Around Roanoke, VA (A Daily Photo Blog)

Happy New Year!

2009-12-30T08:41:00.003-05:00

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. Santa did bring me that new camera but unfortunately it was not compatible with my computer so I had to send it back to Amazon and get something else. I'm taking a blogging break until my new camera comes in, I don't feel like using my old, yucky, broke down camera again.

This is the snow from almost 2 weeks ago, that's when this picture was taken. A lot of snow is still on the ground, taking a long time to melt, too long!

Well, have a Happy New Year!

Christmas Eve

2009-12-24T09:06:00.003-05:00

So much snow is still on the ground, but at least the roads are cleared and people can finish up their Christmas shopping. I didn't get out until Tuesday and it was crazy crowded out, everywhere. The snow really put a damper on everyone's Christmas plans over the weekend so everyone has been scrambling around to get it done this week! I have some baking to finish today and waiting on 3 presents to get here from the UPS man. They will be here today, right?!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all my friends all over the world! Sorry I haven't been stopping by but it's been busy around here, you know how it is!

A Tale of Two Snowmen

2009-12-22T08:10:00.003-05:00

This redneck snowman has had too much Christmas celebration and is passed out with his can of beer in his hand....

And this little fattie has had one too many Wendy's dinners and it's gone straight to his middle haha

Nick and the boys worked on these snowmen on Sunday. We got a lot of snow dumped on us, starting Friday at about 4 and didn't let up till Saturday morning. There are reports from all around Botetourt County of 14.5 to 15.5 inches. Our yards are still covered but the roads are cleared. I haven't been out yet but will see what it looks like a little later when I take Ashlyn and her friend to the mall.

Are you ready for Christmas? I have a couple of small things to pick up and quite a bit of baking to tackle today and tomorrow!

Buchanan Christmas Parade V

2009-12-18T06:48:00.003-05:00

Daughters of the Confederacy, Buchanan Chapter.

We are expecting a huge winter storm today. Snow over a foot, possibly 18 inches is predicted. A lot of schools in the area are closing early, still waiting to see what our schools are going to do.

Buchanan Christmas Parade IV

2009-12-17T06:33:00.001-05:00

Another oldie....

Buchanan Christmas Parade III

2009-12-16T00:09:00.002-05:00

I love this really neat old fire truck!

Buchanan Christmas Parade II

2009-12-15T00:00:00.000-05:00

This is the James River High School Band. James River is our rival school, we are Lord Botetourt, which by the way weren't in the parade for some reason, but still, even being the rival school, I went ahead and took their picture because I'm nice like that haha...Don't you love the sound of the band though?!

Buchanan Christmas Parade I

2009-12-14T06:39:00.002-05:00

On Saturday afternoon we went to the Buchanan Christmas Parade. We missed Fincastle's parade which was last weekend when the weather was so yucky. It was cold Saturday, but at least it was dry. Ashlyn is missing in this picture, she went to the mall with a friend to do some Christmas shopping.

We watched Four Christmases last night, really funny!

SkyWatch Friday

2009-12-10T14:57:00.002-05:00

And so our snow day draws to an end....but there might be more snow in store for us Saturday!

To see skies from all over the world, visit SKYLEY!

Snowy Soccer Fields

2009-12-09T14:29:00.002-05:00

The soccer fields at the Botetourt Sports Complex. This is where Braden and Dalton have football practice.

No more traces of snow here but the ground is so soggy from the rain we got yesterday and the snow melting. It's sunny out today but supposed to get pretty windy, which has some concerned about trees getting blown over because of the extra wet ground.

Snowboarder

2009-12-08T14:43:00.004-05:00

The boys really look forward to the snow so they can snowboard. We don't get much here, in fact last year we didn't really get any till around March. (Some of you might remember seeing my pictures.) We got a lot of snow that time but since this is only our second winter here, I don't have much to compare it to. Our snow from Saturday is almost totally gone, although there are a few patches here and there. We are supposed to get some rain here any minute now, mixed with some sleet later tonight.

I thought this picture looked almost black and white, except for Braden's bright orange hat!

