Giant Parisian Turkeys

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.

 – – –

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

 

Happiness is…

… the year’s first snowstorm!

That frog on the right is me doing a happy dance. Cool, eh?

I didn’t make it. I just Googled “happy dance” and this goofy frog came up. Sorry if it’s distracting or nerve-wracking for you. I like to add a little bit of silliness sometimes.

Speaking of happy… Happy New Year! Can you believe it’s 2012? I hope your holidays were as nice as mine.

As for that snowstorm… for some reason, I was up before 6:00 this morning. The sun doesn’t even rise until about 7:30. So here I was sitting in the semi-dark, ingesting some coffee, trying to wake up when Hubby said, “Did you know there’s an 80% chance of snow today?”

I didn’t know. We don’t watch much TV so we don’t see weather forecasts on a regular basis unless we seek them out.

A little while later, as the sun started to rise, something caught my eye outside (the window is just beyond my monitor). I peeked out the window and was delighted to see that the world was covered in white.

Snow!

A very thin layer, but snow nonetheless. And as the sun was rising, it made for a pretty cool-looking sky. So I hurried up and threw on some clothes, grabbed the camera, and headed outside — did I mention that it was in the 20s? — to experience my first snow in Warrenton.

It was cold, but awesome. I just love this town!

I did say there wasn’t much snow, right?

Instead of posting a bunch of big images, I added a gallery of small images (aka thumbnails) below. You can use the thumbnails provided to view images one by one. If you’d like to see the large version of an image, click on the thumbnail. Use your BACK button to return to the post.

UPDATE: At Hubby’s request, I added a link to a Flickr SLIDESHOW.

GALLERY OF SMALL IMAGES

Only the Shadow Knows

One of my goals for 2012 is to get back on the photography bandwagon. I didn’t do nearly enough shooting last year.

Did you enjoy the snowy morning pics as much as I enjoyed shooting them?

Holiday Home Tour

My Mom has been asking me when I was going to post pictures of my new Christmas tree. So, since it was a special request and all, I figured I’d better get to it.

First, let me warn you. It’s not a traditional tree. It’s a primitive-type country tree. Tall, skinny, and sort of twiggy looking. Also, the needles are green and brown instead of just green.

Our Skinny Country Tree

I really like our country tree, which looks much better in person than it does in pictures. For one thing, it doesn’t look seven feet tall, does it? With the star, which I made by the way, it’s probably seven and a half feet tall.

I couldn’t just show you the tree. Especially since it really doesn’t look all that grand in the photo. So I decided to show you a bunch of Christmas decorations. They’re scattered throughout the house, so you’ll get to see some of the house, too. Which is why I’m calling this the holiday home tour.

Anyway…

Living Room

We don’t just have one tree. We have three small trees. The one in the family room, shown in the first picture, is the tallest. The one in the living room is only about five feet tall.

Stair Tree

Our smallest tree sits on the landing of the staircase. That door behind the tree leads to my messy office. (The mess is why the door is closed.)

Family Room Tree (different angle)

There’s the family room tree again. By the way, the armoire is the one I talked about HERE. I bought it right before we moved.

Family Room

There’s the fireplace. It was a working, wood-burning fireplace, but we converted it to gas. That way we don’t have to deal with the mess and inconvenience of wood.

Don’t you just love the white mantle against that brick?

Mantle

The fabric garland is one of the things I made on my girlfriend getaway at Granny Trace’s house. Along with a whole bunch of gingerbread folks, aka gingers, which you’ll see in a bit.

Meg Posing with Santa

This Santa gourd is one of our new additions this year. I really wanted to sit him on the dining room table, but at the moment it is covered with gifts. Some wrapped and some waiting to be wrapped. Along with boxes, wrapping paper, tissue paper, tape… it’s a mess. But how much do you love that Santa gourd? It, along with the tree and some other things, is from Sherrie’s Stuff, the coolest little craft store ever, which is right here in town. Sherrie painted the Santa herself.

Tres Chic Snowlady

This snow lady is another new addition. I saw her in a store window on Main Street and HAD to have her. I have a thing for snowmen. And snow women, apparently. When’s the last time you saw a snow lady in a fur coat?

Living Room from a Different Angle

Another shot of the living room. See the awesome snowman pillow on the chair? Granny Trace made that for me.

