Sunshine while exploring a Revolutionary War fort on Labor Day creates opportunities for shadows.
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Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge: Shadows
Tag Archives: fun stuff
WordPress Photo Challenge: Structure
Fort Washington, Maryland
Below Fort Washington in Maryland you can see the structure supporting the buildings above.
Mountains and a wedding
Yesterday afternoon we attended the wedding of friends of ours – a sweet wedding in a beautiful backyard filled with friends and family. It was a good day. And the sun shining over the mountains as we left the party made us smile too.
Beautiful clouds on a beautiful day for a wedding.
Today, the weather guy said we’d have more of the same sunny weather so we drove a portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway, looking for those beautiful blue ridges undulating off into the distance. We started out hopeful. But the higher we got the closer we were to the low hanging clouds.
The valley filled with clouds.
Until we were swallowed up entirely.
The cloud surrounds us.
The overlooks no longer overlooked anything.
What’s out there?
We drove very very slowly, but there was nowhere to go but on. Sometimes, depending on our elevation we’d get lucky and be able to see a mountain far off in the distance.
See Table Rock Mountain way over there?
The sun worked hard to burn away the mist, and eventually we started to see things. Like this orchard down below…
Apples are in season here now.
…and the beginnings of layering mountains showing their true colors.
And that’s why I love them…
We stopped to hike along some trails to a set of waterfalls. This was definitely worth the walk, the climbing up root covered hills…
Twin waterfalls! Aren’t they cute?
and flights of stairs to get higher…
When we were looking at the twin waterfalls we were standing near the top of this bigger fall!
…and higher in order to see some of the wonders that nature has hidden way back in the mountains.
Can you see the people?
We had a great time hiking through the woods, all the way to the very top overlook.
What a great day for a hike!
By the time we got back to the car and out on the Parkway again the sun was making those mountains glow. Just about everywhere we looked was a beautiful view.
I think I should build my house right here.
It was simply amazing.
Abstract art, but real life.
It was like this around every bend in the road. And there are a lot of bends on the Blue Ridge Parkway!
And now the clouds are pretty accents instead of hazardous fog.
Even though it was a very long drive, I didn’t want it to end.
Goldenrod signifies summer’s end, and the end of our mountain adventure. For now.
Sadly we have to move on to the next thing on our agenda.
But wait!
You say you wanted to know more about the wedding? Well, here’s the happy couple, very much in love. And of course they made us all cry when they shared their personal vows with each other. Plus they had really good food at the party after!
Here’s to many happy years together!
Congratulations Jackie and John!!
The cake was yummy too!
The gardens at Biltmore
When you visit Biltmore in Ashville NC, don’t forget to budget a lot of time to wander the gardens. They begin just down the hill from the house.
Make sure to visit the gardens down here!
There’s the original greenhouse structure that’s just chuck full of beautiful things. Inside it feels like you’re on a tropical island, or in a rain forest.
Make sure you venture inside here!
Here’s just a glimpse of the wonders you’ll find:
And the gardens surrounding the greenhouse were stunning on the late summer day we visited. Blocks of color covered the grounds. It was so beautiful it was hard to know where to look first. Here’s some of it:
And don’t forget the three water gardens. Just exquisite and in the end perhaps my favorite:
I hope you all get to visit Biltmore sometime. I think the gardens would probably be pretty just about any time of year. There’s an azalea garden that would be stunning in the spring, and a huge rose garden that was past it’s prime when we were there, but would have been something a couple of weeks ago. And there’s always the mountains to marvel at, any time of year, but especially in the Fall when the leaves are turning.
So think about a trip to North Carolina and a stop at the Biltmore Estate. I don’t think you’ll leave disappointed.
Biltmore revisited
Many years ago, before we were married, my husband and I visited Biltmore in Asheville North Carolina. Today, 27 years later, we stopped by again.
Have you ever been? If not, visit their website, or if you’d rather, I’ll take you on a short (not covering nearly everything you understand) tour. I personally love the long drive back to the big house.
The long and winding drive.
It inspired me years ago, to dream about building a house in the middle of a hundred acres, just so that I could have a lovely long drive home through the trees similar to this one up to the Biltmore mansion.
The first glimpse of the house itself always makes me gasp, and then smile. It’s just so magnificent! Not my style, by any means, but it’s a beautiful structure. Completed in 1895, it was a summer home for George W. Vanderbilt and his family. With thirty-three guest rooms, it was a summer getaway for family friends too.
