NOT AGAIN! ????

 I was merrily answering comments last night and got several done when all of a sudden, I got an error message. A little different this time. It did allow me to push the publish button, but the error message popped up saying my message could not be published. I am hoping by tomorrow that too will have been temporary and will try again. Has anyone else had a problem tonight? It happened at around 11.00 p.m.

The surprise I had the night before was this handsome fellow on our patio door above my head. I took my nightly look out the back window before going upstairs, and it was staring at me right in the face. I don't know who was more startled, yes probably the katydid. I couldn't see it properly and used the light on my phone, and then took a photo also with my phone. I made several attempts and all but this one were blurry. The ID online said it was a Katydid, also known as a Bush Cricket? It did say that this might have been after its first or last molt, can't remember which now. You can read about them at this link if interested. If any of you know for sure, let me know would you please? I had fun playing with one of the apps and came up with this.

A while ago I mentioned that several of the old homes that had been around for years, a mile so down the road, were finally torn down. This is the first house that has been built. I was amazed at how fast. We kept passing by and they looked like they were hollowing out the ground for a basement as there was this big hole. That seemed to take forever. A few days later this appeared. I will try and remember to take a photo once it’s finished. The place before was less than a quarter its size. I miss the old house.

This building is a church we pass by. When we moved here over 30 plus years ago it used to be a farm property where people kept their horses. I loved passing by and counting them. 

It wasn't such a wide road back then and we could slow down and sometimes stop to take photos. The church went up I want to say about 10 years ago. I still miss seeing the horses. Here's a closer look of the church.

I had a good time taking photos of clouds. The skies were full of them that day. It was hot but hardly any humidity, which is always a plus.

“Bows and flows of angel hair, and ice-cream castles in the air.” 

Joni Mitchell, Both Sides Now

I captured a plane on its way into Washington-Dulles Airport. I wish I had remembered to look at my airplane app to see where it departed from.

“I am the daughter of Earth and Water, and the nursling of the Sky.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Cloud

The truck was huge and parked on the side of the road. There are town homes across the street, and this strip runs several hundred yards where people from those homes can park overnight. Parking spaces are at a bare minimum where they live, and the powers that be let them park there, for the time being anyway. This was still early so no one had made it home yet from work. Usually they are parked bumper to bumper.

It was a great day to sky watch. 

Thanks for looking and enjoy your day. 

MORE JIGSAW PUZZLES FROM MY IPAD

Well, I see I had one more post that I had scheduled ahead of time, so this really will be my last post for a while. All I can say is, enjoy! 

Always fun to do, some more challenging than others.

 No rhyme nor reason why I choose one. Wherever the fancy takes me that day.I have been doing these over the past year. I put them in a folder and forget about them. There are probably way too many to include in one post, but I don't want any more delays in sharing them.

All of them have the puzzle lines until the last piece is added, and then they melt away into the picture you see here.

I may even have shared them before as I'm getting a bit of deja vu here. Hopefully not!

All for now, until I share the next folder I forget about.

Thanks for taking a look, have a great day and see you in a week or so. I will be answering comments when I get back.

FIRST TRIP TO GREEN SPRINGS...

 A couple of days ago, on the 28th, Gregg and I went to Green Spring Gardens. The weather was just too good to waste. It was in the low 50's and warm enough to get outside without a coat.  

The top left of the collage you can see a sign for Annandale Village. Annandale is not where the garden is but an area we pass through on our way home. I had never seen, or maybe more appropriate to say, never noticed the sign before. The design of the cardinal in the tree made me take note. We passed several of them. Gregg reminded me that we had taken a different route home this time.

That's me in the collage. You may notice that my cell phone is on a lanyard that I keep permanently wrapped around my wrist. Gregg bought it for me as I once almost lost my phone out the window while taking pictures, and it was almost buffeted out of my hands. I am always taking photos out the passenger side window. The lanyard is always attached to my phone. It's been saved a few times as I have also dropped it while walking. It gives me an awful start as if it hit the pavement, well I don't like to think about it. But that good old lanyard saved the day yet again.

The house that I love always greets us as we walk up one of the paths from the parking lot. The berries are still keeping the birds happy, and part of the Moon Gate can be seen behind me. 

I didn't get very far as my knee is just not cooperating. We made our way back to the car, disappointed I could go no further even with my cane. I made it 300 yards along the pathway and could not go any further as knee started to give way. The important thing is I made a start and hopefully each time we come here, I will be able to walk a little further. 

My goal is still to get back to Huntley Meadows in the Spring, or even Meadowlark Gardens. Huntley Meadows is a long, long walk to get to the marshy area where all the bird life is, and Meadowlark has a very big hill to walk up and down.  