Kitchen
Kitchen

The kitchen is where Wilhelmina usually sits. I just now decided that show be the snow lady’s name. She looks like a Wilhelmina, right?

Kitchen Again

I took that shot a tad later in the day after I realized one of my favorite cards had slid down the string and gotten covered. I added a couple more cards, too. Hubby added the raisins, which he bought to make oatmeal cookies.

Family Room

There’s the family room from another angle. Yes, our walls are still mostly bare. And those horrible bamboo shades haven’t been replaced yet.

I have to pause in the home tour to share this picture of the girls. When I got up from my desk, camera in hand, they thought we were going outside. They weren’t too thrilled that I was walking around inside taking pictures.

Meg, K, and Belle

I was about halfway down the steps, taking pictures of the little tree on the landing, when I turned around and saw them waiting at the bottom for me.

Ornaments

Our trees all have a mix of ornaments. Old and new. Bought and hand-made. This tree has some of Eric’s ornaments, which I’ll have to hand over to him, soon. Since he’ll be getting married. More on that later…

I always try to buy at least one new ornament each year. One of my favorites new things this year are the clip-on cardinals (red birds).

Ornaments

Plus the gingers and garland I made at Granny Trace’s.

Ornaments

I told you there were lots of gingers. I guess I could have spread them out on the three trees, but they all ended up here.

Ornaments

Tracey made the stocking for me this year, too.

Ornaments

Sorry there aren’t any artsy ornament shots here. I was in a hurry. I even used the flash (gasp!).

Foyer

Here’s a look up the steps from the foyer. See the cute little tree? I love it when it’s dark and all the lights are glowing.

One of My Favorite Santas

I didn’t get out all of the Christmas stuff. In fact, there’s still a bunch missing. Not gone, I don’t think. Still in boxes somewhere.

K Not Looking Very Merry

The dogs were really getting impatient with the picture thing. They followed me everywhere, as usual. I thought K looked pretty funny sitting next to the Santa.

Foyer

The table that Hubby hates sits in the foyer holding a little wintry farm.

Belle and Her Rat

That just about concludes the holiday house tour. The upstairs isn’t decorated. Other than green garland, red bows, and white lights along the railing.

But there’s one more pic I have to post. Not because it’s particularly festive, but because I have to share a picture of this bench.

Bench

I bought it when I was with Granny Trace and Carol earlier this month. I knew it would be perfect for either the foyer or this spot by the back door (in the breakfast room), where we keep our shoes, jackets, and dog-walking equipment. And I was right. It’s the perfect spot to sit and put your shoes on.

And that’s all, folks.

How’d I do with the tour?

Secrets Revealed

This has been quite a year. The last couple of months have been exciting, with the move and all. But they have also been tough on me because I’ve been keeping secrets.

Not the bad kind of secrets (i.e., lies told to deceive, manipulate, and control people), but the good kind of surprise secrets. Secrets kept because nice surprises are fun every once in a while.

Grandma, Joey, and Mike

I ended my last post telling you it was my mother-in-law’s (MIL’s) birthday weekend — she turned 80 on Friday, November 18 — but that she didn’t want a party. Well, to honor her wishes, we did not have a party. We just invited her to spend the weekend with us instead.

What we also did not do was tell her that the kids would be here, too. All of the kids.

We flew Shannon in from California. (My MIL hasn’t seen her in over six months.)

Amy and all of the grand kids were able to come. Eric came, too, along with Kelsey, his new FIANCEE!

The only missing family member was Amy’s husband, TJ, who had a prior Army Reserve drill commitment.

Did you notice I said “fiancee”? That was another secret I had to keep for awhile.

Our baby is getting married! Can you believe it? Not until 2013 though.

I’ve known since like July or August. But couldn’t tell anyone until he’d actually proposed and given Kelsey the ring.

I cannot tell you how relieved I was when Friday FINALLY arrived.

The weekend was a huge hit. We had ten people and three dogs running around this place. It was totally chaotic and completely wonderful.

Actually, it was quite odd last night when it was just Mike and I here again, sitting at our little breakfast table eating dinner.

Other than some yummy meals, we didn’t have anything specific planned. We just all hung out together and visited.

I didn’t take nearly as many pictures as I should have, but here are a few shots from the weekend.

