When My Childhood Home was Built

Photos from my Parents’ Old Album

 

Tauxemont 1948.

A Couple of Closer Looks.

Wordless

Annual Art Show in The Plains

The Plains is a charming small town in Fauquier County. I've been to the art show at Grace Church before and found it delightful, so yesterday I invited Deborah and Frank to go with me. She and I took turns watching Charlie.

Collage of Paintings that caught my eye.

I walked Charlie around the back of the stone church building. The clerestory windows light up the upstairs room. 

A Montessori preschool meets in the church building and they have a playground. A bright floral mural is there.

Monday Murals / Garden Affair

A Late Update from Charlie

Hi! I was planning to show you some pictures yesterday, but Mom was posting some mountain photos so I didn't get a chance. Here I am in the car today.

 I still don’t like the car very much but I had been to a dog park and got to run and chase the ball, so I felt pretty good. 

Yesterday I went to a different dog park and my friend Sadie came with me. Her mom played ball with us and gave us water to drink.

That made three different dog parks this week. I went to my usual one the day before, and ran with Jubal and Taffy and Pugsly. Pugsly is little but likes to play. 

I ran up on the ramp and a tiny creature was there. I didn’t worry about it

We saw a butterfly as we left the park.

For some reason, we didn’t come straight home, but went for a little ride near Belle Grove. We saw someone riding a horse and we saw some cows.

I guess that’s enough for today. It’s time to take a nap.

Some East-Facing Overlooks

Shenandoah National Park

Driving back north from Skyland, I stopped at a few overlooks that were on my right. I call them east-facing but the views are wide so you may also look north or south. 

Hazel Mountain Overlook is a favorite because it has boulders you can climb on. You can get some dramatic photos here.

Skyline Drive is a well-engineered road, but the speed light is only 35 mph. This is not only because there are sharp curves, but there is also an abundance of wildlife, and you could easily hit a deer or even a bear. 

Previous posts from this trip:

Camp Roosevelt to Mary’s Rock

Pinnacles and Jewell Hollow

Stonyman to Skyland

Stonyman to Skyland

Shenandoah National Park

Stonyman Overlook, Oct.15th

Stonyman Trailhead near the entrance to Skyland

Skyland Resort

There was actually a resort at Skyland before the park was established. It is near the highest point of Skyline Drive, so the fall foliage tends to get colorful here before it does in the northern section of the park.

I still have a few photos to share from this trip so our Saturday Critters post will be a day late.

Pinnacles and Jewell Hollow Overlook

Shenandoah National Park

Today I’m continuing my picture story of my first fall foliage trip of the season. I entered Skyline Drive at Thornton Gap and drove south to the highest point of the drive at Skyland. I’m doing several posts on this short journey because I took so many pictures, and my eyes still tire easily when I’m working on the computer.

Pinnacles is the name of both an overlook and a picnic area. They’re a mile and a half apart, and between the two is the spectacular Jewell Hollow Overlook. 

I

I like to drive through the park’s picnic areas even when I don’t have a picnic because there’s a chance of seeing wildlife. I didn’t see any large animals this time, but I did walk around and take a few pictures.

Here is a preview of my visit to Skyland: a reflection in the restaurant window.

Camp Roosevelt to Mary’s Rock Tunnel

 Autumn Color Appears in the Mountains 

On Tuesday I set out to look at the early autumn colors. There was a light rain when I left Charlie at daycare, but the forecast just said it was cloudy. Sometimes colors show up well on a cloudy day so I headed for Shenandoah National Park. I have to cross the Massanutten Mountains to get there, and it only takes a few extra minutes to go by way of Fort Valley when I’m headed for the central section of the park. 

I stopped at Camp Roosevelt to eat the small lunch that I had packed. This was the site of the first CCC camp ninety years ago. 

The fall foliage was not showing up in my photos, probably because the rain had just stopped and light was subdued. I looked for adjustments on my iPhone’s camera app and found that there was one for cool versus warm colors. The middle frame (above) shows a picture at full warmth, but that was not realistic. I dialed it back down to capture what I was seeing.

Just east of Camp Roosevelt, I entered the burned area of the forest. It is recovering pretty well because the wildfires this summer took out the underbrush but left many upper branches of trees undamaged.

On the other side of the mountain, I drove through Page Valley, crossing the South Fork of the Shenandoah on Bixlers Ferry Road.

I went through Luray on Route 211 and headed up the Blue Ridge, entering Shenandoah National Park at Thornton Gap. For those who don’t know, the national parks are not the same as the national forests. They are administered by different agencies and have different missions, although there is some overlap in what they do.

The sun was peaking through the clouds by the time I reached Skyline Drive, the beautiful road through Shenandoah National Park. I took about 200 pictures that day, so I’m not going to post all of them. Many are repetitious anyway. In today’s post, I am sharing pictures from the first overlook I reached, the Mary’s Rock Tunnel Parking Area. 

The colors change first at the highest point of the park at Skyland. That’s where I went, but those pictures can wait until tomorrow.