Snowy Solitude and a Sunset

All of Thursday we watched the snow fall. It fell continuously, sometimes light, sometimes heavy and sometimes like a blizzard with a white out effect, but it fell relentlessly, not stopping until late afternoon. No tractor arrived that evening to dig us out and Friday morning I stood looking out the window watching for him and hoping I wouldn't have to shovel all those 7 or more inches myself for 1/4 mile down the hill. The neighbors obviously all thought the same because nobody moved from their houses. I guessed we were all window watching. And then our angel on a John Deere came. Just before noon, his loud engine could be heard laboring up the hill as he scraped a black gash through the whiteness glistening everywhere. It only took him about 40 minutes to clear our hill and the parking area and then like ants all of us scurried out of our doors armed with shovels to try and clear what he'd left behind. Because the road is so uneven the tractor has to leave 2" or so on a lot of the road, but we were all happy enough to clear that. And about 3 hours later after the sun had helped us even further, a couple of us ventured out. I'm the only 2 wheel drive vehicle on the hill but I can handle the snow pretty well after my years of living on top of the hill. but I did slide down the steepest part and fervently hoped that venturing out just to buy lottery tickets was worth the grief of the slippery ascent on my way back up to Meadow House.
But I made it and the following morning the sun had cleared even more so Janice and I decided to drive along the little country lanes that follow the Shenandoah River as it weaves it's way north through our area. I took the long way there and took some photos in the Rectortown vicinity first.

I ended up in Delaplane and so moved on towards the river. Janice had wondered if the roads would be clear enough and I'd blown off her concerns but as I got down by the river I found that the roads were more snowy than I'd hoped.

But luckily the worst areas were on flat ground and any hills that we drove up or down were for the most part clear. The scenery was beautiful by the river with the tress looking like they belonged on Christmas cards. I only saw one vehicle who seeing me stopped on the side asked if I needed help. I love country folk. no honking on the horn because I was partially blocking the road. He wasn't even annoyed when I explained I was taking photos.

Ice cream anyone?

Janice knew of a park she used to play golf on which has now been left to grow wild and become parkland, so we headed there.

We had a long stroll through the snow and I managed to take a tumble, without busting my new camera or phone, thank God. Someone had recently been cross country skiing here, but while we were there we only saw one person sharing the park with us. The bluebirds were plentiful though, little darts of azure flitting back and forth through the branches. As we walked back we could feel the temperature dropping. The sun slowly sank behind the river and we quickly snapped some photos before the colors faded into the dusk.

Cat Camping

One of my work colleagues sent me a link on how to make a cat bed out of a t-shirt so while being trapped in the house due to a snow storm, I thought I'd give it a go. The link she sent is here and my efforts are below. Of course having two cats meant that I had to make two tents at the same time.

These are the tools I used; an awl, pliers, wire cutters, scissors, packing tape and duct tape. I also had a large cardboard box, 2 t-shirts and 4 wire hangers.

 I was using size Large t-shirts so I cut my pieces of card as roughly 15" wide squares. I used 2 pieces for each tent and then placed them so the bends in the card ran in adjacent directions. This made a stronger base. I then used packing tape to secure the 2 pieces together.

2 wire hangers are used for each tent and I cut the tops of those off just below the twisted part. Using the pliers I straightened each hanger out but wasn't too fussy.

 At each corner of the base, about 1" in from the edge, I used the awl to push a hole for the wire hanger. Threading each hanger through opposite corners, I then bent each end under by about 1.5" - 2.0". Then using 2 thin strips of duct tape I secured the 2 hangers together at the top so they formed a dome shape.

 The hangers had sharp ends where I'd cut them so I made small 'pads' of duct tap which I then taped down over the ends of wire using strips of duct tape. Don't use masking tape or packing tape for this as you'll find that the stronger adhesive quality of the duct tape is needed to secure the wire frame to the base.

Then lastly I pulled a shirt over the wire frame so the neck became the tent opening. I used packing tape to secure the sleeves and the bottom of the shirt to the underside of the base. This way I can remove the shirt to wash or replace with a clean one.
And then the fun part! I placed them on the floor and Kota, who had been my eager helper and observer throughout the whole process, was anxious to get started with the final inspection.

First one tent....

 ...and then the other.

 And then he happily settled down into the first one he'd checked out. No idea why. Cats...

Rosie Lee on the other hand wanted no part of them. She made a big show of avoiding the tents even when treats were placed just inside the opening. I only caught this photo of her by a stroke of luck. She moved in and out of the tent so fast that I nearly missed the shot.
I guess the second tent will have to be put up 'for rent'..

Abandoned Icy Industrial Park in PA

On yet another freezing Saturday, I met up with friends to travel up to PA where we were going to explore an abandoned industrial park. Loaded with plenty of spare batteries and hand warmers, three layers of clothing and plenty of dollar bills for the tolls, I was excited to finally try out the Sony and my new camera bag on an urbexing trip.
We had heard reports that there had been a fire on the property so wasn't sure what to expect, but once we arrived we saw that it would only have been contained in one building since they were all spaced out so much. We walked around the park finding that most of the units were sealed tightly shut or the ones that were open were empty and dark inside. but despite this we found plenty of stuff to focus our cameras on and the added nearby nuclear plant emitting huge plumes of white steam against an azure sky was a plus.

Hardly what I'd call a romantic proposal, but I hope the intended recipient appreciated it.

We knew part of the industrial park was used for packaging and distributing alcohol and here we found some of the caps on the ground scattered amid broken glass. The 192 acres was also used to package and distribute antifreeze and ammonia based cleaners. The site needs a chemical cleanup before it can be used again. It shut down in 1986 but no definite plans have been laid for its future use.

I liked these stairwells and kept finding myself drawn to them. The Sony picked up the light through the broken glass far better than my Canons.

We made it up on to one of the roofs and were rewarded with a cool graffiti comment and the reactor coughing up large plumes in the distance.

The last building we explored held the old bottling machinery. It had been trashed pretty badly inside by vandals and I wasn't keen to spend too much time in there, but the machinery drew me in and soon I was concentrating on my shots.

There were a lot of what looked like rolls of wallpaper stacked and thrown about the floor. I liked the 'yellow brick road' effect and wondered if that had been the intention when the vandal threw this particular roll.

In one area of the warehouse bottle tops covered the floor up to knee height. I waded in amongst them to get close ups and commented on how this was the adult version of the the ball pits you see in kids' fast food restaurants.

After a few hours we were done. Cold and hungry we decided to leave and visit victory brewery on the way home. I'd really enjoyed using the Sony and the waist bag had worked out really well, so easy to access spare batteries and my flashlight. A lot of money well spent. The only problem now is that my weekends just don't come round fast enough!