Water Park Shenandoah

Last week was hot, really hot, and since we were out all week we hit the swimming holes, a lot. Everyone had a blast, it kinda felt like the above picture.


I have to put a couple pictures that are not from swimming up, don't know why but here they are (we will get back to swimming soon, I promise).

Fly poison is one of the coolest flowers in bloom right now, it's poisonous (duh) so they used to grind it up and mix it with sugar water to kill the flies, cool huh.



A Zebra Swallowtail on a Hay-Scented fern.


Now back to sweet water pics.





Ahhhhahhh, now that's refreshing.








And after all the good times in the water holes, show em how the week ended.



And here's how we felt!

Sweet Summer Treats

Summer berries are in season! Those two ripe ones in the picture went missing, but the rest are just coming in and the black raspberries are in full force!



Uuummmmmm sweat, there's plenty of that to go around so I don't mind if this small Red Admiral butterfly has a little while I'm on belay.



It's always a treat to see a Rattlesnake in their natural habitat, unless of course you get too close. This one had 14 rattles but he didn't have to use them, we kept our distance.




This Black Vulture is thinking; "Will you be my sweet treat for lunch?" "Just step a little closer to that cliff edge, you will be fine." Meanwhile we were thinking, "man, so graceful in the sky, but they are so ugly up close."

The Feeling of Summer

"Well there's a feelin' in the air
Just like a Friday afternoon
Yeah you can go there if you want
Though it fades too soon
So go on, let it be
If there's a feelin' coming over me
Seems like it's always understood this time of year" - Better than Ezra


A local opossum out for an evening stroll in the waning light before he starts his nocturnal foraging.



This Spicebush swallowtail thought she would pose for a picture, I was like, "alright, since you match the climbing rope so nicely."




A spiders' orb web catching the morning fog.


The next three pics are some more Shenandoah friends who posed for pictures, hope you'll come along and see some for yourself.









Its the nervous feeling before the jump into cold stream water, or trying to decide to watch the stars or the lightning bugs. It's noticing the wind whip waves through the deep summer grasses and following a box turtles trail because he has matted the grass down. Its the cool breeze and the steam rising after the storm. The summer is here and we hope you love it too.