Fall Color!

The fall in Kentucky was slow…. Starting. One of the maples didn’t do much in the way of turning before dropping leaves, but the other…had some very nice reds and yellows, which are nearly all gone now. I did manage a few minutes at the little local lake… and thought I’d share.

Color! Just 2 red and yellow.

Color… across the pond, really a small pond.

A bunch of trees…. With some color

Almost a 2 color, brown and yellow and a bit of green.

Many trees are bare, and those that aren’t will be soon, as the wind patterns start to change and the wind begins blowing from the north, the oaks will finally let go of their dried brown leaves.

And Linzi! She is almost 6 now.

Enjoy these final crisp breezy days…. More later, Beth

Light Refraction

I stayed up late last night, did you? There was a total eclipse of the moon. Ordinarily I wouldn’t stay up to watch it, I mean once you’ve watched the Earth block the moon from the sun and cast a shadow…. what is different from time to time? What made this one different, was three things; the moon was nearly full, was at its closest point to Earth and due to the position and light refraction it was a Blood moon, so called because of the red/orange hue the moon takes on during the eclipse.

I almost didn’t prepare for it, as we had clouds all day…. But just before the first picture… the clouds started to clear out…. I missed the moonrise due to the clouds… so no full shot… of the plain old yellow moon and I didn’t stay up long enough to get a shot of the plain old moon after either.

While in South Africa, we had a Blood moon eclipse and I tried to get some decent pictures, but due to my novice experience and the lighting (safety lighting that only went off in power outages) I didn’t get such great pictures. Not that what I have posted here will win any prizes…. But these are better than the ones I took in 2011.

The start

about halfway

and (nearly) done.

If you missed it, the next one will be in 20 years, so plan accordingly if you want to see one yourself.

Speaking of light refraction. It is spider season these days and most mornings… there are some huge webs strung up in the yard…. As I was preparing to leave one morning the light on one of the webs was beautiful. Showing a web…. in a different light… anyway, I did not have time to find a perfect web strung up in a perfect setting…. Or even harder… the perfect web in the perfect light…. The spiders are hiding… so nothing to fear in the pictures below.

And lastly, I think the trees are leaning a little toward fall. This is the first leaf I found with color on the ground in the yard, a couple of weeks ago. A maple… of course.

More Later! 

Beth

Springtime in Virginia

As the title suggests there are signs of SPRING everywhere in Virginia. Of course … the blooming of the forsythia is the first true bloom that the winter weather is done. I wish I had gone out with the camera to captures some of the yellow bushes dotting farm and field in all of its wild splendor. But I was at home…making ready the house for Sale. Its done. The house has been on the market and is already-

Off the market. We are under contract and if all goes well … our stuff will be on a truck heading some where soon. The where is the big question. Essentially we are homeless…

I have to say that the online pictures make the house look like a magazine layout! But I have put away everything that says us, had the interior repainted and the dogs confined to the kitchen and family room. I could get used to living in neatness, if I didn’t have to do all the neatening!

 

Because I have had to be out of the house a few days… I took the camera out for some exercise.

To start a SPRING sunrise. Not the clearest because I took it through the window. Reminds me of some of the sunrises I saw in Nebraska!

The next 3 are tiny small flowers that grow under the trees. The flowers are only half of an inch, and the stalks maybe 4 inches tall. So very small and 2 different varieties.

Forkleaf Toothwort

Carolina Spring Beauty

and here you can see a bit of the Spring Beauty color

Sometimes I am amazed by what I see, that I never saw before. Like the maple seeds above, right after the bloom…  and just before the leaves.

I found these to 2 ladies out for a spring stroll. I never realized before how iridescent the feathers were… until one was in the shade and the other in the sun.

And of course a wild violet. I found a large patch near a creek yesterday. FYI, in some places this creek would have been a river!

An old barn with red roofed cupolas.

So that is Virginia spring and what I’ve been up to in a nutshell. Not much sewing.

More Later-Beth

 

 

A little Drive

I took a drive yesterday and one about a week ago…. just to see some of the color. Yesterday was the last day of really nice warm weather… actually bordering on HOT! In the low 80’s with a little humidity too.

So I’m going to share a couple of pictures today and maybe a few more in a few days. I don’t have much to share in the way of quilts, but there will be one at the end.

A stone fence along a country road.

I don’t know what kind of tree this is- but I love the colors!!! and when the breeze came by it shimmered in the colors of fall.

I caught this guy sitting on the deck rail. A bunch of his friends were hanging out on the deck. I don’t think I have ever seen a sparrow flatten out and sit so long like this. Was he warming up in the sun? I only saw one other doing this on the neighbors deck rail, and she did for a very short time. Not only that, he was disturbed once… stood up and then settled back down.

And lastly a baby quilt. It’s been sent off and just in the nick of time. Grandson #2 made his debut last Friday. He is healthy and his parents are happy!

More Later!

B!

The Last of Summer Sun?

Seasons’ change we are looking very closely at fall here in Northern Virginia. One day it was a hot summer day and the next it was cool and breezy… although the sun was shining.

I took the camera with me for a short drive one day…  and found these. They are blooming all over… along the road, in the middle of fields, along fence and tree lines every where!

Coreopsis major - Greater Tickseed, Whorled Leaf Coreopsis, Forest Tickseed.

 

If I lived where I could see these from my windows I’m not sure I could get anything done inside the house! Such a happy riot of yellow and green!

I like that there are 2 butterflies visible… both are sulphurs (a white and a yellow). Technically a bad photograph because the horizon is skewed, but either the horizon or the plant would have to be tilted….

