Snow in Springtime

After a lovely warm and sunny day on Saturday it felt really weird to wake up and see snow on the ground and still falling when I looked out of the window. I knew the day before that it was coming but still leaped out of bed to check as soon as I woke up. Barb and I were meeting up early to take advantage of the strange weather and the pretty photo opportunites that it would offer.

We drove along country roads looking for abandoned houses or spring flowers that had snow on them.

I'd though heading west would be pretty but after getting these photos we found that there was less snow out this way so we drove to old town Manassas. There are some beautiful old homes here and we got out and walked around the neighborhood enjoying the gardens.

There was still snow clinging to lots of colorful blooms and Barb was especially happy to find daffodils with snow weighting their heads down. But the snow was fast melting so once we'd finished walking we decided to head south on Rte 28 to see what we could find.

Barb had seen this old house from the road and we drove in to explore. There was a large colony of turkey vultures on the ground which scattered as we approached. Our noses told us that they had been brunching on a skunk carcase which we gave a wide berth. Inside the house was an old organ and upstairs I found an old bed. The stairs were solid but the floors were precarious. Outside was a shed which had been used as a target practice with everything inside punctured by bullet holes. The vultures still circling above were obviously disgruntled with us interrupting their meal and we were pretty sure we were now smelling fresh skunk so feeling we'd caused enough of a disruption we decided it was time to leave. 

We drove down to Catlett and left the main road to follow country roads that Barb had commented as being a great cycling route of about 30 miles. I was impressed she remembered the route and we found a few more old buildings. The snow had by now melted and feeling we'd got enough pictures and covered enough miles we turned towards home. It was a nice feeling knowing I had the rest of the afternoon to relax indoors and look forward to a lazy evening.