Living in the moment (12/19/2021)

Each year, around this time of the year I seem to write a post where I review what happened in the world and in my life during the past year. I gave 2020 the proverbial middle finger for contributing COVID, my house arrest and tRump at his best. But what did 2021 bring us, or do I even want to write about it?

It is my understanding that the Buddhist are very strong believers of living in the moment. Living in the moment or not dwelling over the past and not being anxious over the future.

Dwelling over the past. My thesaurus tells me that the word dwell also means inhabit or live. This will age me, but it reminds me of one of my favorite Jethro Tull albums and associated tune “Living in the Past.” Part of the lyrics go like this:

Now there's revolution
But they don't know
What they're fighting
Let us close our eyes
Outside their lives
Go on much faster
Oh, we won't give in
We'll keep living in the past
Oh, we won't give in
Let's go living in the past
Oh no, no, we won't give in
Let's go living in the past

Damn, here I go again on a tangent, don’t I? Not really, the Album Living in the Past came out in 1969 and this part of the lyrics can apply to the much of the January 6th insurrection we saw. Those folks did not know what they were fighting for, and I am sure they still do not! They think they did, but was that really what was behind it all? A red-haired wannabe dictator who only cares about himself and maybe his rich cronies as long as they adore him, otherwise he’ll throw them under the bus. He somehow was able to whip up the masses with some popular ideas, but he doesn’t give a damn about them. The perfect demagogue, Mussolini, Stalin, Castro, etc. all in one person.

So yes, maybe it is better for me to live in the past, the times before we lost our innocence, and the country elected this red-haired wannabe dictator? Or should I focus on living in the moment? Boy what a conundrum.

This past year I have been very anxious about the future, my aging, and our environmental future as you can conclude from my blog posts. So, what remains? Yes, I better live in the moment, otherwise I’ll turn into a complete wreck!

But no, we can learn from the past and come to terms with it. I am still trying to do that in my personal life at times, although I think it is working most of the time. Regarding the future, I still need to plan, maybe try to lose those few pounds, my 2022 travel and teaching schedule, eventual retirement, and yes keep fighting for the environment and future generations. I wrote a post about bonsai work and how it is all based on long range planning (actually it was a political post, turned bonsai post, but as regular readers you know how my strange mind twists). So, living in the moment does not mean just sitting here staring at my belly button a.k.a. my computer. I want to try to make every moment count and live life to the fullest; enjoy it.

So maybe my next post will be a yearend review, although maybe not; I think I did a pretty good job at it here today.

I took this photo mid-November of my desk (top).  It is iconic for the year, I suppose.  Working from home and some of my (tropical) plants, inside for the winter months.  It is definitely not my Richmond office; they don't allow live plants there.

Nature-deficit disorder II (6/14/2016)

What is the common thread in my life (other than my wife, family and friends)?  There are a few, but they all come down to the same common denominator which is nature.  Whether nature is green (the forests) or blue (the water or even the expansive sky), it does not matter to me, I like being out there.  I believe in the healing power of nature, it calms me down and heals the soul. 

As a teenager growing up in the Caribbean I could spend hours outside on our desert island imagining how to landscape the yard.  My parents had just built our home in this new subdivision and it was still a partial construction site.  But I just walked through the yard will all these designs in my head.  There was no day-time TV, no computer games or anything like that and yes we had to walk through 3 feet deep snow to school even in the Caribbean.  Just kidding of course.  I never go to landscape our yard; we moved away, back to the Netherlands.  But even in 3^rd and 4^th grade after school my best friend Michiel and I would be playing outside in the bush exploring things, finding what we thought to be hidden caves and beautiful flowering plants.

I still do it to present days, as I like to say to the dogs on Saturday mornings, “let’s walk the grounds”; our yard is slightly shy of a half-acre, so nothing to write home about, but I still imagine things.  I attempt to grow bonsais and I will go look at my trees trying to imagine what they will look like years from now.  One thing I do too little off during my rounds is, to my wife’s annoyance, pull weeds; I just enjoy a very slow walk and looking at nature, like the towhees digging through last year’s fall leaves that we left in all the perennial beds.  We tend not to use any pesticides or fertilizers in our yard and it usually teams with weeds, birds, frogs, toads, skinks, butterflies, squirrels, moles, voles, mosquitoes, and ticks in our yard.  We built a huge stick pile which is a refuge for all kinds of birds, a pair of rabbits, and the other day, our beagle flushed a fawn out of it.  We have a nature preserve behind our home and one of the things I do is to stand in our yard and look out over it in anticipation of fall weather when temperatures at night are low enough again for the chiggers and ticks to become dormant, so we can go out there again.

When not in the yard on his afternoon off from school, this teenager growing up on a Caribbean island was either sailing or swimming/snorkeling.  But he was always enjoying some other form of nature.  He was rarely ever brooding inside.  He was brooding outside. 

