Fall Pictures From Imagination Station Luray

Stormy Weather in Luray

We had a big electrical storm here last night. The lightening kept the sky lit up almost constantly for over an hour. The wind was blowing the trees and the rain was pouring so hard the gutters couldn't keep up with it. Some of the thunder sounded so close it scared me. It reminded me of the winter we spent in Florida during El Nino. It would storm all night and flood everything then 3 days later it would happen again. Lucky no major damage was done and the town didn't flood. I finally got to sleep about midnight with DH cuddled up close. We need the rain but a nice drizzle would be better.

August in Luray

August in Luray

Things are quiet here in the valley. It's too hot to do much of anything. My lawn is nothing but weeds. The grass is gone or brown. The weather man said it was sleeping. I think it's dead. There are lots of tourist in town during the weekends. Yesterday we drove past the Caverns and the parking lots was full on a Saturday afternoon. It is only 54 degrees down there so a nice place to visit. Luray doesn't have a pool but does allow swimming at the reservoir. The mountains were very clear this morning and as I took my walk I could see all the way down the valley to Massenutten sky resort.

There isn't much news in town. They have started work on building the new high school. The last time a high school was built in Page County was in 1961. Folks here with kids are very excited about this new construction finally happening after years of promises. All I see is my taxes going up. I can't wait till fall when all the leaves change color and the weather is cool and dry. It's my favorite time of year. Stay cool-

Long lost recipe found

About 25 years ago when I was first dating my husband, he took me to the Greenbelt American Legion for a dinner dance. One of the items at the buffet table was sliced ham in a raisin sauce. It was so good and I looked for the sauce recipe for all these years. Yesterday while reading an old 1962 Family Circle magazine I found a recipe for the sauce.

Royal Raisin Sauce
Simmer 1 cup of raisins in 2 cups of water for 15 minutes.
Make a paste of 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch, 2 Tablespoons of sugar, 1/8 teaspoon of salt,
2 Tablespoons cold water.
Add to raisins
Heat until thick.
Remove from heat. Add 1 Table spoon of butter, 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice.
Mix well.
Serve on ham.

I collect old magazines from the 1950s - 1970s. The old ads are interesting to see how our lives have changed over the years. Low fat was not heard of nor nutritional labeling. The old recipes are made from scratch, no mixes or frozen foods.
I think I will go fix salad for lunch. Enjoy your day, life.

Life

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, totally worn out and proclaiming
"Wow, What a RIDE!!!"

Back to Luray

The trip back to Luray was very stressful but we made it back safe. I needed a week to get over the drive. Traffic was bumper to bumper leaving Florida all the way up into Georgia. All the snowbirds leave the state on March 30. Never again. I will either leave 2 weeks early or 2 weeks later. At least we didn't blow a tire. Going up 95 and blowing a tire in the middle of nowhere is a real heart stopper. We've done it before on the trip to or from Florida but this time we were lucky. My dh had a lot of work done on the motorhome so it ran fine till we got to Fredericksburg Virginia. The Bounder coughed a few times till we figured out why. Many years ago we were traveling out west when the Bounder made the same noise. We found out the fuel pump had been recalled and till we could get it fixed we were advised by fellow Bounder Owners to keep the gas tank full as possible. It turns out the gas gets hot and affects the gas pump. Anyway we found a gas station and fill up the tank, it was only 1/2 empty, and we made it the rest of the way home with out incident. What a joy to unlock the door to the house and find everything just as we left it. In the yard the daffodils were up and in full bloom. Some purple tulips bloomed too. I caught the last of the Bradford pear trees and forsythia bushes in bloom. The worse part of the trip is unpacking but it was worth all the work to be home. The next day I woke up and opened my shade and was shocked to see snow covering everything. It was gone by evening. There is such a wonderful feeling of home when everything you own is in one place. I know where to reach for glasses, pots and pans, soap, books, all my craft supplies, Home is here. I am busy already working on new crafts. I will post them later with pictures and instructions. I am still trying to learn to knit. Thanks for all the comments.

What I did on my Florida vacation.

I am a snowbird. I spend my winters in beautiful sunny Sarasota Florida, but after 5 months I am home sick for my little town of Luray and the scenic Page Valley Virginia. We are packed and ready to leave here in the morning and head north. It should take 2 days to get to Luray unless we break down or blow a tire, which always happens. I had a lot of fun here this winter. Some of the things I did were: fishing, eating out earlybird, flea marketing, yardsales, Greek Festival, Scottish Festival, State Fair, County Fair, library time, Pioneer Park Festival/flea market, Strawberry festival, Mall walked, ate breakfast out, picnic on the beach, Arcadia Antique street festival, visited with a new cousin from West Virginia, put new windows in RV, took RV to shop 3 times, shopped at Michaels, Jo-ann's and Walmart.
Here are some pictures of me fishing on the Miakka River. There were lots of alligators hanging around so I kept an eye on them while catching tilapia.
I won't be on line again till we get home and hooked up so have a nice weekend, I will be on the road.

