Mystery Abounds

This is an old house in the city of Staunton, Virginia. There are quite a few mysteries about it. Also things that I like.

Hmmm, half horse, half fish. Maybe a Merhorse?

I do love all the different big porches! There is even one over the garage.

These are the rafters under one of the porch roofs.

And they have a watch owl up on the turret!

There was also a watch cat, who was trying his best to protect the property.

Wait! I'm sure I saw someone watching us from that window, do you see them? Perhaps we have overstayed our welcome, we should leave. Quickly.

I think in a lot of cases, ghosts are history demanding to be remembered.

~Jeff Belanger

Small Town Mural

This mural is on the side of a pharmacy in the small nearby town of Crozet. Fifth grade students studied the history of their town, and with the help of a local artist they traced and painted this. It shows the history of their town and surrounding area. It took a year

“Growing up in a small town was great because you knew everybody, and it was horrible because everybody knew you — like having a town full of parents.”

 ~John Atkins

Fabulous Fakes

We saw these at a Botanical Garden gift shop. Each one is not what it seems. This ladybug is a bar of soap.

The little mouse is a fake. I love it, but whatever would I have done with it if I bought it?

And these are not real chocolate dipped strawberries. Some kind of resin or plastic probably.

I may not be perfect, but at least I am not a fake.

Violets

Little wild violets have been growing everywhere. Big groups of them in people's yards and grassy fields. They are so sweet!

“Look at us, said the violets blooming at her feet, all last winter we slept in the seeming death but at the right time God awakened us, and here we are to comfort you.”

 ~Edward Payson Rod

A Yellow Rump

Earlier this month, I had my first sighting of a Yellow Rumped Warbler! A cute little guy for sure! I never could get a picture of him from the front.

“And from Humming-Bird to Eagle, the daily existence of every bird is a remote and bewitching mystery.”

 ~Thomas Wentworth Higginson

The Answer!

I found out what the green porch lights mean, thanks to several of YOU guys! And my BFF Blog friend Sandra, the Mad Snapper, who researched it. Here is the answer:


“Green Light a Vet” is a campaign sponsored by Walmart and other military support organizations to raise awareness for veterans, service members and their families. The idea is to display a green light on a porch or in a window that faces the street.

 And now we know!!

In war, there are no unwounded soldiers.

  ~José Narosky

The Green Lights

This house is a few blocks away. It has had these green lights out front for years, and they are always on, even in the day! Wish I knew why.

“It’s not easy being green.”

River Birch

I love it when I come across River Birch. I find them fascinating to look at, with their large strips of bark peeling off like paper. Here is the latest I saw.

Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky,
We fell them down and turn them into paper,
That we may record our emptiness.
~Khalil Gibran

Thursday Thrill

This evening on the hill, in order.

The sky is the part of creation in which nature has done for the sake of pleasing man.

 ~John Ruskin

The Spinners

It's that windy time of year again, and most of the Wind Spinners are out on view. They are spinning away in front yards and garden centers. These were in the area of just a few blocks. Which is your favorite? Do you have, or want, one?

“Faeries, come take me out of this dull world,
For I would ride with you upon the wind,
Run on the top of the disheveled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame.”

~William Butler Yeats, "The Land of Heart's Desire"

Yellow Legs

Driving by a local pond today, we spotted a new bird to us! It was a Lesser Yellowlegs, a lovely shore bird. See how yellow it's legs are? And a handsome long beak as well. The dark blurry lines are because I was shooting through a wire fence.

Alongside him was what I suppose to be a mate!

“Keep calm, and pretend you’re on the beach.”