Regular readers know my love for the water and sailing.  Just a visit to the beach always amazes the family; I can just sit in the surf and never come out.  Sitting on the beach on the sand does not interest me one bit, I want to be in the water; that is where I am at home.  The same is the case for being on the water, in a sailboat. 

Extroverts need people around them to recharge.  I need nature around me to do that.  Being an introvert I wonder if all or many introverts recharge that way, or if they all recharge differently?  But for me it is nature, be it green or blue, it really does not matter to me. 

I know I am not alone in this.  When I began writing this post my wife ran into the following article published by the BBC.  It describes how exposure to nature is good for you.  It is based on a scientific research article published <here>.  It showed that people who where exposed to nature for 30 days or longer were significantly happier than before they were exposed to nature.  As I mentioned in my blog about Richard Lowe's book, he has seen the same in the research he has reviewed.  The book on the Blue Mind by Wallace Nichols has the same premise (see the list of books I am reading).  While it is slow reading for me, it is not a bad book (it is actually a great book); but I have so many other important things I am doing, like exploring nature and sailing.

A picture of this weekend's sail.  This was "Blue Mind" for sure, 15 knot winds, some fun intense sailing, we had no chance to think about anything else.  We were living in the moment.

Water (2/12/2016)

Walking in the woods this morning after a very cold morning I was reminded of one of the things I really try to push in my classes: 

“The importance of (clean) water!”

I tell my students that life is not possible without water and that one of the reasons is that water has these special properties.  One of these properties is that is expands when is gets colder than approximately 40 degrees Fahrenheit.  Below that temperature water becomes more buoyant (lighter) because of the expansion and rises to the top of the water column.  When temperatures drop below freezing water freezes on top and creates this insulated layer which allows fish and aquatic life to survive in lakes, ponds, rivers and oceans (and it allows my crazy Dutch country men and women to win gold medals in speed skating).  If water would freeze from the bottom up these water bodies would be lifeless because every thing wold freeze to death.  This is also one reason why NASA is so fascinated by the (water) moons of Jupiter and Saturn, because they are expected to have liquid water deep down.  There may be life up there!

After an night of frost you can see the small cracks that formed and refroze as a result of the expanding ice, creating this magnificent mosaic.

The photograph above gives a great example of it all.  There is liquid water under the ice.  Obviously after the water froze it got even colder and the expanding ice has all kinds of small cracks in it from expanding and now looks like a mosaic.  Really cool!  Although it may be quite disturbing that instead of enjoying nature, I am constantly analyzing things in nature, just like that cartoon that I saw on Facebook of how a scientist spends his vacation on a tropical island.

Click <here> to see the site where I found the cartoon and to see many more science cartoons!

Anyway, I do teach almost daily about the importance of water, about the importance of clean water and about keeping it clean through erosion and sediment control and stormwater management.

Expanding ice in wet soil causes what we call frost heaving.  These soil particles become very loose and can become erodible and end up in our stormwater.

What can you contribute to keeping our water clean?

1. Pick up your animal’s waste, especially when they do it on the road or in or near a place where it will readily enter the stormwater
2. Don't over-fertilize or apply too much pesticide to your yard
3. When you apply fertilizer or pesticide stay a few yards away from streets or your property boundary
4. When you wash your car do it on the lawn not on a paved surface, like your driveway or the road in front of your home.  Better, do it at a car wash.
5. Don’t poor waste oil or any other wastes down the storm drain
6. Minimize the bare soil in our yards and mulch

We all can contribute to clean water, and it is so important!  If we run out of water, our earth will turn into something like Mars, lifeless; without clean water who knows, but it will not be pretty.  As I teach my students:

"Filthy water cannot be washed!"

The big ephemeral pond behind our home has the same mosaic like features.  The water in these ponds is so nice and clean.

Jamestown (1/28/2016)

I drove the Colonial Parkway on the way back home today and snapped this picture of Jamestown Island and the calm James River today.  The water was like glass, the sky was grey, and it was very peaceful until a van with high school students stopped who were obviously on a school project. 

Took the day off today to go to a workshop at the Jamestown Settlement today.  It was a four hour course on"Nature Journaling."  While it was not exactly what I was hoping for, I did have a lot of fun and I did learn quit a bit.

The course was put on by the Jamestown/Yorktown Foundation and was part of a special antiques native plant botany exhibit that they have.  If you are a regular reader of my blog, that's right up my alley.  Yes, I was hoping to learn some tricks of the trade that I could use here in these blog entries, and I guess maybe I will some day.  Maybe I have entered the instant electronic gratification era with my digital photographs and the blog, and am I lost (forever) from the more elegant note taking of the past.

The 4 hour course was given by Betty Gatewood.  Betty is an absolutely delightful person with an energy that is enviable.  She is an amateur naturalist/water colorist; one of those renaissance people.  If you ever have a chance to take a class of her, don't hesitate!

