Thursday 21 July 2016

In the pre-dawn sky on Thursday morning the July full Moon hung low over the western horizon above the Shenandoah River.

A telephoto lens enlarged the lunar features including the maria or ‘seas’, the darker areas filled with basaltic lavas that cooled billions of years ago.

 

Friday 22  July 2016

Driving along Rt. 11 between New Market and Mount Jackson a sign can be seen along side of the road with a fading image of a rooster.  On closer inspection the rooster is holding a broken golf club and smoking a cigar!  This is a left-over relic from times past.

Chicken in the Rough was a restaurant founded in 1936 in Oklahoma City, and featured a specialty dish of a half fried chicken, shoestring potatoes and a biscuit with honey. In 1937 the restaurant chain had locations on Rt. 66 in Arizona, Oklahoma, Missouri and Illinois. In 1949 an unusual grill was designed that simultaneously fried and steamed chicken, after which time franchising began. It was the first nationally franchised restaurant chain in the United States. During its heyday, the chain had stores in nearly 300 franchise locations, including one at M. D.’s Motel near New Market in the Shenandoah Valley.  Inscriptions on postcards like the one below

 

provide a glimpse into the Chicken in the Rough experience.

“Where you see this sign, it’s genuine fried 1/2 chicken served unjointed without silverware.  Every bit a tender  delight.  Lots of shoestring potatoes, jug honey and hot buttered rolls.”

“A $100 cash prize will be awarded to the first person who eats Chicken in the Rough in as many as 25 places listed on our placemat or carry-out carton over a period of six months.  Mail one of the Chicken in the Rough postcards, which may be obtained from the cashier, to the home office.  Each postcard must be signed and dated by an authorized person of each restaurant and Beverly Osborne reserves the right to be the sole judge in issuance of this award.”

 

Just a short distance north of the Chicken in the Rough sign and across Rt. 11 travelers can buy a dozen brown eggs using a self-serve honor system.

Perhaps this picturesque farm is home to the hens that supply the brown eggs.

 

Wednesday 13 July 2016

It’s a misty morning in the valley with a balmy 72F showing on the thermometer. It rained hard, but for a brief time last evening.  A brilliant sundog appeared and remained for about 10 minutes in between widely scattered storms. The sundog was visible to the south of the northwesterly sun that was fast approaching its setting position. If there was a second sundog on the other side of the sun, it wasn’t possible to see it as pines blocked the northerly view.

Earlier this month a beautiful double arc rainbow appeared in the southeast as the evening sun emerged from a long, hard downpour.

The skies have been providing quite a show over the past few weeks.

On the clear evenings three bright planets are visible and provide spectacular views through a small telescope. Jupiter dominates the western sky just after sunset, and its four Galilean moons are visible every clear evening, changing their positions as they dance around the giant planet.

Mars appears even brighter than Jupiter just now, shining as a steady, red-colored beacon in the southern skies. To the left of Mars (about a fist held at arm’s length away) the yellowish glow of Saturn distinguishes it from the bright star Antares that is lower in the sky and nearby in the heart of the constellation of Scorpio. Saturn’s rings make a glorious sight through even a small telescope, seeming almost surreal. Antares (meaning rival to Mars) has a reddish, scintillating light, but this season it cannot match the brilliance of Mars. Antares is a red supergiant star, about 900 times larger in diameter and 17 times more massive than our Sun. It is a member of our own Milky Way galaxy and is about 550 light years away from us. This star and the two planets form a triangle whose shape will change slowly in the coming weeks as the planets move along their orbits.

A combination of warm, sunny (mid to upper 80s) days with frequent rains (at least a day of rain each week), has provided an outstanding growing season. The grass needs mowing every 5 or 6 days, the wild raspberries are ready for picking,

and the gardens are abundant with vegetables. Several large yellow squash have already been picked,

along with many juicy cucumbers.

The tomato plants are large and leafy, hanging full of green tomatoes,

and the pepper plants are loaded with green bell peppers and jalapenos.

The herb bed is flourishing with sage, rosemary and thyme.

The sweet potato vines have covered half of the hugelgarten,

while the white redskin and purple potato plants are tall and sporting pretty pink flowers.

Even the watermelon vines are putting forth the beginnings of the small, round fruit that will mature into those bowling ball-sized, dark green melons that are so sweet.

And for the first time since they were planted a couple of years ago, the grape vines are hanging full of developing grapes.

It’s shaping up as a good year for harvesting veggies!

Exploring the Shenandoah Valley by Jeep is a fun way to get to know the landscape and the activities of the area. There are many gravel and dirt roads winding through the mountainous regions easily accessible by Jeep Wranglers.

 

One of the ‘high’ lights of any exploration is climbing the Woodstock Tower for magnificent views west to the Seven Bends region of the north fork of the Shenandoah River.