West Virginia

Traveling with one of the sales guys today. After dinner with the customer (great Italian!!), we went to Harper's Ferry. Here are some shots with the Nikon point & shoot.

 The view out my hotel window - race track with barns in the background. Hoping the horses are working early tomorrow.

Railroad tracks and the Harper's Ferry railroad station - the commuter train runs into Washington, DC. Heck of a ways to travel for work.

The Shenandoah river. It joins the Potomac just a little bit down river from Harper's Ferry.

One of the many deer we saw around Harper's Ferry and Charles Town. The photos of the very cute mama and fawn were too blurry to post.

Today starts P365 Redux. I'm doing to do it from one day before my birthday this year to my birthday next year. Wish me luck - a photo every day for a year is a damn lot of photos!

Syrphid Fly

Took a little research, but BugGuide.net help key out this guy, a Syrphid Fly. He/She was on one of the shrubs in the backyard this evening. Love the metallic back.

Miniature Rose

I planted this miniture rose late last year. It was a scraggly little thing, so I didn't expect it would survive the winter. It's about a foot high, 18 inches across and lush. The little roses are just starting to pop, maybe an inch and a half across fully open.
I thought these buds were just lovely.

Used a bleach bypass filter and added a vignette to this one.

Rampaging River

Hot hot HOT today. Did some shooting in Cuyahoge Falls, along the river. Amazing - the river is running at full force, blasting over the dam and down the gorge. All the sand bars have disappeared, even the big one just below the old powerhouse. It extended into the river from the two trees on the right. Even the log stuck on the dam is almost completely submerged.

If you look closely, you can see that some creative soul painted a smiley face on one of the pylons.

The noise is unbelievable. I was standing on the High Bridge, about 100 feet from the freeway, and all I could hear was the river. Here's the view, looking up toward the Sheraton:

And here's what it looked like this winter:

Wildly different! Below is the dam by the Sheraton patio. I have never seen this much water pouring over it.

This one is looking north toward Broad Blvd. Probably could've cropped it better. I just liked the rusted girder. There are a couple of other ancient girders and some giant gears, who knows from what. There was an amusement park some where down the gorge about 100 years ago, maybe they're leftover parts from a ride.

Even though it was ridiculously hot for the last day of May, I'm glad I took the camera out - the river was just awesome!

First Bloom

The first peony blossom opened yesterday - it's one of Grandma Wilk's. Seems fitting for Memorial Day.

To soften the vivid magenta and green and reduce the contrast against the house, I used a Lightroom 3 preset called "Aged Photo" on this shot, and added a vignette and a bit of grain.

MMmmmm - Pineapple Upside Down Cake!

Boy, does it smell good!!

John Brown Tannery Park



It was such a nice evening tonight, Chuck and I had a picnic at Plum Creek Park, then went to Tannery Park to look at the river. The deck is gone, washed away by the flood. We were walking on the sand bar under these trees last year - not a chance of doing that now. The river path is completely under water. Kent State is still renting kayaks, though. Bet that's a wild ride.

Dame's Rocket and honeysuckle are blooming. I just googled Dame's Rocket - it's not a native plant, it was brought from Europe in the 17th or 18th century and has successfully naturalized. At least three states list it as an invasive. Honeysuckle is an invader, too, but they're both pretty and smell sweet, so I'm cutting them some eco-pc slack.