Bliss. I'm glad these have helped me form the habit to look for flowers to photograph.

I'm also including a picture of myself (taken using the timer on my camera) because I want to complain for just a second. I have an ear infection that has lasted almost a month. This morning I went back to the doctor so now I'm on a different antibiotic. I hope it works because I can barely hear on the right side.

Back to linkups: Weekend Reflections reminds me to look for reflections to photograph. Here I spotted some clouds on the rear window of my car.

That picture would have also worked for Skywatch, but I've got another one from slightly later that same day. Four people were viewing the sunset at Signal Knob Overlook.

Since that sky was beautiful, I'm including a bonus image of it. If you look closely, you can see a bright spot down in the valley. That's a bend of the Shenandoah River reflecting the fading light from the sky.

Welcome to the New Star Market.

This little market is along VA 55 west of Strasburg. Normally I would not stop there because it's part of a gas station, but the market has posted neat photos of this patio lit up at night with hundreds of tiny lights.

They have tried hard to make this an inviting place to stop. No one was hanging out on the patio this afternoon, but it was really too hot.

There's a country store that sells a little of everything including barbecue.

Linkups: Fences and Signs.

Behind the store is a little building used as a Korean Church.

Ducks, Geese, Egret, Heron.

Sharing with:

• Wild Bird Wednesday.
• Wordless Wednesday.

That '70s Style.

Saturday at Clermont Farm

See 2017 Posts:

History Talk in Berryville.

Clermont House.

Random-osity Fun

Good, Random, and Fun. 

The Good:  I looked out and saw that a crew was replacing a leaning utility pole in the yard across the street. The end result is good, although the sight was a bit strange. (I wonder what their job description says?)

The Random: I'm counting this bit of trompe l'oeil as a Monday Mural. It decorates the door of a ministry in Culpeper.

The Fun: Frank and I did a bit of wandering through the Shenandoah Yard Crawl on August 10. We didn't buy anything but browsed through some displays. The event gets bigger every year and I've learned to only do a part of it, exchanging pleasantries with the sellers and noticing some of the stranger items. You don't see this stuff in a big box store!

Mosaic Monday.

Bonus Picture: Lynn has a shirt from Hull's Drive-In Theatre. Yes, there are still a few drive-ins in Virginia. Hull's is near Lexington, and there is another one in Stephens City.

“You don’t stop having fun when you get old. You get old when you stop having fun.” 

~ Anonymous

Rural Rappahannock County

A Church and Some Farms.

St. Peter Catholic Church is near the towns of Washington and Sperryville, Virginia. It is fairly new, although the sanctuary has a traditional look. I was told that the church was designed to look like a country church in order to satisfy concerns from citizens.

Rappahannock County has a very rural appearance and most people want to keep it that way. It is beautiful and charming, but visitors may notice an absence of chain stores and urban sprawl. People there believe in slow growth and a peaceful countryside.

InSpired Sunday.

The rest of this post consists of pastoral scenes. You'll see a fancy stable because there are some very wealthy folks in that county. I've been on garden tours there and visited some large and luxurious ranches.  It is worth getting off the main road to explore the area.

The Barn Collective and Shadow Shot Sunday.

Butterflies and Critters with Hooves

Saturday Critters.

There seem to be more butterflies this summer. Perhaps I'm finding more of them because local parks and gardeners are making an effort to allow native plants to grow, including some that were considered weeds.

I took the third photo yesterday. It was nice seeing a calf with it's mother.

The deer was in the shadows, probably keeping cool.

I think the butterfly on the coneflower (echinacea) is a fritillary. I am not a butterfly expert, by any means.

The handsome horse looks friendly, doesn't he?