It's Garden Week!

It's Historic Garden Week: April 20-27, 2013. Check the Virginia Garden Week website for the schedule.

A Heron Next to Our Yard

I saw this heron stalking fish in the lake just below our yard. He's not as close as herons sometimes got to our house in Glebe Harbor but I have a stronger zoom lens then I used there, so these pictures don't show how far away I was.

A disadvantage of the zoom is that it's weight makes it harder to hold the camera steady. I wasn't using a tripod so some other shots were blurred. I try to take duplicates "just in case."

See my 2005 post: Great Blue Heron

Two Goldfinches

 Different day, different angle, different gender.

The male goldfinch is bright yellow in springtime. Aren't they pretty?

Link: American Goldfinch at All About Birds

Old Time Photo

Linda and Marie Javins

Since it's my daughter Marie's birthday, I'll do my parental duty and try to embarrass her a little by running an old photo. She's standing on the right in this picture taken in the 80's — no, not the 1880's, silly! It's one of those souvenir pictures where the studio supplies old fashioned costumes for a novelty portrait. They added a sepia color to help make the picture look antique.

Boy in a Boat

We share a lake with the rest of our subdivision. This young man was cruising around in a boat with an electric motor.

Happy Creek in Front Royal

I don't know who named it Happy Creek but it's a pleasant name for a pretty creek that runs right through town. I took these pictures from Criser Road. Eventually the creek will join the Shenandoah River.

Bluets

Bluets: Houstonia caerulea

We have these little blue wildflowers growing in our yard, just as I enjoyed when I was a child. They are under six inches high.

In the Distance: Thoburn's Position

In November, I posted pictures of views from Thoburn's Redoubt, a hill on Cedar Creek Battlefield. One was a view from the trenches looking toward Strasburg. Here we have the opposing view, looking out from Hupp's Hill near Strasburg toward Thoburn's Redoubt, which is on the hill across the valley cut by Cedar Creek. 

I took these picture from a restaurant parking lot near the interstate.

A View from Walmart

As we look toward Edinburg Gap from Woodstock, Virginia, a yellow school bus heads south on I-81.

A Skywatch Post.

Woodstock Loses an Old Mill

Last year I posted some photos of an old mill that looked like it was ready to fall down. . I didn't know anything about it but mentioned that it was on Water Street in Woodstock, Virginia.

Recently I got an email saying that it has collapsed. The writer is a Mill List Coordinator with the Society for Preservation of Old Mills. He identified the mill as French's Mill.

With that name I was able to find the mill mentioned on the Hottel-Keller Memorial website. It says that "George H. Hottel ... built the mill in 1888. The mill was later owned and operated by Martin Van Buren French."

Small World Note: I've linked to the Hottel-Keller site before, in September 2010 after we attended Germanfest, which they sponsored.

A few days ago I took pictures of the recently-collapsed mill. I suspect the winter storms did it in.

Like mills? See:

• Steve Spring's Mill Pictures
• My Mills Page on Virginia Photo
• Mills on this Blog
• SPOOM.org

Cow and Calf

We saw a new calf at a farm next to Woodstock (Virginia). I snapped a picture while stopped at a corner and then parked the car to get more shots, but before I could get out of the car the farmer pulled up with a truck and took the calf away in the truck with the mother following behind on a rope.

A Flag Picture

This is a flag that's at the subdivision entrance. I took the photo from across the lake using the maximum zoom on my camera, and later cropped it a little in Photoshop. I also brightened it using a plug-in action from CoffeeShop called Vivid 3.

Those horizontal lines are utility wires.

Following by Email

A reader wrote that due to concerns that Google intends to discontinue Google Reader, she wanted to subscribe to the blog by email. At her suggestion I have added the Subscribe gadget at the bottom of the page. Scroll down to see it.

I hope Google changes the plan though. I like Google Reader!

Something to Do While Waiting in the Car

I don't find myself bored very often but it can happen, especially if I have to wait for someone and I didn't bring along anything good to read. Since I usually have a camera with me, I sometimes take a picture or two while I wait. I this instance I was in a boring parking lot so I pointed the camera at the side mirror for a self-portrait.

Yes oh Yes! It's Spring!

Flowering Trees, Shenandoah Valley

Blog Post #3800

I've made it a tradition to mark each hundredth blog post with an entry about blogging or about myself. This is partly because I didn't do a very thorough job of introducing myself in the first place, being slightly shy and more than slightly private. For this post I'm using the results from a quiz on the ArchtypeMe website.

Intellectual + Caregiver + Advocate

"An archetype is a pattern of behavior. It explains who you are and how you engage with the world around you."

The picture is a composite of the results they provided and a self-portrait I took when I was working on a post about new glasses. I put them together using Photoshop CS6.

My quiz results were split fairly evenly between Intellectual, Caregiver, and Advocate. I can't argue with those although I expected to see Creative as one of my top three. Of course, like all personality quizzes the results are only feeding back what you put into it. And I always have trouble choosing between the answers on some questions, and leaning towards a different choice might have put me in a different category.

If you take the quiz, let us know your results in the comments.

Two More Squirrel Pictures

The squirrels who visit our bird feeders always seem to be extra hungry. This one went to a lot of trouble to get every last morsel of a seed bell.

