On vacation this weekend and visited Occoneechee
State Park (more photos to follow in the next few days). One of our traditions while at a state part
is to find a local winery and go wine tasting.
The only winery nearby that was open to tasters was Rosemont Winery in LaCrosse. It was a fun visit during a beautiful day
(temps were in the high 60s). Wines
tasted at the winery were generally pretty decent (I liked the Traminette, the
Lake Country Red, and the Cabinet Franc).
We got away with two bottles of wine we enjoyed. Virginia has come quite a way with its wines,
six or more years ago I found them mediocre, but nowadays they are getting
better and better.
I am a trainer with the State of Virginia. I travel throughout the state to teach Erosion and Sediment Control and Stormwater Management. I try to take the back roads and I like taking photographs. I am a naturalist, trained in biology and ecology with a very deep rooted love for nature. In this blog I like to share my photography hobby, other hobbies of mine, including my passion for sailing, biking, hiking and nature. I will also share my philosophical outlook on life and some of experience.
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Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Richmond (2/19/2014)
Today I took a walk in the canal street park in
Richmond. Crazy, but the information on
my phone says it is a rainy day, boy are they wrong. It was nice and sunny with temperatures
finally at a decent level, although there are still a few heaps of dirty snow
visible in town.
Instead of going my usual left, I went right for a change,
towards the Civil War Center. Walking back along the river there is a small
causeway from where you can look back on town from above the James River, from
where this picture of downtown is taken.
In front of course is the James River, then the CSX line and the big
building is the Federal Bank Building. The
cause way is neat, it has all kinds of quotes from civil war soldiers on it and
it gives you an interesting flavor. It is amazing how big the Civil War is in the psyche
of this state; but then as a foreigner I should understand that because we
still talk about the 2nd World War.
As you can see, the James is fairly full at the moment; it
has been a cold and relatively wet winter here.
I think a lot of us will be very happy when spring comes around. Just looking at my own yard, we usually have daffodils
by now. The first ones are usually
flowering by early January. At the
moment none of them are even close to breaking bud. Today was a fun teaser, but it felt oh so
nice.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Yorktown (2/16/2014)
This weekend was the “Great
Backyard Bird Count”, and we tried to participate in my household. The weather did not cooperate on Saturday,
but that was ok and par for the course.
On Sunday morning we were sitting at the breakfast table and there was
the attack of the Common
Grackle. I think there were a few
hundred on our bird feeders. Behind them
in our vegetable garden there was a mixed flock of Red-winged
Black Birds and Brown-headed
Cowbirds. Lots of noise and they
chased all the other birds away. A half
our later I went to walk the dogs in the woods behind our home, and the birds
were waiting for me (a friend posted on my face book ... "paging Mr. Hitchcock, come and get your birds"). The woods were full
of these guys. The next day we went to
the swamp a half hours walk behind our home and saw large groups of the
Red-winged Blackbird and American Robins.
This count is every President’s Day
weekend for us living here in the U.S. and we have participated with it for
five or more years. This year we had the
lowest count. I am not sure if the
weather was an issue or if we are just getting fewer birds. Most troubling was the lack of Red-headed Woodpeckers
and Wood Ducks in
the swamps behind our home. We usually
see them there, but this year they were not to be found. I’m sure we will check again a few weeks from
now to see if they have returned.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Harrisonburg (2/10/2012)
I visited the Harrisonburg
area this week to teach a class. Harrisonburg
was cold, and I got out just in time before the big snow showed up. Actually the drive from Richmond to home was
outright tortuous. The class was very well received and that was definitely
due to my fellow teacher who is great and fun to teach with. We had great reviews; naturally my favorite
was:” Jan is the best.”
Back to Harrisonburg.
It is a nice old town with a cute center. There are some decent restaurants I ate at
two of them and reviewed them on Yelp. This photo was taken in the evening, and
since JMU was playing a basketball game the town was pretty empty.
Monday, February 10, 2014
Yorktown Battlefield (2/7/2014)
This is what is called a “widow maker”, or one of those
trees you do not want to cut down. This photo was taken in the Yorktown Battlefield National Historic
Park. Interestingly I am here near
the border of the National Park and Newport News Park. On the Newport News side trees like this are
cleaned up, in the national park only the trails are kept open, but parts of
the woods look like pick-up-sticks. I
don’t mind that at all, since it is more a natural appearance and provides a
lot of habitat from birds and critters.
It may even provide some protection for plants from the ferocious deer
we have in our area. These deer will eat
anything they can find and there is very little regeneration (except for plants
they do not like) and very little herbaceous understory. I kind of wish there was a way to cull the
deer so close to the neighborhood. On
the other hand all these fallen trees make for an immense fuel load, and if we
get a fire this will be the crown fire of the year and I fear for my home and
that of our neighbors. One of those Catch
22s. One day I spent some time in an old
growth forest stand in Ohio, and I still hope our woods would look like that,
but the accumulation of leaf litter, the lack of ground fires and the deer seem
to make further evolution of these areas into an old growth forest more
difficult.