Silly Cousins

When my daughters were small, I photographed them until they got tired of it and just made faces when they saw the camera pointing at them. Sometimes they still do. Add to that the general fun of getting together with their cousins who live over six hours away and the resulting group photos often look goofy. Well, at least they are having a good time!

Elias, Meadow, Lynn, Marie and
(in the front row) Marcus, Sophia, and Mouse

Me and My Sister

Linda and Peggy,  Yesterday

Brief Note about Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving Holiday was yesterday. I hope your day was enjoyable!

My younger daughter visited us for a few days and left this afternoon. Yesterday we met Frank's middle daughter and her husband for lunch. Today my older daughter joined us and we went to my sister's house for a pleasant visit.

I am thankful that my family is fun to be with.

 Linking to Orange You Glad It's Friday

Cullers Overlook on Thanksgiving Day

We weren't planning to go to Shenandoah River State Park yesterday afternoon. We were in Front Royal and decided to see if Skyline Drive was open. Unfortunately it was closed due to icy road conditions, so I suggested that we go to the State Park instead since it is nearby.

Cullers Overlook was spectacular as it usually is, even though most of autumn's colors have faded. (See the lovely view with fall foliage here.) The curves of the Shenandoah River are always scenic as seen from this view point. And we saw some hawks soaring overhead (pictured in my previous post).

Zoomed-in View of an Attractive House

Soaring Raptor

At Shenandoah River State Park with Marie

Linking to Skywatch Friday

Thanksgiving at Cracker Barrel

Frank, Marie, Allison, and Dave

I hope you were able to spend time with family and friends today.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wild Turkey Trio

Wild turkeys have made a comeback in Virginia. They have learned to live on the edges of the suburbs and their population has increased. Still, I haven't gotten many pictures of them. They seem shy of people.

We saw these turkeys crossing a road but by the time I pulled to the side and got my camera ready, they were disappearing into the woods.

Cute Kid in 1973

Marie is visiting for Thanksgiving and in honor of her grueling bus trip here I'm sharing this old photo of her.

I've noticed that the old black and white pictures in my family albums still look crisp, while most of the color photos look faded and slightly blurred.

Linking to: Black and White Wednesday

Enjoy Turkey Day!

This young artist is my daughter Marie when she was a child.

Oops, I placed my name on the picture in such a place that it looks like I drew that fine turkey. The placement was inadvertent. I have a little image of that I use as a signature block and I "paste" it on a corner of a picture in Photoshop before saving it as JPEGs.

Have a nice Thanksgiving!

Return to Doub's Mill

When we visited Beaver Creek in June, I filled out a request to be notified when the mill's Open House would be held. A couple of weeks ago I received a postcard telling of the Quilt Show/ Open House scheduled for Sunday, November 24. Unfortunately my sister and my daughters could not go, but Frank and I went and I was glad we did.

Beautiful quilts and some other items by various artisans were displayed inside the mill, which has been converted to an incredible residence by the owners.

In the living room there are windows looking down into the millrace, where water still flows!

I have an interest in this property because some of my ancestors lived and worked here, not in this building which was built later (in 1812) but in earlier buildings no doubt built of similar stones. I wrote about these ancestors, the Newcomers, in earlier posts.

I would not have known about this mill if I had not found the Doub's Mill website on the internet. It's a remarkable place and less than 90 minutes from my home.

Fallen Leaves

Maple Leaves

Before the Frost: Cosmos

These pretty flowers bloomed in October. The first hard frost killed them and their lacy leaves turned brown. A few days later I was surprised to see that wind had uprooted the entire plant and rolled it across the lawn like sagebrush!

Now the warm days of autumn seem to be behind us. Last night and today were very cold and my car wouldn't start. We wound up replacing the battery.

Return of the Sciurus

Sciurus carolinensis is our old friend the Eastern Gray Squirrel, and he's back! With the coming of cold weather, I put out some feeders and he found them right away.

My goodness, I think he's smiling! You're welcome!

Girls with Fans

1972 in Alexandria, VA

I'm sharing this scanned copy of an old picture of my daughters and their friends in honor of those who have a birthday this week, especially Lynn and Allison. My your birthday week be bright and let this be the beginning of a great year for you!

Cupola Rehab

The cupola atop the Strasburg Post Office is being restored and painted.

Strasburg is in Shenandoah County, Virginia, and was founded in 1761.

Linking to Skywatch Friday.

Last Rose, November

We still have one lone rose in the garden. It's wilting now, but I took this picture a couple of days ago. (I added a vignette in Adobe's Camera Raw.)

I think it survived November's frosts because it is sheltered by the house. Also, the heat from our dryer vent may help!

Linking to: Orange You Glad It's Friday
and
Today's Flowers

Lynn Long Ago

My older daughter has a birthday coming up in a few days so I scanned in a picture I took of her when she was a child. I always liked this one!

Posting to: B+W Linky on My Memory Art  

On the Market: The Strasburg Theater

The theater in Strasburg, Virginia is for sale. It was most recently used as a live music venue, but has served as a movie theater in the past.

It needs some improvements such as new flooring. Theaters have to complete with home entertainment and people's current fascination with the internet so some of them are no longer profitable.  The Wayside Theater in nearby Middletown closed recently — a loss to all of us who enjoyed the stage shows that were produced there.

Autumn in the Piedmont

I took these pictures a couple of weeks ago in Rappahannock County, Virginia. By now the pretty yellow leaves have fallen, but it was glorious for a while!

Friendly Kitties

It's Made of Straw...

...but the big bad wolf can't blow this house down!

We visited a few sites on the Hampshire Highlands Studio Tour in West Virginia. I was particularly interested in seeing this cottage at Taproot Farm because it was mostly made of straw bales and clay.

It's near Capon Bridge, a small town we've visited before when we went to see Fort Edwards. The cottage is used as an art studio and meditation center. It's big enough to be used as a home by one person, or two if they like to be close.

The inside is cozy and it reminded me of a kiva, or perhaps the sort of cottage that my ancestors lived in many generations ago.

Ceiling and Skylight

Impressions of a Fall Tree

I had an image of a tree with yellow and orange leaves that looked a bit flat. I added a vignette (in Photoshop) and then reversed it from dark to light. I saved that one (above) and made a copy to play with a little more. On it I added a filter to bring out the edges of the leaves and then cropped in on a section of the photo.

Which one do you prefer?

Irresistible Cullers Overlook

I've shown you views from this overlook before. We make it a point to stop here when we go to Shenandoah River State Park. The view changes with the seasons, and it photographs differently according to the light on that day and even the time of day.

The view from the overlook must be the most-photographed spot on the Shenandoah River. The curve of the river provides a graceful "leading line" and the Massanutten Range provides an interesting background. Seeing this in autumn was a treat!

The last photo is a scene from the road that winds down to the RV campground. I cropped it to a panorama because the sky wasn't very interesting.

See all my Cullers Overlook posts.

South Fork in Autumn

We returned to Shenandoah River State Park on November 1st to enjoy the last days of the fall foliage season. We were rewarded with a gorgeous day and blue water!

I took these photos from a short trail through the tent camping area. There are steps going down to the river for the convenience of folks with canoes and kayaks. There's a reason nearby Front Royal is called the Canoe Capital of Virginia!

This stretch of the Shenandoah River is near the Thunderbird Site, where Paleo-Indians fished and made arrowheads around 10,000 years ago!

One of my previous posts on this park is the second most popular post on this blog in terms of hits, with over 6,950 views.

Link: Skywatch Friday