Where analytic and creative thought collide and all kinds of weird stuff can happen.

Mother Nature has been teasing us. All winter. If you can call it winter. We’ve hardly had any really cold days, much less measurable frozen precipitation. Of course, those two things are pretty closely related.

Friday night into Saturday, we had a winter weather event. First it snowed. Not much, unfortunately. Then it rained. And it was cold enough that the rain became freezing rain. Which left a densely compacted layer of ice.

Yes, ice.

Yuck.

Snow, I love. Ice? It’s no fun. Just ask my dogs who missed out on both of their walks yesterday and one walk already today. Things are just too slippery.

They’d be fine, of course. It’s me I’m worried about.

Here are some shots of our world, which I took yesterday morning.

The Front Porch

Icy Bush

Our Sidewalk

Another Icy Bush

Clean Street, Icy Sidewalks

Cold Man

Cold, Surprised Lion

This shot is my favorite. I love the expression on the lion’s face. It looks to me like he is saying, “Help! I’m frozen and I can’t get up!”

Warrenton Courthouse

Now THAT Looks Cold

Icy Sidewalk

Accumulated Ice

Icebergs?

Look at the roof of that car to get a better idea of the thickness of the ice.

Frozen Greens

South Sixth Street

Our Driveway

It’s a good thing the streets got plowed. Otherwise, they would have looked like our driveway and I wouldn’t have gone anywhere yesterday.

It’s still cold today, so not much has melted. Tomorrow, it’s supposed to warm up. They say February will be our month for snow. Will we have another Birthday Blizzard maybe? That would be awesome. NOTE: If you follow the Birthday Blizzard link, you should watch the video. It’s one of my all-time favorites.

Then, if you are really bored, you can look at my large collection of pictures from that snow event.

Don’t you just love days that start out in one place and then, completely unpredictably, you end up in another place? Days like that keep life interesting.

Take Wednesday for example. It started out with me here at home in Virginia. One of my goals for this week has been to paint my office. (I made good progress there, by the way. I’ll finish today.) One of my other goals has been to take the girls to the WV place. So, the trip to WV wasn’t entirely unexpected. I just didn’t know when I’d go.

I was thinking about it while painting. Painting is one of those mindless jobs that forces contemplation. Since the week was winding down, I figured I’d better get my traveling butt in gear and head to the WV place.

After dinner, we did just that.

Know what that meant? Besides a late-night arrival? I had three very HAPPY dogs.

Meg Checks Out the Woodpecker Tree

Belle Wondering Which Way I Was Headed

K Waiting Patiently for Mama

They love stretching their legs at the WV place. They really were super-excited to be there. Even if only for a brief visit.

K on the Hunt

That last shot above is my favorite doggie pic of the day. K was poking through her favorite brush pile looking for rodents.

Something else I’ve been wanting to do is take the dogs on a hike. They do really well walking on leash here in town. Since we’re so close to Shenandoah National Park, I figured we could stop for a visit. It is halfway between the VA and WV houses, after all. But the visitor center is closed for the season. So we opted for Sky Meadows State Park instead, which is also between the WV and VA houses.

Sky Meadows State Park, in Clarke and Fauquier counties, is just two miles south of Paris, Virginia. Here’s a brief description from the VA Department of Conservation and Recreation’s web site for Sky Meadows…

Just an hour’s drive from Washington, D.C., Sky Meadows State Park … offers a peaceful getaway on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. With rolling pastures and woodlands, the park boasts beautiful vistas of the foothills and access to the Appalachian Trail. Its rich history is shaped by the development of agriculture and the impact of the Civil War. Activities include hiking, fishing, picnicking, horseback riding, primitive camping, and nature and history programs.

Of course, I had to stop in Paris just so I could say I was in Paris on Thursday.

That’s where we encountered some strange creatures.

Giant Parisian Turkeys

What are these giant turkeys doing in a cow pasture?

More Large, Long-legged Turkeys

Turkeys are birds, right? When my three bird dogs spotted them, they were going nuts.

Gobble Gobble Gobble

Speaking of nuts… look at this strange collection of beasts in the neighboring pasture.

Strange Collection of Critters

Not a cow to be seen. And, wait, isn’t that a little horse?

Dark-faced, Horned Sheep

We didn’t linger too long because the dogs really were going nuts in the back of the truck. K can be quite vocal, too, and the animals were getting quite freaked out. I didn’t want to start a stampede and make Paris look like that scene in Jumanji.

Farm on the Outskirts of Paris

Check out the size of that farmhouse! I guess that would be called a manor.

The state park really was just around the corner.

Entrance Sign

It’s also only about 30 minutes from my house. How cool is that?

If you are wondering why I find that so exciting, have a look at some of the pics I shot at the park.