You can view it after climbing a switchback to an elevated stone wall…
Behind these walls are many steps.
…or climb way up a hill for higher vantage point.
See the mountains behind the house?
But once you get up close you notice all the amazing detail. Like the carvings and statues as seen on the front of the house, lining the grand staircase.
This is not builder grade.
Even the windows are elaborate.
Can’t you just imagine enjoying the view from these?
Inside it’s even more intricate, with a glass enclosed winter garden…
Glass ceiling with views of the tower.
…and an opulent dining hall.
What would I wear to a dinner party here?
Each room has ceilings that are different and extravagant…
Just one ceiling, and not even the most ornate.
…and the furniture is ornate too.
Beautiful embroidery.
But my favorite place in the whole mansion is the back veranda…
Such a peaceful beautiful spot.
..where the view of the distant mountains is stunning. I could sit out there all day, and I’m sure there were people a hundred years ago that did just that.
Imagine breakfast with this view every day.
Inside, the library was amazing, thousands of books that George Vanderbilt handpicked, covering all sorts of topics. The bedrooms were beautiful too, complete with their own bathrooms long before en suites were normal.
A warm, cozy place to spend a few hours reading.
And in the basement was a giant party room, painted by members of a party in 1920…
Just a tiny part of the giant mural painted by party guests.
…a bowling alley…
Fun on a rainy evening.
…and a 70,000 gallon pool with water pumped in from a mountain stream.
Anybody for a dip? Just have to fill the pool!
Biltmore, it’s an amazing, almost magical place, and that’s just the house.
A single family home.
Wait until you see the greenhouse and the gardens!
“I want your smile”
I think this morning, the Sunday morning after Charlottesville, we could all use a smile. Not to trivialize what happened there, what is happening in smaller and less splashy incidents all over our country, but to give our broken hearts a tiny bit of relief.
The sun always rises.
There’s this guy named Trent who writes a blog and weekly asks us to tell him what made us smile during the previous week. I haven’t followed him long, or even regularly, but I happened to read him this morning and knew that I wanted to share the things that made me smile this week.
I wasn’t on an adventure, not camping with Katie-girl, or off exploring by myself. I spent this week at home with the camera, just shooting regular stuff — the things we all see but rarely stop to really look at. Like things in my garden, during this end of summer time when the gardens always look their best even though they’re becoming a bit frayed around the edges.
A pop of color.
And it rained a lot this week, as happens on late summer afternoons. Gushing downpours that wash away the humidity for a bit.
It’s a monsoon!
I stood on my front porch and shot the rain hitting the driveway. Sometimes it seemed as though the drops were creating tiny little fireworks, as if they were celebrating summer.
Celabrate!
After the rain I took Katie-girl to her park. The temperature had dipped down into the high 60s (15.5c) cool enough for a sheltie to enjoy a summer walk. We were surprised mid-walk by another thunder storm.
The light before the storm.
The wind blew and the rain drove down in sheets. We got wet, though the camera was safe inside my pack. Katie and I both smiled.
And of course I’m totally smiling over the fact the orioles are still visiting my feeder. Sometimes they get confused as to which feeder, but they’re still visiting.
Wrong cafeteria, girl!
I expect them to leave for the season any time now. I’ll miss them all. This morning there were two males and at least four females all vying for the feeder. I think that signals that they’re getting ready to head out for their winter home.
Gotta get my share before all those girls come back!
And last night I went out into the backyard after midnight to look for meteorites. Here in Michigan it’s supposed to be the best time to see them, and I did see one which was amazing. And no, that’s not the it, that’s a plane. The meteorite was much much brighter. Still I thought this was a cool shot.
All kinds of light last night.
Our backyard is too full of light, mostly from the neighbors huge yellow light over his garage, to really get great pictures of the night sky, but I had fun messing around with the camera anyway.
Starry starry night…
So these are some of the things that made me smile this week. What about you? What did you smile about? Care to share? Just link to Trent’s blog, we all need another smile!
She always makes me smile!
Happy Birthday
I wasn’t going to post about your birthday this year. After all it’s a private thing between you and our family; the whole world doesn’t need to know, or even care, that you’d be 89 today.
Eighty-nine. That seems like a very large number, and I’m having trouble imagining you there. Sometimes when I’m out I see little old ladies with their permed hair, stooped over, walking with a cane and I wonder if you would look like that.
But I don’t think so. You never did like your hair permed.
