Summer Gardens, Front Royal

 The Gardens and Homestead Tour was a week ago on a Sunday morning. I’m not really a morning person, but I have to admit that the weather got too hot by noon. 

My GPS lost its signal so I didn’t find one of the sites. I didn’t mind because I was getting hot and hungry, so I was ready to quit.

Cow, Complaints, Canines, Cat

Since this was a rather stressful week. I thought I'd start with something amusing. I took this picture of a cow yesterday morning, but it was not what I was trying to photograph. I was trying to get a picture of a hot air balloon, so I drove closer to it and then went down a side road, hoping to find an interesting foreground with the balloon above it. Instead, I found cows. They looked friendly though. The balloon was not visible from my viewpoint.

Here’s the balloon, with nothing interesting to frame it. There’s a company in my area that gives balloon tours.

In case you case you missed my post about going to the ER, it was caused by several days of lightheadedness, which prompted me to go to me to urgent care. They insisted I should go to the hospital for more advanced tests, probably because they fear that any senior citizen is in mortal danger at any time. The most striking thing about the test results was that I was extremely low in sodium. Did you know that drinking a lot of water can deplete sodium? About half the water I drink is highly filtered and contains no minerals. I also drink bottled spring water which does contain minerals, but that may not be adequate in the summer. Furthermore, air pollution can make you lightheaded and short of breath, and we had several days of haze caused by a distant wildfires. I had noticed that my eyes were irritated from the smoke. 

Speaking of eyes, I went to the retina specialist yesterday for my follow-up visit. I’ve had vision problems in my left eye ever since cataract surgery in May 2024. The doctor said the druzen (which looked like a small bubble in the middle of my eye) is gone but there is now a gel coating that is clouding my vision. He said it is not thick enough for surgery yet, but we’ll keep an eye on it. 

Oh, this is supposed to be a Saturday Critters post, so I’ll turn it over to my canine in residence.

Hi, it’s Charlie! I had a pretty good week. Mom only left me in daycare one time. One day she left me with Deborah and Sadie, and I had a good time. Sadie is a fun dog except she won’t stop licking me. 

Mom took me to the state park a couple of times. One time I took off my harness in the car by chewing the strap. She had to find the extra collar because the red one was too loose to put on my leash. She keeps an extra collar and leash in the car.

The park is across the river.

We saw a dog named Lucky. It had just rained, and he jumped on my mom with his muddy feet. But he was friendly.

Today we went to Petco. I rode in the backseat with Miss Deborah. I wore a new harness. 

There were some kittens from the shelter at Petco. I wanted to adopt one, but Mom did not understand.

 That’s enough for now. You probably want to take a nap. I know I do.

Shadow on Cinderblock Wall

Seen in Fromt Royal

This appears to be a weather vane repurposed as a garden decoration. I stopped to photograph it because I was intrigued by its shadow.

Cloud Watching

These clouds are the kind that I look at and see interesting shapes. Is that a turtle?

Our weather has seemed mixed up this week. We had days when no rain was forecast, but a heavy storm came through suddenly. Today rain was forecast, and it did come, but it didn’t last very long.

Yesterday, a summer storm arrived unexpectedly. I took a picture of it splashing down on bricks.

Unexpected

It turned out to be a long afternoon. at least I was rewarded with this sunset.

I don’t want to make this a long story, so briefly, I went to Urgent Care because I’ve been feeling off-balance and lightheaded. I thought it might be an inner ear infection because I’ve had them in the past. My physician couldn’t see me until next week. 

The doctor at urgent care felt strongly that I should go to the hospital for further tests. I think that when they see someone over 70, they become concerned about things like strokes and heart trouble so they want to rule those out. I went through a battery of tests and a chest x-ray, and everything was fine. It may be that I was dehydrated earlier. 

Lynn and her friend Barb were on their way to pick me up, so I went outside to wait and saw this beautiful sunset. 