Snow Dog

2009-12-07T15:48:00.003-05:00

Christian is trying to have Bella pull him around the yard. Actually she is just trying to get to another dog that is running around loose. I don't know how he can lay like that in the snow, makes me cold just looking at it!

Tropical Snow

2009-12-06T08:47:00.001-05:00

Saturday it snowed all day. The boys wanted to go over to the Botetourt Sports Complex and snow board down some hills there. Here's the baseball fields with the "Tropical Sno" and ice machines, not really needed today!

It's Sunday morning (have this set to post for Monday) and the snow is melting quickly!

SkyWatch Friday

2009-12-03T20:37:00.001-05:00

A pretty view from the Blue Ridge Parkway towards the end of our hike, it will be dark soon! Too see skies from all over the world, visit SKYLEY!

Hornet's Nest

2009-12-03T00:00:00.000-05:00

Last fall we were out walking around and I happened to see one of these up high in a tree not knowing what it was. Recently I've seen a couple of CDP blogs posting about these and turns out it's a hornet's nest. You learn so much from the CDP community, don't you?! I found this one while out on our little hike on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Blue Ridge Parkway

2009-12-02T00:00:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, Ashlyn went out to dinner with her boyfriend and his family. Nick and I wanted to take a little drive so we grabbed the keys and the boys and jumped on the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is a horse trail we stopped at and took a little walk along. I'll show you more views from our walk this week.

December Theme Day - Waiting

2009-12-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

Wow, Theme Day this month really snuck up on me! I missed last month's Theme Day for some reason, can't remember why but I'm sure I had a good excuse and by the time I realized it's time again for Theme Day, it was too cold and wet outside to try to get some pictures so I decided to plow through my picture files and see what would strike me as "waiting"....so, all of a sudden it hit me, this is waiting, in a sense, for me. I'll explain....Sunday Braden and Dalton were invited to a Birthday Party at a roller skating rink. Here all the boys are in the party room, eating pizza and Birthday cake and were laughing at each other because the icing on the cake made their tongues blue so I told them I'd take their picture with their blue tongues. Remember, my camera is broken and stuck on one setting and it's zoom only. So here we are in a tiny party room and I'm telling the kids "skooch in closer, ok, closer, that's good, skooch together just a little closer" as my back is as pressed to the back wall of the room as I can get, I finally, almost, get all the boys in the shot,lol...so, I'm "WAITING" on Santa to bring me a new camera! I've been good (for the most part)...so please Santa, if you are reading this, please bring me that Canon Power Shot, like my old one that broke (before this one that broke) that allowed even me to take good pictures! I'll be "waiting"!

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Falling Spring Falls

2009-11-30T00:00:00.000-05:00

Just a few miles down the road from Westvaco (Friday's post) is Falling Spring Falls. This was a surprise to find! I read that this is rare type of fall for Virginia where most falls are cascades and slides.

Information from the Virginia State Parks website:
Located in Alleghany County on the Jackson River, this stream rises from Warm River Cave approximately one mile north. Warm thermal spring water and a cold stream of shallow groundwater mix in the cave before surfacing as Falling Spring Falls. The water is supersaturated with carbonate that forms travertine, a form of limestone, at the base of the waterfall.

Underneath the 80 foot drop from the Falling Spring Falls is an undercut cliff. The constantly wet rock faces within the spray or splash zone of the falling water creates a moist microhabitat called a spray cliff community.

Spray cliff communities on limestone in Virginia are considered rare. This area features 14 bryophyte or moss species.
Informational sign at Falling Spring Falls overlooking the falls. This sign has information about the botany of the falls.
According to the book, “Historical Sketches of the Alleghany Highlands” by Gay Arritt, 82 acres of land including the Falling Spring Falls was granted by King George III of Great Britain to Gabriel Jones in August 1771. In 1780 Thomas Jefferson, as Governor of Virginia, granted the property to Major Thomas Massie.

This site was once visited by Jefferson to survey the falls and he mentions it in his manuscripts “Notes on the State of Virginia” written in 1781.

“The only remarkable cascade in this country is that of the Falling Spring in Augusta,” wrote Jefferson, “…it falls over a rock 200 feet into the valley below.”