What did I learn?  Journaling is not a crazy hobby or a way to pass time.  It can be beautiful and the way Betty does illustrates it, in particular with her quick drawings and small water colors, it is even very nice; a keepsake for future generations.  I asked her why she does it.  Things like this are very personal, you hope your children read it, and maybe you hope to ever get it published.  I think a lot of people I know are closet authors that hope to write their book and this is one overt way.  Some do however.  Journals from Thoreau, Leopold, McPhee, Hoagland, Ehrlich among others have had a huge influence on me, or the book that resulted from their (nature) journals.  This and some of the blogs I read are journals entries in their own way.  Somehow and for some reason I put them out there for the world to read.  My lame excuse is education and information.

Nature journals reflect your personal relationships with nature, I learned today.  It also chronicles changes over millenia and can document global warming.  So yes, I had a wonderful time, and I even learned how to tie die my journal (or paper) with shaving cream and food coloring!

I do write a lot about nature.  I think half my entries relate to it in one way or another.  It's precious and we need to protect it.  Betty taught us that by journaling, writing about it or drawing it, you observe it more closely and you become one with it:

I have learned that what I have not drawn, 

I have never really seen.

(F. Franck, arts and author of Zen of Seeing: Seeing/Drawing as Meditation)

I think the same hold true when you really describe it and write about it.  But one thing is for sure, get out there and enjoy nature!

New year's resolution in Norfolk(1/3/2016)

Happy New Year everyone!

This year I personally resolve  to be more culturally open; to get a life, to get out more, and to have fun!   I know that I often take myself too serious and get easily upset by what I perceive to be criticism.  I think I've gotten better over the years but as Mark Mason describes in a blog post, it is like trying to stop the Titanic and avoid the damn iceberg, it is so imprinted in you by your past and difficult to change.

Yes, we need to have more fun in life.  Like this little guy, he seems to have a load of fun riding his horn made by a Central American Indian tribe, a long time ago,  It survived all the centuries and he still has that mischievous grin on his face!  But then it helps when you are cast in clay.  I wonder what he has seen all that time.  It's kind of a pity that he is locked up in a museum case, his journey appears to be over, but he's still grinning.

We visited the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk on Sunday where he was locked up and that made me realize what I've missed for a while now.

The entrance to the Chrysler Museum

I can almost not remember when the last time was that I visited a museum.  The Chrysler is a great place to start if you want to see a good museum for the first time or for the first time in a long time.  It has a little bit of everything.  From ancient Greek and Egyptian artifacts to a Picasso and more modern paintings.  It also has one of the best glass art collections in the world.  On top of that it's free!

Looking at the Picasso through the doorway 

This is actually a glass sculpture.
There is so darn much symbolism here!

I really believe art enriches our lives, whether you make it, perform it, watch it, or just look at it.  Don't forget, in it's purest form art is the most perfect expression of the artist's free will.  Nobody tells the artist what to paint, what to compose or what to make (may be not some of the commercial stuff).  At least four of the five photographs show pieces of art that to me appear to be the artist's ultimate expression of free will.  Art is even an expression of our own free will as the public, we can interpret art the way we want to, regardless of what the little piece of paper next to the art work says about it.  What a novel concept!

To me art is like listening to a good concert (which is art) or sailing (sometimes an art too): you can only be in the moment when looking at art and you cannot think of anything else; all the troubles and worries are forgotten at that moment.

This year, resolve to visit more museums, to broaden your horizon and to talk to people who think differently than you.  There is plenty of superficial interactions between people but when was the last time you had a deep intelligent discussion with someone else?  You actually might learn something. Life is becoming too much like the brothers in the movie Nebraska while watching the football game.

I will do the same.  One thing I realized this weekend was that I really need more culture, arts, philosophy, or just fun intelligent interaction between intelligent human beings.  That is the way I want to grow!  Maybe less self improvement books and more philosophy books and deep thinking.  As a nomad who travels and often lives in motel rooms I will have some alone time to think as well, I will use that time wisely, I will read, write, hopefully find interesting people to talk to, but like in the past I will also still hike and enjoy nature.

 

Nature-deficit disorder (Yorktown, 11/25 and 11/27/2015)

A real term or not?  I strongly believe it is.   Just like attention deficit disorder (ADD) is, there is something to being too long away from the natural world.   While people with ADD can not focus on one thing for an extended period , I believe if you have nature-deficit disorder you need a regular nature fix or you can no longer fully focus on life or the task ahead or other things like depression set in.

I did not invent the term, or the concept.  I was introduced to it by Richard Louv in his books "Last Child in the Woods ..." and "The Nature Principle."  While maybe no literary masterpieces  (says this non-native English speaker and amateur blogger), the books introduced me to some great concepts and ideas that I intuitively knew, but never articulated.  They really are great books.  Being in nature recharges me and brings me inner peace.  Mr. Louv even has examples of bringing peace to inner city gang members by bringing them to nature. (See also this webpage on the movement he started).

