“The car is packed.”
“I saw.”
“Did you see what an awesome job I did packing the trunk? I did it in record time too. I even took before and after pictures.”
“So you can post it on your blog and tell everyone how awesome you are?”
“Well, isn’t that the point of having a blog, so that you can brag about how awesome you are?”
It didn’t feel like I took 500 photos this past weekend, but when I got home and uploaded them from my camera, I discovered I had indeed taken very close to 500 photos. They can pretty much be broken down by subject to…. Continue reading
Lost in the shuffle here recently were the shots I took down in Scottsville of the Batteau Festival last week. Scottsville throws out the welcome mat for the Batteaux, where folks set up on the banks to watch the boats come in, there are bands playing all over town and a festive atmosphere abounds. Continue reading
It’s officially summer here at the homestead, and not just because it’s been hot as all get out or because the calendar says so or because I’ve picked the first tomatoes and cucumbers in the garden. Edie’s bff Soph is home from Guatemala for the summer and we had our first (of many) river days with the Smiley clan, which is our official measure of the summer season.
Last week was Edie girl’s first week of summer break, upon which I realized I had failed to put together any semblance of a summer plan, which coincided with the realization that my better half was off to a conference for the week, leaving me to wing it alone, with no plan. So I did what I always do in that situation – I packed up the car and hit the road to Aunt Jenny’s in Baltimore. While most of our time up there was spent visiting with family, we did take advantage of being in the city for some fun adventures. Continue reading
Whenever the opportunity to drive a back road presents itself, I take it. I have a habit of snapping shots like this while driving – it’s far more challenging with my DSLR than with my point and shoot. The p&s I can pop out the open sunroof and be confident I will get a decent shot if I just keep shooting, but even if I put all my settings to automatic with the big fancy camera, I sometimes have to stop what I’m doing and shoot. Thankfully, when you have a habit of photographing roads like this, they lend themselves to you stopping in the middle of nowhere to do just that. I took this on my way to one of my favorite strawberry patches last spring – sometimes just getting there and back is the reason I go. There’s just something soothing about driving down roads like this one.
Suzicate at The Water Witch’s Daughter invited me to play Five Photos, Five Stories. I invite Patience at Fatuous Observations to participate. If you wish to play the rules are that you post a picture a day with a story, fiction or non-fiction, or a poem and nominate one fellow blogger a day to participate.
When Pat’s folks were here in early April, we took a day trip to up Washington, Virginia. Pat’s dad Jack had been doing some genealogy and discovered his four time Great Grandfather (did I get that right?) Calvert had operated a mill there in the late 1700’s. While we’ve driven by Washington numerous times over the years, we’ve never stopped off, as it is off the main highway. We learned it’s only a few minutes off the main highway, much closer than we had thought. The mill was located just outside of the town proper. It was only later, when I was looking through my shots did I realize we’ve driven by this mill countless times on the road just above it, thanks to the green sign in the upper left hand side of this photo. I thought it was just an old barn and definitely did not have a clue as to it once being part of the family. Funny how things like that work out, isn’t it?
Suzicate at The Water Witch’s Daughter invited me to play Five Photos, Five Stories. I invite Melissa at Green Girl in Wisconson to participate. If you wish to play the rules are that you post a picture a day with a story, fiction or non-fiction, or a poem and nominate one fellow blogger a day to participate.
I grew up near Gettysburg and as a result, have a soft spot for Civil War battlefields. Sure, it seemed like there were school field trips there every other year, but it was also a popular destination for our family – tired of the pool all summer long? We’d head over to Gettysburg for the day where we’d find entertainment.
Immediately upon our exit of the Van Gogh, Manet , Matisse Exhibit at VMFA, the fire alarm went off and the entire museum was evacuated. While standing outside in the sculpture garden waiting to get back into the museum on the chilly damp of the early April day, we noticed a sweet, little old chapel on the far end of the grounds. Upon closer inspection, we discovered this chapel was part of the old Confederate Soldier’s Home. Because the next part of our spring break road trip involved Civil War history, I thought this would be a fantastic segway between legs on our journey.
Way back when Edie was in preschool, we began a tradition of going to art museums over spring break. Over the ensuing years, we’ve road tripped to see some pretty fantastic exhibits, including two separate Picasso collections as well as the Tim Burton Retrospective at MOMA. Along the way, we’ve stumbled upon some other great exhibits and collections, as tends to happen when you are messing around in art museums.
Chicken Wire & Paper Flowers 