I voted absentee (10/31/2014)

Having to travel on election day I voted absentee today!
I urge everyone to vote, no matter what political party you vote for.  Only then is it legitimate that you complain!
Vote!

Richmond (10/29/2014)

The one nice thing about working downtown in a larger city is often the sheer choice of places to eat lunch; although, there seemed to have been less choice when I started working in Richmond 5 years ago.  Yes you still have your Wendy’s, Hardy’s, Subways and Quiznos, but I think I have seen other places open, and then also, there has been an explosion of food carts.  Your choice is amazing, from an Indian food cart, to authentic Mexican tacos, to a Thai cart, a cart with more gourmet-like tacos, to carts that serve all kinds of wraps and salads.  It is really neat.  Contrast this with recent fights they had in Newport News about the placement of food cart placement.  I really wish there were more, as long as they are safe; but that is probably self regulating at least when they don’t kill their customers.

Regular readers of this blog know that I love to go for a walk during lunch time and I am always amazed by some of the big lines at these carts.  It is the social place to be; every so now and then on my walks I run into people I know.  They are patiently standing in a line at a cart and it is fun to talk to them for a bit.  Other times, the people standing in line take up more than half the sidewalk and it is difficult to walk.  But then on the sidewalk on the other side of the street are all the smokers and that’s a pain as well.   Breathing in secondhand smoke has been moved from the work/office environment to the environment where people do their lunch-time exercise or wait in line at food carts.  Somewhat ironic I would think, and it is the reason why I often escape to the park along the James River, or I walk around capitol square.  I need my walk and very often my Starbucks fix. 

Finally, another thing that is fairly common on the streets around lunch time are the beggars.  It is a shame that we still have people that need to collect money on the streets.  There is a lady who sells wilted roses, a guy without legs and your assortment of beggars that sit on the curb smoking cigarettes.  Being an ex-smoker, I do not think I would give to smokers in support of their habit, over food.  Others may say that giving them money support their begging habit and makes them lazy (see the article by Robert Reich that I reference below).  But so be it.  It is just sad to see that in a country as this there is still such a discrepancy in income or maybe a lack of income for some that people still need to beg.  It is a harsh reality, and it still makes me feel uncomfortable seeing them.  It amazes me too that there is such a lack of compassion and empathy (see also the article by Robert Reich).

Anyway, this is my entry to the weekly challenge by Cee Neuner.  This week’s challenge was to photograph feet.  Maybe not the best picture, but all these people are waiting at one of the favorite food carts in the area.  I like to take a picture at the time the challenge comes out.  This is not my best, but it shows what I meant when writing about the carts.  Actually amazing that everyone has their own space in this photograph and that there is obviously very little interaction going on in line.  To me everyone appears to be lonely in a crowd.

Newport News Park (10/26/2014)

Some fall we are having; blue skies and delightful temperatures.  Who needs more reasons for a nice walk in Newport News Park around our drinking water reservoir.  The reservoir is an interesting place.  It is a dammed off section of the Warwick River, and it actually has a lot of significance.  Picture more than 100 years ago this area was the site of a civil war battle between the Union and Confederate Forces.  They were dug in on both sides of the river and gunning for each other.  I understand there were much fewer trees around and it must have been an interesting sight; not something I would want to experience.  But now it is all water under the bridge, or should I say into the reservoir.

The reservoir is fed by a few stream, but mostly by a pipe line that brings water from 40 or so miles away.  From here it goes into the water treatment plant and comes out of our faucets.  While these pictures show the lake and it's surroundings in full glory, it is actually the areas far away from the dam that are the most fun.  We can reach these areas from our home as well as from the regular parking area, and we have spent a lot of time in those swamps looking at red-headed woodpeckers, herons, gannets, wood ducks, Canada gees, bald eagles and even at various plants like lizard's tails.  We have been standing in the swamp in February doing the great back yard bird count ankle deep in mud and chilled, but thrilled at all the birds.  That bird count is always on president's day weekend and it is so appropriate to count in a park where George Washington hung out at one time to make the life of the Britts miserable.

At one point the swamp/lake is fed by a spring that is located in the Yorktown Battle Field National Historic Park, a place I have written a lot about.  This spring is actually located need the encampment that George Washington used during the revolutionary war.  I am sure he drank from the spring.  This is another subject I wrote about in a post called George Washington's shovel.  The area is full of remnants of these two major wars that were fought on the Peninsula.  It is really a neat place to live and experience.