Readers know I am a biologist, a naturalist and an educator who loves the outside, both the blue and the green.  I suffer terribly from nature-deficit disorder, I need to get out there after a few days (just to recharge and get my sanity back).  If you are a regular reader you should know, and just look at the labels, there are at least 21 posts where I used the term.  So on my first day off on the long Thanksgiving weekend I took off for a walk in the woods with the dogs.  It was just above freezing and sunny; perfect.

To me walks like this are like meditation, the mind goes where it wants to and you observe it.  If it goes too far you call it gently call it back.  You don't speed walk, but just observe.  But still, I actively look around, observe and take photos.  Here are a few photos I took during my walk:

Teaching my wetland class, I always walk around with my teacher hat on and had to take this photograph of three multi-stemmed red maples in a row.  A clear sign that this site may be wet, or at least as I say in my class, "a red flag."

I was somewhat surprised to find this turtle on my path.  It was a cold morning and I was expecting that they were in hibernation by now.  The dogs sniffed it and you could hear it clicking in the shell making sure it stayed closed. 

Right after seeing the turtle I was struck by the way the sun was shining through the trees and striking the ground, the trees, and my face.  I just had to take this picture.   At home I converted it to black and white.   

I found it so encouraging that the outdoors store REI started the #OptOutside movement for Black Friday.  They did not open their stores on Black Friday  and encouraged their employees to enjoy the great outdoors.   We did the same, we took the sail boat out and enjoyed blue nature. It all fits in with fighting Nature-deficit disorders.

Enjoying Blue Nature on Black Friday.

Being out there is so important to me.  Try it, it is good for the soul, the mind and for those creative juices.

Stormwater (11/1/2015)

I have been doing some literature research on the history of stormwater management.  OK, call me a stormwater geek or a stormwater nerd, but I just realized that I have been actually fascinated about it for probably more more than forty years and I never noticed it until this weekend.

It all started in 1972 when I read an article somewhere about an agriculture and reforestation project in the arid mountains of Algeria.  This fascinated me and prompted me to do a literature search on the subject of desert revegetation at my college library in Holland where I found a reference to a new (scientific) book by Michael Evenari and co-authors called: The Negev, The Challenge of a Desert.  It was published in 1971 and I borrowed it through inter-library loan.  It came from the Dutch Library of Congress, it appeared that I was the first one to read it.  I devoured the book.

In this book Evenari and his colleagues describe how the old Bedouin tribes were able not only to survive in the desert but actually to thrive by practicing agriculture in the Negev Desert of what is now Israel.  They built extensive drainage canal systems on hillsides that captured runoff from the sparse winter rainstorms and brought the water down to the agriculture fields.  Very different from what we did with stormwater until the early 2000s; which is, getting rid of it.  At least now we are back to teaching people to conserve stormwater; to conserve it and infiltrate it.

Walking to work in Richmond this morning (11/3/2015), ready to go back out on the road and teach about stormwater management and conservation, and erosion and sediment control. 

I have always credited Evenari for steering me into the field of desert ecology; his book has a chapter on plant survival in the desert environment and it was my first encounter with that subject as well.  Ever since reading that chapter I have been fascinated with plant physiological ecology, in particular the adaptation of plants to stressful environments such as deserts, the subject I specialized in for my PhD.

Events in real life kept reminding me of Evenari's book.  In Yemen I saw some of the same water harvesting practices that he described seeing in the Negev Desert.  I also saw the same plant adaptations in Yemen and in New Mexico as he saw, and it always brought me back to his book.  So much so, that  Evenari's book was one of the first purchases I made on the fledgling Amazon.com years ago, it was a book that always stayed with me.  So yes, it was fun to open it again this weekend and to leaf through it again.

Now 40 year or more later I can credit Evenari for even more than just turning me into an physiological ecologist.  Truth be known, I am more a stormwater geek or nerd now; maybe also thanks to that book, a realization I all the sudden have all out of the blue.  It is fun to see how your life comes full circle, all the way back to stormwater management, the most important subject in the book.  It is amazing how one event, or one book can have such a (subconscious) influence even if you don't realize it then, but only now 40+ years later.  I am sure that many of you have events, books or even radio or television shows that are somehow pivotal to your career or even your life, that you do not realize until many years later.  Cherish those moments, I cherish mine right now.

Reflection (9/4/2015)

Amazing, this blog was started as a photo blog.  I posted a nice picture from my sailboat on June 25, 2013, with just an amazingly simple one sentence statement, that had less depth than something a 6^th grader would write.  I used to be an avid photographer and this was my way of trying to get back to my hobby.  Moreover, since I would be traveling to a different part of the state of Virginia to teach every week, I felt it was a great opportunity to share some pictures of the often beautiful sights or at least my views of the State.  Finally, it also was a way for me to let off some steam.  That day was the first day of a forced move where I and my program moved from one State agency to another State agency and that caused a lot of anxiety to the group of people who were forced to move to the other agency.  We did not feel welcome at all, there were definitive signs that we were not, and we did not know what would happen.  Comparing notes among colleagues now, the anxiety has gone away and we feel accepted and fine where we are.  Now just a raise and everything will be fine!