Peregrine Falcon on the mountain

I was checking out the web page of the Shenandoah National Park and found the Peregrine Falcon web cam. I've checked it out before just to see the Page Valley in the back ground. It looks just like a rocky ledge with a bunch of little rock laying around. You can imagine my surprise when yesterday morning I saw a falcon and what looked like an egg. I couldn't believe a bird would use that rocky ledge for a nest let alone lay an egg in the cold weather. The Rangers acknowledged the egg and bird were there March 13. When I went to the web cam today the egg and bird were gone. Where did they go? I emailed the rangers for information as to what happened to the egg. Maybe they lay eggs at any time not knowing it was going down to 21 degrees in the next 2 day. If I hear back from the ranger I will let you know. Please check out the web site and see the parks cams. I watch the Big Meadows cam and one day saw a wild fire spread across the meadow and then burn out. The Big Meadows cam was turned off the day President Bush arrived there in his helicopter. Too bad, I would have liked to see that. http://www.nps.gov/shen/photosmultimedia/falconcam.htm

Luray in Page county

I did some research in Google blogs for 'Luray'. It was nice to see the photos of my favorite town since I am so far from there. Yes, I do feel home sick but Spring is coming soon and I will fly north. One blog was by a young man that flew his plane over the mountains and landed at Luray's air port. The pictures he took of the mountains in December were beautiful. He had a nice time and visited the caverns and had a picnic. Another was a not so nice young man that kept commenting about all the bars in Luray. There are no bars in all of Page county. I don't know what he was looking at to think they were bars. There are some small seedy looking restaurants but most of them don't serve liquor. Most beer and wine can be bought at Wal-mart but there are no bars or road houses in our valley. Another person wrote a nice description about the Maze up by the caverns. He said it took him 45 minutes to find his way out. It sounds like fun and I may have to take my grandkids there the next time they visit. One woman wrote and had pictures of her visit to the Luray Zoo. I thought it was just snakes but she talked about the other reptiles and animals there. I should go and check it out too. When are all those grandkids coming to visit? There is lots to do in Luray including the upcoming Spring Street Festival in May. So plan a visit to to our beautiful valley.

News from Luray

If you read the Page County newspaper, you would see they are still arguing over the location of the new area wide jail. I know our Sheriff needs a larger jail but I hope they don't win the new area jail and it goes to Warren County up in Front Royal. I would love for Luray to stay just the way it is but development is coming and with it crowded roads and crime. Another story in the paper is the development of a 300 unit apartment project in Stanley. Page county doesn't have a lot of job opportunities so all the new residents will have to commute out of the county for jobs. That's thousands of more cars on our narrow windy roads. There's nothing I can do about it. And that's all I have to say about that.
I can't wait for spring in the valley, It's beautiful to watch spring creep up the mountain with the tops the last to turn green. I dream of hikes and picnics we will enjoy this summer. For now I will just enjoy the sunshine in Florida. It was raining in Luray today with snow expected on Saturday. While here I am determined to learn something new each day. I just learned how to knit and am making lots of dish cloths. Next I will learn the different techniques of knitting like adding other colors of yarn. Maybe I can make a sweater. I found lots of free knitting patterns on the Internet and can't wait to expand my talents.

Another Perfect Day

I'm in sunny Florida for the winter. I love my valley but I can't stand the snow, cold and dead trees. So I snow bird to Florida and enjoy the warm moist sunny weather.
On Saturday my husband and I took a drive to the beach at Siesta Keys in Sarasota. We got there early before traffic got too heavy and easily found a parking space. We enjoy strolling through the craft fair set up at one end of the park. I love to do crafts and spend most of my time at craft fairs getting inspired and thinking 'I could do that'. One lady had sewn up baby items, bibs, pillows and blankets out of fleece fabric. It looked so nice and soft for any lucky baby. Another booth was a man selling home made soap. He had bars of all different types and aromas. I have dry skin so the olive oil soap interested me. His price was $5 each so I moved on. When I got home I looked up About.com for instructions on how to make olive oil soap. It only has three ingredients, Lye, coconut oil(for foaming) and 80% olive oil. I will try this when I get back to Luray in the spring.
There were lots of nice clothes and jewelry for sale. I didn't buy anything but feel inspired to try some new crafts when I get home. After enjoying the fair we took a walk to the beach and walked about a mile along the water. The sand was bright white and clean. The water was clear and blueish green. There was a slight breeze, just enough to keep us cool in the sunshine. What a beautiful day. After our walk we got back in the car and drove on up the shore to find some place to eat lunch. A deli made us nice sandwiches and sodas and chips and we had the makings for a picnic. We found a small pocket park and sat on the tailgate to enjoy our picnic lunch. We had a view of the water, small islands and million dollar houses. Some boats sailed by including some kayakers who were parked next to us and as they loaded up there kayaks. They explained all about the advantages to new designs of kayaks.
After a while we headed for home. I just felt so relaxed and refreshed. A perfect day.

My Life and Times in Luray

This is my one and only Blog about my life and times in the small town of Luray Virginia, nestled in the beautiful Page Valley. From my house I have views of the Shenandoah National park and the Massanuttens mountain. On a clear spring day I can see all the way down the valley to the Massanutten snowy ski slopes. I will never get tired of the views, somehow they calm my soul and give me peace.
February 7, 2007- Luray got a dusting of snow over night. I bet it looks loverly. I wouldn't know. I spend my winters in sunny Florida. Today it is 71 degrees and sunny. I took my 3 mile walk and noticed the deep blue sky didn't have any clouds. I can't stand being up north during the winter. It is so dark and dreary. The trees are dead looking and there are no festivals to go to. I like the view of the mountains with snow up around Stoneyman on Skyline drive but I don't miss the cold. It feels so depressing.