SATURDAY MORNING AT THE BIRD FEEDER

 

Mr. Dove was a bit miffed but he is busy thinking up his next groaner now. It could be a while.

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

Take good care of yourselves, thanks for stopping by

and have a great weekend!

For our international friends if they want to translate photos.

1st Photo: 

Who is this?

She says we are related. She brought him home the other day.

He doesn't say much.

2nd Photo: 

Someone ought to offer him a cup of tea.

Which reminds me, I have a joke.

Please don't tell one of your groaners.

3rd Photo:

How do you ask a dinosaur in for a cup of tea?

Tea Rex?

4th Photo:

I heard that before.

5th Photo:

One of the best groaners you didn't get to tell Mr. Dove.

6th Photo:

Thank you, I feel more like myself now that I have had a cuppa.

Are we related? I feel like we are.

MORE PHOTOS FROM THE SCRAPOSAURS EXHIBIT on 7-18-25

 We were at The Museum of the Shenandoah Valley in Winchester. I had wanted to see the Scraposaur Exhibition on display in their garden, and Gregg always loves a drive out there. The sign is at the entrance. There were a few people already walking around, as I mentioned in my other post, children amongst them, but we arrived not too long after opening time at 10:00 a.m., and it was still very quiet (closed on Mondays if I remember correctly. It is best to check their website at the link above to verify, in case you find yourself in the area). 

By the time we left, there were a few more people. This is a view from where I was sitting on a bench underneath a very nice shade tree. I was waiting for Gregg to come back with the car. I want to mention how warm and friendly we find the people in this area. The lady at the kiosk for instance. She was a delight and had that old-world charm that I find so welcoming. But I am getting a bit ahead of myself. 

I had fun taking photos of the potted plants next to the entrance gate.

I always like to get ideas of what to put in the larger plant pots I have at home.

As we stepped into the garden, we found an information board introducing artist Dale Lewis. You can click on any of these photos to see more details.

The first 'Scraposaur' we saw was Little Susie, inspired by an amazing story of a T Rex named Sue found in South Dakota in 1990. 

There are three websites I enjoyed browsing through about her discovery. One at this link and another here, and the third looking at a video on YouTube here.

I cropped the facts from the sign to make it even easier to read. The two that jumped out at me was that the original Sue roamed the earth 67 million years ago and was only half grown at 13 feet tall and 42 feet long.

We had fun looking at her and figuring out what scrap parts had been used to put her together.

The ingenuity of such a task impressed both of us.

I was really taken with her red glass eyes, which she was using to study me as much as I was studying her, it seemed.

Moving on, we made our way into another part of the garden where they grow a lot of produce - and flowers. All the gardens I have visited in these many years, have an area where they grow food to give to local families in need. 

I put this small collage together and have included names this time. 

This photo shows more of these neat looking tendrils of the Bitter Lemon climbing up the trellis work. Yes I take photos of everything except I think this is Gregg’s photo, so he does too.

But, Dino was demanding attention and giving me the eye. 

You may remember Dino. He was the family pet in the TV cartoon show, The Flintstones.

Like any pet, he demanded lots of fussing. I was happy to oblige, and he enjoyed having his photo taken.

Here is his information.

The next sculpture? Dragonflies! 

So, how long have they been around? My curiosity search found that they are believed to have originated approximately 300 million years ago, during the late Paleozoic period. 

Dragonflies are among the earliest winged insects to evolve. 300 million years' ago this is when their ancestors, sometimes called griffinflies, first appeared. At a time when the earth had more oxygen levels and swampy environments (the Carboniferous period), it is thought this supported the larger size of some early dragonflies. Some had wingspans of up to two-and-a-half feet. While modern dragonflies are smaller, their body plan has remained relatively consistent for 300 million years.

I found more scrap forks and a couple of spoons at the end of the dragonfly's abdomen. There's a very interesting page on the biology of a dragonfly here.