It is actually amazing knowing that drops of water that we drink and molecules of air that we breath have all passed through the body and lungs of people like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Hitler and people alike.  We are such a closed system, that we better take care of it.

Chesapeake Bay (10/25/2014)

We had an absolutely delightful sail today.  The weather was great, sunny and even forgetting our sunscreen, we did not burn to a crisp as you would in summer.

The yacht club had a wedding, so we made sure we were not in the way and we took off around 12:15 after picking up two subs at Wawa.  The wind was out of a direction that was not predicted by the weather service, so we had a half hour motor out before raising the sails and drifting for a while (the winds were very calm).  It was a great time to eat our lunch and flush it down with a beer.  After a while the wind picked up and we had a great sail with the wind coming from the south east right abeam.

At the point we were planning to turn around we encountered a pod of porpoises; they dove under the boat and one chased the boat for a while, almost touching the rudder.  Great to see that there are still many left, after last year's die off. Eventually we had to turn back, and the wind picked up to 10 knots or more and we had a great sail. Being pushed a bit of course by the current we decided to tack and, right on the dot, the wind started shifting to the west, as was initially predicted for the day.  This required that we changed plans all the sudden and we had to drop the sails to get back into the creek.  Google tells me we did 17.6 miles today or 15+ nautical miles; great for a four hour sail.

Below are two pictures one of our course.  I use a great app on my tablet called MX Mariner that allows me to record track and download them to Google Earth.  It is a great app, that helps me a lot.  I strongly recommend that app.  On the way we saw a heron on one of the channel markers.  Usually there are ospreys all over the place, but in the winter the herons appear to take over.  In general though there are so many birds on the Bay this time of year, including cormorants, pelicans, diving ducks, and we even saw two bald eagle circling overhead.  A magnificent day indeed.

York River (10/20/2014)

I’m running about two days behind in posting my pictures, but the sunrise on the York River was absolutely spectacular on Monday.  A combination of the clouds and the right timing (in going to work) made it almost unforgettable.  Add to it the sailboat that was moored at anchor balls helped in the composition and pulled at this sailor’s heart strings.

The lower part of the York and the Chesapeake are great for sailing.  You can always tie up for an hour or even for an overnight at the floating docks in Yorktown.  I am always amazed by the tidal current that clips by the docks, but boats seem to weather it well.  The advantage is that there are some pretty decent restaurants in the little town, which particularly helps with overnight travelers.  Breakfast is another story; that may be difficult to find in particular on Mondays and Tuesdays.  The mooring balls are also nice, I know the county charges for them; although I have no idea how they collect their money.  Regretfully, there does not seem to be a water taxi to bring people on shore to the restaurants and I am not sure if I would be comfortable leaving a dingy on the beach, considering how busy this beachfront is.

Of all the marinas in the area, York River Yacht Haven is your best bet for overnight visitors.  This marina has a nice restaurant and a good marine store.  The York Haven Marina and White House Cove Marina in Poquoson are pretty darn good too; White House Cove has restaurant on the premises as well.  Crown Point Marina might be another destination.  I do not think Wormley Creek Marina takes transients, but they have a great service shop.  Our Yacht Club will also allow transients, but getting to a store or a restaurant will be difficult.  However, our club has a lot of friendly helpful members so that issue could be solved (in particular if you are buying). 

Sailing in the area is great, the York is fun and so is the Mobjack Bay.  A lot of us sail year round, although the winters can be chilly at times.  I find February to be the toughest month in the area, but to each his/her own.  All together we enjoy being on the York and lower Chesapeake Bay.  It is a great place to visit and to sail.

Newport News Park (10/19/2014)

Home in Newport News Park again.  The leaves have not yet turned, although they are on the verge.  It is amazing how we are two to three weeks behind the rest of the state.  This serves as evidence that we have such a long varied state, as I often mention in my classes.  We go from the coast and coastal plains to a place like Highland County which is the county with the highest average elevation on the east coast.  Yes, there are higher locations, but still that place is high and cold.  Being a bit of a nature geek, it really is fun at times to make the drive from Yorktown all the way to Abingdon, which is about a 6 hour drive (370 miles) and you are still in the same state.  You see all kinds of vegetation types, rock formations and even birds.  The first time I traveled to the hill from the coastal plains I was amazed to see all the plants I was so familiar with when we lived in Cincinnati.

