Murals and Beach Scenes

Timberville is a small town in western Shenandoah County. The Walmart lets you know you are there.

When Allison went to the beach with her dad, she kindly took pictures of murals in a restaurant for me.

Monday Murals / Blue Monday 

I don’t consider myself a beach person and I haven’t been in a few years. Here are some beach pictures from the past, five on the East Coast and five on the West Coast.

Note: This is the last week that Angie will be hosting Mosaic Monday.  Thank you, Angie, for doing it for four years. The new host will be at https://happy-hour-with-picts.blogspot.com.

An Imposing New Church

Perhaps you have seen it from I-66 near Front Royal: A grand church or cathedral rising up behind the trees. One day when we were in that area near the animal shelter, I drove over to take a look.

It is on the campus of Christendom College,  a Catholic school. Christ the King Chapel will be dedicated in April 2023. 

It may seem an anachronism in this modern age, especially in a rural area where many church populations are shrinking, but it will attract students to this small college. I’d like to tour it someday to see the stained glass windows.

The Shenandoah River is nearby and I cannot resist showing another picture of the river.

Resting Pets

The City Daily Photo October theme is rest, sleep or relaxation. Let’s start with a beagle update and then look at a shelter cat.

Charlie likes to rest on my loveseat. He also likes to explore the house and chew on things. This is definitely a problem. I tried some bitter apple spray but it does not deter him.

Every day is doggy homeschool now. Learning is a bit slow because he has to overcome his past conditioning and fears. He is definitely afraid of loud sounds and tall men, and he’s still unsure whether the great outdoors is safe. On a positive note, he is riding in the car better now. 

Saturday’s Critters / Caturday 

Today’s pictures are digitally filtered. I hope you enjoy them. And I hope you are resting and relaxing! 

September Ends Too Soon

I like September. It was my mother’s birthday month. It has often been a time of new beginnings for me. This month I got a new car and a new dog.

I’m sad to see September end. Oh, October is a beautiful month, and early November is nice. But then the weather turns bitter and gray. If it were not for the holiday lights, I don’t know if I would make it through the short days of winter.

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, 

Old Time is still a-flying; 

And this same flower that smiles today, 

Tomorrow will be dying. 

~  Robert Herrick

 

Hills, Valleys, and Limestone

An Environmental Tour of the Cedar Creek & Belle Grove area

These pictures are from a tour a month ago in the Middletown area. Ranger Rick Ashbacker took a group to "several key locations that highlight the Valley’s unique geologic background and the environmental factors that were crucial to the region’s development."

This was one in a series of History at Sunset Tours at Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park. I’ve done many of these tours over the years, probably all the ones that they have offered. 
 

Cedar Creek winds down from the mountains and joins the Shenandoah near Strasburg.

The tour started in late afternoon and ended at sunset. We were fortunate that it was lovely afternoon and a spectacular sunset.

More Views at Stumpf Run Farm

Hardy County, WV

Links:

• Yesterday's Post
• Wordless Wednesday 
• Barn Collective
• Image-in-ing

Stump Cabin

Hardy County, WV

This log home is said to be oldest in West Virginia that is still lived in. It has been expanded and modernized but the original logs are still intact. The cabin dates to 1785, built by Leonard Stump. An earlier shelter was built by his father Michael Stumpf, in the 1740’s. In 1746 it was visited by a survey crew that included Peter Jefferson, father of Thomas Jefferson. Two years later, another survey crew visited on behalf of Lord Fairfax, and a member of that crew was the young George Washington, age 16.

In 1749, a land grant was issued to Michael Stump from Lord Fairfax, who administered a huge tract of land, much of which was wilderness. The property remained in the hands of the Stump family until 1973, when John Buhl purchased it.

You cannot view the cabin from South Fork Road, but it was open for Heritage Weekend. There is also a museum on the property that is open by appointment.

South Fork of South Branch of the Potomac

Garden Mural, Berkeley Springs

This garden is painted on the wall of a natural foods store.
I took a panoramic shot to get it all in and that distorted the shape of the building.  Let’s take a closer look at some of the segments of the painting.

Mosaic Monday / Murals / Blue Monday

At the time, I did not really notice that the fence to the left of the mural had some paintings on it and quite a few signatures. It looks like this might’ve been a school project. 

“ To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.”

Note: Like some other bloggers, I am having difficulty formatting. Usually I can click Save and then go into HTML editing, but that’s not working right now. I’m going to post this and then come back to see if it will let me fix the formatting.

Postscript: That worked! 

Charlie Visits Orkney Springs

Puppy reeducation seems to have become my full-time job. Charlie has a lot to learn, but first he needs to get past some of the trauma of spending a year in captivity at Envigo, while catching up on experiences he missed like enjoying the outdoors.

Frank volunteered to help me with Charlie, but Charlie is afraid of tall men so that’s another thing I need to work on. At least Charlie has calmed down in the car, so I take him for rides. We took him up to Orkney Springs today and walked around a little bit.

I wanted Charlie to pose for a picture but he was not interested. He is very photogenic if you can catch him looking at you. Some dogs can be bribed with treats or toys but so far he is not very motivated by those things. 

On the way home I followed signs to Morning Star Lutheran Church to take a photo. It is far off the main road. We saw wild turkeys and deer near there but I was driving and did not get their pictures.

Charlie and the Scary Beasts

Charlie here. Let's talk about animals because something scary happened.

Normally I like animals. I like dogs and it's fun seeing animals from the car window. Also, small critters are interesting. I don’t know what any of them are called unless they’re dogs.

One day Mom was going to take me to the dog park, but when we got there she saw four dogs going in and she said that was too many. So we didn't get out of the car. She said she would take me somewhere else for a nice walk.

We drove a little way and got out of the car and walked across a little bridge. We went through a gate and then we stopped because there were some beasts in the distance and they looked at us. Then they started walking towards us and they were really, really big! And they looked hungry!

it was scary. I could hear their big feet thundering across the earth and they were headed for me. I was so glad when we got back through the gate and closed it, but they came up and looked over the fence. I ran back across the little bridge and got back in the car as fast as I could. Mom closed the door and we escaped.