From left to right these are the three locations I have successively worked at in Richmond over the past six years (left DCR, DEQ to the right and what I would call the half way house in the middle) .  I have not been job (employer) hopping, just forced building hopping and agency shifting.

In fact, I really did started this blog for me.  I announced my blog to no one; not even my family.  I did not want my ego or anything else to get in the way of expressing myself and doing what I did.  I had no ambition with this blog.  Little did I know this darn blog would grow up to be like this.  When I post this entry, it will be my 254^th.

Looking back through some of the posts I put up, there definitively is a trend.  I have become more verbose; I have become bolder; more outspoken; become a bit more of the teacher that I am in real life; maybe too self-indulgent; and taking myself a bit too serious?  Yes, I have always tried to include an outside link or two (too much Wikipedia maybe) since I do not want to claim to be a “know it all”, but as I mentioned in this blog post, there is a lot of stuff stored in that big head of mine.

Did I mention my big head?  This picture was taken last year during a nature walk in the Roanoke area last fall (2014) after a fun day of lecturing in a nature retreat.

So why write about this now?  There is no anniversary of this blog or of the move to DEQ.  Well, this past Thursday morning I read an article in the newspaper about a Dutchman with the name Jaap Haartsen.  Mr. Haartsen is the inventor of the Bluetooth.  He invented it while working for Ericsson in Sweden.  It seems that he only works (worked) 40 hours per week, turns his phone off at 6 pm and does not check emails in the evenings and on weekends.  Moreover he goes hiking on weekends.  It claims that his way of recharging and reconnecting with real life is what he needs to be inventive and creative.  This is very different from what we see here in the U.S.  When I came in the office this morning, the first thing my supervisor said was "have a productive day" (and he says that almost every day), that is what our U.S. culture seems to be increasingly based on, productivity, not creativity.  It would be so much nicer if he would wish me "a creative day", because that is what course design should be, especially when your do it from scratch.  I think Google is still doing it right, giving people an hour or so do do something different, but the Amazons and other groups, it seems like they are just emphasizing putting in hours and mouse clicks.

So the story about Jaap Haartsen made me think about this YouTube clip that I saw recently on Nature RX; it is a spoof on the need to reconnect with nature,  I have written a lot about it in my blogs and borrowed the phrase "nature deficit disorder."  Looking at the labels, I have used the term in at least 20 blogs of the 253 that I have written up to now.  I used Nature 79 times as a label on posts.  I do think it is so darn important to reconnect with nature, with ocean, with water, you name it; just the natural world.  I find it disarming, calming.  As the naturalist John Burroughs wrote:

"I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order"

No, I will not invent the next Bluetooth, but it brings down the blood pressure; it is where I formulate a lot of my ideas for my classes, my blog and just life.

We went for a sundown/moon rise kayak trip last Saturday which culminated with a picnic dinner on a narrow sandy peninsula in the bay.  It was very private and the views were spectacular.  This is what I call taking care of your "Nature Deficit Disorder", while even getting some exercise. 

Shawsville (7/24/2014)

Taught two courses at different sides of the state this week.  Kind of like a traveling salesman.   I drove to Fairfax on Tuesday evening after having an MRI of my head (boy that was a different experience).  The MRI itself was absolutely not as bad as everybody had warned me about.  But then, I am convinced that all my yoga practice helped with it.  Shavasana really helped.

Then it was down to Wytheville after a full day of teaching in Fairfax.  I left around 4 pm on Wednesday and got in around 9 that evening.  After teaching again on Thursday I stayed overnight to recuperate and took it easier going back on Friday.   By taking it easier I mean not going 8 or 10 miles an hour over the speed limit, trying to make some time, kind of in the frame of mind of "hurry up to relax."  This probably is a contradiction, and I am not sure if it works anyway; you area kind of wired after a five hour rat race on the interstate at 80 mph.  So on the way back I made sure that I consistently only exceeded the speed limit by 4 miles per hour (if that) and I actually got off the highway for a while.

So I got of the interstate in Christiansburg and actually rode highway 11 down the mountain.  Highway 11 is a nice twisty (down the) mountain road that is actually really quiet with some nice vistas.  I am sure it does not put many extra miles on the vehicle but it is away from the rat race of the interstate.  I took the picture below in Shawsville. No idea what I took a picture of, but is was a pretty farm building.  Wikipedia does not tell me much about Shawsville either; although I am sure it has a rich history, in addition to being wiped out by the Shawnee Indians in 1756.

Eventually I got back on the highway and joined the rat race back to Richmond.

One of the things I taught my students Thursday was "to think outside the box," while understanding that most of the time they will need to enforce the law and regulations.  Yes, there may still be times that they can, may and even should improvise, even though they are restrained by those darn laws and regulations.

Think outside the darn box!

