Harper's Fairy

Hey there everybody! How's it hangin'?

This post is going to be light on verbiage, but heavy on the pics... no stitchy update this week, although I have made decent (for me) progress on Blessing. The reason being the fantastic pic presentation dear Siobhan manages on her blog. She let me in on her secret (it involves Flickr, and Picnik) and I've spent the time I'd normally spend taking a progress pic and getting it loaded onto the PC figuring out the whole process (I'm slow at everything, apparently). So! Without further ado, here's what I've got!

Saturday was a stunningly beautiful spring day in our neck of the woods, and the DH had the day off so we decided to take a family jaunt to Harper's Ferry, WV.

We told Leah where we were going and told her it would be beautiful, and we'd enjoy the weather, and seeing the sights. We were about 10 minutes up the road and she started talking about how much she was looking forward to seeing the fairies, and wondering what kinds there would be there... ummm... hold on... what? It took me a few minutes, and then... aha! Of course being almost 5 and a girl she would automatically think of the pretty, fluttery beings in the Barbie movies she adores (no need to explain that "real" fairies are "so not Tinkerbells" {to borrow a phrase from Karen Marie Moning}!!). She looked a little crestfallen when I explained to her the difference between "ferry" and "fairy", but said she was still game to go have some fun in the little town.

And so, after a time we arrived...along with what appeared to be a large quantity of the population from the surrounding area (really, it was fine, crowded but not horribly so).

Walking into the town, we got our first peek at the dominating feature of the little valley:

This is a beautiful, old Episcopalian church (side note: my DH and I seriously considered getting married here b/c it is just so pretty, but couldn't - I can't remember why, but weddings don't happen there... or at least they didn't when we were getting married).

We decided to walk across the river on the footbridge to wander along the C&O (I think) canal for a bit. Here's a shot of the church looking back from the bridge:

I don't know if the placement of the church was purposefully planned so that no matter which way you look at the town it dominates the landscape, or if it was placed there to avoid floodwaters, or if that was simply the property the church had and so that was what they had to use, but no matter the reason, it is lovely from every vantage point.

We wandered along the canal for quite a ways (personal highlight: Leah coming across a very fresh pile of road apples {aka the final stage of horse feed}, shrieking that it smelled sooo ewwwwy, and running back down the path to tell me about it, then the positively priceless look on her face when I told her I don't mind the smell of road apples because it reminds me of the barn at Grandma Sheila's. Ha!!), and eventually Leah decided that the small branches that had fallen at the sides of the path needed to be thrown in to the river. Here's a shot of her gearing up for a toss:

We made our way back across the river, had a late lunch, then made our way up the hill to get to the church & Jefferson's Rock beyond it.

Along the way, I spotted this cool iron star nailed into the brick above a back door, and of course I had to take a picture of it:

So, up the awesome stone stairs we went to the church. Here's a shot standing right beneath it, just outside the courtyard fence:

And here's my Leah posing for the camera... she's usually really good about posing and giving me "real" smiles, (and I wish she would've done so here b/c the lighting is so good here I would've definitely been able to use this picture as my "school picture" replacements) but even though she's being goofy here, I still love this pic of her. Totally her personality shining through!

As we made our way up the hill past the church, we caught sight of the ruins of the original Episcopalian church... pretty amazing. There aren't a whole lot of genuine (and fairly well preserved even though they're ruins) ruins in the US simply because, well, we're pretty young. And I love me a good ruin! So atmospheric... can't you just imagine this on a misty, foggy morning as the sun comes up and you can really see the fog swirling around the stones (can you tell I read a lot of Nancy Drew as a kid??)?

Just beyond the ruin, I turned around to look back toward the church, and look what I saw:

Purty!

Then we finally made it up to Jefferson's Rock - yes, Thomas Jefferson. He visited Harper's Ferry and presumably sat on that rock and described the view as one of the most stupendous in nature. And it is beautiful.

Jefferson's Rock is actually a couple of large rocks that once sat atop each other, but are now bolted into the ground and the top rock is supported up off the face of the base rock by large steel pillars.

And, of course, my DH & Leah - being the adventurous souls they are - had to climb up on top of the rocks. I was petrified the entire time. Petrified I tell you!!! You see, the top of the upper rock is probably 7 or so feet from the ground you stand on around the rock. You're thinking, 'c'mon Robin! That's not so bad!' Yeah, it's not, however if one were to fall off of the rock you've got a looooong way to fall (or at the very least roll) 'til you hit the bottom of the valley. It's got to be a few hundred feet, and I really don't think I'm exaggerating. My palms are sweating just thinking about it! Here is Leah on the top of the rock:

I was, of course, most comfortable when she was sitting down on her little derriere... but of course, the little daredevil haaad to try to give me a heart attack (I swear I felt my heart muscle squeeze inside my chest) and stand up on it and try to walk around. I kept the camera glued to my face, though... probably so I could use the photos as a defense in my murder trial (the murder of my DH that is) in the instance my baby girl was harmed... "Yes ladies and gentlemen of the jury... but did you see the photographic evidence of the idiocy the poor slain departed was engaging in with this poor mother's one and only child in the moments prior to the alleged unfortunate event??"

Eventually it was time to go (there were other lunatics waiting to climb up on the rock), but not before I snagged one more shot of this beautiful little pice of earth (from a position safely on the ground directly in front of Jefferson's Rock {this should give you an idea how high up we were}):

And, that's all she wrote folks... okay, so it wasn't light on verbiage after all. :)

Thanks once again for taking the time out of your busy days to comment on my last post!!! I love love love hearing from you all!!! I'll be grabbing lunch to go and trying to get caught up on all your posts while at lunch tomorrow (it may, of course, bleed into the evening... please don't be offended if/ when I don't comment on your posts right away! I dearly love all of your blogs, I just seem to get limited computer time these days.)

Enjoy the rest of your week!!

~Robin