Orchid: 2019

Happy International Women’s Day everyone!

Today I’m dedicating these photos of an orchid I gave to my mother for Mother’s Day two years ago - it’s currently blooming for the first time since I gave it to her, which is exciting to see!

It desperately needs to be repotted, but that has to wait until the blooms have fallen, and Spring is well underway. As a result, it’s not the healthiest, and actually had one bloom fall before it had a chance to open; hopefully it will thrive better in a new pot, although it may be another two years before you see blooms again, since it’s taken two years for it to bounce back from the last repotting (my bonsai took a whole year; I guess orchids are even slower!).

Old Rag Mountain: August, 2018

Lately I’ve been slowly working my way through unedited personal sets in my photo library. This week’s offering is from last Summer, when I finally got to hike Old Rag once again. After my Spring, 2017 knee mishap which led to surgery and a long recovery in PT, this was my first time hiking Old Rag since making a full recovery.

My friend Patrick, who you may recognize from many of my car posts, and I hit the trail on a steamy August mid-morning. I’d come to find out later that day there were other people I know on the mountain at the same time we were, but we simply never crossed paths; funny how that works sometimes.

Old Rag is the tallest peak in Shenandoah National Park, and naturally provides some of the most incredible panoramic views of the Shenandoah Valley. It is known for its extensive granite rock scrambles along the trail with some locations along the trail and at the summit offering opportunities for bouldering or full-on rock climbing for those feeling more daring.

All photos in this post are available for print here.

If you’re unfamiliar, parts of the trail run through and under the massive granite boulders; here, the trail proceeds up a natural staircase inside the opening between the rocks, in the center of the frame below. As you ascend and eventually descend the mountain, you can changes in foliage, ground composition, and wildlife.