DOGS AT THE GARDEN

Part of the fun of enjoying the good weather, is seeing our canine friends enjoying it too.

Dogs make every walk an adventure, don't they?

Each human parent might say, "My dog and I go out for a walk, and it's plain for all to see, that it's really not me who is walking the dog, it's the dog who is out walking me."

One last quote: 

"Why does watching a dog be a dog fill one with happiness?"

~Jonathan Safran Foer~

We were at the garden yesterday and I was delighted to see several dogs on their walks. We were able to take photos of a few. 

I was also delighted that it got up to 77 degrees F. (25 degrees C). As I type this on 3-11-26, I can tell you it reached 84 (29 in celcius). I was just told it is going down to 35 tonight (2 degs. C), and snow is expected. What on earth? Mother Nature is playing a joke, I think.

Thanks for stopping by and 

I hope your weather is being kind to you 

and not playing a joke on you too.

(Photos taken by Gregg.)

SATURDAY MORNING AT THE BIRD FEEDER - TUFTED TITMOUSE IN SNOW

 Blogger has been having a problem with the 'reply' button, and I haven't been able to respond to any of your comments on my own blog as the dialog box won't open. Hopefully, this will clear up soon as I am told this has been happening intermittently since last year. This is the first time I have had it myself. Hopefully it will get back to normal within a day or two. I will still be visiting your blogs as soon as I can. Has anyone else had this problem? 

Today (1-24-26) we are expecting 10 inches of snow followed by ice. It was 21 inches and hopefully it will be even less. It is not supposed to start until approximately 11.00 p.m. These photos for today were taken a few years' ago after another snowstorm.  Our feathered friend arrived after I had filled the feeders and the water bowl. He stayed around long enough for me to take these photos.

Timothy the Tufted Titmouse is thinking about that one....

and finally came to this non-conclusion.

Here's a bit of information I found online: "Birds will eat snow if water is not readily available but providing fresh, liquid water to birds in freezing temperatures is essential for their hydration and feather maintenance. You should not give them hot water. Use a heated birdbath to keep water just above freezing (36 to 40 degrees F.), as too-hot water can freeze on feathers and cause severe issues. Unfrozen water helps them maintain feathers for insulation."

He sighed and went back to important matters.

That's how it goes on a Saturday Morning at the Bird Feeder.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all are safe and warm this weekend.

For our International friends to translation widget on the side bar.

Photo 1:

"Hello, I am a Tufted Titmouse. I will be out in a minute. I am sprucing up my tuft."

Photo 2:

"Here I am, it's not perfect but the lady with the black box says I am always beautiful."

"She thinks we're beautiful too."

"We are - but not modest."

Photo 3:

No words.

Photo 4:

"I am thinking about that one."

Photo 5:

No words.

Photo 6:

"Knock, knock!"

"Okay, I'll play. Who's there?"

Photo 7:

"Lettuce!"

"Lettuce who?"

Photo 8: 

"Lettuce in, it's freezing out here."

Photo 9:

No words.

TURNING POINT SUFFRAGIST MEMORIAL, LORTON IN VIRGINIA

I am continuing my post from this link. A few days before, I found out about The Turning Point Suffragist Memorial. I am always intrigued by this part of history. I will be putting another post together after this one, as there are more photos and more history to share about this time, and the suffragette connection to Lorton.

My first photo shows a statue of Alice Paul who was a member and leader of The National Woman's Party. She stands at the entrance. Throughout this post I have included information I found online, and you can read more about Alice here.

She was described as "A vocal leader of the twentieth century women's suffrage movement, Alice Paul advocated for and helped secure passage of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, granting women the right to vote.  (There are great old photos at these links.) 

She was born on January 11th, 1885, in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, and was the oldest of four children. Her parents were Tacie Parry and William Paul, a wealthy Quaker businessman. She was a descendant of William Penn, the Quaker founder of Pennsylvania. Her ancestors included participants in the New Jersey Committee of Correspondence in the Revolutionary era and a state legislative leader in the 19th century. She grew up in the Quaker tradition of public service. 

Ms. Paul’s parents embraced gender equality, education for women, and working to improve society. Paul’s mother, a suffragist, brought her daughter with her to women’s suffrage meetings, and was a member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).

The next statue just inside the memorial grounds was that of Mary Church Terrell, the daughter of former enslaved people, born in Memphis, Tennessee. She was a well-known activist who championed racial equality and women's suffrage in the late 19th and early 20th century. 

Mary Terrell, born Mary Church on September 23, 1863, and was one of the first African-American women to earn a college degree. She taught in the Latin Department at the M Street School (now known as Paul Laurence Dunbar High School (the first African American public high school in the nation, in Washington, DC.) 

Ms. Church's mother, Louisa Ayres, was a successful entrepreneur at a time when most women did not own businesses. She is credited with having encouraged her daughter to attend Antioch College Model School in Yellow Springs, Ohio, for elementary and secondary education, because the Memphis schools were not adequate. 

