Author Archives: anyonecantakeapicture

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Snow weekend Jan 2016

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I think they said it snowed for almost 36 hours straight! Definitely the most snow I’ve seen in the last 10 years. And of course it had to happen on my birthday. Never fails. Since I moved to Virginia, my birthday has endured either snow, dangerous ice storms, or bitter cold.

But what can you do? Nothing but watch the snow fall and try and enjoy the beauty of it.

It started snowing January 22nd, but I apparently didn’t take any pictures that day. I think I was thinking it wasn’t going to amount to much. I was very wrong!

January 23rd – 10:00AM, 1:00PM, 4:00PM, 5:00PM & January 24th 10:00AM

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I had filled the bird feeder before it started snowing really hard and the birds did their best to dig through the snow to get the seeds. I will be picking up a hanging feeder just as soon as I can make my way to the bird store!

Twix looking out at the snow.

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Measured a hair over 13 inches on the deck.

I cleared the feeder and filled it back up before I started tunneling. The blue jays were very grateful.

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Digging my way out.

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Slowly making progress.

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I think this is the first time I’ve spent three straight days in my house due to snow. And I’ll more than likely spend a fourth. Not necessarily because of the snow, but because of the flat tire on my car and I don’t want to call AAA just yet when they are probably hauling cars out of ditches. Good fun!

Not really snow related, but Snickers was rolling around in a sun spot and just looked too cute!

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Wilmington DE & Longwood Gardens PA 2015

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After visiting Winterthur a couple of years ago, we decided there was more to see in Delaware. I spent the weekend visiting Longwood Gardens and I highly recommend it!

We stayed at the Hotel du Pont in Wilmington, Delaware. It is an older hotel with lots of charm and character.

The only downside…the hallways reminded me of a creepy horror movie.

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Dinner was at Harry’s Seafood Grill. I had the tuna with soba noodles, so yummy! I was fortunate to catch the sunset right before dinner.

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According to their website, Longwood Gardens consists of over 1,077 acres of gardens, woodlands, and meadows. It is also illuminated by half a million lights during the holidays! Built by Pierre du Pont in the early 1900s, the Christmas display started in the 1960s and is still going strong.

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Our timed tickets were for 4:00, so we started in the conservatory while we waited for the skies to get darker. IT. WAS. HUGE. The map said it was over 4 acres with 20+ rooms.

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The way they had it set up was you had to walk in a line to see the smaller rooms, it wasn’t just a see-what-you-feel-like-looking-at. It was claustrophobic at times and very slow going, but each room was tastefully decorated.

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The sun had just set as we left the conservatory, but still not dark enough to enjoy the lights.

Once it did get dark, the lights were spectacular!

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There were a couple of ponds that reflected the trees.

Similar to the Bellagio (but on a much smaller scale), they had a fountain set to Christmas music.

If it hadn’t been so cold, I might have explored a little more, but what I did see I was very impressed by.

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Getting to know Virginia – Surry

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We had trouble figuring out what to do for Dad’s birthday this year. He finally decided he wanted to take the ferry from Jamestown over to Surry. It turned out to be a very nice, warm November day.

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Once we got to Surry, we had some time to kill before the next ferry came so we drove up the main road a bit. We decided to stop at the Ham Shoppe. We bought some little ham biscuits and cheese crisps and enjoyed them on the little patio they had set up in front.

We enjoyed watching the seagulls and cormorants on the pilings as we waited to push off.

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The ferry ride back was much more calm so Dad and I got out and stood in the bow (at the bow? I’m not nautical). These two seagulls caught a ride with us, guess their wings were tired.

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We spotted an obelisk on the shore.

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A little further down we spotted a statue of John Smith. We’ll have to come back another day and visit those sites. Have I mentioned lately how awesome the zoom is on my camera?

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Jamestown Settlement ships

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The sky and clouds were so pretty!

There were a ton of cormorants waiting for the ferry to come in.

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We had a very nice, enjoyable ride and it was a perfect weather day for it.

Happy Birthday Dad!

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Pumpkins 2015

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I’ve been having trouble getting motivated lately. All I want to do on weekends is lay on the couch and watch movies. And Halloween was no exception. For the first year in seven years, I didn’t carve pumpkins! WHAT?! I bought them, I just couldn’t muster up the energy to carve them.

Well, I finally got my groove back! Instead of Halloween pumpkins, I decided to do Thanksgiving. Let me just say, 60 seconds into stenciling the turkey, I wanted to give up, it was a very challenging one! I’ve also always wanted to do a cat pumpkin and after the detail on the turkey, this was the easiest cat I had.

Gobble gobble!!

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