Paris, Virginia

Keep in mind, these are just snapshots (just point and shoot). I had three very excited dogs with me.

View from Overlook Trail at Sky Meadows State Park

View from Overlook Trail at Sky Meadows State Park

View from Overlook Trail at Sky Meadows State Park

View from Overlook Trail at Sky Meadows State Park

View from Overlook Trail at Sky Meadows State Park

Just imagine how pretty this place will be in the Spring and Summer when everything is green. And in the Fall, when the leaves are changing.

Oh, and did I mention that the Appalchian Trail runs through Sky Meadows State Park? That’s something else on my list of things to do this year. (Not hike the whole trail, just pieces of it.)

Speaking of things to do… I have to finish painting my office. That’s a job I both dread and am excited about. Just wait until you see the dramatic difference, then you’ll understand why the excitement.

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P.S. – I do realize those aren’t turkeys…

Since I STILL haven’t finished sharing vacation pics, here’s another installment for you. I actually started this post yesterday, December 14, which is why I selected the folder from September 14 to share. Looking at these pics, it seems like just last week that we were in Wyoming with Annelies and Yves. Other times, it feels like so long ago…

Anyway, I toyed with the idea of just using “West Thumb” as my post title. To see if y’all would be perplexed. Then I realized none of you probably give my post titles an iota of thought. So I decided to be all forthright and add the Yellostone National Park bit.

Did you know Yellowstone was the world’s first national park? It includes 2,219,789 acres, which makes the park larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined. That’s big. And because it’s so big, it is very diverse.

There’s a great overview map someone posted, which might give you some idea as to the size of the park. If nothing else, it’ll help you understand how West Thumb, on the left (west) side of Yellowstone Lake, got its name.

Annelies and Me

Wait, doesn’t that sign say “Grand Teton National Park”? And didn’t I saw I was highlighting Yellowstone?

Normally, I’d post that pic with the GTNP pics, but I’m sharing by day, remember. And I really like that shot. It was actually taken on our way from GTNP to YNP. The two are only about 40 miles apart.

There’s the YNP sign.

Don’t you just love national park entrance signs?

Recovery

YNP is most-famous for its glaciers and other geothermal features. But there’s just so much beauty to behold there. In every direction. Even in spots like this where you can see a bunch of dead trees. Those trees were burned in the massive forest fire that swept through the area in 1989.

Recovery

It was a rather gray day when we started out. And a bit chilly. But sometime gray is good. If I’d taken this shot in the bright, midday sun, most of those colors in the grass would have been all washed out.

I think those pics were captured around Moose Falls, which is just north of the south entrance to the park. The first really exciting stop for the day, West Thumb Geyser Basin, was yet to come.

Annelies and Yves were quite excited. They’d never seen geysers before. And although West Thumb Geyser Basin is one of the smallest geyser basins in Yellowstone, which also makes is less-known, its location along the shore of Yellowstone Lake makes it the most scenic.

Spectacular Colors

I can’t remember if we stopped at West Thumb when we were vacationing with the kids. It was gorgeous. Color, color everywhere. And I love color.

Geothermal = HOT

Hubby was looking into the pool. They really are quite hot. And, in some cases, a bit stinky.

This next shot is really cool. Not because of the image quality, or lack thereof, but because of what is shows…

Swim Party

… swimming elk! Who knew elk liked to swim?

They weren’t doin a we’have-to-do-this-to-cross thing. They were swimming for fun.  They’d go in, swim around a bit, then get out. It was awesome.

Small Pool

The hot spring pools come in many shapes, sizes, and colors. I love how you can see down into the pools. This one was only about a foot across. The colors are actually algae and bacterial growth.

Submerged Cone

Those cones are actually underwater in the lake. Doesn’t that sort of look like a tropical island?

Larger Pool

That pool was much bigger. And very orange. I guess there was lots of iron in the soil.

Yellowstone Lake

Those cliffs are from mineral deposits that have built up over millions of years.

Very Colorful Pool

That’s one of my favorite shots. I just love those colors! It’s the edge of a fairly large pool. If you look closely at the blue areas, you should be able to see how deep the pool is.

Another Big Pool

Actually, that might be a different section of the same pool featured in the previous shot. You can really see the depth there.

Pools with Lake

There you can see the lake and some mountains in the background.

Color!

And some more interesting colors. Annelies and I both took gobs of pictures at West Thumb.

Color!

I couldn’t help myself. I just love, love, love all the different colors.

Happy Travelers

That’s one of my favorite captures from the trip. We had such a good time.

There are actually a lot more pics from September 14. Rather than make this a really long post, I’ll save them for later. The next post maybe? We’ll have to see. I have lots to do and little time to fit everything in!

Do you have a favorite among today’s pics?