Seaford (2/20 &2/21/2015)

As regular readers might have seen, we have had a harsh weather week these past few days.  It snowed on Monday and temperatures went below 10 degrees Fahrenheit (or -12 degrees centigrade).  Yes for us southerners that is cold!  It was that cold that it froze Back Creek where our boat is located.  As I mentioned previously, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) website mentions that seawater freezes below 28.4 degrees and our measurements showed the ice surface was 28 degrees; indeed cold enough for saltwater to freeze.  Expecting rain on Saturday night, I thought it was prudent to at least get a lot of the snow of the boat, in the hope to let the rainwater runoff easier and keep the inside drier.

First getting on the boat was an adventure.  She was stuck in the ice.  Thank goodness we were able to pull her forward a bit and I was able to push some of the snow of the bow with my snow shovel, thus taking some of the weight of the bow and loosening it enough that I could pull it over.  Now getting on without slipping and going of the other side.  I did succeed, and got most of the snow pushed of.  I only slipped once and thank goodness I fell right into the cockpit and did not need to try to swim in 28 degree water.  The snow was nice and soft.  I tore off the handle to the companion way hatch on my way down, but at least I've got something else to work on this winter.

Removing snow from the boat (photo taken by Donna A. Briedé)

It is always good to be at the yacht club.  I’m seldom alone; there is always someone working or at least visiting their boat.  This was also the case on Saturday and actually on Friday as well.  The advantage of membership of a group such as this is comradery and friendship.  It is a great place to hang out.  We humans are social animals and need others around, despite my regular assertion that we men are all monks and rather be alone.

Newport News Park (2/17/2015)

So here I write a blog post on the 27th of January about my experience with snow as a kid, and while I did not really meant to complain, nature had a different understanding and dished out some snow this week.  Just to get even with me complaining; nature has a way to get back at you.  On top of that it is supposed to get really cold.

The photo above is actually from one of the Grafton Ponds out back.  The ponds were mostly frozen over before the snow hit.  However there were enough holes in the ice and the weight of the snow (5 to 6 inches or 12 to 15 cm) was heavy enough to force pond water to intermingle with the snow and turn is yellowish.  This is a good thing, at least you can see where the ice is, because I'm sure that the ice was not hard enough when the snow started falling.  So no wienie roasting on the ice as I did as a kid in Canada.

It was beautiful though, the white world and the sun after a day old cold and cloudy.  I'm also thankful that the boss (or the Governor I guess) gave us an extra day off to dig out and to enjoy the snow.  For me it is a great chance to explore great out doors and nature.

I guess we are slightly different, we get of the beaten path and we "bushwhack."  Knee deep beagle snow was a bit too much for our small (12 year/old) beagle, but she was a trouper.  Like us she enjoys it a lot and that's what counts.  Both dog were smelling every hoof print that all the deer left in the ice, which was hilarious to watch.  Quality of life, enjoying the outdoors, getting in touch with nature and living in the moment are all very important.  And living in the moment we did; there is always something fun and new around every corner. 

Here we are walking away from the edge of a pond, through a wetland; hence the sedges. To the right you can see an area with some recent tree fall (recent being probably caused by hurricane Isabel 12 years ago).  The gap in the forest is now starting to fill in with some small loblolly pine saplings.  The natural succession as we see here is a good thing.  Generally after logging you have a very even aged forest, and it is the occasional tree fall that makes a forest more dynamic and diverse.  Now if we could control the deer, we would even have more diversity, especially in the understory.  Looking back this is what we saw:

Sitting behind my desk and behind my computer, I already miss being outside in nature, and experiencing this beauty.  The virgin snow covers all imperfections and even the litter you sometimes find in these far flung places.  The innocence of this landscape under a white blanket is amazing to me.  It is so peaceful and fun.  This was also evidenced yesterday by this little winter wren which was darting from trunk to trunk over the ice, pecking the bark for bugs and other food items.  The diminutive bird did not care about us and our dogs.  It came close to us and for a while just stood there on the ice and watched us. I generally find them very secretive, but this little guy had no worry in the world and was having fun on the ice.  A fun peaceful place to spend an afternoon.