Back to Newport News Park.  Sunday we took a 2 hour walk.  We went out our back yard into the park, walked all the way on to the Yorktown Battlefield and then followed a trail that take you by a swamp, a heron rookery, an area with huge trees with a pawpaw understory that almost looks like an old growth forest, and Grafton ponds.  You can see forested wetlands, ephemeral forest streams and ponds and all kinds of things that delight the soul.  This is my kind of spirituality!

On our walk we all the sudden noticed these green patches of green moss with bright orange mushrooms popping out of them: nice and contrasting (I know I recently did a mushroom post, but here is another one).  After teaching plant evolution at the college level, I am always hesitant to call this moss; a lot of these green patches may actually be the sexual phase of a fern also known as prothallus.  I experienced this first hand: I try to grow bonsai and here I thought I had a nice moss cover on my soil, until they all turned into ferns and my pot is covered by ferns.  Anyway, this is a picture of the moss.  I am also entering it in Cee's weekly photo challenge and this week’s theme is green, kind of a strange subject for fall, but so be it.  

One from last weekend, chanterelles popping out of moss

Fincastle (10/17/2014 and 10/18/2014)

This past Thursday, Friday and Saturday I took part in a stormwater workshop that was put on by the Virginia Association of Professional Soil Scientist (VAPSS).  It was held at Camp Bethel in Fincastle.  Camp Bethel is in a great location and a well thought out camp/retreat.  As a Unitarian Universalist I will not comment about the religious background of the camp, but in no way was there any evidence of a religious message, maybe with the exception of the “no alcohol” rule.  But that was ok; my liver got a break.

The first day of the conference I gave one talk and I served on a panel.  The second day I gave two talks.  Being good soil scientists the third day it was time to look at soil pits, which was great.  I needed to participate a little, but it was a long time ago that I looked at soils in this way.  But truthfully, as one of the major contributors at the conference, you are always on, and people constantly approach you with questions or to start a discussion. 

The best thing was that my wife came with me for a change (she is a soil scientist), and regardless of all the teaching and exhaustion, we were able to sneak away after the meeting for a hike to peep at some leaves, enjoy nature, and just decompress.  There are some great trails at the camp; although the marking of the trails can be done better than just pulling a paint brush over the bark of a tree.  Regardless we had a wonderful time, being away from the hustle and bustle at the office, being in nature, but also being with peers; people with similar interests, who are pretty darn intelligent and just plain fun to be with. 

It was great to recharge the batteries and enjoy life; although it did nothing for the internal debate we both have about what to do when (and sometimes if) we retire: do we want to stay where we live; do we want to move to the mountains and keep our boat as a free motel room in the Tidewater; or shall we move back to New Mexico?  This all came back up during our drive home.  We love them all and honestly, we came to the conclusion that you can only stay (mentally) young if you have a variety of interests and hobbies and foster that in each other.

Blue Ridge Parkway (10/15/2014)

Having to travel out to the western part of the state, we decided that it did not matter what time we arrived at our motel, so we took the Blue Ridge Parkway to our destination.  It was just after a rain, and the fall colors were in their full glory.  Below are some pictures I took on my way down to Roanoke from Afton Pass.

The pictures below give you an idea of the vistas and just simply nice areas we passed by.  We crossed the James River, which was flowing lazily underneath the bridge that is posted here as well.  There is a restored lock on the other side, and that really amazes me, the human effort that was put into getting transport up these types of river.  The other photographs are some beautiful pictures of fall colors and a wall near the visitor's center near the Afton Pass.  It was a great dive and wonderful to see nature in its full glory.

Beautyberry (10/14/2014)

You can always notice it is fall when the beauty berries in our yard start producing their bright purple fruit.  Beautyberries are a very common native (weedy) species in our yard.  We started with one, just in the right spot, and now two or three years later we have three additional plants scattered throughout the yard.  Since the fruit is a bird favorite, you can guess where we get the new plants: underneath existing shrubs and trees.  Birds eat the fruit and poop out the seed, usually when the sit on a perch.

