I took a blurry pic of one of
these butterflies earlier this month. Saturday, I hiked up the hill opposite the mountain our house is on, and chased two
Tawny Emperors up and down a gravel road for a half hour or so.


The Tawny Emperor is not nearly as willing to sit and pose for a picture as a Monarch or
Tiger Swallowtail.


Maybe I'll get pictures of a
Zebra Swallowtail someday? Or a Luna Moth...I saw one here, one night many years ago.
This side of Cold Run Valley Road features the main buildings of
the Coolfont Resort.
Coolfont's Treetop House officially closed last June. Since then, the resort has operated on a limited basis. The Carl M. Freeman Companies purchased Coolfont in November, 2005.
All present buildings except for the historic Coolfont Manor House will be removed next year as work begins on a planned resort community featuring 1,100 homes.
General plans for a 1,100 home resort consisting of mostly vacation homes and condos were announced in September after a week of meetings and workshops involving Freeman company officials, architects, planners, public service officials and community members.
The new Coolfont homes will be built in clusters to preserve green space and will be constructed over the course of 10-12 years.
Or whenever a gigantic real estate bubble comes back. Anyways, here's a few pics I took on the way to the butterflies.






(Cross-posted
at Whiskey Fire. Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.)
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