A FEW MORE PHOTOS TAKEN IN CLIFTON, VA

There is a history of Clifton at this website.

I didn't share the horses we found in my last post.  We saw them when we took a ride off one of the roads from the main street.

Thinking the road was going to loop back around, it came to a dead-end, and was a private road.  We turned back and soon found a parking spot on the side of the road in town.  

This is the Quigg House, where we found our happy dog in my last post.

Here's a fuzzy picture I managed to get of our happy dog.  She was doing the wriggly, happy dance.  I barely got her in frame and was happy she didn't totally blur out in this one.  I had several blurs.  Such a sweety!

This house is one of my favorites.  

It also has a lovely courtyard.  (Most of these historical houses are private homes.)

This is a very quaint little town with a history. If you live here you are used to people reading those markers and taking photos of your home.  There are a lot more tourists here in the warmer months.  Today it was still very busy with people walking up and down, looking at the shops, going into the restaurants and enjoying these lovely historical homes.  There are also home tours a couple of times in the year.  I went on one years ago.

There are picket fences in front of every home.  

I missed the marker on this one.

This is the Clifton Baptist Church, replacing the one room church that was on this site, in 1910.  

I found one bit of history online as I missed the marker.  It read: "In 1876 George W. Tillet, along with other area men who served with Mosby's Rangers during the Civil War, formed a Baptist Church with services held in his home.  Subsequently they built a one-room church on this site in 1877, which was replaced by the present church in 1910.

That's it for Clifton for a while.  We will probably go back in the springtime.

If you would like to see other visits we have made, you can click on the "Clifton_VA_Oldtown" label below this post.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Last week we took a trip into Clifton for a walk around town.  We visit at least a couple of times a year.  Several of the historical homes were decorated for Halloween.

We have been enjoying this cute cow for several years now. This is the first time I have seen her at this time of the year.

This is the entrance to Peterson's Ice-Cream Depot.  You walk up that alley, turn left at the far end, and there is a kiosk where you can order all kinds of ice-cream, plus.  A place we have been to and enjoyed several times.

I didn't know they went to all this trouble to decorate for Halloween.  

The homes in Clifton have historical markers in the front. They give a short history of the people who lived in them.  We have read every one over the years, but it's long enough between visits that we forget.  There is a list here of all the houses, and if you click on the thumbnail, it will give you a short history of that particular place.

Here you can see we met one of the residents, the four-legged kind.  When a dog comes up to the fence with a bone in its mouth it makes you a bit wary.  But it didn't take long for us to realize that this sweet little darling was only interested in wagging her tail, to let us know how happy she was with her bone.  She was adorable!  The three of us made friends and she had enough scratches and ear rubs to last her for quite a while.

A closer view of the marker shown above.

We walked across the road and saw that one of the witches had crash-landed in a tree.  These witches need to be more careful, or at least ease off on that rum punch they mix in their witches brew.  

I see a lot of them in the trees at this time of the year.  I keep telling them this very important message, don't drink and drive, even if it is while riding a broomstick!

I was impressed with all the decorations.   

It certainly puts a smile on the faces of little kids and big kids alike, and especially those of us who like to take photos.

In between looking at all the Halloween decorations, we continue to read the historical markers in front of each home.

The man who lived in this house went down on the Titanic.

This is the Harris House.

The Kincheloe House

I will leave you with the two pretty dogs we came across.

Oh the joy!

Another pretty dog, a bigger one.

And a few pics I played with in Paint Shop Pro.

Have a safe and Happy Halloween and if you are driving, watch out for all the Trick or Treaters tonight.  And for the Witches, if you are flying your broom stick, no drinking while driving.

GOOD FENCES AND WILLY-NILLY FRIDAY FIVE

For Theresa's Good Fences on Thursday.

There are still a lot of fences I wanted to share from our trip to Clifton a few weeks ago.  

Here is our friendly cow that I have posted about before.

The rest were found while walking around town.

For Tanya's Willy Nilly Friday Five
on Friday.

(Click on the links in red to visit other participants.)

What did we do this week?

1)  I had friends visiting last weekend, who have to travel some distance to get here.  They stayed for a long weekend.  I took them to Meadowlark on one of the days, and they enjoyed it as much as I do.  We also took them to Petersens Ice-Cream shop in Clifton.  

2) Two days later Gregg and I took a trip down south but only for an over-nighter, as we headed back the next day.  We were there for a baby shower, which I attended while Gregg had a good time walking around town and along the beach.  The day we arrived we also met up with family at an Italian Restaurant.

3) The next day we went to the Home Expo Center not too far away from home.  It's an annual exhibition but this is the first one we have attended in a very long time.   I had bought tickets weeks ago and almost forgot all about them, until Gregg mentioned it early that morning.  It was fun looking at what people were selling and just for the heck of it we picked up a whole pile of brochures which filled my bag. Our home is 30 years old and the most major project we had done was the roof and aluminum siding replaced, when several years ago Mother Nature sent us the biggest hailstones we have ever had.  It ruined our roof and broke the siding, even smashing through a slat vent in the side of the house where I knew - imagination running rampant - bats were going to take a liking to our attic and set up residence, along with every other critter in the neighborhood. It took a long time between waiting for the insurance and choosing a company. Many of them were knocking on our door as the whole area had had major damage.  Fortunately our car was in the garage but driving around we saw that many vehicles in the area looked like every square inch had had a hammer taken to them.

4)  We went to our largest shopping mall today.  It's one we rarely visit as it isn't that close, but there was a particular shop I needed to go into.  After we had done our shopping and were on our way to the exit, a lady fell right in front of us.  I had worn a pair of shoes with different soles and noticed they were catching on the floor, telling myself I had to be careful because you know, I've kissed the floor a few times.  No sooner had the thought run through my head, this poor lady took a nose dive.  She landed with such an awful thud and I was scared because she was bleeding from a nasty cut on her lip.  Gregg went into his problem solving mode and is always a good arm to lean on in these situations.  As she was well into her 80s, I worried that she may have broken something. Fortunately she had not.  We realized listening to their conversation, that the younger lady next to her was her daughter.  She and Gregg gently eased her Mom to her feet after making sure no bones had been broken.  She was obviously badly shaken.  The poor lady, her lip had taken the brunt of her fall, and it was already starting to puff up.  I smiled at her when she made a few jokes, but couldn't really focus on anything other than checking whether she was okay.  She wasn't 'okay' but had no serious injuries, in that way she was blessed.

Someone had picked up a chair from a seating area for her to sit in, someone else bought tissues for her cut lip, I went into a shop and asked for a bag of ice, security had been called and this dear lady looked like she really did not want all the fuss around her, and definitely no security.  I don't blame her.  After we were sure she was in good hands we eventually left.  

We talked about it on the way out of the underground parking area, how several people jumped in immediately to help her, of all different nationalities.  We are a very ethnically diverse area, and I can't help but think that with all that we read in the newspapers and then I see something like this, where everyone came together to help one dear lady in her 80s, there's hope for the world yet.  There are a lot of good people around.

5) After that serious No. 4, I thought you would enjoy this.  Click on the link here for some smile bringers.

My thanks to Theresa and Tanya for all the hard work in keeping up these memes.  Their websites can be reached if you would like to see other participants, by clicking on the lettering in red.