Metro, Flowers, and Cacapon.

Willy Nilly Friday

1. Vienna, Virginia: This corridor is long at the Metro Station because it passes over multiple lanes of I-66. The train track goes down the median strip of the highway, ending at this station. 

Black and White Weekend.

2. This evening I sought out some color in a supermarket. Found it in the flower department and saved some samples on my cell phone.

3. I made a Photo Collage using pictures that I took there.

Sharing with Friday Bliss and Floral Friday. 

4. On Sunday we drove up to Cacapon State Park in West Virginia. The lake was very pretty, with reflections of trees and the blue sky.

5. Picture #5 shows a creek flowing into that same lake.

Have a good weekend! We are expecting snow.

Zigzag Fences at Manassas Battlefield

The park service often installs log fences at historical sites. These are called zigzag, split rail, and snake fences. In colonial and pioneer times, they were often erected because they did not need nails and logs were plentiful. Also, they went up quickly because holes did not need to be dug in the ground. If you have ever seen one being built, you may have observed how the different angles allow  the logs to support each other. 

I stopped at Manassas Battlefield on Tuesday on my way to Fairfax for a little shopping (which turned out to be not very successful). The Visitors Center was closed and gated off, but most of the other parking areas were open. People seemed to be enjoying the grounds without doing damage that I could see, in spite of the partial government shutdown.

It was a beautiful day, warm for January.

Sharing with Fences and Through My Lens.

Conservation, S'il vous plaît.

With the partial government shutdown still going on, our national parks are going unstaffed except for a few rangers driving through. We've all read stories of the western parks getting full of trash, but my observations of Shenandoah National Park are not so sad. When I was there on Saturday, I did not see any litter, although plenty of visitors were there, enjoying the scenery and taking advantage of the temporarily free admission.

After a dental appointment on Monday, I drove to Elizabeth Furnace Recreation Area in the National Forest. It was not so clean, although the litter looked like it was pretty much the fault of a small number of beer drinkers and smokers. I picked up trash in three parking lots, filling two plastic grocery bags, which really isn't a lot considering that the road through there is heavily used by locals as well as outdoors enthusiasts.

Please don't leave your trash on the ground, people.

On a more pleasant note, it's Wild Bird Wednesday!

My wildlife camera captured me filling the bird feeders.

The birds shown here are a white-throated sparrow, a Carolina wren, and a Northern Cardinal.

First Random-osity Post of 2019

The Good: I was excited to come across this in Winchester, Virginia: The Tomb of Lord Fairfax.

Why? Well, Thomas Fairfax was a famous name in the part of Virginia where I grew up. Fairfax County was named for him. He was the "6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron," and the only member of the British nobility ever to reside in the colonies. He was born in a castle in England and in 1719 became the proprietor of a vast tract in Colonial Virginia. In 1757 he came to Belvoir, Virginia to live on and manage the land that he was responsible for administering. The following year he hired a talented 16-year-old surveyor to map his land. That youth was George Washington.

A few years later, Lord Fairfax moved to his hunting lodge estate near White Post. He lived there through the American Revolution, apparently unmolested in spite of his loyalty to England. He died there at the age of 88.

The Random: The red barn is on fast-disappearing farmland on the outskirts of Front Royal. A new school recently opened nearby, new housing developments are being built, and the town hospital is going to be relocated to this area.

The Fun: At the entrance driveway to the farm is this sign:  

Sharing with The Backroads Traveller and Good, Random, and Fun. 

Hearthstone's Really Big Maps.

I went to a crafts sale last month at Hearthstone School near Sperryville. I was surprised to see that a paved play area was covered with huge painted maps!

Sharing with Monday Murals.

The Lutheran Church on Boscawen Avenue

InSpired Sunday.

A week ago we attended a concert benefiting the Winchester Area Temporary Thermal Shelter (WATTS).  The concert took place in three downtown churches.

The brick church that houses Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church was built in 1842, with the steeple added after the Civil War. The roots of this church go back to 1753, when German Lutheran Immigrants built a log schoolhouse to educate their children. A church building was constructed a decade later, but eventually was destroyed by fire. (There's more history on the church website.)

• See last week's post showing a different church.
• See my 2016 post showing this church.

Local Birds and Dickey Ridge Deer

The blue jays hung around under one of the feeders yesterday. The second image shows an unplanned pose. Just as I clicked, the jay decided to fly up. 

Perched on the woodpecker block is a yellow-bellied sapsucker.

The next two pictures show deer along Skyline Drive at Dickey Ridge. Facilities there are closed due to the government shutdown, but you can still enter the northern section of the park to see the views or take a hike. I did not see any trash or blatant misbehavior like what is being reported in some of the western National Parks.

A sweet goldfinch is perched in the today's final photo. I'm sharing this post with Saturday Critters and I'd Rather Be Birdin'.

Skies, Filters, Flowers.

Willy Nilly Friday.

1. Let's start off with a peaceful sunset for Skywatch Friday.

2.  Mist, fog, cloud?  Whatever you call it, this drift of moisture almost blocked my view of Signal Knob.

Black and White Weekend.

3. NASA has an app for taking a selfie in "outer space."

3. Speaking of apps, PicsArt is a favorite of my friend Nancy so I decided to give it a try. 

4. I used an app on my phone to add sparkle to this poinsettia image

Weekend Reflections.

5. Here's another poinsettia photo, unfiltered.

Floral Friday and Friday Bliss.

Have a nice weekend!

Farms and Fences, Page County.

Since I was busy recently covering the holidays and the monthly CDP Theme, I didn't post farm pictures. I like to share rural scenes fairly often because they represent so much of of the Shenandoah Valley, so here are a few.

Sharing with Fences Around the World.

A Wren, a Trail Cam, and More.

Wild Bird Wednesday

I heard a bird singing today and looked out. It was a Carolina wren. 

Here we see it perched near a trail cam that I'm trying out.

The first wildlife that showed up for the trail camera was a woodpecker who wanted to check it out!

I guess he decided it was okay because he calmed down and went over to the suet feeder. I cropped this from a trail cam photo.

If you've never had one, it's easy to use. It takes a picture when it senses motion. Many of the pictures are just of blowing branches so I don't even download those.

I'm not terribly impressed with the picture quality.  Perhaps I can change the settings.

The red-bellied woodpecker was not the only bird who took a look at the camera.

Meanwhile, I still have a trail cam trained on the lake. It caught a great blue heron taking off, looking a bit awkward.

P.S. Cathy has posted a New Year's Resolution to photograph "the fun, the interesting, or weird things digitally." Good idea!

My Photo of the Year 2018

City Daily Photo Theme Day, January 1st. 

I decided to follow my heart and select an image I created when Flash died in August. I envisioned him meeting his friend Benny over the rainbow bridge. I miss these guys!

Yesterday I posted finalists for my Photo of the Year. It was hard deciding on one. The runner-up is a view from Cullers Overlook at Shenandoah River State Park. I've posted this view a number of times but I particularly liked the sunbeams streaming in from the left in this image. 

Well, it is the first of January so let me wish you a pleasant and peaceful 2019!