We doused ourselves with Deet and headed to the railway track to lay pennies on the lines and take photos. Rob had come up with the idea of us laying down on the tracks for photos and I thought this an excellent plan.
We walked to the tracks and took photos of each other which I then played around with in Photoshop. I'm posting these images of us but want to retake the photos and spend more time on the images as I'm not actually happy with these results. I hadn't thought this through properly but now I have a better idea of how I want the images to look. So below are 'prototypes'.
We waited for ages for a train to pass through and the heat was sweltering. The sun burned and three turkey vultures floated above us as though waiting for us to expire.
Rob fooling around which I found quite impressive as he stood in the full sun on the tracks the whole time whilst I wilted in the shade on the side. After about an hour, we had to admit defeat and decided to head back. I was thirsty and Rob insisted I finish the last couple of mouthfuls in our water bottle. What a hero.
We got back to Rob's neighbors' yard and checked each other for ticks. Oh yeah, we were infested. Mimicking monkeys at the zoo, we cleaned each other up without actually digesting any of the predators and then walked across the yard so Rob could introduce me to his neigbors, Jim and Jessie, who were wonderful people.
Jessie and I immediately hit it off and she showed me her mulberry tree which was laden with fruit. We promptly started picking and chomping whilst chatting and after some time we came full circle and stood back to observe our harvesting of the tree. We had pretty much cleared it of all ripened fruit and I was stuffed to the gills. We'd had a wonderful conversation about nothing in particular which us girls excel in, and I look forward to the next.
Rob then carried on fixing the mower he'd got and of course had it running perfectly in no time.
Obviously, another test for me was due so on to the mower I hopped and listened diligently to my instructions. A few turns around the back yard and that test was passed. I trundled up the drive and back, grabbing a few more mulberries on route, and backed it without mishap into the garage.
A beautiful sunset from Rob's house.
Not sure if he knows these are out on the front porch but they made a wonderful photo.
The fleet. Without the lawnmowers and well, where does one stop? Should the bikes be there too? I've driven everything now and passed, I think, except for the mountain bike incident. But I'll retake that one, stunt included once my wounds have healed.
On Monday, we went back to the railway tracks to look for our pennies but couldn't find even one. We'd put about 5 pennies on the tracks but none could be found. So, another visit to the track is definitely necessary, for pennies and for photos.
On Tuesday morning, I left the house, walked to the car, preparing to head back to Centreville, and was greeted by two cows standing and staring at me in the driveway while chewing the cud. We all stood looking at each other for a few minutes. I scratched my head and they shook theirs, so we stood and looked at each other some more. I then proceeded to Jim & Jessie's house but got no answer when I knocked on their door, so I had no choice execpt to herd them through a gate into a field and shut them in. They weren't the least bit perturbed and I even managed to stroke and pat them whilst saying goodbye.
Kota watched the whole scenario with his nose pressed into the gap of the slightly lowered window. I got back into the car and we headed back to northern Virginia, experiencing the same strange fantasy merging with reality feeling that I'd felt while reading Alice Through the Looking Glass.
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