Well that's what Friday felt like.  I think it felt like that for everyone; for me, kind of obeying the speed limit and getting of the main road and driving the back roads, at least for a little bit.  For other it seemed that they were all living in the left lane on Friday.  It was amazing here I was driving 70 (which was the speed limit) and I was passing people in the right lane.  I even had people moving over to the right to let me pass and then more back to the left lane.  It was so bad that I adapted the Beatles tune Yellow Submarine into "We all live in the left lane."  Guess even they were thinking outside the box, but I'm not sure if that was the right thing to do.  We learn in traffic school that most fatalities happen in the left lane (but that would be thinking inside the box).  Oh well.

Getting back to Richmond, even a transformer thought outside the box.  It seemed that it exploded underground, just outside our offices.  All traffic lights were out and our building only had emergency lights and was evacuated.  Dropped the car off and continued my road trip home.  A busy week indeed.

Hightown (7/12/2015)

Yes, Hightown.  Located in Highland County, smack in the middle of the Blue Grass Valley along route 250.  It consists of a farm building a few supporting buildings and what looks like a general store.  This is the place where we turn right when we visit our friends who live in the valley.  It was also the place that was a rest stop when we biked the "Mountain Mama."

Hightown has another distinction, it is the divide between the James River watershed and the Potomac River watershed.   Actually the roof of the barn in the middle of the photograph is the divide.   Rain that falls on the left side becomes the James (or the Jackson River one of the two main tributaries that make the James) and the rain that that falls on the right side of the roof becomes the South Branch of the Potomac.  It is fun to see such a significant place: the source of two (historically and environmentally) major rivers.  And it all starts with a roof!  Naturally, the Jackson and Potomac will gather more and more water when the flow down hill, but they have to start somewhere.  That the story of our life, plant a seed to grow a plant, start with the first drop have a major river, etc.  Fun!

Bluegrass valley is gorgeous, but from what I hear, a darn cold place in the winter, but it is nice and cool in the summer; no air-conditioner needed.  We have biked it in the summer and hiked on our friend's property.  Unlike some other places I've been in the world (like Scotland), we value private property in the US and I would not dare walk through someone else's fields, and I know of no public hiking trails in Bluegrass Valley with the exception of the public roads.  (During previous visits we have hiked along the Jackson River as I described here.  That was in a county park.)  Still it is a great place to relax.

York River (7/3/2015)

I'm currently reading a book called: "Blue Mind" by Wallace J. Nichols.  It's is a book on man's relationship with water in particular being near, in, on or under water and it's effect on the brain.  I just started it, so no review yet, but I like the premise.  It sure is calming and relaxing to me being on my boat, kayak or even just on the beach.

Well, since July 4th falls on a Saturday this year, we got a holiday on the Friday before.  Kind of on the spur of the moment we decided that it would be fun to take the kayaks out and go play on the water that way, instead of sailing.  It promised to be a gorgeous, somewhat cooler than average day, and checking the tides showed it was ideal to launch in Yorktown and explore the area west of the Coleman bridge along the Colonial Parkway.

The tide was coming in when we launched and it was a great help pulling us up river under the bridge.   The current can be treacherous around the docks which was one reason why we chose to stay relatively clear of the dock and wear life jackets.  Still it was a little bit like being in a washing machine;we got jostled around a bit, and the waves made no sense at all.  Thing calmed down once we passed the dock and the bridge.

Going along the shore we observed a bald eagle majestically sitting on a branch overlooking the river.  There was a water-man crabbing; and we said hello as he pulled up one of his "pots."  A little further we beached the kayaks and just enjoyed the empty beach and just sat in the shade of a large tree watching the river and the boats passing by.

Me on the beach (photo taken by Donna Briedé)

After the tide turned we returned to Yorktown.  During our trip back we saw more people fishing and we got to see the Alliance under full sail.   A fun day, that we celebrated with a pizza and a beer at the Beach Deli on our return to Yorktown.

It just occurred to me that I often write about "Nature Deficit Disorder" and here I'm writing about "Water Deficit Disorder."  When push comes to shove, it is really amazing to realize what we modern humans are potentially missing if we don't make an effort to reconnect with nature, be it green or blue!  I'm sure it will not create world peace, but reconnection with these basic items and living in the moment does the soul good.

Fredericksburg and the events that happened this week (6/22/2015)

It was my birthday this past Thursday (18th) and I was really looking forward to it.  This was not because I would be a year older on the calendar (maybe not wiser), but because the pope was going to publish his encyclical on climate change on the 18th; something important for the world.  I thought that is was so cool that this would take place on my birthday.  Moreover, I finished my book about the sixth extinction which in a way is very disturbing.  The Sixth Extinction has me appreciate life; the book taught me that I should be living in the moment since changes are inevitable and that they will be occurring rapidly.  Yes, everything will be changing, and most likely for the worst.   I often think of the time we used to work and live in East Africa in the late 1970s.  Back then we already realized we might be the last generation to see the rhino in the wild.