I saw this when managing on a 400 acre ecosystem restoration project in the Indianapolis area.  We had planted tree seedlings in rows in all these acres of farmland and we were required to monitor the success.  We started to notice that volunteer seedlings were germinating everywhere.  While seedlings of plants with light seeds established were germinating throughout the area, we saw that seedlings from plants with fruits were germinating only at the bases of the tallest seedling we had planted.  This was pure evidence that birds were using the tallest seedlings as perches to look over the field and pooping out seeds.  Great to see nature in action like that.

Honestly, I love beautyberries. Callicarpa americana as it is known in scientific terms is a great native plant, it serves as food for birds during a time they are fattening up for winter or migration.  It seems that the plant has a chemical compound in its leaves that repels mosquitoes, and in our yard we need all the help we can get.

I am posting this picture as part of Cee's Fun Photo Challenge.  This weeks challenge was to post a picture with vibrant colors, and lucky me, I took this photograph this past weekend.

Newport News Park (10/12/2014)

 It was a damp cool weekend; and therefore great for some yard work.  We planted some perennial bushes and started noticing a lot of mushrooms popping up out of the ground.  Subsequently, we decided to go for a walk in the woods behind our house.  We soon were awestruck by the number of mushrooms everywhere.  So at the encouragement of my wife, it was time to break the phone out and start shooting some pictures of them.  About 5 years ago I did a whole series of mushroom pictures, so I am no stranger of walking through the woods braving ticks and taking close-ups of these wonderful guys.

We counted probably more than 20 different species ranging from very minute ones to huge mushrooms; and from eatable (chanterelles) to outright poisonous mushrooms.  No I do not dare to harvest anyone of them, since misidentification can prove deadly.  I just admire the heck out of them.  Having studied commercial mushroom growing when I was young, I love seeing them come up out of the ground for their day or sometimes hours of glory.  Before you get these great, what we call, fruiting bodies, mushrooms are nothing else but mold threads in the soil, that when conditions are ripe, come together as a group and all the sudden pop up out of the ground in these and interesting forms.  For example the eatable “hen of the woods” looks more like a white flower (gardenia) that has fallen on the ground.

Mushrooms help in the breakdown of organic matter in the soil, and a lot of mushrooms are micorrhizal, in other words they live on roots in a symbiotic relationship.  The roots supply the fungi (mold) with nutrients like sugar, and the molds help with the uptake of water and fertilizer by the roots.  In essence they scratch the root’s back and the roots scratch theirs.  So the soil and many plants need these fungi. 

Well, Sunday I took many photographs and here are two of the really poisonous ones.  I identified the reddish mushroom on the left as the “big laughing Gym”.  It is tall and has a circumference of about a foot.  That mushroom is hallucinogenic and according to my mushroom book causes “irrational laughing.”  The white mushrooms are as big as dinner plates, and are named “destroying angles”.  They are deadly when consumed; according to Wikipedia more than half the deaths from mushroom poisoning are caused by this mushroom; although it is a micorrhizal mushroom and really useful and important for plants.  An interesting world we live in indeed.  Although some are deadly to us, they are useful and essential for others, in particular plants. It was a fun walk through the woods and just great to see them all out.

New River Trail (10/10.2014)

On the way back from my trip all the way out west I decided to stop in Draper and take a short walk on the New River Trail.  The "short" walk turned out to be an hour and a half long, but it was just what the doctor ordered.  Granted I saw very little of the "Creeper" (see my post of two days ago), but the New River trail is still my favorite.  The Creeper took me 2 miles from downtown Abingdon and back.  So it was a bit of suburbia with some nice pasture land mixed in.  The New River Train from Draper starts in a very rural area, and before you know it you are outside the village in nature.  I am such a strong believer in Nature Deficit Disorder (I previously wrote about that and you can find more in the labels section of my blog).  However, yes it is either nature or sailing where I can clear my mind and think clearly.  Then coming home, I hear that my brother-in-law gave a lecture at Princeton where among other he talked about the philosopher Heidegger needing nature as well to think clearly.  Naturally no comparison here, but yes I need my nature fix.

