An overdue roundup of snapshots of August through October in Virginia on film — many, many days at home with books and food and light that started to disappear earlier, punctuated by little outdoor trips and many suburban walks.

Skyline Drive and Shenandoah National Park have long been one of my favorite parts of Virginia, luckily not too far from where I grew up. My family has made periodic trips out there for a scenic drive and walk, but I hadn’t gone in a few years. I kept missing the fall colors by just a week or two when I happened to be home. This year, finding myself at home for much, much longer than a weekend here or there, we started getting out more, finding parks in northern Virginia that we hadn’t gone to before. We also took advantage of this time to go to Skyline Drive, not once but twice — first in late summer, and then again at the peak fall foliage time.

In the summer, the view really lives up to the name of the Blue Ridge Mountains. While I can glimpse the faint blue ridges from afar year-round while driving around my hometown, the mountains are seriously blue when you get there too. Then in the fall, glorious fall colors frame the drive, transform any hiking trail, and blanket the valley below. I took film photos of both visits, and when I got the film back a few weeks ago, I was excited to compare the two sets of results.