Daily Photo ~ 5-31-11

Don’t Mess with Me!


“A wealthy landowner cannot cultivate and improve his farm without spreading comfort and well-being around him. Rich and abundant crops, a numerous population and a prosperous countryside are the rewards of his efforts.”
~Antoine Lavoisier

This post is linked to Lisa Gordon’s Creative Exchange.

Daily Photo ~ 5-30-11

Dinner Delight


"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.”
  ~Margaret Atwood

Daily Photo ~ 5-29-11

Mismatched

"Coloring outside the lines is a fine art.”

  ~Kim Nance

Daily Photo ~ 5-28-11

En Route to Asheville for Memorial Day

Wytheville, VA


"Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.”
~Nelson Mandela

Daily Photo ~ 5-27-11

PLEASE GO AWAY AND DO NOT COME ANOTHER DAY!


Some primal termite knocked on wood;
and tasted it, and found it good.
That is why your Cousin May
fell through the parlor floor today.
~Ogden Nash


This post is linked with Macro Friday.

Sepia Scenes ~ 5-26-11

KEEP OUT!


“Silence is a fence around wisdom”
~German Proverb


This post is linked with Sepia Scenes.

Daily Photo ~ 5-25-2011

Mother’s Day Hibiscus


"There are always flowers for those who want to see them.”
~Henri Matisse

Daily Photo ~ 5-24-2011

Angelic

This sculpture is atop an early 1800’s grave in Stonewall Jackson Cemetery ~ Lexington, VA

"I saw the angel in the marble 

and carved until I set him free.”

  ~Michelangelo

This post is linked to Lisa Gordon’s The Creative Exchange. 

Daily Photo ~5-23-11

Welsh Healing Onion


"I understand the big food companies are developing a tearless onion. I think they can do it - after all, they've already given us tasteless bread.” 
~Robert Orben


This post is linked to:
Mosaic Monday with Mary Carroll

Macro Monday at Lisa’s Chaos

and
Mellow Yellow Monday

Daily Photo ~ 5-22-11

Hootie’s Cabin-To-Be

You never know what folk living out in the country do to entertain themselves when they are not at work. Hootie, a friend of ours who lives down the road, started building this cabin many years ago, and here it stands out by this tool building...as is. I like it this way. It is filled with Hootie’s personality. When he finishes it, that will be it. Then, what is he going to have for me to look at each day as I drive by his house?

"If you're holding out for universal popularity, 
I'm afraid you will be in this cabin for a very long time.”
~J. K. Rowling



This post is linked to Scenic Sunday.

Daily Photo ~ 5-21-11

Train Tracks alongside the Swinging Bridge and under the Road Bridge
  James River ~ Buchannan, VA


"The introduction of so powerful an agent as steam to a carriage on wheels
 will make a great change in the situation of man." 
~Thomas Jefferson, 1802


This post is linked to Weekend in Back and White, the New Home for Monomaniacs.

Daily Photo ~ 5-20-11

STOP!

Vesuvius ~ Rockbridge County, VA


"The sky is the daily bread of the eyes." 
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

This post is linked to Skywatch Friday.

Watery Wednesday ~ 5-19-11

After the Rain


"I can see clearly now, the rain is gone. I can see all obstacles in my way."
Johnny Nash 


This post is linked to:

Watery Wednesday

and

Outdoor Wednesday

Sepia Scenes ~ 5-19-11

Knarly, Knoby Tree


"What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind,
 if they do not enter into our daily lives?"
E. M. Forster


This post is linked with Sepia Scenes.

Daily Photo ~ 5-19-11

Another One Bites the Dust

Andersons Filling Station and Garage

Rockbridge County, Virginia
(If you enlarge several times, you can see the “Anderson.”)
"Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. 
The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed.”
~Wayne Dyer


This post is linked with “signs, signs.”

Daily Photo ~ 5-18-11

Muddy Waters
 James River ~ Amherst County, VA


"Rivers are roads which move, and which carry us whither we desire to go.”
  ~Blaise Pascal


This post is linked with Watery Wednesday and

Outdoor Wednesday.

Daily Photo ~ 5-17-11

The Weeping Willow of Brownsburg Turnpike ~ Rockbridge County, VA


"It is difficult to realize how great a part of all that is cheerful and delightful in the recollections of our own life is associated with trees."
  ~Wilson Flagg

Macro Monday ~ 5-16-11

Drip-Drop~Drip Drop

(If you are curious as to what this is, 

it’s a water droplet on the metal scalloped siding around the back stoop of a house.)

"Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. 

Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.”

~Ashley Smith

This post is link with Macro Monday over at Lisa’s Chaos.

