Day 9

Having spent a happy hour or so in the sunshine this morning moving logs into the garage and once the chimney cleaner had been,  we set off for Manassas for the Nature Visions photo expo being held there.

Old town Manassas had held its Veterans Day parade this morning and the flags were still out, alongside the Halloween/Thanksgiving pumpkins.

We parked by the station and soon heard the clanging bell of the Virginia Express,  passing through on its way to Washington DC.

At the edge of the car park were some amazing Gingko trees.

Day 8

Cold and crisp day today and so the birds were very busy collecting sunflower seed from the feeder.  This Cardinal bird and the American nuthatch (who for some reason prefers to feed upside down) were amongst the more colourful visitors.

I went for a walk around the 'block' at the end if the afternoon when the light was fading and it was distinctly chilly.  

Day 7

It was great to be able to see the live feed from Bath Abbey of the installation of Prince Edward as Chancellor of the University this morning (even though it was at 6am!)

On a more mundane level, we received our delivery of logs for the winter..

(In fact only half of this was ours, but still a good pile!)

Day 6

It was sunny today and the colours in the garden are changing to yellow and orange.  Leaves are falling like rain, I put out about ten large bags today that i swept off the road , drive and lawn yesterday but there will be more..

When filling the bird feeders on the decking I left a few seeds on the rail in the hope that I could photograph the birds through the window.  One did come along...

Further along the rail I had put an apple which was going bad, this attracted the bird's attention but then another visitor turned up..

He didn't seem to know what it was.

Initially he squeezed past the apple and ate the seed.

Then he decided it might be worth a try.

He was just getting nicely stuck in when..,

He lost it over the edge!!

Day 5

A special delivery through the post - thank you Andrew!  Not sure I believed that these existed, but they do!  We have yet to try them but sure that they will be good...

David back at work today so at lunchtime I read the local paper to see what is going on.  See details of an unusual charity event which took place last weekend ..,,

This evening David has downloaded his Skyline Drive pics, including the bears.  Long shots of course but you can see that these are definitely bears in the woods:

Day 4

Frosty morning at Skyland resort.  Our cabin was 'Birmingham'!

The road was much quieter today so more wildlife including this deer.  Bear pictures (at a distance) to follow..

Day 3 - 3 Nov

Weather is sunny and trees turned with leaves falling fast - so off to Skyline Drive - within the Shenandoah National Park, in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Shenandoah river valley,

Our lodge room at Skyland Resort with a great view over the valley.  Note rocking chair!

Day 2 - 2 Nov

Morning view of the garden in Freetown Drive

Autumn colour in Reston town centre square.

A re-homing event in the main street - so many dogs looking for new families to take them home

A surprise delivery while we were out, thank you Maggie and co!

Day 1 - 1 November 2013

The adventure begins.. with a glass of champagne (to steady the nerves)

Arrived at Washington Dulles to find a sunny day and temperature of 25 degrees C!