PhotoHunt - Blue eyes

Zoey will come part way down the stairs and then look through the railing to see what we are doing. I caught her gaze blue-eyed back in August. For more blue, scroll down one post to my Sky Watch Friday.

Sky Watch Friday - blue skies

Our skies were a deep blue on Thursday, with contrails in the sky all day. The flag on the building was taken in downtown Frederick.

My World Tuesday - Mountain and river

Farm - northern Frederick County

Along with the rolling hills of Frederick County, there are two significant geological features: Catoctin Mountain and the Monocacy River. Catoctin Mountain is a 50-mile (80 km) ridge that stretches from the Pennsylvania border across Frederick County and into Virginia. Its highest point is 1885 feet (575 m). The mountain contains 2 Maryland state parks, a national park and the City of Frederick Forest, as well as private residences. Nestled in one of the hollows on the mountain is a small lake that we visited recently looking for photo opportunities of fall leaves and water. Marianne and I both posted photos of the lake taken on October 17. My Sky Watch Friday post has photos of the lake and sunset over the mountain taken on the 11-th. The picture below was taken near Mt. Pleasant looking over Walkersville towards Thurmont (at the base of the mountain 6 miles away). The river flows from right to left through the trees between the towns.

Towns and farms and mountain

North of Frederick City, US 15 (also known as the Catoctin Mountain Highway) runs along the valley between the mountain and the river with scenes like below. This is a beautiful drive to Gettysburg, PA.

Farm near the mountain

Monocacy River from Legore Bridge

The Monocacy River winds its way through the county to the east of Catoctin Mountain and empties into the Potomac River. It rises in Carroll County, Md and is fed by numerous streams in Carroll and Frederick counties and Adams County, PA. The photo above was taken in July from Legore Bridge in the northern part of the county. Below is the confluence of the Monocacy and Potomac rivers on the southwestern edge of the county. The photo was taken in August from the Monocacy Aqueduct.

Monocacy and Potomac confluence

PhotoHunt - Scary?

Yes! This one is in a tree in our neighborhood. The one below is on the lawn.

This one below, not so much. It is our fall decoration and we don't want to scare the little trick or treaters.

Sky Watch Friday - Birds, clouds and sunset

The skies have been beautiful this week in Maryland and I spent a good bit of time with my camera pointing up. Tuesday afternoon, white clouds were drifting by to the south and north of our house with little wisps above. There has been a large flock of birds (I think they are starlings) hanging out in the nearby trees this week. They would chatter away in the treetops for a while and then take off in groups of 10 or 12 to another tree or out into the corn field (maybe for a little snack of corn?). As I was trying to capture photos of them, this larger group took off from a neighbor's tree headed toward our front yard. Suddenly they made a sharp turn and flew directly over head to the corn field. A little later, I got a picture of the southern sky through the rear window of my home office.

On Thursday, I was out and about and pulled off the road to get some shots of the clouds near sunset. Below is a zoom on the patch of sunlight shining under the clouds. My daily post for Thursday is also a sky picture.

My World Tuesday - Dinner and movies

My World is defined as much by the people in it, as by the geographical place where we live. Marianne, the lady who graciously agreed to marry me 20 some years ago is at the center of my world. We have 6 kids and 7 grandkids, now scattered across 6 states (NJ, WV, SC, TX, CO, AZ). Our home is in Frederick County, Maryland about 50 miles from Washington, DC. We have two adopted cats and an assortment of wild critters that come visiting. Marianne established her own web site 8 years ago, but then got bit by the blog bug and has been at it since 2005. Last year she started a blog with Project 365, taking and posting a photo each day. She has continued this year, now at 659 posts without missing a day. When I retired last October, one of my goals was to do more photography, so I started Lew's Pics. The content of this blog is a daily view of my world through my camera. I started my other blog, Lew's Other Pics, to post picures from the past and to have a home for my participation in PhotoHunt Saturday, Sky Watch Friday, Bridges Between and now My World Tuesday.

I am starting with two night photos I took last Friday while waiting on carry out dinner. This shopping center is the newest in Frederick. It has a movie theater (16 screens), a bunch of restaurants, and some shops. There is a larger mall a mile or so away with large stores (Sears, Penny's, Macy's, Border's) and other shops. We ocassionaly eat at (or get take out) at the Macaroni Grill and have gone to movies here. We took the grandsons to see Batman: The Dark Knight during their visit in August. Both Marianne and I have posted pictures and some info on places of interest in Frederick and the surrounding area. I plan to revisit some of these places for My World Tuesday and add new ones. Your comments and questions are welcome, and I will try to get info and photos, if specific subjects are of interest.

Visit the home site for My World Tuesday to participate or just take a virtual world tour.

PhotoHunt - My family

My hunt this week took me back in time to the early 1950's. This is a family Christmas card Dad made with Mom, brother, sister, Dad and me (with airplane). Dad probably took the photo using the camera's timer.