I think maybe you’d rest more, sit in your chair and read more, maybe cook less, maybe let us do more when we visited. Maybe. I think you’d probably not be traveling as much as you once did, but you’d still enjoy reading about new places, you’d still enjoy a good concert, a good piece of art. You’d still enjoy people’s visits, conversations, hugs.
I wish I could bake you a cake, plant candles on the top, watch you blow them out and laugh. Or watch you eat fresh corn on the cob with butter running down your chin as you grinned with the sheer joy of our summer tradition.
You’d think with all the technical advances I’d be able to text you today, send birthday wishes, cyber hugs. Little smiley faces all in a row.
But I can’t, so this will have to do. Happy Birthday Mom. Tonight, if the skies are clear, I’ll be watching for meteorites and thinking about you just like every year. Send a few my way, OK?
Love, from all your kids, who miss you every single day.
Camping with a friend
HI! Come on and let me show you the way!
Katie is sleeping, still, after two days at home. I’d let her tell the story, but she’s snoring and you know what happens when you wake a sleeping dog. Nothing good.
So let me fill you in on our latest camping adventure. We had company this time, Karen and her cocker spaniel Deuce spent the weekend with us at a state park. Deuce had never camped before so we were all curious how he’d feel about the whole experience.
Katie and Deuce the first day.
Turns out he’s a natural.
NOW WAIT JUST ONE MINUTE MAMA! Katie here! What are you doing? This is my story to tell! I can’t believe you’re doing this while I was laying right next to you, upside down and snoring! You are one sneaky mama!
So anyway…I, Princess Katie, wasn’t sure I wanted to share mama with anyone else so I was skeptical of the whole ‘camping with a friend’ concept. But I figured the only way it was going to work out was if I showed Deuce the ropes. Which mainly revolve around sleeping in the dirt and begging for good treats and going for long walks in the woods.
He caught on right away.
At the end of a long day.
Now, before the love of my life, Reilly Cowspot Dog, gets upset that I had a boy with me for an entire weekend, let me assure you that we had separate tents. Mama and I stayed in our tent and Deuce and his mama had their own. It worked out great.
The blue tent is mine, you can have the red one.
And each day we went on long long walks in the nice cool, green woods. Mama and her friend were very careful to make sure I got lots and rest breaks and drinks of water whenever I asked. Which to be honest was frequently. I wasn’t always thirsty, you know. Mostly I liked to make them stop and look at me.
Taking a break.
But the woods sure was pretty! At the end of this blog I’ll have mama put in a slide show of us exploring. There were so many beautiful places!
Deuce and I got along pretty good. In the beginning we didn’t want to sit too close to each other, but by the end of the weekend we were fine sitting next to each other. We figured it was easier just to do what the moms asked. The sooner they got their stupid pictures the sooner we got our treats. Deuce let me in on that concept, and he’s definitely right.
Isn’t this an amazing spot?
One time we were sitting next to each other and they took their pictures, and then Deuce’s mom said “OK!” and Deuce took off to run to her. Since it wasn’t my mama saying anything I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to move…but I didn’t like that Deuce left without me!
Hey! Wait up!
Mama laughed and said “OK sweetie, you can come too.” I was relieved. I didn’t want to be left behind when there were treats!
Mama took a lot of pictures (so what else is new, right?) and she was messing with her settings in the deep dark woods. A lot of them ended up blurry because Deuce and I just didn’t want to sit still and the light was so low. But this one was blurry because she totally messed up, nothing to do with us at all! She thinks it’s cool though, so humor her, OK?
Look at us! Moving faster than the speed of light!
As long as we got treats we didn’t care if the pictures came out or not.
We sure had a lot of fun! By Sunday afternoon we were dirty and exhausted, true signs of a successful adventure! We were both sorry to see the tent come down, but we think we’ll probably get to go camping together again next summer.
We’re not letting you guys pack up this tent!
Here’s a few more images of us having a grand time in the woods, I hope you enjoy the slide show!
And really, if you’re a doggie out there reading my blog, ask your folks to take you camping! It’s an amazing experience and one you don’t want to miss!
See you guys later,
Katie, camping tour guide extraordinaire.
Me and my tent.
WordPress Photo Challenge: Textures
I loved the silky textures of the jay’s feather caught in the prickly branch of a bayberry bush.
This is such an interesting challenge – texture is one of the things most photographers notice, and there are so many options to showcase here.
Want to see more? Just go to the link above, or, if you’re time challenged, here are a few of my favorites. So far.
Change Is Hard 