Valley Flower Shop

Woodstock, VA

The reflections in the picture window are distorted. I’m not sure whether the glass is curved or whether there is plastic over it.

I snapped another picture as the women walked past the other window.

Mural at Rutters

Near Winchester, VA

I found this mural on the outskirts of Winchester near the airport. The reason I was looking for it was that I have seen a few other murals by the artist Layton Scarbrough, and saw this one listed on his website. It represents Winchester and the surrounding area, including farms and the Shenandoah River. 

Monday  Murals / Mosaics

Rutters is a gas station/convenience store chain from Pennsylvania. I think this is their first store in Virginia. It reminds me of a Sheetz with fancier lights, but if you aren’t from the mid-Atlantic states, you probably aren’t familiar with those stores either. 

Tennis Court, Monochrome

 W. O. Riley Park

This was two weeks ago when the snow was melting. Now the snow is gone except for spots where it was plowed into big piles. 

The wet pavement lost color in the snow and puddles, so I went ahead and converted the first picture to black and white. I also took a picture of a dry detail because I liked the shadow. I wasn’t satisfied with it, though, until I angled it and cropped it.

Arnold Newman Exhibit

Museum of the Shenandoah Valley

Yesterday I went to Winchester to see a new photography exhibit of work by Arnold Newman. He was one of the great portrait photographers of the 20th century. 

The images are wonderful. After viewing so many, I could recognize techniques that he used repeatedly: dramatic lighting, posing a subject to show their work or personal life, using architectural features to build a composition, and cropping carefully. 

While I was at the museum, I also took pictures of indoor lighting for a local photo group challenge.

At the end of the day, I picked up Charlie from daycare at the veterinary. He still can’t stand to be by himself very long. Here’s a picture that I took outside the building. The shadow on the fence caught my eye.

Love Letters On the Snow

 Seven Bends State Park

The park’s LOVE sign was made from timbers that came from a barn that stood here when the property was a farm. The shadows are well defined on the ice-covered snow. 

I shared a photo of the barn in 2018. Two years later, the new park was open to the public, although the ribbon cutting ceremony came later due to concerns about the spread of Covid-19 at public events.

Winter Solstice

Tonight we have the longest night of the year, for those of us in the northern hemisphere. The axis of the Earth is turned to its farthest point from the sun. I don’t like the short days, and I am glad that the longer days are on their way.

The weather was decent  this afternoon, except for an occasional strong gust of wind. I felt like hibernating, but Charlie wanted to go out for an adventure. Finally I took him to Seven Bends State Park. We walked along the river for a little ways, but my back still bothers me so I didn’t go very far.

The shadows were lengthening, and the temperature was dropping. By the time I drove back across the Hollingsworth Road bridge, the sunlight was beginning to go away.

Blind Light

Sometimes an ordinary thing looks so different that I have to snap a picture. 

The curtains were open just a crack and sunlight was coming through the blinds.

Frida on Friday

The first picture is from a hallway at the Museum of The Shenandoah Valley. I was there to see photographs of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo taken by Nickolas Muray. That exhibit has signs saying no photography allowed. That seemed ironic, but I respected the signs.

The photos are interesting and beautifully done. They are from before my time, and I have only seen a couple of them before. They included pictures of Kahlo’s husband, artist Diego Rivera, and quite a few images of her artwork. 

In the last room, I found typed transcripts of letters exchanged between the artist and the photographer. He was passionately in love with her. Her private life was complicated by pain and heartbreak.

Today’s second image also features lights, but these are very different. Multicolored Christmas lights are reflected in a neighbor’s vehicle. Yes, people are already putting up their Christmas lights. They’re pretty, but I prefer to celebrate Christmas in December.

An Unusual Baker

One day I was driving through Strasburg and this scene caught my eye. Looks like the bake shop was decorated for Halloween! I took this two weeks ago.

On that same afternoon, I paused in the county park to capture a picture of autumn trees and shadows. Since then, many of the leaves have fallen. We’ve had a frost, but not a hard frost yet. There are still a few flowers blooming.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Brass Door Handle

I noticed the reflection on the door and took a picture. The shadow reminds me of a silhouette of a horse.

Shadows and Flowers

Isn’t it nice when a restaurant has fresh flowers on the tables? I took these pictures at Spelunkers in Front Royal.

Shadow Shot Sunday / Garden Affair

And here’s a little display on the windowsill.
 

Glass Door with Reflection

New Market, VA

Thrift Store on a Corner

"We Except Donations"

Lights, Doctors, and a Freedge.

This week I had two doctor appointments plus a visit to the chiropractor. One of the things about going to a doctor is there’s usually waiting involved. First you wait in the reception area, and then you go back to be weighed or questioned by the nurse, and then you sit in the exam room and wait again. This can get boring so often I look around for something to photograph with my phone. 

Here I noticed the overhead light fixture. It was so bright that ceiling photographed as black due to contrast.

