We didn’t come to the WV Place last weekend (one of Shannon’s girlfriends, who we’d never met, came to the MD house to visit). So I was looking doubly forward to this weekend to see what changes the coming of Spring had wrought.
One of my favorite things to do is walk through the woods, looking, listening, and just observing all the subtle natural changes.
I was delighted to see the trees have started blooming.
"Hello, Spring!"
I was especially happy to see the Redbuds have started blooming. That’s when you know Spring is really here.
Rudbud Tree Starting to Bloom
I was also very tickled to see this little butterfly (or moth). It was only about an inch and a half long.
"Hello, little butterfly!"
Another of my favorite pastimes is watching the dogs enjoying their freedom in the woods. Each and every one of them absolutely LOVE the WV place.
K in one of her rare moments without her head buried in something.
I swear they all run around with big, silly grins on their faces when they are here.
K the Hunter
That’s K in a more-familiar state. If you ever wonder why I post more pictures of Meg and Belle than I do of K, this is why. She’s usually got her head buried under something or is dashing like a crazy dog through the trees sniffing stuff. I think she has some cat blood in her. She’s supposed to be a bird dog, not a rodent hunter.
Belle
Belle is a follower. She and K were just walking along when K decided to stick her head under that stump. Belle stopped and looked back as if to say, “Hey, wait a minute. What’s under there?”
The Tag-Team
Belle just had to go back for a better look. K was by that point shoulder-deep under the stump. And Belle was watching closely to see what she would find.
Bored Tree Cavity
The previous evening, the two young ones had bored out this tree cavity. No rodent is safe in our yard. Not one.
Waiting for Dad
This was Meg earlier in the day, waiting for Hubby to come back from town with lunch. My lunch, not her lunch.
Speaking of Meg, while the young girls were chasing rodents, she was off doing some hunting of her own.
Look what she found…
Meg wins the prize for finding the largest bone EVER.
That is a big bone. I have no idea where she got it. The thing is, it didn’t smell all nasty and decayed like most stuff they drag home. It sorta-kinda smelled like ham. Which makes me think Meg may have robbed one of the neighbor’s smokers.
You should have seen Belle’s eyes light up when she saw Meg walk past with that big-ass bone.
"Can I have some?"
K was too busy hunting to notice the bone right away. But she did finally notice right before I took it from Meg.
They were all looking at me as if to say, “Aw, c’mon, Mama. Where’d you put the bone?”
What sort of Spring changes are happening in your neck of the woods?
One of the things I love about our WV place is the quiet. It’s REALLY quiet in the winter when all the insects are hibernating, most birds have flown south, and all the hunters have finished killing stuff for the season.
When I go out walking with the girls, all I hear are their feet crunching through the leaves. Plus the occasional yips from K when she spots a critter. And Belle’s squeaky toy (assuming she was in the mood to bring it along). There’s also the thundering of feet as one or another of the dogs buzzes me (runs past me very closely at full gallop).
It’s amazing to me how much you can hear if you just stop for a second and listen. And the things you’ll see if you really look.
Going "Down the Hill"
The dogs are like little kids at a swimming pool. The ones who say, “Mom, watch this. Mom, look at me. Mom, see what I can do?” They get super-excited when I walk with them. We have to do it at least once a day. Usually more. Not that I am complaining. It’s just odd. Most dogs get excited when their person picks up a leash. Mine get excited when I break out the camera.
Textures
The many different textures in nature intrigue me.
Light Play
As does the morning light shining through the trees.
Oddity
If I were in Maryland, this would’ve just been another piece of trash. At the WV place, it’s a real oddity. How did this balloon get here? The closest Red Robin restaurant is about 100 miles away.
Bending Under Pressure
What happened to that tree? Is it alive? That’s not a fresh bend, but the tree doesn’t appear to be dead. I’ll have to try to remember and check it again once the leaves start emerging.
Holes
I’m fairly certain these holes were made by one of the many Pileated Woodpeckers that inhabit our woods. Those birds are about 17 inches tall. They look like small pterodactyls flying through the woods. And when they peck away on snags like this one, the hollow hammering reverberates loudly through the trees.