In addition to these thoughts, I had visited Fredericksburg that week to teach two classes.  I had come out the class on a high.  Again, I got a standing ovation after teaching, which made me feel embarrassed and really happy at the same time.  I teach to educate and not for applause.  I really try to teach people respect for nature and the ecology of the area we live in.  On my birthday, someone wrote the following review of me on my LinkedIn page: "Jan is a knowledgeable person and a great teacher and has a true respect for the environment!"  As you can see these are all reasons of my interest in the encyclical.

Sitting on the 5th floor in my motel room on the 16th I could see the huge thunderstorms building in the area, and I hoped to capture one of them with the Rappahannock River in front of it, as you seem I was able to capture exactly what I had hoped.  This photograph was taken downtown from a bridge over the river.  Again I had this feeling of love and appreciation of what life or nature was giving me: the simple beauty and being in the moment.  Traveling can be lonely,  but it can be full as well if you appreciate the beauty, live in the moment and try to explore.  The second one is a scene from downtown, sitting at a coffee shop after dinner.  Just fun, watching people stroll by.  One woman was discussing with her husband how many steps she had on her fitbit.  People watching is my favorite!  It's a shame that some of these places downtown close by 8, but then the University is out and most of the students probably went home for the summer.

Little did I know what was to transpire driving back from Fredericksburg the next day.

Waking up the morning of my birthday I was greeted by news of another mass killing; now in one of my favorite cities: Charleston, SC.   I am so angry about the murder in Charleston that there is no way for me to express that.  I agree with John Steward that describing it in such terms as terrible takes it away from the fact that it is something much bigger.  The hatred by groups in our society must end.  We spent trillions on fighting terrorism directed at us from the outside without dealing with it from inside our country.

It is amazing and such a shame that the pope's important message is being hijacked by the murder, and then see the wing nuts on the right trying to steer the attention of their conservative buddies (we don't want to talk gun control or examine the undercurrent of racial hatred) away from the murder back on the pope.  The right wing fringe (wing nuts) call the pope names and say he is a "wolf in popes clothing" and worse.  One hate crime is not enough and they are already motivate their fans into hating others (Catholics?) and this hatred inevitably leads to crimes.  I have written about this some other times as well (see also this post, and some of the other posts of mine with the label tolerance).

The pope's message has little to do with me, except that I - a non-catholic - was looking forward to hearing what he had to say in the encyclical. Truthfully, I am reading it right now, and the pope is not as nuts as they make him out to be.  But again, it does not take away from last week's horrible news, we need to fight racism and preach tolerance.

York Spit Lighthouse (5/16/2015)

There are a couple of things in life that are really my passion.   They include sailing, photography and teaching; although I have not biked much lately, I would almost want to count that as well as one of my passions in life.   I think what they have in common is that they make me live in the moment.   Doing these things I get in a zone and cannot think of much else.  You just need to concentrate on it, and do the best job at it; stay on course with a goal in mind: get (back) to the harbor; maybe where you started from, or maybe to your next goal (harbor).  Your mind is not allowed to wander much when you do these things; in particular in a boat with a tiller. I notice that I invariably go off course during those few times that I look at my GPS; it is amazing what that brief lack of concentration will do.  Just scanning the water, the horizon or just talking with the crew does not result in drastic course changes, but looking at a screen and concentrating on something else will do that.  Crazy maybe, but when driving a car my mind is often busy with something else, or as Dr. Amit Sood says in his "Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-Free Living", working on my open files.  During sailing or teaching my file cabinet is closed shut.  Living in the moment is so important!

In the moment (photo taken by the admiral Donna Briedé)

It was a wonderful day of sailing on Saturday.  Winds were 10 to 15 knots out of the Southwest; just perfect to achieve one of my goals: sail out to York Spit light and back.  From the opening of our creek the course was set to 90 degrees (due east) and after about two hours of sailing in the open water of the Bay we approached the spit.  Near the spit, the waves were between one and two feet in height with a great frequency in between that made it a great rolling ride.

Word has it that York Spit used to be an octagonal light house, but ot was abandoned by the coast guard and dynamited.  Below is a picture I stole from Wikipedia:

Now it is just some remnants of the steel base, a light and a few radar reflectors that guard the opening of the channel into the York River.  It is a pity that they could find someone to take care of this historic lighthouse and that they felt the need to destroy it.

Remnants of York Spit Light

After rounding the spit we held the course as close to 270 as we could and zoomed back to the creek we came out of.  We had to lay in one small tack to make it.  The admiral was on the tiller and I had some time to experiment taking photos.  So much for being in the zone (maybe in a different zone).  We had some great encounters with dolphins on the way; it was an absolute great sail.  Very unlike most of the sails that sailors tell you about; they tell you mostly about all those bad experiences they had.

It was an absolutely great Saturday without many worries, except staying in the zone.  One of the worst ways of going off course is by looking back; come to think of it, that is a crazy metaphor for life isn't it?

