The last part of the photography adventure...

Alright, I'm trying again to finish up the adventure I had the other day with my cousin Jane and our friend Susie. It seems that Google's blog service is having a bit of difficulty today because it keeps posting "Could not contact Blogger.com. Saving and publishing may fail. Retrying..." and then occasionally posts "Draft autosaved at..." So this last collage of images from our adventure may or may not show up today if I fail at publishing!

The two scenic images were both taken from the same spot... the James Rumsey Monument in Shepherdstown, WV. The "Opera House" is in downtown and is not an opera house at all but was built as a movie theater in the early 1900's and was in continuous operation as one until 1956. The Yellow Brick Bank building was, at one time, a bank but now houses a lovely restaurant.

More of the photography adventure...

I was going to add this to the previous post until I realized how much I'd already written about Del, his pottery and our visit there. So this post will be about the rest (or more) of the adventure... depending! ;-)

Our first stop of the day (upper left in the collage above) was at the "Scenic Overlook" on I-270 not far from Washington, DC where I took LOTS of photos and found that most of them did not please me (this one did). The lovely old church on the right had a corner-stone dated 1856; some of the graves in the cemetery were those of soldiers who died in our Civil War. The lower left is obviously a close-up of the gorgeous stained glass window and on the right, skipping to the end of the day, is a sunset taken in Boonsboro, MD.

We stopped for lunch in Shepherdstown, WV and wandered the town a bit both before and after lunch. The collage above includes an image (upper left) of the tower of McMurran Hall, part of Shepherdstown University... the clock in the tower is mainained, wound twice weekly and strikes the hour as it has since 1841 although in 1841 it was not in its present location. It was originally intended for the tower at Trinity Church but was moved to McMurran Hall in 1860. (information from the Historic Shepherdstown Walking Tour guide) Additional images are of a lovely old home and the main street, an old, stone Lutheran Church tower and a quirky coffee shop "bumper sticker" hanging on the wall of the Lost Dog coffee shop in Shepherdstown. This bumper sticker caught my eye for two reasons... it made me laugh and then I noticed that it was from a coffee shop in Sheridan, WY where we lived until 1955 when we moved to Billings, MT.

Rambling to Foxcross Pottery in Sharpsburg, MD with stops along the way...

Del of Foxcross pottery is a favorite potter of mine whose pieces I have been buying for over 30 years... his studio and home are both on the same property where he lives with his wife and works in his studio most every day. My cousin Jane and I had been discussing going off somewhere to have fun together while taking pictures for awhile now since photography is a passion for both of us.

Since it had been quite awhile since we had visited Del in Sharpsburg, MD, we thought making a day of it and heading up that way (slightly less than a 90 minute drive from my house if one doesn't stop at all en route) qualified for a fun adventure, especially since we decided to go up by one route and return by another... traveling a few back country roads and having lunch in Shepherdstown, WV either before or after visiting with Del at his pottery studio. Our friend Susie concurred and happily joined us.

The collage above (view large; right click link to select view in another window to avoid leaving this page... html tag target=blank isn't working for me any more) is a collection of images from our visit... Although I've visited Del many times, I learned a few things that I hadn't known before... the collection of old tools hanging on the wall are some that Del found on their property when they were clearing the land to build their home and the artifacts on the shelf (some bullets, uniform buttons and other items) are Civil War artifacts. Del used some of the old tools when building their home! Del is pictured above an old teapot that sits on a wood stove in front of the shelf holding the artifacts. To his right is the sign outside his studio. The stained glass window decorates their kitchen/dining area, the wooden shelf with several pottery pieces showcase 'pots' from potters who inspired Del when he was starting out and the rest of the pottery (the bowl with gourds and pine cone and in the lower right collage image) is all Del's work.

I will be adding to this post when I find the time to put together a couple more collages showing representative images of the rest of the adventure my cousin Jane, our friend Susie and I had the other day. In the meantime, there is a fairly brief slide show of the images I hope to organize better when I find the time. Who knew retirement would keep me so busy!