From 1914 to 1926 a producer of travertine material, Ohio C. Barber Fertilizer Company, mined fertilizer in Barber, Virginia, now called Falling Spring. In 1927 Falling Spring Lime Company assumed operations until 1941. Mining operations necessitated the relocation of the falls where it now plunges only 80 feet.

Electricity generated from the falls was used to run the lime crushing plant and to operate an electric railway hauling travertine from the mine.

On November 28, 2004, Mead Westvaco donated the Falling Spring Falls and approximately 19 surrounding acres to the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Also read somewhere else that the fall is beautiful when frozen. I'll have to see that!

SkyWatch Friday

2009-11-27T08:04:00.004-05:00

Heading into Covington, in search of the covered bridge, we came upon this ginormous plant, Westvaco. We didn't know what it was at the time but the place is huge. So of course I had to google it when I came home (what would we do without Google?).

Turns out this is the Mead/Westvaco paper mill. The Covington Mill is one of the most technologically advanced bleached paperboard manufacturing facilities in the world. The mill stretches 1.5 miles along the Jackson River and employs about 1,500 people. It produces more than 2,500 tons of bleached paper and paperboard each day and exports its products to more than 60 countries. This facility manufactures paperboard used for premium folding cartons, for aseptic and other liquid packaging and for printing applications that include books, greeting cards and sports cards.

According to their website, they state that their Pollution Prevention Program is always looking for new ways to reduce emissions into the air, land and water and lessen the impact of its operations on the environment, employees and community.

By the looks of those plumes of smoke going into our atmosphere, they have their job cut out for them.

Any Black Friday shoppers out there? Did you get a good deal? I've never attacked the stores at dawn on Black Friday, in fact I stay as far away from any type store today! And did I hear that Toys R Us even opened earlier this year? At midnight? I think this whole Black Friday deal is getting way out of control. I wonder if other countries do this or if it's just American greed?

For more views of the sky from all over the world, visit SKYLEY

Happy Thanksgiving 2009!

2009-11-26T00:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving from our house to yours! If you're traveling, be careful!

Photo taken in Eagle Rock.

Roaring Run Furnace

2009-11-25T09:22:00.002-05:00

At the tail end of our hike to the falls, we came upon the Roaring Run Furnace. The first mention of the furnace is in a deed dated May 1, 1838. It is believed the furnace went into blast that year and also believed that its final blast was early in April of 1865, prior to the end of the Civil War in April. No other evidence suggests that the furnace went into blast again.

For a more detailed account of the furnace, visit US Forest Service

Roaring Run Falls

2009-11-24T00:00:00.001-05:00

Sunday we dodged some rain that was predicted in our forecast so we pulled out my new book that I told you about, Historic Virginia by Emily and John Salmon.

We decided to go see the Humpback Bridge in Alleghany County. According to my book, the Humpback Bridge is the last surviving curved-span bridge in the US AND the oldest covered bridge in Virginia, completed in 1857.
Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to see the bridge (sorry no pics this time!) because we decided to stop at Roaring Run Recreational Area, on the farthest edge of Botetourt County, along the way. Roaring Run creek is well known for its trout fishing. We decided to take the short hike (less than a mile) up to the falls. It was a pretty easy walk and well worth it! The trail loops around past the furnaces (used to make iron in the mid 1800's) and ended at the picnic tables that are placed along the creek. There we sat and ate our picnic lunch and relaxed a bit before heading towards the covered bridge in Covington. With the days shorter, we ended up running out of sunlight before we could find it, but we did find a huge waterfall, Falling Springs, which I'll show you later this week!

What a Difference a Day Makes

2009-11-23T00:00:00.000-05:00

Remember my Skywatch photo from Friday? This is the exact same location, only 24 hours later!

SkyWatch Friday

2009-11-19T14:55:00.003-05:00

This area is known for it's natural beauty and one thing that always steals my attention is the way the clouds envelop the mountain tops after a rain. You can't see where the mountains end and the sky begins. This is the way it looks right now after having a full day of rain. Tomorrow blue skies are in our forecast!

To see skies from all over the world, visit SKYLEY

Lines - IV

2009-11-19T00:00:00.001-05:00

Lines across the sky at sunset. As my friend Di says, "Trees without leaves = NOT CUTE" lol