Graphics for Two Special Days

Here is a computer-generated picture that I made for Father’s Day using "Dream.”

Tomorrow is Juneteenth, commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. I saw this shirt in a store.

Cats and Dog

Charlie has been trying to make friends with the neighborhood cats. He gets along with the yellow cat now, but not with the gray cat that lives with the yellow one in their home across the street. 

Yesterday he sniffed the friendly cat and they played a minute. Then yellow cat walked off and we turned around to see the gray cat glaring at us. Charlie started to approach it and it arched its back and hissed at him! 

This evening we returned from our walk and the gray kitty was sitting on a neighbor’s wall. It glared at Charlie and he responded with one bark and then his hound dog howl. It was funny for a minute but then I became concerned that the howling might disturb someone so I took him inside. 

 

The View at the Pier, Lake Frederick

Lake Frederick is between Front Royal and Winchester. It is practically surrounded by communities of new homes, but a portion is reserved for access to fishing and boating.

Plantings

Today I had a rhododendron planted in my backyard. Originally I was going to get a redbud tree, but apparently there are problems obtaining them this year.

Meanwhile, my front yard is half garden. That was the design from the previous owner. Some of my flowers are really tall and not particularly tidy. To me it's an English garden look, and I hope the homeowners association does not complain about it. Let’s take a look at some of the plants in my garden, and also in my round planters.

Floral Linkup / Garden Affair

An Extraordinary Birder

I haven't taken any bird close-ups lately because my trusty old Nikon has been acting up, and it's the one with the zoom lens. Most birds don't look too interesting when photographed from a distance. Here is a shot that looks cute to me because of a pair of house finches decided to perch on a satellite dish.

There are many people who take better bird pictures than mine, and you can see some of them on Wild Bird Wednesday. One of my daughter’s friends has become a celebrity birdwatcher. Christian Cooper has a new book out and a TV series on the National Geographic Channel. His credentials include a Harvard education and serving on the board of NY Audubon Society.

 You may recall that Mr. Cooper made national news when a white woman called the police while he was birding in Central Park. My daughter Marie has known him for years from when they both worked at Marvel Comics.  I was excited to catch part of an interview with him on NPR the other day. He actually mentioned Marie by name! 

Of course, I looked up the transcript to copy that paragraph. Here Terry Gross asked him about a comic he wrote about a Black birdwatcher. 

COOPER: “It was actually Bobbie Chase, my old boss at Marvel, who was now working at DC, or, at that time, she was working at DC and Marie Javins, another old Marvel alum and dear friend of mine who was - who is now the head of DC Comics, and they approached me about writing a comic, which - I hadn't written a comic in years at that point. And I was really nervous that the old comic-writing muscles had atrophied. But it was a joy to bring that story to life on the page once we figured out what it was going to be 'cause they had a title. And once they told me the title, it just fell into place for me what I wanted to do, a story that was magical-realist to bring the points home. So that was a joy to do.”

I should probably clarify that Marie is not the head of DC Comics, she is the editor in chief, which is still pretty awesome and I am proud of her. I wish Mr. Cooper great success with the TV show. His book is already getting great reviews.

Eighteen Years of Blogging

I started blogging on June 13, 2005. At the time, we were living in Glebe Harbor, although that did not last long. It was too isolated, far from stores and with slow internet. I found it depressing and Frank found it too buggy! So after three or four months, we moved back to the chalet in Bryce Resort and started looking for a larger house there. We rented out the house in Glebe Harbor, eventually selling it to a tenant who wanted to own it. 

We did find a larger house in Bryce, which was delightful except that the location is not ideal when you get older and have to drive an hour to see a doctor more and more frequently. Moving to the lake house solved that problem, although there were new problems with that house.

I did not intend for this to be a long post, yet here I am, covering years, albeit in a few paragraphs. I’ll jump ahead again, and say that we are now divorced, but still friends and helping each other because older people need to be able to rely on somebody.

