Rosemont Winery, LaCrosse, VA (2/22/2014)

On vacation this weekend and visited Occoneechee State Park (more photos to follow in the next few days).  One of our traditions while at a state part is to find a local winery and go wine tasting.  The only winery nearby that was open to tasters was Rosemont Winery in LaCrosse.  It was a fun visit during a beautiful day (temps were in the high 60s).  Wines tasted at the winery were generally pretty decent (I liked the Traminette, the Lake Country Red, and the Cabinet Franc).  We got away with two bottles of wine we enjoyed.  Virginia has come quite a way with its wines, six or more years ago I found them mediocre, but nowadays they are getting better and better.

Richmond (2/19/2014)

Today I took a walk in the canal street park in Richmond.  Crazy, but the information on my phone says it is a rainy day, boy are they wrong.  It was nice and sunny with temperatures finally at a decent level, although there are still a few heaps of dirty snow visible in town.

Instead of going my usual left, I went right for a change, towards the Civil War Center.  Walking back along the river there is a small causeway from where you can look back on town from above the James River, from where this picture of downtown is taken.  In front of course is the James River, then the CSX line and the big building is the Federal Bank Building.  The cause way is neat, it has all kinds of quotes from civil war soldiers on it and it gives you an interesting flavor.   It is amazing how big the Civil War is in the psyche of this state; but then as a foreigner I should understand that because we still talk about the 2^nd World War.

As you can see, the James is fairly full at the moment; it has been a cold and relatively wet winter here.  I think a lot of us will be very happy when spring comes around.  Just looking at my own yard, we usually have daffodils by now.  The first ones are usually flowering by early January.  At the moment none of them are even close to breaking bud.  Today was a fun teaser, but it felt oh so nice. 

Yorktown (2/16/2014)

This weekend was the “Great Backyard Bird Count”, and we tried to participate in my household.  The weather did not cooperate on Saturday, but that was ok and par for the course.  On Sunday morning we were sitting at the breakfast table and there was the attack of the Common Grackle.  I think there were a few hundred on our bird feeders.  Behind them in our vegetable garden there was a mixed flock of Red-winged Black Birds and Brown-headed Cowbirds.  Lots of noise and they chased all the other birds away.  A half our later I went to walk the dogs in the woods behind our home, and the birds were waiting for me (a friend posted on my face book ... "paging Mr. Hitchcock, come and get your birds").  The woods were full of these guys.  The next day we went to the swamp a half hours walk behind our home and saw large groups of the Red-winged Blackbird and American Robins.

This count is every President’s Day weekend for us living here in the U.S. and we have participated with it for five or more years.  This year we had the lowest count.  I am not sure if the weather was an issue or if we are just getting fewer birds.  Most troubling was the lack of Red-headed Woodpeckers and Wood Ducks in the swamps behind our home.  We usually see them there, but this year they were not to be found.  I’m sure we will check again a few weeks from now to see if they have returned.

Harrisonburg (2/10/2012)

I visited the Harrisonburg area this week to teach a class.  Harrisonburg was cold, and I got out just in time before the big snow showed up.  Actually the drive from Richmond to home was outright tortuous.   The class was very well received and that was definitely due to my fellow teacher who is great and fun to teach with.  We had great reviews; naturally my favorite was:” Jan is the best.”

Back to Harrisonburg.  It is a nice old town with a cute center.  There are some decent restaurants I ate at two of them and reviewed them on Yelp.  This photo was taken in the evening, and since JMU was playing a basketball game the town was pretty empty.

Yorktown Battlefield (2/7/2014)

This is what is called a “widow maker”, or one of those trees you do not want to cut down. This photo was taken in the Yorktown Battlefield National Historic Park.  Interestingly I am here near the border of the National Park and Newport News Park.  On the Newport News side trees like this are cleaned up, in the national park only the trails are kept open, but parts of the woods look like pick-up-sticks.  I don’t mind that at all, since it is more a natural appearance and provides a lot of habitat from birds and critters.  It may even provide some protection for plants from the ferocious deer we have in our area.  These deer will eat anything they can find and there is very little regeneration (except for plants they do not like) and very little herbaceous understory.  I kind of wish there was a way to cull the deer so close to the neighborhood.  On the other hand all these fallen trees make for an immense fuel load, and if we get a fire this will be the crown fire of the year and I fear for my home and that of our neighbors.  One of those Catch 22s.  One day I spent some time in an old growth forest stand in Ohio, and I still hope our woods would look like that, but the accumulation of leaf litter, the lack of ground fires and the deer seem to make further evolution of these areas into an old growth forest more difficult.