Fall was gearing up in this area.  Leaves were starting to turn and seeds were ripening.  Birds were all over the seed heads along the trail.  The pictures below show the flowers of a New England Aster, a fall flower that has found a niche flowering this time of the year.  There is a photo of the fruit of a spice bush.  Spice bush is one of my my more favorite plants.  The leaves are very fragrant, and serve as host for many butterflies.  I harvested a few fruits to try to germinate and grow some plants here in my yard.

The bench is something I have done for years now, ever since I got into photography as a 16 or 17 year old.  Back then I represented a certain loneliness that felt after having been transplanted from a tropical island to the Netherlands at the age of 16.  At that time my parents decided to relocate after some 1960s riots on the island.  Here in the peak of puberty, having my first girlfriend, I found myself transplanted in a completely new surrounding.  I became the class clown, in the hope to get accepted and to be noticed in a high school class that had been together for a long time.  I was lonely and depressed back then and started taking pictures of empty park benches (the tears of a clown?).  But, it is something that has stuck with me, and even now (see even my New Kent picture from a while back), I enjoy taking pictures like that; although I do not consider myself lonely or depressed.  I'm happy and content, but it is something that I'll always be interested in.

 

Abingdon (10/9/2014)

The fun part about all the traveling I do is meeting people or reacquainting myself with people I have taught or interacted with in the past. People that I remember from the past really made an impression on me back then, and they did not disappoint me this time around.  Just pure fun.  The issue is that I basically have to be on from 8 am till 4 pm.  I have no fellow teachers this time around and I am horribly horse after a day of talking.  I am also tired as a dog, and basically collapse when I get back to my motel room.

Fun is seeing a new place in Virginia or seeing the same place again and thus seeing it in a different light.  Abingdon this week was such a place.  I was teaching at a location I had not taught before.  Yesterday and today I ate dinner at a places I had never eaten before.  I really try to explore the local cuisine.  Chains I can eat at at home or while driving; I tend not to eat at chains while at home.  Call me strange, but somehow I do not think a chain has creativity and being a cook myself, I like creativity in food.

This picture was taken in the restaurant I ate tonight.  Bella's Pizza and Subs is a great local restaurant.  I enjoyed it and even yellep it.

Rails to trails in Western Virginia (10/8/2014)

A little bummed out, in Abingdon tonight and I had hoped to be able to report that I had biked all four rail to trail sites I western Virginia that I know.  Taking my bike out the trunk of my vehicle I noticed my tire was flat and pretty darn past repair.

Oh well, time to at least walk the Creeper (for the second time). The Creeper is an abandoned railroad that was converted to a bike trail.  Others in the area are the High Bridge Trail (subject to last week's post), the New River Trail, and the Huckleberry Trail.  Of these four trails, the Huckleberry is accessible to both road bikes and off road bikes.  I would do the other trails with a bike with fat tires.  The most scenic one (of the areas I've seen, walked or biked is the New River Trail, although the view from High Bridge is spectacular, and I have only seen 2 miles of the 37 mile Creeper.  Maybe I can get my bike repaired tomorrow and try it.

I took these pictures during my walk this afternoon, it was fun.  The walk back was right into the setting sun, so that was bothersome.

Seaford 10/5/2014)

Although the weather was decent for sailing this weekend, I decided to put in another port (window) into the boat.  All my ports were leaking and in very bad shape.  It was so bad that a previous owner had lined the outside of the with duck tape and on top of that even blue painter's tape.  Try getting that stuff off after it has been on a hull for a couple of years.  To add insult to injury they had put some dark colored plexiglass on top of the entire window frame and fastened them with some kind of silicone.  Finally, the boat has one missing port, where the previous owner had just put a garbage bag over the hole (which I replaced with a sheet of plywood).  The boat was a mess.  Over the past few years I have been slowly replace the ports (probably to slowly for the admiral, but I want to sail the boat as well and enjoy it).  So I know it is time to do the windows, being a member of a yacht club, being the first boat on the dock (and thus the first boat everybody sees), and considering I have had the boat for four years now.

2010 picture, just after I took possession of the boat (note the plywood cover over the window opening) I just arrived for the first time at my new skip.

Knowing I had one missing window, I jumped at an offer on the Catalina-Capri 25s International Organization for the purchase of a complete set of secondhand ports.  I got the for a decent deal, and they have been sitting at my home for the past year.  So I knew it was time to start with the replacements.  I bought a new port resealing kit from Catalina Direct and read all that I could on the message boards of the Catalina Association.  From all that I read, it seemed that it was almost better for me to try to get butyl tape and set the windows in that, instead of putting them in the silicone that came in the kit from Catalina Direct.  Butyl tape is relatively inexpensive, and I took the plunge, although I knew nothing about that stuff.

