February 18, 2016 ~ Rt. 60 at Top of North Mountain

“The clouds, - the only birds that never sleep.”

~Victor Hugo

 The mountains at the back to the west in these first two pictures are the Alleghenies,an Algonquin term meaning Endless Mountains.

This shot was taken where I parked the car as I was turning around to come back down the mountain to the house (we live about a mile from here). For some reason the picture as it came out of the camera was darker than I would have liked for it to have been, so I used an R.H. West texture named Duck Eggs to lighten it up a bit. That is why it has a bit of a different color to it.

This post is linked with Skywatch Friday.

February 18, 016 ~ The Music of Love

Blogger has given me nothing but trouble today. To create this post has taken hours. It would not accept my pictures, and then after I finally got them to post I was left with these little boxes. I moved the pictures around in order to delete hoping they would go away, but NO luck.When I got up this morning it had printed my journal page five or six times at full size all over the post as well as the drawing of my granddaughter. I have deleted all of those and hope it is working correctly now.

This is another of my art journal pages.
I made an attempt at using watercolors, but it leaves a lot to be desired.
I have a long ways to go. It looks easy, but it's not!
I used watercolor paper that I pasted into my journal, watercolors, stamping,
pen and ink, cut and paste, and embossing. I intentionally scraped off some
of the embossing because I was trying to give the piece an aged appearance.

I am participating in the Creative Artiste-Mixed Media Challenge,

the  Lunagirl February Challenge, and  Art Journal Journey Monthly.

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Here is another shot of eloise and Sage sketching.
Of course, they are watching TV. I have them trained to watch 
House and Garden Channel with the Property Brothers and Fixer Upper.

This pen and ink was done by Eloise this weekend at age 10.
It is all freehand. 
It looks like she inherited her grandfather’s and dad’s art talents.

February 17, 2016 ~ If Music Be the Food of Love ~ Art Journal Journey

This post is linked with The Art Journal Journey.

This piece is made up of multiple layers combined in PSE 9 - my favorite. The girl with the violin was a free stock photo from the internet and the two textures I used were “Music” from the Internet and Kim Klaassen’s Doodles and Stitches. I used “hard light” to mix with the colors.

February 16, 2016 ~ Vintage Treasure Finds at The Peaks of Otter

 This is an aerial view of The Peaks of Otter which is located in Bedford, Virginia taken from their site on the internet. The proper belongs to the National Forrest fur they lease out the lodge and dining room to a private company. We have gone up and stayed there a number of times because I love to walk around Lake Abbot and up to the Johnson Farm, and Bud treks up to Sharp Top Mt. I go up there via a school bus service. The last time we were there we did not stay in the main lodge but out to the left in the two story section. In the bathroom I got to witness a blast from the past....an original bottle opener on the back of the door and in the wall to the right of the sink was a slot where you would drop your used razor blades. I could not believe my eyes considering I had not seen one of the latter since I was a child. Hope the photos bring back some memories for those of you who are seniors.

BLOGGER has deleted my picture and will not let me put it back. There is just a yellow square.

Here is the information on the Peaks that I found in Wiki.  Buddy has hiked in to the area that I have highlighted in red. It is an interesting piece of WW!! history.

At milepost marker 86 of the Blue Ridge Parkway stands the Peaks of Otter. It’s known that Native Americans used the peaks often for travel and rest and European settlers started establishing the area in the mid-1700s. In 1766 Thomas Wood and his family from Pennsylvania settled a homestead on the area; National Park Service documents^[1] indicate other early residents included brothers Charles and Robert Ewing, who are asserted by some to have named the Peaks after the Ewing surname as it is pronounced in Scottish Gaelic - Clann Eóghain na h-Oitrich, or "Clan Ewing of Otter."^[2] This view may be given credence by similarly Otter-themed place names in Scotland, and the resemblance of Flat Top to Beinn Dorain in the ancestral Ewing area of Argyll and Bute.

