I’ve heard of blood oranges before, but never actually bought any until this year. I’m kinda in love with them. I don’t even think that taste that great (they don’t seem to be as sweet as normal oranges to me), but they are just so beautiful that I would probably continue to buy them even if they tasted awful.

I took these photos a few weeks ago when we had a power outage for no reason in the middle of the day. Seriously, it was bright and sunny and only slightly windy, so I can’t imagine what caused us to be without power for 2+ hours on a Friday afternoon. But I figured I would make the most of it and take some photos and the blood oranges were the first thing that came to mind.

That actually made me realize that I need to be making time to practice taking photos like that more often. It was fun, it was a nice stress reliever and I’m never going to grow as a photographer if I don’t practice all the time. I’m going to try to take a “power outage” break at least once a week from now on.

Adorable decorative boat above the fireplace

A quick breakfast

View from the cottage porch

It’s been a week and I still can’t stop thinking of this place. I want to go back! I’d actually love to live in place like this, except that I doubt they have broadband out there. (Sadly, a deal breaker since I work online.)

The cottage was both secluded, but not as secluded as I thought it would be, actually. It is located about 10 miles from the small town of Luray, VA, (only an hour or so from here) but the drive out there involved lots of twists and turns on country roads, vast fields and farms, a river, and very few houses. When we got to the (dirt) road where the cottage is located, I was surprised to see it lined with quite a few other houses and cabins (some quite extravagant) but it seems like many were also rentals/summer homes and since it was the off-season they were empty.

I wouldn’t want to come back here in summer since there would probably be a lot more people around and also, the A/C in the cottage wasn’t spectacular. That’s another deal breaker for me but luckily it was only warm the first day we were there, after that we had to turn on the heat, which was much more effective (almost too effective). My plan is to come back next Fall since it won’t be so hot and I imagine the color on the trees and view of the mountains will be stunning. I honestly can’t wait.

We got there around 3pm on Friday. I walked around and took a bunch of pictures. We found a trail behind the house and went on a short hike. The cottage has a full kitchen and I had brought lots of food so we stayed in and ate hot dogs for dinner and watched a little TV. Then we relaxed in the hot tub. I’ve never really been in a hot tub before, but this trip made me hope that one day we’ll be rich enough to buy one. The hot tub was out on a screened in porch, so we were covered, but the moon was full and the wind was was howling all around us. It was amazing! I could have stayed in there for hours. The next day I actually did stay in there for hours, but I’ll talk more about that tomorrow.

Okay, this is the last of the antique shop photos. Fall photos next week if I can get them all processed.

Saying I wasn’t motivated to take pictures earlier this week actually made me want to go out and take some photos for the first time in a while! It’s still very pretty outside even with a lot of leaves already off the trees. I’m hoping we can make it up to Skyline drive this weekend and maybe the leaves won’t be completely gone yet. I’m sad to have missed the peak, but the last few weekends have been too busy to go. I guess there’s always next year.

I have not been terribly consistent with posting lately, have I? I don’t think it’s just posting here, I really haven’t felt much like taking photos lately either. I’m certainly not giving it up or anything crazy like that, I just haven’t felt particularly inspired of late. I was really excited about Fall, but then it sort of came and went and it wasn’t very pretty this year. I do have a bunch of Fall photos I took a couple of weeks ago that I have yet to process, but that may be the extent of my Fall photos since the time change is going to limit my time outside now. I’m looking forward to winter now: Christmas and snow and all that. That stuff makes me happy and I have not been feeling particularly happy lately.

Anyway, I scheduled out the rest of these antique shop photos this week so I could finally get all those posted. I’ll work on processing those Fall photos during the weekend and post those next week. And I guess I need to get out there and make myself take some new photos!

I have a pair of those brown boots! They're from Target, not so much an antique...

I realized I still have a bunch of antique shop shots to post! I prefer this shop to the more organized one that my previous photos were from. The one is an old house that is totally falling apart (I honestly felt like I might fall through the floor when I was walking around on the second story) and the inside is stuffed to capacity. A lot of it wouldn’t even qualify as an “antique”, it’s just a bunch of old crap that someone wanted to get rid of. But I could go there every day for a week straight and find stuff that I never noticed before, which is what makes it so much fun!