Nobody's Home
I couldn’t help but stop and look closely at this shell. It seemed completely undisturbed. Yet there was no turtle inside. What happened? Did it just shrivel up? Or did something extract it?
I hope you enjoyed your virtual walk with me.
Do you like walking through the woods, experiencing nature? Or would you rather stick to city streets. There’s a certain allure to both. But I sure enjoy the peace and quiet.
It’s never a good sign when you wake up with a headache. I mean, what a crappy way to start a day. Hoping to get rid of the ache, I took some naproxen and then made myself a big plate of blueberry pancakes. No luck so far, but I am still hopeful. At least the pancakes tasted good.
While I ate, I caught up on my blog reading. That’s when I realized I haven’t posted anything for five days. I’ve been collecting various pics to share. But it’s an eclectic collection. So there was nothing driving me to do a posting. Now, however, I think it is time to catch up.
The first couple of shots are from Sunday morning at the WV place. It was in the low 30s when we woke up.
Frosty Window
Doesn’t that just make you want to say, “Brrr?”
Lingering Green
Most of the trees are bare already. Except for the oaks. We have lots of oaks. And they hold on to their leaves for a long time. Apparently some are late in the color-change department, too.
Nakedness
See what I mean about the trees being bare?
Morning in the Woods
This is one of my favorite spots at the WV place. Back before we had Belle and K, we had CeCe and Meg. CeCe was a lot like Belle in that she liked to hang close to Mama during our morning walks. She and I would wait here at the top of the hill on Turkey Hollow Road for Meg to return. Quite a few of CeCe’s cremains were scattered here for that very reason. It’s been almost two years since we lost CeCe and we still miss her.
A Hint of Green
The colors on this green leaf caught my eye. There’s not really anything special about that picture except I thought the leaf was cool. So I am sharing it here.
Cool Colors
Speaking of colors catching my eye, I really liked the way these frosty leaves looked.
Frost
You can see the frost more clearly on these leaves. Quite a few bushes are still green, so the woods aren’t completely colorless.
Belle racing around the corner.
Right before snapping this picture, I’d started walking back toward the house. When Belle realized she couldn’t see me, she came running.
Belle
Here’s one where Belle was waiting with me for the other two girls to come back. As for the other two…
Napping while Mama works.
They did reappear shortly after that picture of Belle was taken. I snapped the above image while I was working. The camera was sitting next to me on the windowsill. My girls always like to be close to Mama. Notice K and Belle sharing that small bed?
K
K is more into sharing than Belle. In this shot, although you can’t see her (the zoom lens was on the camera and I couldn’t fit her into the frame), Belle is pretty much hogging the entire bed. K found a corner to sit on and gave me this look as if to say, “Mama, she won’t share.”
K is truly a Mama's girl.
Belle sits with me in the mornings. It’s rare to see Belle on my lap in the evenings. K on the other hand is all about her evening Mama-time. She’ll come over and give me this certain look. That’s when I say, “You need some Mama love?” Immediately she climbs into my lap.
We did have a bit of excitement on Sunday. Are you ready for this?
The new refrigerator.
We bought a new refrigerator! Now we just need to buy some more food. 🙂
Our kitchen is very small. We never really planned the kitchen. I bought a whole kitchen full of old cabinets and we put them into place. It all works okay, except the door placements are very awkward in a couple of spots. We only had room for an under-the-counter refrigerator. And no room for a dishwasher.
Because Hubby really hates doing dishes, we need a dishwasher. We can’t have a dishwasher unless we re-do the kitchen.
Oh yeah, we have a really cheap, crappy cook top, too. It works, but it is a huge PIA. The burners are super hard to regulate properly. If you turn them back too low, they go out. And they won’t relight unless you put a match to them first. It’s annoying.
Our Little House in the Woods
This is not a great picture since the trailer is sitting in front of the garage. But someone was asking me what our house looks like, so there it is.
Going "down the hill."
The dogs just love it when we walk them down the driveway. They’re all three in the picture, K is just hard to see because she is so far ahead. The girl runs like a Greyhound.
Going back up the hill.