However, baby steps and I am eager to go for another walk. We will definitely wait for another nice day like this one, after all the bitterly cold days we have had. The sun was shining and it felt wonderful, a real tonic.  

Have a great day everyone and 

thank you for stopping by. 

ODDS AND BODS

Pretty art.

This sounds interesting, if nothing else it sounds soothing.

Or this for a good night’s sleep?

How about this? On the rare occasion we used to have an Auntie Anne’s Pretzel at our local mall. The place closed years ago.

Or this.

Another recipe of sorts but not for food. For when you might have food stains on your clothes. I haven’t tried it. I haven’t tried any of these, so you decide if you want to. 

The following is an addition as I thought to add this stain remover I buy from Wegmans. I can't remember the price, but it's very good for removing stains, even ones forgotten about. I spray it on the stain, rub it in, wait for a few minutes and put it through the wash. I don't know if I even have to wait. 9 times out of 10 the stain has been removed, even the blueberry ones forgotten about. It impresses me every time.

Apparently we are all walking miracles, so here we go again, strutting. 

Are you a…and yes I am a …

Words are fun!

I can’t say I have been that rebellious but I have been known to dig my heals in at times when I feel it is important.

But often enough I am with Keanu Reeves on this one.

Last one, a beautiful owl picture. 

I hope you have enjoyed them and feel free to let me know if you like them, or not.  These are from Pinterest.

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

HAPPY SUNDAY EVERYONE!

These photos were taken on July 16th, in the garden of the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, link here. As it turned out, it was a very short trip due to the heatwave we were having. I think it was actually hotter on this day than the time before when we got it into our heads to take a trip out. We got a clue when the very kind staff from whom we purchased our tickets, kept saying to be very careful outside, to stay hydrated and pointed on the map where we could find air-conditioned buildings and buy bottled water. I have an inkling that some visitors had already had a problem and they were being extra cautious. And then they saw the two of us walk in, and there was that look of concern, especially after we told them we were heading to see the glass exhibit at the garden. 

As it turned out we were here for only 30 minutes if that, and we gave up. Even the shady areas were just too hot. The glass exhibit would have to wait.  It wasn't a total wash-out as we always have fun in the journey. The exhibit is here until October 13th and we will be back on a much cooler day. 

When we saw the lady we purchased our tickets from on our way out, she had such a sympathetic look on her face. She smiled and when we told her the heat and taken us by surprise and we were leaving, she said we were very wise. I thought there was a look of relief on her face, but perhaps I am projecting. We originally thought we would be okay as we had once again brought with us a backpack with lots of water and hats for the shade, but even they were not enough protection. 

It seemed as though the head above us looked down and shouted, "Daft bats!"

As we left I noticed a security guard making his rounds. I had never noticed anyone before in the garden, there perhaps but never noticed until today. It occurred to me that he may have been making sure there were no visitors needing help. He smiled at us and said hello, and then his last stop before leaving was to check on one of the staff members at the gate, to make sure she was okay. I heard her say she was fine, that the air-conditioner in her small kiosk was working well.

We only had the energy to see three of the glass sculptures, and I will share them in the next couple of days or so. Thankfully I think the heatwave has broken. It rained today (7-20-24). Happy farmers, happy gardens and a blessed breeze cooling things down.

Thanks for stopping by and 

I hope your Sunday is a great one.

FLOWERS AT THE GARDEN

 

In my last post I left you with my first photo above. I visited the garden looking for tulips and once again I wasn't disappointed. We hadn't left the parking lot yet. There is a flower bed that stretches the whole length where we leave our cars, and you can look through to the garden beyond. 

I saw many different varieties, but my app only said that they were 'garden tulips'. I tried to ID them without success, but I am happy to show you these.  Their names would have been nice so that I could put them on my list for planting for next season, but I was content to just look at each one. They were all beautiful! As you can see, this is a tulip post today. 

Many had opened quite a bit, a few with their petals flopping over, but they were exquisite!

The path we take, the house is the first thing that greets us and as we get closer, we can see their flower bed is full of them.

If you have been following me to the garden for a while, you'll know I more often than not take photos of this house.  Probably because I love the place!

Did you know that tulips originated in Turkey?

They were first cultivated as early as 1000 AD.

The word 'tulip' comes from an old Turkish word for turban, which looks very similar to the flower.

In the 1600s, the popularity of tulips went global.

At one point, the market for tulips was so intense, the flower was worth more than diamonds.

Today the tulip is one of the world's most recognized flowers.

We have over 150 species of tulips on our planet.

Of those species, there are 3000 varieties of tulips. Maybe that's why all I got on my app was 'garden tulip!'

There will be more of them next time, along with other flowers.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your week has been a great one. Enjoy your weekend!