Think Irish
Bunch/Jessie-Cat/Williegram 3/1/2012
When You See This, Meteorological "Winter" Will Be Over
Really? What Winter?
Think Irish
Where to start, folks?
I'll include a lot of photos and just a little text. I know that will please everyone. My tendency to post in a haphazardly, non-chronological order remains unchanged. Just laziness pure and simple.
The first image harkens back to a Halloween party which unfortunately I was unable to attend. However, I understand that several couples stood in for me. They say imitation is the best compliment. I'm humbled by their gestures. Below are two of the soiree's attendees.
I spent a wonderful Thanksgiving with my older "Sister", Marlean, and her family at daughter Patty's Middleburg VA home. I will link a Flickr set which includes the photo below, HERE, where Vincent is operating on Tom Turkey as Marlean assists.
Back home I continued civic activities helping with an eCycle event-where electronic castoffs were collected for proper disposal. Boyoboy do we throw away a lot of stuff.
One of our lovely Shannondale Club Alumni shows off a Blue Ridge Mountain cookbook. Our website had some printed to raise money for website maintenance and operation. I still have some left, if you're interested @ $8 each
Just a random photo
I took Flat Stanley around our area at the behest of a good friend's grandson. The flat guy accompanied me to a Red Cross blood drive. I gave the gift of life and so did Stanley! You can see more photos HERE
Stanley and I got to chat with Santa
and The Honorable Stanley got to sit on the Circuit Court Bench in lieu of Judge Parsons when I visited My Sis and Bro-in-Law at Christmas.
And speaking of Christmas in Romney WV
Back in Shannondale I had the pleasure of hosting some neighborhood carolers, a tradition that started when my Mom was alive. I'm grateful it's continuing
The usual touch of the season was ready to spread the spirit
Cousin Art and his Lovely wife Alicia visited
and that's how I spent my Christmas :)
I continued my ongoing and exceedingly slow process of scanning, editing, captioning and uploading old photos to Flickr. It's a task rife with a roller coaster of emotions. Below is the birth certificate of my Brother Neal, who survived just one day. A little over a year later I made my entrance.
Can anyone familiar with the Washington, D.C. area imagine walking over Chain Bridge like this nowadays? These gents are my GrGrand and Grandfathers headed toward VA and the family's "secret" fishing hole on the Potomac river.
And who thinks that our forebears didn't do wild and crazy things. Look at my Mom's family members climbing the cliffs at Great Falls VA and in long dresses, corsets and leather shoes!
A rare photo of my Mom, her siblings and her Mother at our home in Arlington VA 1950.
L-R in back, Jessie, Edith, Ida
in front, Irma, Mother Nellie & John Wilbert
For my kinfolk and anyone else who enjoy looking at photos of yesteryear I'll provide a couple links. Some pics you may have seen and others
may be new treats
Link 1....... Link 2
I've got my own little memorial to Mom and Dad and the rest of those closest to me. I know that Jessie is pleased.
And while we're on that subject, I'm reminded that my dear cousins took me down to Adams Morgan again to see Katharine, my Mom's best friend. K. is still in good spirits and her mind is sharp as a tack. She had just passed the 99.5 year milestone when Flat Stanley and I visited shortly after Christmas.
And back to MY family here in Shannondale.
The feline girls enjoy watching the birds. Even with the mild weather, our regular customers have been visiting the suet and seed feeders.
Kitties get some good close-up views of our feathered friends
I don't want to give the impression that all I do is sit on my rear end.
In the photo below I'm not re-enlisting, but being reappointed to the county's Water Advisory Committee. Pay it forward, Will.
Roaming the county for interesting photos is also a hobby. The infamous bridge to gridlock (a 4 lane bridge ending in a 2 lane highway) that has caused such a fuss on our mountain was the subject of one such expedition. Later this year (during the first rush hour snow) we'll see what a bad decision this project was.
A lengthy discussion and more images on our forum about the span can be found HERE
Another trip to Lover's Leap was a treat. I had been waiting for a snowfall to give a wintry scene, but.... Click on the panorama below for a much closer view. And you can see some other pictures and an explanation of the
view HERE
That beautiful view is a fitting close to this note. I'll bid you adieu for the time being. No matter where you are located, feel welcome to keep abreast of happenings on our Blue Ridge mountain by browsing Shannondale dot org as a guest or better, by registering and adding your thoughts to the discussions. Our title is Shannondale and Beyond
Your faithful correspondent,
Note the arrow, it's the bathhouse at Shannondale Springs
.