Five for the End of June

Willy Nilly Friday

1. Thank you, Dragonstar, for spotlighting my picture of kids fishing on Black and White Weekend. For this weekend's black and white photograph, I converted a color shot to grayscale because it has an old-fashioned subject: a woman spinning wool. 

2. This is a very different picture of kids fishing. I took this one around the corner from our house. 

Sharing with Weekend Reflection and Weekend Green

3. Mersad has challenged us to post something favorite that's "Around the house" for My Town Shoot Out. Here's one of my favorite things.

4. Another of my favorite things is our view. In this scene we see some orange daylilies, geese on the lake, and Massanutten Mountain in the distance.

5. Here's a picture that I took because I liked the message on this girl's shirt: "My Smile Keeps Me Out of Trouble." She kindly let me take her picture.

I Have Some Roads to Show You

Belle Grove Road, Middletown, VA

Entrance Gate, Skyline Drive

First Overlook, Skyline Drive

Hydroseeding Skyline Drive

Along Braddock Street, Winchester, VA

Leach Run Parkway, Front Royal, VA

Leach Run Parkway is brand new! It's only one and a third miles long but it greatly shortens the drive from Happy Creek Road to John Marshall Highway.

Stonewall Jackson's Headquarters in Winchester

Randoms from Peggy's Visit

Random-osity

It's been several days since my sister left but I have a few more photos from her visit. Let's get started.

The Good: I took Peggy and Bill on a Tour de Murals in Strasburg. This latest one isn't even finished yet! I'll have to show it to you later after it's done.

The Random: We had dinner on Thursday at a restaurant at Lake Frederick. Here's a view of the lake.

Unfortunately, dinner did not go well for me. In spite of my clearly stating that I was allergic to pepper, my meal was served with lots of pepper on it. A few bites and I starting coughing! I lost my appetite and sent it back. I wound up not eating until I got home, and then I just had Rice Chex.

The Fun: We went to a music festival on Saturday.

Bonus Shots

We saw plenty of treasures at the Virginia Quilt Museum. There was a display of quilts from the World War I years.

This Red Cross Quilt has a quote above it:

“He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.” 

~ St. Francis of Assisi 

A small room at the museum is filled with shelves of old sewing machines. Some look very much like my mother's old Singer.

For more treasures, see Tom's linkup. 

For murals, check out Oakland Daily Photo.

A Brief Visit to Dayton, VA

Dayton is a charming and historic town in the Shenandoah Valley. I drove through there when Peggy and Bill visited so they could see for themselves.

Silver Lake Mill is just outside town in an area of well-kept Mennonite farms. We didn't take time to visit the mill's gift shop this time.

Below are a couple of nearby barns which I'll share with the Barn Collective.

Kids Fishing

Near Aldie, Virginia

Welcome Visitors

My sister and her boyfriend visited us for a few days. Lynn joined us for a few hours on Thursday before leaving to go to a concert in Gainesville.

Yesterday we went to Harrisonburg so Peggy could see the Virginia Quilt Museum. Then we made a stop at the Brethren Mennonite Heritage Center and drove through Dayton before going to dinner.

Our guests always enjoy seeing the geese that visit the lake. 

This afternoon we joined Peggy and Bill at a folk festival near Aldie.

Parking Lot Greeter at the Festival

Beautiful Fabrics

Today at the Quilt Museum in Harrisonburg

Orange You Glad It's Friday?

Near Winchester Medical Center

The Medical Center is a sprawling complex but all I shot was this apple and a sign in the parking lot. I was there on Monday for an eye exam.

After lunch I drove down a side road outside of town and took this picture of a fence.

A New Set of Ducklings!

Barns at Long Branch

Visitors, Water Fun, and Mountain Scenery

Random-osity

The Good: Frank's brother and his wife drove down from Pennsylvania to visit us on Saturday and left this morning.

The Random and Fun: Yesterday they had a chance to enjoy our pool. Frank promptly organized a version of keep-away,

In case you spotted the scenery behind the pool, here's a better look. This view is the main reason we bought the house!

Bonus Fun: Allison and Dave showed up Sunday afternoon to take us all out for a Father's Day meal. We had a nice dinner at Outback Steakhouse. Allison also brought a gift for her dad: a painting she created at a paint party!

Fathers Day 2017

I haven't posted this photo in 11 years so I can reuse it now without boring you. This is my dad's high school graduation picture from 1935. It doesn't look like the way I remember him except for the eyes and the high forehead.

He was intelligent, as the picture suggests. Unfortunately he later suffered from a bipolar condition that caused him to retire early, so some of his brilliance went unused. But my mom stuck with him and they both lived into their 80's.

Today is also Sunday so here's a church for the InSpired Sunday linkup.

Bethany UMC, Purcellville, VA

Another Picture from Leslie Avenue

We lived in Delray for over a decade. Here's Marie as a student in the yard of our townhouse. I believe she was heading off for college at Antioch in Ohio.

I was taking a photography course at NVCC. I printed this photo from a negative in the school darkroom and dodged (lightened) the face a little more than I intended, but that's not so noticeable in this scanned version. Back then we didn't have digital images or Photoshop so alterations to a photo were done under the enlarger.