(this post is part of my contribution to Cee's Fun Photo Challenge)

Seaford (2/16/2015)

When I was young, in my early 20s, I studied photography and wanted to become a photographer.  One on the most interesting tricks in the darkroom was solarizing your photograph.  You never really knew what the results would be, but it was always fun.  It came down to putting your sheet of paper under the enlarger and exposing it to light, light every picture you print.  Subsequently, the paper would go into the developer and you were not to agitate the liquid.  At one point, while the picture was developing, you would flip on the light for a few seconds, and in essence your picture would turn black.  At least the areas that were light turned dark.  Simply the developing chemical was not exhausted and still worked.  In the darker areas nothing would happen and the used chemicals would bleed over from the dark areas to the lighter areas, resulting in the fine white lines you see with solarisation.  If you wanted a white picture, you could then put another piece of paper on the developed picture and use the paper as a negative.  Naturally you could do the same with film.  You could really never control the process and the outcome was never really predictable for me.  Now in modern days computer algorithms do all the work.  This picture was taken with my phone and I have the computer do all the work.  Still the results are fascinating, if you do not over use it.

This picture was taken at the yacht club.  It has been really cold these past few days and today we are expecting snow.  Evidence of the cold is the freezing of the water in our creek.  The water is saline, and you know it must be cold when an ice sheet forms.  NOAA tells me that saltwater freezes at 28.4 degrees Fahrenheit or -2 Celsius.   Even the solarized picture above shows the ice hanging off the lines that keep the boats in their place.  The picture below shows the ice on the side of one of the piers.  The ice is covering the shoreline as it is deposited by the tides.  Above the ice is the Spartina alterniflora shore.  This plant (smooth cordgrass) lives in the tidal areas on the east coast, and is an invasive weed on the west coast.  This past weekend we had a talk at the yacht club on sea level rise, and this is one of those plants that will be feeling the pinch.  It does not like constant inundation or feet that are too dry. 

Newport News Park (2/7/2015)T

This morning we again experienced that sometimes the road well traveled is not the most exciting road.  It is great to bushwhack through the woods and see where it leads.  We decided that the trails we always seem to walk was just not for us today.  The sky was blue, the air was crisp and we were not interested in finding the straightest line or the fastest ways between two points.  This was also evidenced by the mountain bike trail we crossed at times bushwhacking this morning.  Mountain bike trails seem to wind back and forth through the woods, not making much headway, but who cares.  It is the exercise that counts, or it is the trip that counts in my eyes, not the destination.

During our walk today we went through an area that was obviously cut over 20 or 30 years ago.  It is mostly covered with hardwood trees, and to our surprise there are some really large trees left.  Most of them are large beech trees.  The following is one between the "abandoned road" and the golf course.

But as I said we soon stepped off the "abandoned road"into the nature preserve, to just enjoy the trip, and nobody cared about the destination.  The dogs just love smelling everywhere and Jake, our pseudo lab loves deep pellets, which we now have coined doggy probiotics.  We just walked keeping the sun in mind, and figuring that if we kept the sun at a certain angle we would eventually make it to a trail that leads directly to our home.  We did not care if it was straight or what we would be running into.  Naturally it was one of the biggest beeches out back (I know of one or two more out there) that made us deviate from the course we had plotted in our mind, but that's the fun of it.

In the background you can see the general circumference of the other trees in the area.  It makes you really wonder why the foresters did not harvest these few beeches when they were at it.  Currently, with the advent of mechanical tools beech trees seem to be favorable trees throughout the world; they have very hard weed, and even here in the U.S. they seemed to be likes as lumber.  But I thank whoever for not harvesting these beauties.

The weeds behind our house have remarkably much relief, with some of the low areas occupied by the vernal pools that I write so much about (look in the labels for Grafton ponds, ephemeral ponds or maybe the Mabee salamander).  The last photo here shows a picture of Jake (one of our dogs) on a root crown of an oak near a pond.  I was impressed by the burl on the oak.  It seems that they are actually preferred by specialty wood workers and can fetch a lot of money,  

Amazing all the things you learn walking out back and when you are looking and enjoying yourself.  Sometimes not traveling the shortest distance between points give you the most bang for your buck anyway in enjoyment, relaxation and just fun.