Getting older is something that happened although I have trouble accepting it. Instead, I looked at each sign of aging as a problem to be solved, like finding the right shoes or eating the right food. So I guess what I’m saying is that I have grown old while blogging! And I know that some of my long-time blogging friends have done the same, or have at least survived the young adult stage and moved into mid-life. Those midlife years can be great, and if you’re lucky they last a long time. I still think of myself as 50-something, which is ridiculous because my daughters are that age now.

I don’t think a lot of young people are getting into blogging. Other social media platforms appeal to them more, and that’s okay. I like the quietness of blogging, and the sharing of thoughts and pictures.

With that thought, I need to close because us old folks are supposed to be in bed by midnight.

Bandwagon

Plains District Museum, Timberville

Wordless / Tuesday Treasures 

Manassas Mall Murals

Today we finally got some much needed rain. That made it a good day for indoor activities. I drove to Manassas to shop at the new Sprouts location. (It’s a grocery/farmers market). I also checked out the murals in the mall across the street. Shopping malls are not as popular as they used to be and a number of stores stand vacant, but the murals are bright and cheery. 

Monday Murals

The paintings are a project of Murals at Mason, an artistic program at George Mason University.

Today I am sharing a batch that were contiguous, and I’ll share a few more on another day. There were kiosks in the way of some views so I did not get full images of every mural.

The murals are reflected in mirrors of the gym, across the hall, and to more subtle degree, in the windows.

Today in Timberville

Today I drove to Timberville for two reasons. One, I wanted to get a picture of the new kayak ramp on the river and two, I wanted to see if their Walmart had some things that were out of stock at my town’s Walmart. (It didn’t.)

The town park is bigger than I remembered. It has a playground, athletic fields, a couple of picnic shelters, a dog park, and plenty of frontage on the North Fork of the Shenandoah.

The ramp for kayaks and canoes was built by town workers using materials donated by Cargill, which has a plant across the road. There are steps with a ramp in the middle for pulling your small boat up the hill.

The water was shallow because our weather has been quite dry lately. Fortunately, there is rain in the forecast tomorrow.

I also took pictures of the town hall and the police department building.

Mosaic Linkup

From Charlie on June 10th

Hi! I wasn't sure that I had anything to write about because the last few days have been kind of quiet. There were some days when I didn't get to go anywhere except for short walks. Mom said something about the air being smoky.

She wanted a post for Saturday Critters so I thought maybe I’d show you some of my toy animals.

Mom has some animal toys too, and last weekend she bought this painting of a rhino, whatever that is.

This afternoon something happened that I want to tell you about. I was able to get close to the yellow cat! I was worried that it might go hide in the storm drain again. There is a shelf in there that cats hide on. but it did not go in there and we were able to say hello.

This is a special cat that only has three legs. I wanted it to know that I am friendly.

Filtered for Caturday

I hope the air clears up and I get to play with some of my dog friends. I did go to two parks this week, but there was nobody at the Strasburg Park, and at Fairview Park the dogs who showed up were some growly ones who scared me so I don't want to play with them anymore. I can play by myself for a while.

The View at Riverton Landing

Front Royal has a number of boat landings on the Shenandoah River. This one is at Riverton, which was once a separate town. Routes 340 and 522 cross both forks of the river together on “twin bridges.” 

Hazy Days

On Tuesday, I met Lynn for lunch, and then took her to see Shenandoah River State Park. The sky was quite hazy due to traces of wildfire smoke from Canada.

I was interested in the exhibit in the in visitor center that had a model of a gundalow, and a display telling how these flat bottomed boats were used on the Shenandoah River.

“By all accounts it took skill, intimate knowledge of the river, cunning, physical strength, and a strong personality to work these boats. To move the gundalow along in the current, boatmen struck the riverbed with a long-tipped pole, essentially pulling the craft downriver. At the rear of the craft would be a rudder manned by the pilot and a cooking hearth, usually made of brick. Tarps attached to cargo provided some shelter for sleep.”

Our air quality got worse yesterday and today. We were in a “code red“ zone, which means we should not exercise outdoors. I think Charlie was disappointed that we did not go to the dog park, but my eyes were itching from the pollution.

Fortunately, the air started to clear late this afternoon, and I saw some blue tones in the sky. Whether it gets better or worse tomorrow, depends on the winds. We could use a thunderstorm.