Oh Cecilia, you’re breaking my heart!
It’s not everyday that your first born baby girl turns 5. I can hardly believe it! Where does the time go. It seems like only yesterday she was chewing my sneakers and graduating from puppy school.
When you want her to smile but she wants treats.
I had a whole cute Birthday theme planned, but she wasn’t very interested in messing with any of that. She simply wanted the treats in my hand. What can I say… she’s a girl who knows what she wants.
I recently visited the VMFA in Richmond. It’s a wonderful Museum… and it’s FREE! I especially enjoyed their amazing garden.
I’ve been on a hunt for some new places to explore in the Shenandoah Valley and thanks to a few natives, I learned of this breathtaking gem. It is a bit run down, but you can still see how glorious it must have been at one time. It almost feels like you’re in the middle of a beautiful memory. I wish I could have seen more, but Swannanoa Palace is only open on weekends; this was as close as I could get today. I will definitely be back!!!
This is just a little peek of some of the views in the valley from the last two weeks. It has been a week of major technical difficulties so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to recover much more. I guess that just means I’ll have to go back 😉.
Swannanoa Palace, Gerties Country Store & Chiles Peach Orchard.
Sunday afternoon (after a somewhat stressful week) I decided to leave my camera gear at home, turn my phone on airplane mode and just spend a few hours 100% submerged in toddler life. I witnessed, first hand, the excitement in smelling flowers, the thrill of watching a truck speed down a slide and the fun of splashing water in a pool filled with rubber duckies. And I did it all without being distracted by the worries of the world. It was wonderfully refreshing and so much fun!!!!
I’ve been meaning to visit Chiles Peach Orchard in Crozet, VA for nealy a year. But it seems that whenever I have the free time, I forget about it. Yesterday, as luck would have it, I was detoured around some construction… and that detour took me straight to Crozet! Soooo… I decided to take a break and check out Chiles. I wasn’t disappointed.
I wasn’t blessed with the ability to paint, draw or dance with grace. But something special happened when I picked up a camera… I couldn’t put it down. But that alone doesn’t make me a photographer anymore than loving spoons makes me a chef. The moment when I knew photography was “my thing” was in a moment of total failure, a moment when I realized that I had no idea what I was doing. Normally that would have made me doubt myself and maybe even give up altogether… but that isn’t what happened. It was in that moment, when I was motivated to learn more and work harder that I knew my journey had begun. And now I am here…
I have a lot to share and I thank you for sharing it with me.
Erin Harrigan Photography 
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