(All my information came from the AI overview when I asked about prehistoric dragonflies in the subject line.)

Today I am going to finish with the dragonflies as I still have a few more photos, enough for at least one more post.

All for now!

SCRAPOSAURS EXHIBIT AT THE MUSEUM OF THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY

I will be sharing only one sculpture today. A fun piece rather imaginatively called "The Mother of Dragons" and the artist who created it is Dale Lewis. From a distance you can only see the back view and although I knew this was going to be far more interesting up close, I was in awe when I was standing only a few feet away. The ‘scraposaurs’ as they are called, were all amazing to look at, but this one was a definite favorite.

We had to wait for a while as even though the garden was on the quieter side (we had arrived relatively early), there was a small crowd taking it all in. I thought perhaps it would be a while before everyone left but eventually they moved on and we were on our own.

This particular sculpture is in the form of a prehistoric Pterodactyl protecting her chicks. The mother is 11 feet in height with an 18-foot 8-inch wingspan. She is made of stainless-steel scrap. The name was inspired because of her likeness reminding the artist of a dragon protecting her chicks, and fancifully thought that the babies could grow up to be dragons.

If you look closely at the teeth, you will see they are forks.

We arrived on a dull day and thought it might rain, but we lucked out and made it back home before that happened. I can only imagine what this piece looks like when it glistens in the sun.

Dale Lewis’ website with other works of art can be found at this link, and here you can see more.

 One last website and you will see them all being installed at the garden.

We had a fun time but did not get to see every sculpture. The humidity was high and am still not able to walk as far as I would like but pleased to say I did better than I have done. The exhibit closes on October 19th, 2025, and there will be plenty of time to come back and see the rest. 

It takes about an hour-and-a-half to get here depending on traffic and is a beautiful drive. We usually stop somewhere for lunch on the way back. 

I will have a few more to share when I put my next scraposaurs post together, hopefully in a day or so. 

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

BIRD CHATTER POST - IMAGINATION

 

And that's how it goes on a 

Saturday Morning at the Bird Feeder.

Thanks for stopping by and 

have a great weekend.

A SKELETON TAKES THE 'DOG' OUT

I took this photo on our summer road trip in August-September 2013.  You see the most interesting sights while driving on the freeway.  It was busy and nowhere to stop that we could see, but I was satisfied with a fast reaction with my cell phone.  

I know at the time I tried to find information online after we stopped that night, but didn't find anything.  So here we are all these years later and maybe it's because I am a little more computer savvy.  When I decided to share it again I just typed in 'skeleton taking skeletal dinosaur a walk' and several sites popped up, including this site.  It is called Roadside America and I have come across it before in the years since, when looking for info on other roadside attractions.

What I found out was that we were driving by Murdo, South Dakota.  It said you will see the sculpture on the westbound side of I-90, just before exit 170.  Another helpful hint was that there was an easy pull-over before the 1800 Town exit.  Of course, this information comes from years ago and I'm not sure if it is still valid, but if we ever find ourselves out that way again, I will have my camera ready.

The town I found out about dates back to 1880 and according to the site you can best see the man walking his 'dog' at a museum nearby where there are other artifacts.  A short walk into the adjacent field will take us to the sculpture, and you will pass a camel and longhorn sheep.  The camel is there in honor of "Hi Jolly", the US Army Cavalry camel driver who guided the Camel Corps in the deserts of the Southwest.  That's another story and you can go here to read about Hi Jolly.  I never knew there was such a thing as a Camel Corps.  There is a warning not to stop at the side of the freeway as the traffic moves along at 80 miles per hour and even faster.  I remember it being quite busy when we were there.

My thanks to Roadside America website.

There is another website I am thankful for, that tells you about other sights to see on that freeway.  You can see those here by scrolling down and looking below the map on the right, also enlarging the map to see where they are.   

These places are all very kitschy, but fun to see on a long road trip.