A Stop at Massanutten Market

On Tuesday I had an appointment that got canceled. Since I had already left Charlie in daycare, I decided to go for a ride and take some photos. One place I stopped was a farm market near Luray. I checked out the potted flowers, but all I bought was a small bag of potato chips. I also looked at their goats.

There was a cat wandering around, but it would not pose for me. I got one picture of it, which looked rather dull, so I brightened it up in Picsart.

Man in the Mirror

Winchester, Virginia

This small building is in the Gardens of Glen Burnie. A mirror on the opposite wall looks like a window, at least until you get close.

Today some workers were setting up for a wedding and my phone’s camera caught one of them in the mirror.

The third shot shows an adjacent patio where tree roots have pushed between the bricks.

Clouds Over Edinburg Gap

Viewed from Hepner Tire, Woodstock, VA

 

Views from my Deck

My yard is small and I can see into my neighbors' yards. If I look to the left from my deck, I might see something at Wayne's birdfeeder, like this house finch.

I'm also likely to see one at my birdfeeder.

Charlie found something to look at in the yard to the right!

Looks like the groundhog is back. My neighbor told me last year there was one tunneling under her patio.

They are problematic creatures. Virginia law prohibits relocating wild animals to someone else's property. So if you don’t want them to destroy your garden or, in this case, a patio, your choices are limited. 

Signs in Broadway

See also Yesterday’s Post on Broadway, Virginia 

And Sue’s Wordless Blog Hop.

 

The New Broadway Mural

Broadway is a small town in Rockingham County, Virginia. Incorporated in 1880, it it situated along the North Fork of the Shenandoah in an agricultural area.

Monday Murals / Blue Monday

I read that there was a new mural in Broadway, and set out to find it. I passed it without seeing it the first time, but if you are coming from the direction of Harrisonburg, you can't miss it.

It is on Broadway Avenue across from the town hall.

A View of Motherhood

This scene at Cullers Overlook illustrates a fact about motherhood: a child will demand your attention when you are busy doing something else. This mom has a nice camera and is taking a beautiful picture, but her a little one is clamoring for attention. I forget whether this was before or after he pulled a telephoto lens out of her bag and tried to play with it.

Here’s the scene she was focusing on, a view of the South Fork at Shenandoah River State Park. 

Shadow Shot Sunday

Today was Mother’s Day, and I did hear from both of my daughters and also from a stepdaughter, Allison. Lynn was able to come visit and she particularly wanted to watch Charlie run at the dog park. He was happy to oblige. I forgot to take any photos, so here is a picture of her from late summer.

Slow Days at the Dog Parks

Another Post from Charlie

I just had two days in a row with no one to play with at the dog park. Yesterday we went to the park in Strasburg, and the only dog that showed up stayed in the other part of the park. I tried to get his attention, but he ignored me. I had to play ball by myself.

We went for a ride and saw some cows. They don’t look up very often. 
 

This afternoon we went to the park in Woodstock, which is often busy. Last Sunday there were eight other dogs and we had fun. Today it was rainy, not hard rain but still wet. No one was there.

I found a blue ball that someone had left. It had leaked a little bit of air but it was a squeaky ball, so it was interesting for a while.

Some birds were there. You can see one on the far fence. They never play with me. They go up in the air and disappear.

Finally a man showed up with two dogs, but they stayed on the other side of the fence where the big dogs play. That was a good thing actually because one of the dogs was really big and stares at me.

As we were leaving, we saw some creature next to the old barn. At first I thought Mom said it was a brown dog. But she said it was a groundhog.

On the way home we passed the dollar store.

Here’s one of the cats that lives at the place where I go to day care sometimes. I think he might be the manager. He watches everyone.

Mom got two cards in the mail from me and I don’t know how that happened. I appreciate that she does a lot for me, but I don’t know how to send cards. 

Living History or Cosplay?

Kernstown, Virginia

Cosplay is a word that entered the language fairly recently. One source says 1993. It is a combination of the words costume and play, and usually refers to wearing costumes and accessories to look like fictional characters.

These gentlemen are dressed as men from the 1860’s,  and I would say they are doing more than cosplay. They actually lived like their characters for the weekend, and also interpreted Civil War history for visitors. They had slept in tents the previous night in spite of cold, rainy weather. 

They were on the Kernstown Battlefield near Winchester as part of an event that marked the opening of the battlefield park for the season.

Pawsitive Signs and Mountain Views

Last week I had an errand in Front Royal, so I stopped at a thrift store that benefits a pet rescue. I did not see anything I need, but I liked these signs.

The town is a gateway to Shenandoah National Park so I drove up to check out the views.

You can glimpse the Shenandoah River in the valley below, and the Massanutten Range is to the west.

There are mileposts along the drive to help you know how far you are from a destination. They are particularly helpful if you are trying to locate a hiking trail from a guidebook.

Cardinals and Elements

Wild Bird Wednesday

The male Northern Cardinal is an eye-catching bird with his bright red feathers. I chose him as the subject for my first test of Photoshop Elements, a program that I have not used in years. I've been using Adobe Photoshop instead, a more advanced software which has many great features. 

At some point, I had to start paying a monthly subscription fee. I don’t remember when that was because I used Photoshop CS6 for a long time, but Adobe wanted everyone to pay the monthly fee, so when I got a new laptop several years ago, I was not able to install CS6. Rather than struggle with a non-supported software, I installed the subscription-based version of Photoshop. It seemed worthwhile because I used Photoshop almost every day.

Until I didn’t. I got an iPhone that took very good photos and found that I could simply crop them using my built-in photos app. I stopped using Photoshop every day, and eventually found I was only using it about once a week.

I hesitated and procrastinated about canceling my subscription but finally I did. I purchased Photoshop’s little cousin, Elements. It does not require a subscription, just a one-time payment that’s pretty reasonable. I tried it out today and found it does most of what Photoshop did, except  not as smoothly. It does have a long list of filters available. I hadn’t seen the “Comics” one in Photoshop  so I tried it here.

The vertical picture is one that I finished with a poster edge filter. I probably won’t use that a lot; I was experimenting.

Overall, I think Elements is going to be fine for my purposes.

Collages with Pinks

Most of these images have been shown here before, but not in collage format.

Wordless / Ruby Tuesday