I thought it would be amusing if I could get a picture of a whilybird for Wild Bird Wednesday, but I didn’t see one, so no “bird in the hand” for that theme. All I have is the helipad and the sky.

Lynn and Barb soon arrived and we went for sandwiches. They drove me to Frank and Deborah‘s house because they were caring for Charlie in my absence. 

I really appreciate Lynn and Barb and Deborah and Frank helping me out. Also, Allison offered to pick me up, but Lynn was already on her way. Good people!

Wildflowers and Overlook

Shenandoah River State Park

 

Travel Tuesday / Wordless

New Mural at Blue Wing Frog

Strasburg, VA

The Blue Wing Frog was a restaurant in Front Royal that had murals and fun decor. Since they moved to Strasburg, I watched for signs that they had decorated the new location. Then a local artist posted that she had painted a mural there, so I went to see it.

It’s a pretty fantasy that has hummingbirds, not frogs. However, there’s a winged frog outside on the fence. There’s also a butterfly painted on the side of the building, but it was already there before they moved.

Monday Murals / Mosaics 

Captain Canine

North Fork of the Shenandoah

When I stopped by the Strasburg Town Park on Monday to see the new skateboarding ramps, I also drove to the boat landing to view the river. The water was high and muddy, but not at flood stage. I watched a couple of kayaks approach and was surprised to see a dog standing in one, as if guiding the way.

I was startled when the dog jumped out and swam to shore. He was on a long leash and looked like he had done this before. Unfortunately, I did not react quickly enough to get a picture of him swimming. 

He shook off, and then supervised the men loading the kayaks into the truck.

Water H2O Linkup

Butterfly, Lanternfly, Beagle

I'll make this a short post because my eyes are tired. I have a couple of insects to show you and then I'll turn this over to Charlie.

This black swallowtail butterfly has the coloring of a female.

A spotted lanternfly landed on my window screen. This is an undesirable insect, a non-native that spreads rapidly and damages grapevines. We’re seeing large numbers of these this year.

I think my eyes are irritated by haze that’s in the air, a remnant of wildfire smoke from Canada. I should probably go put in some eye drops. Let’s hear from Charlie.

Hi, that cartoon dog looks a lot like me! Did you know that I just had a freedom anniversary? On August 8, 2022, I was rescued from a big noisy place where thousands of beagles were kept in cages. A bunch of us went to Charlottesville SPCA, and a month later I was adopted by my mom. 

Here I am at the condo. We brought Lynn some lunch.  She was painting a cabinet.. 

Lynn is my big sister. I have another sister named Marie. I used to have some puppy brothers and sisters, but I have not seen them since I was adopted.

I think Mom told you about going to the sunflower maze. Here I am leading the way.

Here I’m on our deck eating dogwood leaves. Mom does not think I should eat leaves and grass, but I had a tummy ache. She called the vet and got some more medicine for me. I’m starting to feel better.

I hope you’re feeling okay. That’s my news for today.

Mitered Corner

At Cullers Overlook

I was attracted to the texture and angle of this railing. I don't approve of people carving their names in public places, but apparently they never developed impulse control.

The 2025 Yard Crawl has Begun

 It’s the 20th year of the Route 11 Yard Crawl and it has become a huge event. Originally, it was a long yard sale through Shenandoah County on a Saturday in August, but it has grown to last several days and stretches out into adjoining counties.

The traffic can be annoying because people slam on their brakes suddenly or even park in the road. I had an appointment this morning and stopped by one of the yard crawl sites afterwards. I didn’t buy anything, but I took a few pictures

Returning to the Sunflower Maze

Lost Bottoms Farm announced that their sunflowers have started blooming, so I took Charlie there for a walk on Tuesday. Over the past two years, we've been there several times. It's on Edinburg Gap Road.

Looks like they’ve added a guardian. Charlie investigated and decided he was not a threat.

Yesterday I convinced Lynn to go there with us. She was impressed because she has not had much luck with growing sunflowers.