Ramblings in Newport News Park (2/3/2015)

This morning I had the rare opportunity to take the dogs on a sunrise walk.  It was the result of a major screw up from my side.  The evening before I had opened the trunk of my car to put my little lunch bag in the trunk and somehow my keys had fallen in my bag and I had not noticed.  When I closed the trunk, I was locked out.  So I was standing in the parking garage, upset and completely disgusted with myself.  There is just too much stress where I work, and it does not look like things will lighten up soon.  Not knowing what to do, it felt like it would be cheaper to have my wife come all the way from home to save me as opposed to paying someone to unlock my car.  It may have been a mistake to do that, but we got a nice dinner out of it (we went out to dinner at Pasture, which is rapidly becoming one of my more favorite places to eat in downtown Richmond).  Oh well, we decided to sleep late and I would take the dog walking duties.

So back to my walk.  The sun was coming up and yes, since the earth is round, the top of the trees were the first ones being hit by the sun.  They were a fiery gold color.  This reminded me of a saying we have in Dutch: “hoge bomen vangen veel wind”, or translated “tall trees catch a lot of wind.”  Here I could say “tall trees catch the first rays.” 

Oh well, the Dutch saying is used to remind us that famous and important people receive all the scrutiny.  We can see that with the paparazzi and movie stars, or even politicians.  It all came together at that moment.  I had just watched a little thing on the CBS morning news how the Republican candidates for president were all pro-choice, at least when it came to vaccinating their children.  Honestly, who cares, but obviously they are the tall trees now and will get a lot of wind.  I’m not really looking forward to another political season.  It seems we are always in election mode.

But there is a deeper issue here, as well.  The important thing I’m learning over and over is that as a society we don’t care any longer about what the experts say and what the scientists and specialists have discovered; whether it is vaccinations or global warming.  And, the politicians just go along with them, they are catering to the lowest common denominator. 

Richmond (2/2/2015)

My lunchtime walk in Richmond today took me along Main Street.  It is a little deviation from what I usually do (either Capitol Square or Browns Island), and I'll probably will have to pay the price.  I did not log as many steps on my FitBit as I usually do during my lunchtime walks.  So it looks like I will need a long evening walk, in addition to tonight's yoga.  But it had been raining pretty heavy, and I just did not wanted to get caught in a downpour.

But the walk was good.  Actually, the sun came out and I was struck by the very colorful streetscape that popped up.

It was just after a heavy rainstorm and the air was clean, the streets were still wet and the sun came through the clouds.  I love the different textures, and colors here.  It is amazing you can sometimes walk by a scene for years (I have been passing by this place regularly for almost 6 years now), and all the sudden it strikes you as photogenic and special.  I am not sure if you have to be in a certain psychological state to see it or if it was the weather and the way the sun fell on the buildings, but today it spoke to me.

Actually, Sub Central is one of my favorite lunch places.  The serve killer french fries (killer in all the good and bad connotations, being that they taste great, but also that they are probably not the best for your health).  I have not tried the Asian place, but bought flowers and tried the restaurant on the corner.  All pretty reasonable and decent places to spend your money, but Sub Central is the place I go to when I am traveling that afternoon and need a full belly for my drive.

This picture could be somewhat emblematic of a fairly vigorous downtown; although I'm struck about the fact that there are no people in this picture.  It was taken around 1 pm, right at the end of lunch hour and you would expect it to be crowded.  Oh well.  Being European, I like the hustle and bustle of a vibrant downtown, but even here in Richmond, one block removed from Capitol Square, it seems somewhat deserted.  I have been in this area in the evening, and there is even less going on in this area at that time.  I am happy to report that some of the buildings around here are being converted into urban housing, but my major issue would be groceries.  One gal that works with me lives in the area, and she shops at a local drug store and a seven eleven down the street.  I'm sure it is more expensive and very basic, and hopefully a grocery store or specialty food stores will follow the redevelopment of downtown, otherwise it will not be very attractive to live here.  I really would not want to shop for my food at these places.  Moreover, if I live downtown, I would not want to get on a bus or in a car to go to the nearest grocery store to buy food.  That would defeat the purpose of moving downtown, close to my work.