Skyline Overlooks

Shenandoah National Park

Wordless / Mosaic

Bonnie Blue Pig

Winchester, VA

The Bonnie Blue Bakery is well-known in Winchester. When I stopped to take a picture of the mural, the sun was really bright. I dialed down the contrast for the second picture using the Photos app in hopes of making it easier to view the painting.

Monday Murals

 

My Backyard Garden

The previous owner of my house maintained a vegetable garden in this space. I have no talent for growing vegetables, so I scattered a bunch of flower seeds.

 

We had plenty of rain in early spring, so the flowers did well. Now we are in a dry spell so I need to get out there and water the gardens. 

Floral / Sunday Best

Leaving Charlie for an Art Tour

Yesterday I went on a studio tour in Loudoun County so I left Charlie in day boarding at the veterinary. He does not like me to leave him, and he knows that if he goes there, I will be gone for hours. He doesn't like staying at home alone either, and if it's for very long, he starts scratching the paint off the door.

We had to wait a little while for Miss Kayla to come get him, so he jumped up in his favorite chair.  He let everyone know that he was sad. He was fine after she took him back to the dog area, and he got to play and eat a bowl of food.

It took me an hour to reach the first stop. After that, I ate a snack next to a pond.

My main reason for journeying there was to visit Judith Thompson’s home studio. I bought something there last year, and I really like that her work is distinctive. Like many artists, she lives in a scenic spot.

So does this cat. I was warned not to pet him, although he rubbed against me. 

 I took pictures of him. I lightened one and then filtered it in the ArtCard app.

The artist and her husband also have a couple of dogs.

In the backyard are the sale pictures, marked down because she has too many paintings. I bought one of a woman with a dog.

Coffee and Ice Cream Shop

Front Royal

Double Linkups: Street Scene with Reflections in B&W

Update, Friends of the North Fork

On Sunday, there was an event at Muse Vineyards. Laura Bennett was introduced as the new Executive Director of Friends of the North Fork.

The Friends of the North Fork of the Shenandoah River is dedicated to keeping our river clean, healthy, and beautiful through advocacy, stewardship, education and science. It is the parent organization of Friends of Seven Bends State Park.

Here is a photo of the North Fork of the Shenandoah. 

Skywatch / H2O Thursday

P.S. Yesterday was World Environment Day. I just found out.

Mourning Dove, Robin

Mourning doves have been visiting my deck so much that I suspect they have a nest nearby.

These are just cell phone pictures. Although my phone does a great job on scenic views, it does not zoom in well enough to get detailed pictures of birds. Still, it’s usually nearby so I can grab it and take a picture quickly.

A robin was sitting on a fence post at the dog park today. Charlie did not seem to notice. He had been playing happily with Ryleigh, a dog who is about the same size.

 

Searching Your Own Blog

 Blog Post #8732

I’m at the point where finding a particular post on my blog can be challenging. If there is a unique word that I used in a post, I can usually find it using that. But using a combination of labels and words is more complicated. Here is a page showing what Blogger says to do: https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/9675453

I am mainly posting this so that I can find it again. But maybe someone else needs it too. I have also searched using Google Advanced search. 

Flowers and Art at the Karate Club

Front Royal, VA

See also: Wordless / Earlier Post with Mural

New Mosaics

Woodstock, VA

A mosaic is being built for the play area at Seven Bends State Park. I went to an event in which artists and people involved with the park came together to work on the project

The Community Art Collaborative (CAC) is managing this project with support from park staff and the Friends of Seven Bends State Park. Three previous mosaics were done and mounted on a wall downtown. 

I have previously posted pictures of the 2021 and 2022 projects. Here is the completed 2023 mosaic. Like the others, it imagines scenes on the Shenandoah River.

I photographed a few of my favorite details from that mosaic.

Mosaic Monday / Murals

Verdant Beauty

JMU’s Arboretum, Harrisonburg

Now and then I look back through my pictures and realize there were some I forgot to share. I take so many in the springtime and in the autumn, I sometimes lose track.

Two weeks ago I visited the Edith Carrier Arboretum and I only shared pictures from the children's section. I also walked through the woodland and admired the rhododendrons, and they are too pretty to languish on my phone.

I also noticed a distinctive plant which appears to be a celandine poppy. 

Linkups: Floral / H2O

Gardenfest with Alpacas

Middletown, VA

This annual event is a good place to buy plants, but this year all I bought was a T-shirt from a wildlife rescue. 

A couple of cute alpacas caught my eye. A bag of hay served as their outdoor café.

Charlie waited in the car with his friend Sadie and her mom, Deborah. Then I took a turn waiting with the dogs so that Deborah could visit the vendors. Sadie did not seem to want her picture taken. 

She’s actually a pretty dog, but she made faces at me.

For Charlie’s fans, here’s a picture of him with a painterly filter added in the BeCasso app.