The Peter Burr Farm

Tuesday Treasures ~ Random-osity

 The Good: This farm house is the oldest standing wood structure in West Virginia. It was built in the late 1740's in what is now Jefferson County, West Virginia. Peter Burr was a farmer from Connecticut.

The modest buildings eventually fell into disrepair. In 1998, Jefferson County Historic Landmarks began restoring the house.

The Random: A reproduction of a barn from that that era has been built.

Incidentally, Peter Burr's brother was the father of Aaron Burr, who became infamous as the man who shot Alexander Hamilton.

The Fun: A crafts festival took place there on Saturday. Even though a light rain was falling, there were plenty of vendors, some living history actors in period dress, and musical entertainment.

Great Minds

 There are a number of traffic signal boxes in Woodstock that have been decorated with murals and sayings. This one features Eleanor Roosevelt and a quote attributed to her. It was designed by Daniel Stover.

"Small minds discuss people."

I found an article and video clip about this series on WHSV.

Sharing with Monday Murals. 

Fishnet Life Center

This is the Light of Life Fishnet Ministries Church, also called the Fishnet Life Center. It is on Fishnet Boulevard near Front Royal. The church has origins in a Christian festival (revival?) held on a farm in this area in 1975. 

Here's a view a little farther up the hill, where Rockland Park is located. 

I took a photo of dogwood tree up there and then had a little fun with it. I hope you enjoy the edit.

[Note to fellow bloggers: If you post photos of churches, link up with InSpired Sunday. There is a great variety of buildings where people worship; let's see them!] 

A Variety of Critters

Saturday's a good day to post animal pictures for Saturday's Critters and I'd Rather B Birdin', and I've got quite a few from the past month. Let's start out with a nice horse for Black and White Weekend. 

This house sparrow is a male. He and his sweetie are nesting in one of my bird houses again. (I'm just assuming that he's the same one I watched last year.)

Flash borrowed a pair of my reading glasses!

Of course, I felt obliged to help him out, since he didn't know how to put them on.

Next is one of the rabbits that live in our yard.

The little finch does not seem perturbed by the monster bird behind him. Actually, it's just a goose.

Next we see the goose strolling off.

The final picture is a cell phone shot of a deer at the entrance to Skyline Drive. If you go there, drive slowly. Wildlife often wanders onto the road!

Five for 5/4

Willy Nilly Friday

1. We hadn't been to Lake Laura in a long time. On Tuesday we drove to Bryce Resort and the lake was something I wanted to see again. In the six years since we moved out of the resort, the lake has been drained, the dam repaired, and the lake refilled. It looked great! This is from the Orkney Springs end of the lake where there's an access area managed by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. 

Sharing with Weekend Reflections and Skywatch Friday.

2. I drove Lynn to Baltimore today for a follow-up with Dr. Chang. Her recovery from surgery is going well, although she still cannot do much lifting, etc.

On the way home, I stopped in Frederick to pick up food items at MOM's Organic Market. I know that sounds healthy but I confess that some of the items were dark chocolate goodies!

This picture is from last week when I met Lynn for lunch in Harrisonburg.

3. The picture of me is a runner-up for my theme day post for the topic "Laugh." I used the timer on my new Sony camera for this and my car served as a substitute for a tripod.

The joke was on me though! I couldn't figure out how to turn the timer back off, so later I had to look it up online.

4. Redbud is everywhere! I'm sharing this with Floral Friday.

5. I belong to a photography group on Facebook and needed some images for the theme "Numbers." I happened to be waiting for Frank to finish shopping in Target and located some colorful numbers in the birthday card aisle.

Orange You Glad It's Friday?

Fauquier Fences and Walls

Fauquier County is in a pretty area on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge. Home to estates, horse ranches and wineries, it is one of the highest-income counties in the U.S. (There are poor people there too but the average income is very high because of the number of millionaires and billionaires.)

We spent a day there during Historic Garden Week. I made it a point to photograph some fences for Gosia's blog linkup.  I'm also sharing with Through My Lens. 

Fauquier County was established in 1759. According to an online encylopedia article, is was named for Francis Fauquier, a Lieutenant Governor of Virginia who supposedly won the land in a poker game. 

The Case of the Fake Swans.

I can see a lake from my window and I enjoy watching ducks and geese. Not everyone likes the Canada Geese, and they can be a messy crowd. So the homeowners' association board decided to scare them off! They purchased a couple of swan decoys and put tethered them in the water.

At first I thought the swans were real. But when I photographed them, they never bent their necks or floated very far.  Before long, I learned about the anti-goose plot.

The theory is that Canada Geese are afraid of swans. This seems odd because I have photographed them together, but indeed, the large flocks of Canada Geese that frequently visit the lake have been missing lately.

Fake Swan

Here are Canada Geese on the lake a few months ago.

I love watching them fly and land! And I like hearing them fuss when they are getting ready to take off.

I suppose the absence of the large flocks will help keep the lake clear, but I miss the Canada Geese! We still have a few families of domestic-type geese, and various kinds of ducks, which are not afraid of swans for some reason. We even have a few mixed families of domestic and Canada Geese. I expect some other Canada Geese will return after they figure out the swans are just decoys. 

Sharing with Not-so-Wordless and  Wild Bird Wednesday. 

Saving the Afton Inn

Front Royal, Virginia

The Afton Inn was threatened with demolition, but this week the local Economic Development Authority approved a renovation plan that will keep the exterior of the building intact.

Opened in 1868, the Afton Inn eventually fell into disrepair and was boarded up in the 1990's. It's location across from the courthouse kept it in the public eye and when developers balked at the high cost of restoring it, citizens campaigned to "Save the Afton Inn."

A non-historic addition will be demolished but the main building will be stabilized and the facade restored.

The final photo shows the back of the building. The renovation is estimated at $2.5 million.

Sharing with Tuesday Treasures.

Theme: Laugh

 The City Daily Photo Theme for May is "Laugh." I didn't have any recent pictures of laughing so yesterday I took a laughing selfie. Since I often move my shoulders forward when I laugh, the arm holding the camera doesn't even seem very out-of-place.

I also pulled up a couple of old pictures from this blog that work for the theme. The clouds looked to me like they were laughing.

The final picture is about ten years old. Allison was laughing when I took her picture. Makes me smile to see it.