Out came the first port, it was located above the head (toilet) The port that was in there had a sliding window, and I painstakingly tried to restore it.  I also had the restore the opening.  The wall of the cabin at this location is a sandwich of a balsa plywood core between two layers of fiberglass.  Over the years and because of all the moisture, the core had deteriorated, and after letting it dry for a few weeks, I injected penetrating epoxy into the core and then, at a later time used the West System Epoxy Adhesive that you can put unto a caulk gun to inject epoxy into the core.  I clamped the opening with small C-clamps of get an even thickness in the opening.  After building the opening up and sanding it the opening was finally ready to receive the refurbished port.  Well, disaster struck, The sliding glass port leaked like a sieve.  Taking it out was easy with the butyl tape keeping the port in place, I cannot imagine how I would have accomplished that with fresh silicone.  Finally, I got the new port in using using fixed glass, and it does not leak.

We yesterday we did the fourth port (of the six total), and here are a few pictures of the work.  I am happy to say that we are done with one side of the boat now.

This weekend's opening, ready to do a final sanding and then the fitting of the port.

The fourth port is in!

The three ports on the port side of the boat are in, you can still see the mess that years of adhesive tape have left.I'll eventually will have to sand and paint the entire deck part of the boat.  E few weeks ago I put a non-skid coat on the botton of the cockpit so I have started that as well.

Seaford (10/4/2014)

I have been working on my sailboat today.  I am rebuilding one of the port (window) openings of my boat, and tomorrow I will be putting a new port in.  I will do a separate blog posting on that tomorrow.
Coming back to close up my sailboat this afternoon I was taken by surprise that the water was so high.  It is not spring tide (yet); that happens with full and new moon, when the moon and the sun are either in opposite sides of the sky or in the same general area.  I hope it was the wind, which was coming from the north and might be piling the water up in our creek,.  I think and hope it is too early to see the results of sea-level rise.
Either way it was fun getting in and out of the boat especially since we do not have any floating docks.  As you can see, the access to the dingy dock is shut off and you would get wet feet if you would like to go laser racing.

Richmond (10/2/2014)

Every day when I drive home from Richmond I pass by this wonderful mural/graffiti.  Richmond has a few and I see two of them on a daily basis.  Not sure if this one is offensive to some, but I love it.  To me it is a mixture of a caricature of a large superstore that uses the smiley face as their symbol and really neat avantgarde art.  Today I had just read the new challenge by Cee Neuner that I so now and then participate in.  This week's challenge was the color yellow and I thought this fits.  The photo was taken on the fly, through the roof of my car so pardon the quality; I just thought it was fun.  I just wish there was more art like this around where I live or travel, but I always smile when I drive by there on the way home.

Farmville (9/29/2014)

After a weekend of traveling and cycling on the eastern shore, it was "on the road again" but now for work.  My job took to me Farmville, about an hour and a half southwest of Richmond.

I really think Farmville is a great little town, with Longwood University.  I applied for a job at Longwood two time, but obviously was rejected, and the only other thing I know about it is that one of the dorms burned down the year we moved to Virginia.  In addition to the University, Farmville is famous for it's (now mostly defunct) furniture manufacturing and the famous High Bridge Bike trail. The photo for today was taken on High Bridge on Monday night.

The bridge it self is an amazing 2400 feet (730 m) long and 125 feet (38 m) high.  It was constructed over the Appomattox River and flood plain in 1854, and it is a site of one of the civil war battles.  Currently, the rail line has been converted to a rails-to-trail site and it is wonderful biking in the area. My round trip from Farmville across the bridge and back was just a little over 10 miles and the trail is flat. I took the photo below using the HDR setting on my cell phone near the middle of the bridge.  For this occasion I obviously brought my mountain bike.  The trail is fine gravel and a normal bike with wider tires is needed.  My road bike with very narrow tired might have worked, but this was great.

Farmville has other attractions too.  I particularly like my lunch spot, "the Bakery", which has a European flair and great sandwiches.  I had a good visit.