A summary of my primary care visit is that my sodium level had dropped even lower than before, even though I started taking sodium tablets. So now I’m taking a tablet twice a day instead of once. That seems like a lot to me, but if it keeps me from getting dizzy, it’ll be worth it. Oh, and once again, my blood pressure dropped when I stood up. That’s almost enough to tempt me to spend my days in a rocking chair!

The other doctor was in Winchester. I had waited five weeks for the appointment day and it turned out that I need to go back for a test, but they could not schedule that for another six weeks. Frustrating!

On my way home, I got off the interstate and drove through Middletown to stop and buy a few things at Dollar General. Then I drove down Valley Pike to Strasburg, thus avoiding a long section of road construction. I stopped in front of the Wayside Inn to take a picture of the new “freedge.” That is a refrigerator that functions as a blessing box, where people can leave perishable food for anyone who needs it. My photo picked up reflections of plants growing along the street.

I also took a picture of the front door of the historic Wayside Inn. The Inn has served as a hotel since 1797. The oldest section of it was a stagecoach stop in the 1740’s. 

Sweets

The City Daily Photo Theme for August 1st is "Sweets." Here we see the candy aisle in a grocery store. The entire aisle isn’t candy, though. This display is followed by pancake syrup and then pancake mix. I’m not sure what comes after that. The other side of the aisle is devoted to breakfast cereal.

I actually don’t buy any of this candy. I do buy some dark chocolate covered nuts, but they have they to be dairy-free, and this supermarket does not have that kind. I learned long ago that I only tolerate sugar if it’s combined with protein and fat. Otherwise, it gives me reflux. For a number of years, I didn’t eat any sugar at all, but that changed after I moved out of the city and could no longer buy a full selection of natural foods. 

Unrelated Pictures for Friday

Both pictures show something with a reflective surface, but their subjects are not from the same place or day. I’m just grouping them together because I have two miscellaneous pictures that happen to fit two weekend blog hops. The artificial flowers in front of a mirror are for Weekend Reflections.

The second picture is for Black and White Weekend. Did you recognize it as a lightbulb in a box?

It’s helpful to me to have topics for today because I’m feeling distracted. The pain in my knees feels like burning, and the events in my country have my mind spinning.

A Pretty Nuthatch

Although I see nuthatches now and then, I didn't recognize this one from the video on the feeder camera. It was close to the lens and looked larger than a nuthatch! Plus, I rarely see them up close; often they're clinging upside down on a to a tree trunk.

After the Photos app identified this as a white breasted nuthatch, I confirmed it on a second app to make sure.

You can ignore the arrow on the second shot. I tried and tried to get this pose from the video, and finally resorted to telling Siri to take a screenshot. Doesn’t it look colorful in this lighting? Usually, they are not so blue.

Speaking of lighting, this mourning dove stood in the sunlight, looking quite charming.

Wild Bird Wednesday

Reflection Collection

 Pictures from Past Posts

Mosaics / Wordless

Two Photos for Friday

These two photos aren't related except that they qualify for weekend blog hops. 

First, a walkway photo for Black and White Weekend.

For Weekend Reflections, I have a Valentine’s display in a store window. Actually, I was trying to keep myself from showing as a reflection, and I didn’t notice that the sky was reflected in the upper left. You probably wouldn’t see it except for a tree showing up.

Snowy Farms Plus Charlie’s Report

Today I took recycling items to the transfer point on Moose Road. (We don't have curbside recycling here.) The afternoon light was pretty so I drove down the road a little farther to get some pictures of farms in the snow. After I show you those, I’ll let Charlie tell you a little about his week.

Cows were gathered together. These were the only animals I saw other than a few birds.

By the way, my cell phone tends to make snow look too dark. I lightened all the snow pictures at least 10% in the Photos app because the automatic exposure is programmed to make the overall lightness a medium gray, which is not natural for snow. Often 50% lighter is needed, but beyond that is tricky in this app. If I were using Photoshop, I could make layers and selections and lighten only the snow. But this is quicker, which is important because my eyes are still getting strained easily.

Okay, let’s hear from Charlie the beagle.

Saturday Critters / Caturday

“Mom says snow is pretty, but it is too cold and it covers up interesting smells. I haven’t been walking far and usually I just want to get back in the house.”

After we walk past a few houses, there’s a place where the sidewalk has not been cleared and there’s too much snow. 

Last night, a little more snow came down and covered our clean sidewalk. There were some interesting tracks, which might have been from a bunny. I made tracks too.

The week has been kind of boring. We can’t go to the park because it’s cold, and also Mom still has a loaner car, which I am not supposed to ride in. She says her car will be fixed soon. I don’t like the car and that’s why I chewed the seatbelts, but I do like going to the park.

Sometimes we look at birds, but I only like to watch them when they’re moving. 

I’ve been taking extra naps and it’s time for another one.