She was an avid suffragist for many years, going back to when she was a student, and continued to be active in the happenings within suffragist circles in the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Through these meetings she became associated with Susan B. Anthony, an association which Ms. Terrell describes in her biography as a "delightful, helpful friendship," which lasted until Ms. Anthony's death in 1906.  More can be read about Mary Terrell here.   

Next, Carrie Chapman Catt (born Carrie Clinton Lane; January 9, 1859 – March 9, 1947) was an American women's suffrage leader who campaigned for the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave U.S. women the right to vote in 1920. 

Ms. Catt served as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1900 to 1904 and 1915 to 1920. She founded the League of Women Voters in 1920 and the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in 1904, which was later named International Alliance of Women. She "led an army of voteless women in 1919 to pressure Congress to pass the constitutional amendment giving them the right to vote and convinced state legislatures to ratify it in 1920". Ms. Catt "was one of the best-known women in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century and was on all lists of famous American women." Her story can be found here.

 

More next time! I don't want to rush through as there is much to say about the brave women I learned about. Not only these ladies here, but many who were involved in the vote we now have today.

A RIDE INTO OCCOQUAN, VIRGINIA

We were looking for a place that I had read about recently. More on that in another post. I am putting the cart before the horse as we visited that and went to the town afterwards. (I have provided links all the way through giving more information.) Today's post is from the town. By the time we got there we were hungry, and we had a late lunch.

We were actually looking for a favorite sandwich shop, but sadly it was out of business. Not too far away was the restaurant we had enjoyed several years ago, now under new management. A yellow easter bunny greeted us.

The Maitre d' asked if we would like to sit on their open patio but it was a bit too chilly for us, even with the overhead heaters provided. There are also tables at the riverside. In the warmer weather that would be lovely. We fully intend to go back and do just that.

We opted for meals on the regular menu.  Our appetizer was corn fritters.

I ordered the grilled flounder stuffed with crabmeat and shrimp, with onion rings and French fries. Gregg had fish tacos which I forgot to take a photo of. No dessert today. Gregg had a coca cola and I had a glass of water, but the waiter mentioned Bailey's Irish Creme Coffee and I was sold. Dessert! It was a very good meal, and we certainly didn't need any more to eat that day!

I found these interesting to look at.

We had a very nice time as it has been a while between restaurant visits. 

Of course, there has to be some kind of plant that I took a photo of. This is Cherry laurel, also known as English laurel, Common laurel, Laurel Cherry and Versailles Laurel. Its botanical name is Prunus laurocerasus. These were in front of one of the private homes we passed by.

We both agreed that we could very happily live in one of these homes.

There are two rows one behind the other. In the above collage, in the photo on the left, the second row can be seen on either side at the end of the narrow road. Those are the homes on the river.

We continued walking. 

There are a lot of reflections but I think you can see what is on display, for the most part.

The word Occoquan is from an Algonquian Doeg word meaning "at the end of the water". The area that is Occoquan today was long occupied by the Indigenous People. Even though the Doeg Tribe split up into several sections across Virginia, they were still one Village of people.

The historic town of Occoquan, Virginia, stands by the river that bears its name in Prince William County, Virginia, 25 minutes south of Washington D.C.

In July 1608, John Smith of Jamestown sailed into the Occoquan River and was welcomed by the Doeg Indians at their settlement, Tauxenent. Just a little bit of history. The links will give you a whole lot more.

We are on the other side of the street now.

The red building used to be an all-year-round Christmas shop called The Christmas Goose. One of the places I would go to when visiting the town. I always enjoyed buying a couple of ornaments, either for gifts or for our tree. Another business was in there, but I couldn’t quite make out what was in the windows.  I will take a closure look next time. At this point we were making a bee-line for our car.

We had walked all the way on one side of the street and down the other. There are many side streets with other shops we didn't explore. It was time to cross over again as we had parked our car in a lot next to the bridge. The building in the following photo has shops on two levels, though we only browsed by the ones on the ground level. We were ready to go home. 

I used to sell my ornaments to one of the shops in my craft show days. That's a story for another day.

I wanted to make a point of saying that there are some parts of the town that have uneven sidewalks. From someone (me) who has a klutzy, oh-look-at-that-while-not-looking-at-where-I-am-going personality, do take care!

One last photo as you probably know by now how I like to take photos on our drive back. This time it is one of the local school buses.

That's all for today. The next one I will share about the place that interested me so much, and discovered it was only a short drive away from Occoquan. I don't want to talk about it until the day of its post. It was something different, nothing too exciting as I want to manage expectations, but interesting. Tomorrow I will be getting my birdfeeder chatter post out, and hopefully on Sunday I will have the next one ready.

Thanks for looking and have a great weekend!