Yorktown (9/10/2014)

I commute from Yorktown to Richmond every day when I don’t travel to somewhere in Virginia.  An exception is Fridays when I telecommute.  My favorite commuting routes brings me into Yorktown proper, along the Parkway, and only then will I pop onto Interstate 64 and do the rest of my commute.  On the way back I take a similar route.  Having these small traditions or shall we call it rituals is very important to me and I suspect, to many people.  For me, it gets the work day started and, in the afternoon, it is a nice end to a busy day and a crazy commute. 

What I don’t understand are all these commuters that get antsy and try to pass you on the Parkway while you already drive two or three miles over the speed limit.  To me the Parkway is not really for commuters; it is a ritual, a way to relax and almost meditate.

I clearly suffer from horizon deficit disorder (I just made up that term, but I have it).  I need to be able to see far and preferably see the horizon.  In the 80s we lived for three months in Durham, NC; and I still remember that feeling of claustrophobia; all those trees everywhere and no horizon.  I grew up on an island in the Caribbean and remember that on clear days we were able to see the mountains of Venezuela, more than 40 miles away.  I need to see the horizon, or at least past the next tree and this is why this ritual is so important to me.

This morning was magical.  We have had two days of rain in our area, and some was very heavy.  The town of Smithfield reported 12 inches (or 30 cm) of rain during the past two days).  So it was great to see the sun peak out of the clouds this morning.  Looking at the horizon I was amazed by the interplay of sun and light in our partly cloudy sky.  I saw sunbeams streaking down, while a tanker waiting to load (or unload) at the oil terminal was in the shade of a cloud.  I had to stop and take this photo of the scene. 

Back in the car, driving down the parkway I all the sudden saw a bald eagle coming my way flying above the trees.  Bald eagles are gorgeous majestic birds and I was absolutely amazed how big this one was, soaring over the trees, wings wide and looking in the direction of the river.  It was absolutely magical; a great start of a new day.  I just wonder how many commuters experienced the same thing.

Chesapeake Bay (8/2/2014)

 Despite all the calls for rain and nasty weather, the Admiral’s Regatta was pulled off without many problems.  The regatta consisted of a sail boat race that I participated with as a crew member of one of the five boats that raced Saturday.  Saturday was nice.  It was overcast but there was no rain, at least until we finished.  We came in second, and the race was shortened somewhat.  However, looking at what weather came in, the boats behind us did get rained on.

This was very unlike what happened last year when we were hit by this tremendous thunder storm and we were almost knocked down by a gust of 60+ mile per hour.  Knock down means the tip of the mast hit the water, and that did not happen, but my wife who was down below reported that the ports (windows) were under water.  I guess you have to experience this once, in order to appreciate the nice windless days.

I have noticed that me recounting this incident of last year is something all sailors do.  Whenever we get together we never talk about the great sail we had or the windless day we had on the water.  We always talk about the near misses, the horrible weather, you name it.  It almost feels like we always want to have experienced worst conditions on the water then the person you talk with:  “Let me tell you about that one time when …“, and you can fill in the blanks.  It is so bad that a sail magazine that I subscribe to has a monthly disaster section where someone tells about a major accident or difficulty and how they lived to tell about it.  These sections also have a “lessons learned” part to it.

This is very much like what we were told in church yesterday by our minister.  How when greeting someone you tell them “I’m fine, but my big toe hurts,” they will always try to better you and say something like “I’m sorry to hear that, but let me tell you about that time that my whole foot hurt.”  During the past month I’ve actually thought a lot about this and have been telling people that “this is the best day of my life,” which usually gets me a blank stare, but I really believe in living in the moment.

Anyway this photo was taken at the beginning of the race.  The boat in front of us is ready to unfurl it jib (or head sail)

 

 

Stress free in Northern Virginia (5/27/2014)

This week I am in northern Virginia or what they call NOVA.  The trip up north was interesting as always.  The roads were crowded, and of course there was an accident on I-95.  So here I was sitting in a backup thinking about the radio show I heard this morning.  In an interview with Dr. Amit Sood about living without stress he spoke about being in a traffic jam and thinking of people you are thankful of, for being in your life.  I really think that would help a lot; why even bother yourself with people who are potentially toxic to you?  At work you already have to deal with people you cannot choose, so in your private life, concentrate on those people who contribute to your well being; be thankful for them and concentrate on what it is about them that makes you happy.  Quit obsessing about those people that bother you.  Life is too short! 

Well, in the traffic jam I was able to take this (horrible) picture by sticking my phone out of the window and shoot this image of the traffic jam, so symbolic of all the crap and toxicity that can jam up a person's mind.  To me this was particularly important, after a weekend of murders, such as the guy in Santa Barbara, California who had his mind poisoned by his inability to attract women.  As a father of a daughter and a husband I am very disturbed about the increased violence against women, but also of any other hate crime.