Saturday Morning Entertainment
The Grand Kids
Me, Looking a Bit Rough (there was a lot going on AND I need a haircut)
Eric & Kelsey Making Apple Pies
Mom, Catching Up with K
The Kids in Our Still Undecorated Family Room
The Grand Kids in Their Secret Hideout
The Newly Engaged Couple (Eric and Kelsey)
The Grand Kids
Amy & Kids (Yes, Joey is blurry. He wouldn't stay still.)

We’ll be having a pretty quiet Thanksgiving, but the birthday weekend was certainly lots of fun.

Just Look

Yep, I’ve been slacking again. I can’t believe it’s been ten whole days since my last post.

Things are still busy. And this week I’ve been cleaning. My mother-in-law is coming to spend the weekend with us. Hubby and I are very excited. It’s her 80th birthday weekend, so we have all sorts of culinary delights planned.

There’s not a whole lot to do around here, but that’s okay. We still love our new town. The other day, it was so pretty (about 75 degrees!) that K and I went for a lunchtime stroll. I took my camera, of course. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of just walking around this place looking.

There are just so many cool, old houses.

If this big red-brick house was mine, that little building in the backyard would be my home office. Wouldn’t that be awesome?

And I just love all the Fall colors. Good thing I got out when I did, because over the last few days it’s been very rainy. And LOTS of leaves have come down. Our poor fig trees are completely naked.

This is the Warrenton Branch Greenway. An old railroad bed turned bike/walk path. It’s only a couple of blocks from our house. Which is convenient considering we walk the dogs there every morning. This morning we all got a bit wet, but it was still nice to be outside.

I just love this little signal house (or whatever it is).

And the caboose. How can you not love a red caboose?

You’re probably tired of me saying “I love this, and I love that…”

Sorry. But look at that little yellow house. Don’t you just LOVE it? I love-love it. The clearstory. The windows.

But do you want to know what I find the coolest?

The iron work on the fence. And the flagpole. This is just one rocking little yellow house.

I hope you enjoyed the latest tour.

Perhaps I’ll snap a few pics this weekend to share.

I did mention that it’s my mother-in-law’s 80th birthday weekend, right?

It’ll be a weekend spent sitting around relaxing and just visiting. She told us she didn’t want a party. Which is good, really, since we moved down to Virginia and all.

It still feels weird thinking of Virginia as home…

 

Pumpkinville

I bet you can’t guess what I did this weekend.

It involved a hairy cow.

Mooo! (that's "hello there" in cowspeak)

A stupid sign.

No Do Not Have Fun!?! (That's all I could see from afar.)

Some crazy teeth… (I couldn’t help but think of Whoopie Goldberg in that scene from the Color Purple movie when Miss Celie smiled for the first time and her teeth filled the entire screen.)

Cheese!

Seemingly endless repetition of the phrase, “Winner, winner, chicken dinner.”

Oh, and a really pushy jackass.

Give up?

"Winner, winner, chicken dinner!"

Amy and the boys came for a visit!

Amy with the Pushy Jackass

Brianna and TJ had to stay home in Maryland because Brianna was supposed to have a soccer tournament.  It got canceled, which really stinks. It would have been nice to have all of them down for a visit.

Though, to be honest, Brianna probably would have been bored at Pumpkinville. That is where Amy and I took the boys on Saturday. We’d actually planned it pretty far in advance.

Pumpkinville is the annual Fall festival at the Leesburg Animal Park in nearby Loudon County. It was sort of lame, but the boys had fun.

Boys Having Fun (aka Gaige Goofing Off for Camera)

And they had a really cool petting zoo, which I loved.

Joey and Gaige

It was a nice visit. On Sunday, we walked down to the Warrenton Branch Greenway, which is about two blocks from our house, to take some pictures.

More on that adventure later.

I took lots of pictures. Some good, and some not so good.

We’ll save the outtakes for another post, okay?

I Walk the Line

I can’t help but think of Johnny Cash when I look at that last shot.

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
I keep my eyes wide open all the time
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds
Because you’re mine, I walk the line

Here’s the best shot of the weekend. It didn’t come easy. Or cheap!

Joey, Amy, and Gaige

More shots from their visit to come in my next post.

I hope your weekend was equally as much fun!