Local, this week’s photo challenge

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Deer feeding on the new leaves in Spring.
Martha Fairfax
A Belle of the South
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Don wearing Confederate Uniform and performing rifle drills. He alternates between the Union and Confederation sides of the Civil War, changing uniforms and speeches.
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Friends of Leesylvania work with park conservation officers to plant new native trees near the Visitor Center.

I live in Woodbridge, Virginia. When I’m out and about, I love Leesylvania State Park. Nice trails to walk dogs on, the Potomac River tides changing and bringing new things to the shore, enactors bringing the Lives of the people that lived on the property so long ago.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/local/

This is the challenge. To find the perfect photo, I may actually select several to show you. It is the most popular state park in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As an open park, there are picnic pavilions, a field for soccer, volleyball, a fishing pier or pick a sandy bank. Wild creatures abound: the busy beaver (best to leave it be), deer, squirrels, geese, ducks, possum, groundhogs, bald eagles and osprey, herons, ibis, and many more. If you are ever in the DC area, it’s a half hour drive from the city in non-traffic hours. I like the cooler seasons the best, but summer is lively there.

After I picked these photos, I found the one that shows my forgotten garden.

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My back yard in Spring

 

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Robin in Winter, taken under the redbud during a snow

The Empty Garden

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Brown and barren, the leaves fell
The plane trees lacking color
Unredeemable, except for the seed pods
Which still hang like Christmas tree
Ornaments. Maple leaves red, yellow,
Brown, always the brown asserts
Itself into the color, hinting,
Threatening that the end comes.
Sunsets red, orange, the moon
Rises, Yellow, hazy, plump,
Food for the hunter, gatherer,
Soon virgin white will cover
The stains of life, healing, planting
Seeds of tomorrow’s world.
Teaching with iciness the survival
Of the young, the aged, the storekeeper
In all of the seasons to come.

A Beautiful Effort, Nationals Baseball

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The season is now over for us, but the games were intensely participated in by both sides. The split series needed to be won, the series was the first in MLB history with two facing minority coaches and it was the longest game in MLB history. Dusty Baker is the manager of eternal options. He works so hard to come up with strategies. And we almost got there. We almost beat the Dodgers at our home, we just missed by one long shot. My husband said the whole season was a long shot. It wasn’t though, it was a concentrated effort, you know, one pursuit. I believe that the one pursuit kept the Nats performing through the good times and through the bad. We had injuries but not nearly as many as could have happened. The medical staff is incredible, after all, they did deal with soccer before they came here.

Max Scherzer threw a good game. He was hot. He was on fire. He was pulled at the beginning of the seventh in what would become the inning from hell. Sometimes the hardest games are the ones you care a lot about. Peterson of the Dodgers hit a home run off Max for a tie score. He went back to his dugout absolutely hyped. It took six pitchers to finally sink 3 outs into the inning. One was walked, a one base hit, a home run and the Dodgers lead 4-1. But we rallied and even with an out by Werth, we came back almost immediately to make the score 4-3.

There were two pretty clear bulks by one of the Dodger pitchers that left me a bit peeved, but if the ump doesn’t see it, it can’t be reviewed on video. And Werth did get waved home at an “awkward moment.” Other than that…

Jansen pitched starting in the 7th and in the 9th he was relieved by Kershaw in an incredible celebration of the spirit of the game. Jansen had left him with two runners on base. So he faced Murphy who had a popup to our unending sorrow. Then Difo made a concerted effort but like the mighty Casey, he struck out.

So, congratulations to the Nats and Dodgers for a game well fought.

Photo Challenge H2O

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H2O

IMG_0333_1IMG_0327img_0326-1img_0337-1These were taken in Barcelona at the site of their World’s Fair with a Canon Digital Rebel. The fountains are lit at night during the summer with changing water heights and color.

What a Ruckus!

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Thirty-two chapters into a story about a woman who runs away to Fairy rather than face the challenges life and children moving back home have given her. Her daughter has invaded Fairy to find her h…

Source: What a Ruckus!

Vote

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Virginia is a proud Commonwealth. It is the Home of Presidents. It was the first state to have a black governor. It has a classy education system with ways to help parents pay for it. World class parks are located here. We have national, state and regional parks. Our interstate system is growing and is well maintained. We have shopping, caverns, mountains, seashores, beaches and farms. We have cities, suburbs and rural areas.

To protect these things, you need to get out and vote. With the wrong choices we lose too much to easily recover from.

There are two constitutional amendments on the ballot. One would drive unions from Virginia which is a right to work state. You can be union, or not. It’s the choice of the employee. Read up on the two amendments.

Please, think about more than the commercials on TV. Look up statistics. Be an educated voter.

I hope to see you at the polls.

Vacation part 2

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I have to go to pictures to tell you about vacation at this point. There was the parade for kids at 9:30 in the morning. Old people are sleeping in on a day at sea that early. But there sure were a lot of kids at heart at the parade.

Then there are the dolphins leaping in front of a ship, riding the waves.

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The Wave

There was the Coast Guard Escort.

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9/11/2016 On Guard

There was Tulum on the Atlantic Ocean with its white sand beaches and the restaurant that followed.

Tulum
Tulum
Tulum
Atlantic Beach, Mexico
Tulum
Tulum

And French Key in Honduras:

Big French Key, Honduras
Coral

Dunbar Falls and the Green Grotto in Jamaica:

Dunbar Falls, Jamaica
Dunbar Falls, Jamaica
Jungle Bloom
Green Grotto, Jamaica
Green Grotto, Jamaica
Bats, Jamaica
Swallows, Jamaica

There was Chichen Itza:

Chichen Itza
Chichen Itza
Chichen Itza
Chichen Itza
Chichen Itza
Kohunlich

And Kohunlich

Where it rained and rained and rained….

There was the Promenade…on the ship:

And Galveston:

Galveston Oil Rigs
Farmer’s Market Pea
Oleander
Galveston Alley

And ships and ports:

And Dreams and clouds:

The Gulf of Mexico
Good Luck Tailsman
Jungle Bloom
Iguana, Tulum

 

Declaration Dance

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Virginia carried the proposition,
That Adams and Adams spouted
But couldn’t drive through,
That all men are entitled a life
Free from the fetters of kings.
Lee launched the Liberty vote.
Jefferson articulated the leap fantastic
Washington carried its balleted banner
Winter cold and cannon fodder.
Lafayette languished in York,
Out maneuvering the British,
And liberty was born to argument
Of how we should go forward
In this courtly Sarabande and lively jig.