Squirrel at the Trunk of a Tree

While the Washington Post is winding down it's Squirrel Week series, I thought I'd show one of our squirrels here in Virginia.

Dark Sky Vulture

I had several images of vultures soaring, basically because they glide around in circles at a leisurely pace so I can often predict where they'll be. This image had a grainy-looking sky so I played around with it in Photoshop, inverting the color and so on.  The circle was created using a lighting effect called lens flare.

I considered cropping this so that it would look like some sort of flag but I decided to place the bird a third of the way across instead. Hope you like it.

Soaring Vulture

Vultures are not pretty when you look at their faces but they soar so gracefully they are lovely to watch.   Once they catch the air currents they often float around in circles, so they are easier to catch in a photo than birds that dart across the scene and disappear.

A Skywatch Friday post.

The Cherry Blossom Princess

This little lady once decorated our Christmas tree. When she could no longer light up, Frank was going to throw her in the trash. I felt she deserved to be rescued.

I posed her for the "photo shoot." I suppose she will wind up in a Goodwill store.

Cherry Blossoms are Blooming

Our house came with a weeping cherry tree! I haven't owned one in years, not since I lived on Leslie Avenue. That was one that I planted and watched grow over the years. By the time we moved it was huge!

Townhouse Available in May

The tenant is moving out of my townhouse in Woodstock. I'm sad to see her go because she was a terrific tenant!

We're hoping to find another great tenant, preferably a non-smoker with good credit. The home is located near I-81 in the Shenandoah Valley.

I was able to reactivate the Postlet ad that I last used two years ago.

Update 4/17: We found a good tenant using Craigslist. He signed the lease today!

The Grass is Greener

Our grass is turning greener.  

The temperatures have been all over the place this month — below freezing last week, in the 80's (Fahrenheit) this week. The birds don't seem to mind either way, but the air is filled with their singing. Yes, it's finally spring!

Laughing Clouds

I was enjoying the spring weather in our back yard yesterday and I had the camera with me in case some birds decided to "pose." I saw a nice break in the clouds and a jet streaming across the sky so I aimed to catch the contrail as it passed behind the clouds.

It wasn't until I brought the image up on the computer that I saw the profiles in the clouds. The fellow on the right appears to have a mustache and beard!

Beagle in Light and Shadow

Flash, also called Barney

Our dogs like to seek out sunshine. We have quite a few windows and they will sit or lie down in a spot that's lit by a nice sunbeam.

Susan's Visit Comes to An End

Frank's youngest daughter is on her way back to Tacoma today. We certainly enjoyed her visit!

Yesterday I remarked to Frank that he was surrounded by educators! Dave teaches science, Allison works for Northern Virginia Community College, and Susan is a paraeducator in an elementary school.

Sue's college roommate and her husband came by yesterday afternoon. Sue attended GMU with them.

Dayton's World War I Memorial

We came upon this huge German gun along Main Street (U.S. 42) in Dayton, VA. I was impressed that it traveled all the way from Europe to the Shenandoah Valley in spite of it's size and weight.

A sign tells us that it had a range of 13.7 miles. It is a 15cm (5.88 inch) Krupp 16Kp with a 237 inch barrel.

Another plaque gives the years of the first "world war" (1914-1918) and is "Dedicated to the men of Dayton and vicinity who offered their lives in humanity's defense."

Honoring Thomas Wildes

This plaque honors a Union officer who helped save the town of Dayton, Virginia. The town faced destruction in retaliation for the shooting death of a popular lieutenant, John Rodgers Meigs during the Civil War.

This marker is rather incongruously placed next to a World War I memorial. Here's what it tells us:

In memory of Lt. Col. Thomas F. Wildes, 116th Ohio Regiment, who, when ordered by Gen. Sheridan to burn the town of Dayton, Va. in retaliation for the death of a Union officer, refused to obey that order, risking court-martial and disgrace. His refusal and plea to Gen. Sheridan resulted in a countermand to the order, and saved this town from total destruction.

Susan is Visiting

Frank's youngest daughter flew here for the weekend. Her sister Allison drove over to spend the day with her. It's fun having them visit.

Sue, Allison, Frank, Linda

Thank You, Blog Followers!

This blog just exceeded 100 followers via Google Friend Connect! Welcome everyone!

Although I haven't been able to respond to all your comments promptly, I do enjoy reading them.  Thanks!

Two Birds, Some Trees, Late Afternoon

A Skywatch Selection

Truckin'

Dayton, Virginia

This Mennonite family had been to the hardware store where they picked up a load of boxes. Of what, I don't know.

I was intrigued by the contrast between the horse-drawn wagon with the truck behind them and also by the enhancement of the cart by seats out of a car.

We see Mennonites fairly often in the Shenandoah Valley. I like hearing their horses go clip-clop clip-clop on the roads!

Swinging Footbridge

A swinging bridge tends to sway back and forth with every step you take. If you're not used to them you may feel unbalanced.

Spring is Coming

Spring weather has been slow in arriving this year but before you know it, we'll be enjoying scenes like this!

These photos are from a couple of years ago but you can visit JMU's arboretum this spring and enjoy the duck pond and all the flowers. It's in Harrisonburg in the Shenandoah Valley.

One of these will serve as my contribution to the City Daily Photo theme for April: Pedestrian's Crossing.

See also: Autumn View of this Pond