This was across the road…there is Buttercup, (I think), Queen Anns Lace and a small white daisy. On the left is another butterfly (a sulphur… which one I don’t know) , and just behind it, in the back ground you can see some small blurry blue dots of flowers and those are chicory.

A few miles down the road the maples are beginning to show some color. In a few weeks the color in the Shenandoah Mountains should be spectacular!!! So I am thinking these might be the last of the summer flowers.

 

Nature

It is nearly the summer solstice, which means the longest day of the year, and we slip ever so slowly toward fall. It is sometimes difficult for me to figure out the months of a season… When I was young… Fall started when school started, winter was some where between spring and fall, (I would associate it with snow and cold, but I grew up in California, where winter was signaled by a few frosts). Spring came around Easter… and summer started when school let out. If we were to follow the solstice or equinox dates, then we will have just finished spring and summer will start now…with fall actually starting well after the leaves are off the trees, and winter begins, when we are looking for signs that spring is certainly close…

Mostly winged creatures. I have been unable to identify the first 2 butterflies… I don’t recall what the under sides looks like so that makes finding distinguishable marks more difficult.

This little guy… is a Common Blue, also known as a Summer Azure. When the wings are open, the top side is a beautiful blue gray color.

and a field of wild daisies.

More later-Beth

Whats Up?

Has it really been a more than a month since I last posted? Just goes to show I really live a rather boring life…

The weather has finally turned to more summer than spring… And so far the weather has been spectacular!!! Not too hot and humid, but I’m sure those days are coming! I have not been outside with a camera in several months… I am going to have to fix that soon!

The kids and DGS packed up and moved to a warmer climate in May. They did not like the long cold and very brutal winter here.  We hope they like Texas better, and so far I think they do… This was taken the day before they left- DGS turned 3 earlier in the month.

I have been working on a quilt, but I am not ready to reveal the whole thing. But here is a picture to tease… you.

I have sent it to the Longarmer for quilting. I just didn’t want wrestle it through the sewing machine to quilt it myself.

I have had a house guest… also quilty! She was in the area for another obligation and came early and stayed a bit late to visit.  Hi Kelly.

She also brought gifts!!! Always nice.

The other bit of time consumption and keeping me close to home, has been Axel the Monster Dog. He has once again spent too much time and money at the vet. This time for a hematoma (similar to a blood blister) on his left ear. We drained it twice and each time it came back so finally a surgical fix. He had the stitches out on a Monday and by Thursday was back because it didn’t stick! So, it was drained again and more surgery again next week.  He will have some blood tests done too, as we think he has an underlying disease that is causing the ear (and him), to not heal as well as is expected. The poor guy has been living in a cone with one ear taped down, for nearly 8 weeks and he has a month more time in it after the surgery. In the meantime he acquired and ear infection… the medication for that -ear drops- is $65 for a 15 ml bottle, (1 Tablespoon!!!).

Doesn’t he just look so sad?

I am busy working on some thread painting… objects. They are fun… I had forgotten how much dimension thread can add; to commercial fabrics!!!  Here are a couple of pictures… Nothing too revealing, since they are not yet done…

 

The flower basket is more traditional and the elephant… will have much in the way of embellishment and sparkle. I will show and share -more later!

Beth

I Think it’s HERE!

What is here? Why Spring of course. A bit late… but who cares?

A Cardinal

Vinca

Snowdrops- I suppose these are the true harbingers…but the cardinal was so red against the green…

A Daffodil… I’ve not ever seen one grow straight up, there were several in this naturalized bed.

An old old truck that I found while out looking for blooms.

Pastoral… country setting

Tree blooms, so small that the generally go unnoticed, but the pollen is noticed by many!!!

More Later-Beth

Local Views

I recently visited the little ‘burg’ of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. It sits between 2 rivers…. The Shenandoah and the Potomac. The rivers come together and flow on East toward the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Oceans as the Potomac.

Lots of American history comes together here or maybe comes apart is a more apt term. It is where the North and the South Divided during the Civil War. This was not our original destination, but an accident closed the road to Frederick MD, so we decided to drive to Harpers Ferry… instead. We drove around the upper part of the village, and then took a drive through the Harpers Ferry National Park…. We were just in time to take a walking tour of a local Farm and heard a bit of the history from a Park Guide. I enjoyed hearing some of the history… and the start of the war with the abolitionist John Brown and his attempt to capture the Armory and Gun Factory in Harpers Ferry, of the area and the names involved, but when he started to describe the battles and who was where, I lost interest. If you are interested in knowing more….. see HERE or Here or here

I am always more interested in how they lived in those days… like how the cannons were hefted by men up the rocky hillsides from the train tracks below- about a 1,000 feet…. 10,000 pound cannons hauled up by 100 or more men in late June!!! They tried mules, but it was too hard on them!!! Can you imagine… that hard labor and the less than healthy  food that was available then? Not to mention the heat and humidity, that is always present at this time of year….

So they hauled a cannon like this up a wall of rocks and trees like this…

A cannon row:

So, when our guide started talking about General Lee and the other Generals on either side… I wandered off with the camera and took some nature shots.

This butterfly is smaller than a Quarter. When it’s wings are folded it is smaller than a dime!!! It is an Eastern Tailed Blue Hairstreak.

Hiding in the shade I found a Moth resting.

Also spotted was the remains of a flower. I don’t know what flower, but whatever it was I don’t think it is nearly as interesting as it’s seed head….

On our way into one of the restored original buildings in Harpers Ferry, I saw this door latch. It has been there a long while…. and used much, as we can see by the wearing on the metal. Isn’t a beautiful piece of workmanship?