Dark and Mysterious

Skyline Caverns, Virginia 

This commercial cave is near Front Royal. I took these pictures quite a while ago but didn't get around to posting them. Sometimes I feel a bit overwhelmed when I have a large number of images from one place. It's hard to winnow them down to a reasonable number to post. Somehow it seems easier to sacrifice a bunch of them when enough time has passed that I no longer remember the effort to take them.

Most of the bright colors are created by the lighting system.

This cave is famous for crystalline features called anthodites. They are deep in the cavern and are rare. A door separates this part of the cave in order to protect them from outside air and too much human breath, which will eventually destroy them.

The Shenandoah Valley has many caverns. Not all are open to the public, but a number are and you should tour one when you visit our area.

(See more "Caverns" posts.)

Shadow of Dried Flowers

Sharing with Shadow Shot Sunday and Black and White Weekend

Five for Friday Before Christmas

Willy Nilly Friday

Sharing with Skywatch Friday

1. Lights in New Market, VA.

2. This holiday couple greeted us at the Wayside Inn in Middletown.

3. Holiday lights in our neighborhood.

Sharing with My Town Shoot Out
and Orange You Glad It's Friday

4. Frank purchased this house in Woodstock, Virginia to replace the investment property he sold in Dale City. This one is closer to us and it's almost new. It was a model home. It's now available for lease.

5. I spotted a new sign at Dickey Ridge in Shenandoah National Park. It's aimed at youngsters and features a a dog named Track and a dragonfly named Kip.

Sharing with Signs, Signs

Shadow Selfie

Sharing with Shadow Shot Sunday and Black and White Weekend

The View from Settlers Way

Sharing with Black and White Weekend and Inspired Sunday

I pulled onto a side street on the outskirts of Strasburg to get this view of the three crosses that dominate a hill near exit 296. They stand in Freedom Memorial Park behind the Restoration Fellowship Church.

Five for Friday with Fall Foliage

It's already Friday again and I'm using the Willy Nilly Friday format to catch up on some miscellaneous photos.

1. The ginkgo leaves have finally turned yellow over at the State Arboretum. They turned later than usual, thanks to the warmest autumn I've experienced in Virginia, and I can remember at least 60 of them! I love warm weather although climate change worries me.

See the ginkgo grove last year.

2. Mersad has challenged us to post a rain picture for My Town Shootout. Here I watched rain (a squall line?) move across the valley. I was on Dickey Ridge in Shenandoah National Park.

Also sharing with Skywatch Friday

A month ago I photographed a similar weather formation from a spot on the other side of Front Royal. 

3. This little scene looked right for a meme but I couldn't find a short quote that worked. Here's a longer quote from a man who was vice president during World War II. 

“A fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends.”

 ― Henry A. Wallace

Sharing: Orange You Glad It's Friday?

4. I knew this reflection image would look a bit mysterious. I like it that way!

5. Frank took this photo of me on Tuesday. We were at an overlook on Skyline Drive. When I saw the picture, I puzzled over the pose. Why did it look familiar? Finally I realized that the over-the-shoulder pose is similar to one that Theresa uses on her blog.

Today at Warden Lake

Wordless, Water World Wednesday in Black and White

Lavender and Lines

Hunter's Moon

Five for Friday, October 14

The Willy Nilly Friday format works well for posting five miscellaneous photos and linking to some blog hops.

1. Just clouds, sharing with Skywatch Friday.

2. We finally got our pool covered for the winter. I wasn't able to assist because my foot is still healing, so Frank hired a helper. Before that he cleaned out the leaves that had already blown in and removed the faded beach ball that was floating around.

Weekend Reflections

3. This is inside John's Family Restaurant in Rippon, WV. I enjoy the decor as well as the food.

I see enough frames here to qualify for Mersad's theme for today, Frames. There's also some orange for Orange You Glad It's Friday.

4. Sometimes the stickers on car windows are funny. Here's a hungry dinosaur to share with Signs, Signs.

5. I'm so tired of seeing memes that are based on lies! People share them without fact-checking. (How hard is it to look on Snopes or FactCheck anyway?) Well, I've been reading about the power of visual information,  so I made up a meme with the help of a cat and Photoshop.

Sharing with Pet Parade and Caturday

Friday Linkups plus a Blogspot Glitch

Tanya's Willy Nilly Friday format is great for a post on random topics. Today I'm starting with a black and white image and then switching to some color photos and a screen print. 

1. This side of a barn has plenty of texture plus an artful collage of tools.  

Sharing with Black and White Friday and #black_and_white

2. Here we see some rain clouds moving in from the left.

Sharing with Cloudy Days and Skywatch Friday

3. This cat is watching the lake by our community's entrance.

Sharing with Pet Parade

4. After an appointment in Front Royal the other day we stopped at Spelunker's for burgers. They have fresh flowers on the tables and I liked the shadow.

Sharing with Flower Friday and Orange You Glad It's Friday

5. Finally, I want to vent about some blogger craziness! My older posts are appearing with the format messed up! Words are running right over the pictures. Apparently the Chrome browser is ignoring come alignment codes.  Other Blogspot users are reporting that things are disappearing from their sidebars. Blogger help tells them to empty their cache or try a different browser, but I find just going to the next page and then coming back fixes the problem. Switching to Safari works too. 

Sunroof as a Reflector

Friday Five for Mid-July

1. News reports have been disturbing this week and all I can do is offer another rainbow picture as a symbol of hope. 

2. How about some fancy daylilies?

3.  Here's a cat that I used some filters on in Photoshop.

Pet Parade

4. This black and white shot of my little sister is one I took many years ago when I was eleven.

5.  This final shot is more recent; I took it late this afternoon to illustrate "Golden Glow."

Have a peaceful weekend. 

Fences and Flowers

This final shot is from yesterday. A late afternoon shower meant it was time to go outside and look eastward to see if there's a rainbow.