In 1834 the first local inn was created by the children of the Wood family and opened to travelers. In the late 1800s the Peaks of Otter was home to over 20 families, a school, a church, and a hotel. By the early 1900s the Peaks of Otter became a popular local tourist spot and became especially noticed by the National Park Service. Abbott Lake, the lake at the base of the peaks, was man made and created in 1964 along with the official Peaks of Otter Lodge, which still stands today.^[3][4]

The Peaks and Surrounding Areas and Activities[edit]

There are three main peaks; Flat Top, Sharp Top, and Harkening Hill in order from highest peak altitude to lowest peak altitude. Aside from Sharp Top there is a separate cliff formation on the other side of the peak called Buzzard’s Roost, at about the same elevation as the rest of Sharp Top. Combined within the three peaks is a little over 12 miles of hiking and extra attractions along the way.^[5] On the outside of the valley, past the lodge, are the Peaks of Otter campgrounds, where there are trails, picnic tables, big open fields and outdoor grills. Johnson Farm is a historically restored site along one of the side trails towards Harkening Hill, it is a interactive, still functioning farm building from the early 1900s.^[6] From atop the peaks the very close town of Bedford can be seen within eyesight. The township of Bedford actually claims the Peaks of Otter within its jurisdiction, due to its proximity to the peaks. On the summit of the far side of the main peak; Sharp Top, there is a famed crash site of a World War II B-25 bomber that crashed into the side of the mountain during a training exercise. The wreckage was never removed, as it is too heavy and the side of the mountain it crashed on is too steep to work on. There is a small memorial on a rock at the top of the site for the crew that died, it is a hike off trail, but the majority of the plane can still be found along the mountain with bigger parts further down as you go over an estimated area of 500x600 feet.^[7][8] There is also a bigger, more put-together World War II Memorial in nearby Bedford. This memorial is a D-Day memorial dedicated to all men who died in the Normandy landings, but especially to the ones from Bedford, who had the highest percentage of men killed in the initial landings, the most out any other single area in the whole country.^[9]

This post is linked with Tom’s Tuesday’s Treasures.

February 15, 2016 ~ My 77th and Big Snow #2

In past years, Eloise’s family, a friend of ours, and Bud and I have gone out to Dothan State Park and rented a big cabin for my birthday weekend. Well, this year for #77, we decided to stay here at the Homeplace, and what a fine decision that was considering the frigid weather we had. It was way too cold and windy to do any hiking or anything else outside. Here are some the posters Eloise has made for me thru the years. You can tell the first was quite a while ago. Also, she has changed my name several time... from Baga, to Lady Baga, to Bags. The Lady Baga is the one that really cracks me up.

The girls created the table. Eloise made the napkin holders from toilet paper rollers I cut into sections several years back painting them and then giving them a good dose of Modge Podge, and, and she made the name place “creations” from foam pieces you can get at Wally World. Take note of the HOT sauce. Both of my sons cannot eat anything with HOT sauce...and Mom cannot even take spices that are the least bit warm. 

 As all of you know, I am not afraid to poke fun at myself .

I thought this was a pretty funny one.

 The girls are sketching and watching/listening to the TV.

 Those poor girls. A love three day weekend,

 and then there comes the homework. UGH!

 Finally, we have the fearsome threesome in our hats. 

This has to be my favorite picture of the weekend even if I did not clean it up in Photoshop. Other than cropping, it is truly SOC!

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Then the snow started, and there was a mad departure for Richmond a day early. Going over the mountain at Afton, VA, is not something anyone in their right mind wants to do in snow, sleet, ice, or high winds. They made it back uneventfully, thank goodness.Here are the pictures I tool today after it snowing all night and day, We got 9 inches and now it i all crunchy and icy.


I only left the house long enough to get these photos.
It was way too cold and snowy to be outside for more than five minutes.

The barn and outbuilding are still standing.
Each time we get a heavy snow, I fear a roof falling in.

These tracks are from Buddy with his two sticks 
hobbling across to get up hill to his car.
He had to go to work today... before they scraped the road.

This is when the creek looks the prettiest.
It’s a shame it’s too cold to sit down there and enjoy it.

This post is inked with Our World Tuesday.

February 14, 2016 ~ A Barn and a Late Art Journal Happy Valentine’s Day

Even the barn has a little red on it for Valentine’s Day

This barn is linked with Tom’s Barn Collective.

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“True love stories never have endings.”

~Richard Back

Some of my art journal entries this Valentine’s Day. 

February 13, 2016 ~ The Hat

“There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the people you love. When you learn to tap this source,

 you will truly have defeated age."

~Sophia Loren

Eloise's hair keeps growing for Locks of Love.
She and her mom (a red head) are having their hair cut in June.
She is growing up way too fast to suit me - Baga.

This post is linked with Shadow Shot Sunday 2

February 12, 2016 ~ Gold in the Sky

This post is linked with Skywatch Friday.