Art at Lost River.

Crafty Random-osity Plus a Founding Father.

The Good: Hardy County has a barn quilt trail now, so let's begin this post with a barn quilt at Lost River.

Monday Murals.

We were there Saturday and saw the finished "Greetings from Lost River" mural. 

I photographed it a month ago, not realizing it was not yet completed. For one thing, the large lettering had not been added, and perhaps you will spot other changes from the earlier version.

The Random: An artist was working on a painting when we entered the Lost River Artisans Cooperative. I recognized it as Chimney Rock, which you pass if you continue southeast on Route 259 toward Broadway, Virginia.

For those who have not been to eastern West Virginia, the town of Lost River is named for the nearby river, which disappears under Sandy Ridge and reappears as the Cacapon River.

Here are a few sights from inside the art center.

Mosaic Monday.

The Fun: Look who showed up there! Ben Franklin!

Actually, I had timed our visit to be there for Ben's presentation. He talked about his life, his inventions, and his important role in convincing the French to help us out during the American Revolution.

At the end of the program, he confessed that he is portrayed here by Leon Alexander

The View from Hackley Mill Road.

Mount Moriah Baptist Church

InSpired Sunday and Shadow Shot Sunday.

Services are held here twice a month. According to Amissville.com, this church was built in 1883.

The rest of this post is devoted to a lovely farm where horses are trained, Mountain View Farm. We saw it today on the Rappahannock Farm Tour.

These horses have fine accommodations.

I've seen clerestories in large stables before. I assume the purpose is to increase light and fresh air.

I now have over 500 posts showing Farms, so feel free to take a look.  For rural scenes on other blogs, visit The Barn Collective.

More Pictures of the Ole Time Festival

Frank wanted to see the parade in Edinburg, so we made it a point to get there in plenty of time to watch it. 

We also managed to arrive at the festival in time to hear music by Robbie Limon, who is a favorite singer in this part of Virginia.  Here's he was doing a fine Hank Williams medley.

Previous Post: Animals at the Festival.

2016 Post: More Old Time Activities.

Animals at the Ole Time Festival

Edinburg, Virginia

Last weekend we went to the Ole Time Festival. We listened to some music, browsed the craft tents, and watched the parade.

Since today is Critter Day on Eileen's blog, I'm sharing some of the animals we saw at the festival. There were pets with their owners, a petting zoo in the craft area, and horses and more in the parade.

Blog Post 6860

Willy Nilly Friday.

1. Coreopsis seems to come up wherever it pleases. This year it grew next to the lake.

Floral Friday and Friday Bliss.

2. We were busy last weekend and I haven't published many pictures from the varied events: A Mosby Tour around Berryville, Edinburg Old Time Festival, Battle of Third Winchester Anniversary, a Sunday drive in Clarke County. I may never catch up!

This black and white portrait shows a young woman at Star Fort in Winchester.

3. The scene with the gazebo is a cell phone picture I took yesterday in Front Royal. I was there for a meeting nearby.

4. Front Royal has lush flower baskets hanging along Main Street. The town has so much charm! Unfortunately it has recently been in the news for a scandal involving embezzlement of funds intended for economic development. It's one of those stories that just keeps getting bigger as investigations continue.

5. Skywatch and Reflections: The final photo is from today's sunset.

Trail Trouble ... and Some Great Views!

Shenandoah National Park.

At the parking lot for Overall Run Trail, there's a sign with a map and trail information. Two notices were fastened to the sign, slightly damp sheets of paper although covered with plastic. I stepped closer to see what they said.

Attention Hikers.
Please exercise extreme caution on the following Mathews Arm Campground Trails:
- Traces
- Tuscarora/Overall Run
- Beecher Ridge.
We have experienced numerous bee/hornet stings in the last few weeks on these trails.

The warning continues and the second sheet is a map showing known locations of hornet nests in the ground. And I thought all I had to worry about was bears and snakes!

I wasn't actually planning to hike the trail. I just wanted to wander around taking pictures, but with that warning in mind, I didn't venture more than 30 yards from the car!

Later I saw a similar sign on another trailhead. And at Limberlost Trail, I met a park employee who had just been stung several times as she used a leaf blower! She had marked the location of the incident and was on her way to report it.

The park website now has a warning about yellow jackets. I read elsewhere that they swarm in late summer, especially after the queen leaves the nest to find winter quarters and others leave with her.

Appalachian Trail. Sharing with Tom's Signs linkup.

Skyline Drive at Hogback Overlook.

Sharing with Fences Around the World.

I have a few more views to show you. 

Watchful Birds and a Grasshopper.

Wild Bird Wednesday.
 

1. The vulture on a fence was a surprise. I only took one picture before he flapped his wings and flew away.

2. The crow likes to perch high on a tree at Indian Run Overlook in Shenandoah National Park.

3. Also in the park, a green grasshopper landed on my car window. After peering in at me and my camera, he turned sideways and posed!

4. Late yesterday afternoon, a cardinal visited my bird bath. Although the light was dim, I was anxious to do a test shot with my old Nikon P510 because I was using a new SD card. Normally that's not a concern, but I'd had problems using a memory card with that camera for a long time. Yesterday I drove to an old-time camera shop in Warrenton because we don't have one anywhere near my home. They suggested that the last card I used in it was too fast/too new for the old camera. I should have figured that out because my trail cam does not work with "Ultra" cards either. 

Northern Cardinal, Female.

I have a newer camera so I only use the old Nikon (which came out in 2012!) for taking bird pictures at my window. It has a 42x optical zoom, which is great for photographing birds, except that focusing is tricky so I use work-arounds, like placing all my feeders the same distance from the house. Since the SD card wasn't working but the Nikon has built in memory,  I was using only that memory and downloading the pictures every few days. It's good to have the extra memory of a card again.

Unexpected Sculpture.

This place is on Lydia Mountain near Stanardsville. It looks like an old schoolhouse that became an art gallery but has since closed.

I stopped because I spotted sculpture out front. The steel horse appears to be welded of vehicle parts. I don't know what the kokopelli is made of except that it is metal.

I'm afraid my picture of the dolphin sculpture isn't too clear because the metal is similar in tone to the forest behind it. But note the sphere above its nose. Dolphin is playing with a ball!

Sharing with Countryscapes
and Tuesday Treasures.

Purple Sky, September 23rd.

Signal Knob at Dusk.
 

Mural Random-osity

The Good, The Random, The Fun.

The Good: Front Royal just got a colorful new mural. I happened to see it yesterday when the artist was putting on the finishing touches.

Her name is Jacquie Ris and she is a student at VCU in Richmond. Although young, she has already acquired a reputation as an artist in Front Royal for painting panels on a flower shop and the Mountain Trails mural on Main Street.

This one shows kayaks on the Shenandoah River and mountains in the background.

The Random: I spotted this eagle whirligig on a step in Strasburg when I went to the unveiling of that town's newest mural... shown below.

The Fun: A crowd showed up to celebrate Strasburg's barn quilt mural. The artists were there, and  music was provided by Cardinal Folk, a one-man band.

Sharing with Monday Murals and Mosaic Monday.