Daily Photo ~ 5-16-11

Larry’s Barn

   This barn is right next door to the Teaford’s barn I posted last week...right across the road from us. Larry was the best friend a neighbor could have. He, his three brothers, and a sister grew up in the house we bought 34 years ago so he knew it inside and out. No matter what I needed done he was Johnny-on-the-Spot to do it. When I got the mower stuck on a rock or rocks - and that was more that one time - he woud stop what he was doing, walk across the road, and do whatever it took to get it off...and sometimes we had to create Roman type systems to get it free and running again. Once when I got a piece of furniture wedged between the wall and the railing trying to bring it downstairs by myself...I can be so stupid... and he came right over and bailed me out before Buddy got home from work and caught me in my disaster. The last thing he did was put us in a new mailbox out at the road. 


   Larry died last summer after years and years of pain due to diabetes and all the drugs he had to take for his transplanted heart which he served him well for almost 15 years. He was amazing. None of these killed him. It was a sudden onset of cancer of the eye, and it was so sad. Until the day he passed away, he shaved, would get Jimmy, his brother, to help him out of the hospital bed and into his recliner, and Jimmy would walk him to the bathroom. He refused a feeding tube and would goes days without food, but then suddenly he would be able to eat a bit. Jimmy would dribble water in his mouth and feel him bits of food. On good days Larry would talk to us on the phone, but he would not allow any of us into the room. He did not want us to be frightened by what we were going to see. He fought the good fight with the character of a true gentleman and Christian. He loved us and we loved him. 


   He was a Viet Nam veteran who had to fight and fight the federal government over many, many years to finally get his rightful financial compensation for being sprayed with Agent Orange. He was also a son, a father, a grandfather, and a husband, but most of all he was our special friend. His old green mower sits where he left it, and the basketball net sits alone and unused. We miss him so much. Thankfully, his brothers and sisters are keeping the house and are going to use it when they all gather here for hunting season and family gatherings. It is the house they moved to when they sold this one to the people who sold it to us. One of these days I will share it with you.

"Friendship is like a violin; the music may stop now and then, 

but the strings will last forever.”

~Author Unknown

 This post is linked to the following memes:

Daily Photo ~ 5-16-11

My Yellow Irises Are Blooming ~ Oh, Happy Day!


"I really just want to be warm yellow light that pours over everyone I love.”
~Conor Oberst


This post is link with Mellow Yellow Monday.

Daily Photo ~ 5-15-11

Genie’s First Butterfly of Spring

(Please so not tell me this is a moth...I will be do disappointed.)


"Butterflies are self propelled flowers."  
~R.H. Heinlein

Sunday Bridges ~ 5-15-11

The following is a series of photos taken in March of this year while we were driving the nearby counties searching for interesting sites to photograph. The Buchanan Swinging Bridge has the original pilings built in 1851. It is 366 feet long and 57.5 feet tall and the only bridge of its type across the James River. It was originally a covered bridge called the Buchanan Turnpike Company Toll Bridge. On June 13, 1864, Confederate General McCausand burned it to prevent the Union troops from crossing the James River on their march south to Lynchburg. They had already burned Virginia Military Institute and occupied Lexington, Va, the town outside of which we live. Following a series of replacement bridges, the present one was constructed in 1939 on the original pilings. 

This gives you a good picture of the pilings.

The car bridge is on the left.

Who in his or her right mind would even think about taking a motorized vehicle on this bridge. The car bridge entry is on the right.

Here is Buddy starting across. It is very sturdy and does not bounce and sway. It is the only swinging bridge I have ever walked across that did not frighten me. It is a wonderful bit of history still in use on a daily basis.

"I never wanted to set the world on fire. 

So I never had to burn any bridges behind me.”
~Dinah Shore

This post is linked to Sunday Bridges, 

Weekend Reflections, and Shadow Shot Sunday.

Daily Photo ~ 5-14-11

My Son the Biker

3rd Place after a Race in the Rain

(This shot was taken somewhere near Seattle by his wife with an iPhone and sent to me via email. I did spruce it up a tiny bit so you could see it better. Mom was so excited she just had to share it.)

"A rose must remain with the sun and the rain or its lovely promise won't come true."
Ray Evans
...and yes, the remained with the rain and the promise did come true!

Here he is with his trusty medal for a job well done!
He celebrated his 46th birthday yesterday.

The Weekend in Black and White ~ 5-13-11

The Little Black Hole


"A flower cannot blossom without sunshine, and man cannot live without love."
Max Mulle

This post is linked to “The Weekend in Black and White."

Daily Photo ~ 5-13-11

Just Two Hints of Pink


"Art is like a border of flowers along the course of civilization."
Lincoln Steffens



This post is linked with Beverly’s “Pink Saturday.” 

Sepia Scenes ~ Daily Photo ~ 5-12-11

Bird House on Wood’s Creek Trail

Lexington, VA


"How strange that Nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!”
  ~Emily Dickinson, letter to Mrs. J.S. Cooper, 1880


This post is linked with Sepia Scenes.