You know what they say… what goes down, must come up. Right? 🙂
And now, for the last picture of the day, we have K.
"Mama, she's not sharing AGAIN."
K is looking a bit pissed off. Is it because Belle is hogging the bed? Or because Mama has no room on her lap at the moment. Or both?
For the record, Belle is wide awake, but she hates having her picture taken. Really. She squints or blinks in most shots unless I catch her off guard.
Hubby suggested we go for a car ride yesterday. Since we’re at the WV place (we haven’t hung out here for a few weeks), I seized the opportunity to say, “Okay, but I want to go to The Dolly Sods.”
The Dolly Sods is a wilderness area that sits at an elevation of about 4,000 feet atop the Allegheny Plateau. It is one of many areas of interest in the Monongahela National Forest. The Dolly Sods is significant because of its elevation and what that means to the flora and fauna.
I’ve wanted to visit for YEARS. Ever since 2005 when we started our “little” WV project. During what little down time we had, I read a lot about the area. And I liked what I read. 🙂
While all of West Virginia is pretty mountainous, the mountains aren’t very high. The highest peak, in fact, is only 4,863 feet. It’s not far at all from The Dolly Sods. It’s been said that many areas of the Dolly Sods are like high-alpine regions in Canada. The snowshoe hare can even be found there.
Hubby's GPS tracked the elevation changes.
We’ve ridden our motorcycles near The Dolly Sods many, many times, but never ventured into the actual wilderness area because it is known for its rough, dirt and gravel roads. It is a wilderness, after all, and they want to keep it that way. In fact, descriptions of the route into The Sods said something to the effect of “the road climbs the Allegheny Front.” If you look at this terrain map of the area, you’ll see what I mean. In short, the road went up, and up, and up before we finally reached the top of the Allegheny Plateau. Hubby’s GPS software plotted a graph showing our elevations at various points on the trip down and back, which clearly shows the extreme elevation change entering and leaving The Dolly Sods.
Climbing the Allegheny Front (Think 6 miles of washboard-rutted road; I am NOT exaggerating.)Some of the scenery on the way up, below the tree line.More scenery on the way up.Welcome to the high alpine world. (Pronunciation = Ma-non-ga-heel-ah)
The foliage at this altitude peaked some time ago and is mostly gone.The view from the top.It was quite rocky. There were large bolders strewn wide and far.The winds on the plateau are virtually constant.The boulders were covered with lichen.There were blueberries galore (the short, red plants).Blueberries! (Dolly Sods is a popular place in July and August.)More blueberries.The further north you go, the more it starts looking like the Alaskan tundra.You can see the "tundra" off in the distance.Bear Rocks (what this particular area is called)I was digging all the boulders. Those are people way out in the center of the frame.Looking out over the valley from atop the Eastern Continental Divide.A closer look at the tundra.Another close-up of the tundra.The road down. It was a rough ride, but well worth it, if you ask me.
I’m not sure Hubby enjoyed the ride through the Sods. It really was rutted and full of potholes. But it was really picturesque. I could spend an entire day just walking around taking pictures. These are all just snapshots. I hate making Hubby wait around while I do the photography thing.
He’ll probably read this and think, “Wait a minute, isn’t that what you were doing?” The answer? Nope. If I were doing the photography thing, I would’ve had my tripod. And more lenses. The wide angle one would have been nice to have.
I’d love to do some hiking there, too. There are a lot of trails through the Sods, but they are rugged and not recommended for novice hikers. So I’ll need to take that orienteering class first (how to use a compass and topographical map to get around).
I hope you enjoyed your virtual journey with us through the Dolly Sods!
As we prepare to leave (as in any minute now) for our marathon motorcycle tour through West Virginia and Kentucky, I can’t help but wonder what things will look like when we get back.
Why would I wonder that? Well, because it’s Fall. And even though most of the stuff is still green, it won’t be for long.
In case I’m not able to do any updates while we’re on the road, I’ll leave you with these parting shots…
The Leaves, They are a Changin'Are you tired of my fern pictures yet?Burning Bush, Starting to Smolder
I’ll try to capture some more-interesting images this week to share when we return.
