Newport News Park (3/28/2014)

Read an article on Vivian Maier the other day.  She was a neat lady and an amazing photographer who was never discovered until her death.  She was the queen of the selfies, and I was inspired by her story to take this selfie. 

 

Walking in the woods behind my home you run into all these ephemeral ponds.  As I mentioned before in these pages these ponds are used by frogs and salamanders.  Right now there is a cacophony of frog and salamander calls in the ponds behind my home.  It was amazingly loud last year with all the rains. 

If you look closely at the stick in the left of this picture you see what looks like bubbles.  These bubbles are frog eggs waiting to hatch  and to produce more frogs.

On the road (3/27/2014)

I drove back from Wytheville to Yorktown on Thursday.  When I got to Lexington I needed gas and decided that instead of just taking the highway I wanted to take a less speedy road (as also recommended by a friend, who told me to enjoy my travails through this beautiful state instead of just trying to get to point B from point A as fast as possible).  So I took Highway 11 to 340 all the way to Waynesboro.  The picture of the wood cabin was taken in McCormick, an interesting little village that seems to be undergoing a lot of renovations.  It has a lot of character and I hope it is maintained and becomes an interesting place to explore.

The scenery picture was taken just outside Draper, one of the stops on the New River Trail.  I previously took pictures there.  Being someone who grew up on an island in the middle of sea; who now live in Yorktown, I often miss the horizon or at least the ability to see further than the trees.  I remember living in Durham (NC) 30 years ago and I felt claustrophobic.  I like being able to see far, probably one of those reasons I love to be on the water and sail.

In all it is fun to see these little treasures while spending so much time on the road.

Wytheville (3/26/2014)

Last full day in Wytheville teaching the courses at the community center.  I feel very satisfied with this class.  A few years ago while here I went to lunch at a hole in the wall, and went to eat there again with my fellow instructor.  Two years ago when I ate there, people from the health department were eating there as well, always a good sign.

The Wythe Produce & Deli is a great small country store immediately off I-81 on Route 52.  The food is still amazing.  Both of us were not disappointed.  I had a typical southern lunch, chicken dumplings and green beans.  Don my fellow instructor had a great roast beef sandwich.  Inexpensive and absolutely above average (or really good).  Strangely it is not even on Yelp or identified on Google.  I had to take a picture of it.

Wytheville (3/25/2014)

When will this winter stop?  We had snow again on Tuesday, and I took these two pictures.  One was from my motel room.  Teaching a class in the more conservative region of Virginia, I had more people trying to start an argument with me about global warming.  It was amazing.
I am so frustrated about these types of arguments which has now become so politicized.  It seems that the right leaning people want to deny there is climate change, while the lefties are very passionate about it.  I am just wondering why people that are afraid of government spending, because we saddle our children up with debt, can not talk with people who want to prevent environmental degradation, in order not to saddle our children up with and unlivable environment.
Oh well, these two pictures were from my motel room in the morning and a more artistic picture from the car; the sun was out and it was snowing.  Very interesting scenes indeed. The building in my motel room picture is of a German dinner theater here in town.

I-81 near Christiansburg (3/24/2014)

Maybe a strange picture today, but I am a teacher in erosion and sediment control for the state.  On my way to western Virginia to teach one of my classes I drove by this and felt the need to take a picture of it.  This is a prime example of how not to do erosion control.  It is one of the first things we say and still people do not listen.  It is somewhat infuriating, knowing that the soil that runs of this hill will end up in a stream and then we complain that the streams have cloudy water, and that the fish cannot live in that stream any longer etc etc..

I realize that I am over simplifying things a bit, but all these little things impact the big picture.  That is what we call cumulative effect.  If we do not do anything about these little things, eventually it is all going to multiply and become a big thing.  But that is what we call the tragedy of the commons; shared resources are abused. The theory is that shared resources such as air, water or grazing grounds that are owned by society are difficult to protect; because if I don't pollute them, or if I don't over-graze, my neighbor will, so I might as well do it now.  I am tired while writing this, it has been a long day, but it is so important and to me it often seems to be the crux of our troubles.  Kind of like "great that you are driving a Prius or another fuel efficient vehicle, because that gives me more gas for my Hummer.  I know this is much more complex, but that is how I feel tonight.  I'll write more about this one of these days.

Newport News Park (3/21/2014)

I may be becoming a melancholic or sentimental old fool, or maybe it's the sciatica playing tricks with me (I am in pain!!), but during my walk in the woods this morning I came upon this scene. It's a scene I see frequently, but this time it filled me with love and just pure joy. It is a picture of one of the headwaters of the Warwick river (and yes I realize this is not the best picture I've ever taken). I had two thoughts running through my head. First it was what a friend of mine posted about us thinking we are the most intelligent creatures on this earth and the question is "why do we screw it up?". Secondly, I had to think about the phrase " Nature deficit disorder." Not so long ago I finished a book by Richard Louv called "The Nature Principle: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age".  In the book Mr. Louv discusses this need for people to reconnect with nature. I really believe is we get more people out in nature there would be more respect for this earth and probably each other as well.


Also during our walk we ran into a heard of 20 or so deer, who were plotting how to take over the world!

Newport News Park (3/19/2014)

During my walk through the park I came ran into this.  It just looks like a bunch of hairs and it immediately made me think of what we call in Dutch owl balls.  There is nothing Freudian to this expression and the proper translation into English is owl pellets.  Owls and raptors such as eagles eat animals (birds, mice squirrels, etc) collect the indigestible materials in their stomachs, which they subsequently regurgitate and spit out.  I know we have various owls in the woods in the back and we recently saw our resident broad-winged hawk is back in the woods as well.  A neat little present in the woods.

Fort Monroe (3/16/2014)

I tend not to show pictures of people that can be recognized by someone, but on Sunday we went to a great concert at Fort Monroe.  It was by the Hampton Roads Philharmonic.  This is an orchestra that was started in 2013 and they played remarkably well.  It was a very enjoyable afternoon with music from Mendelssohn, Ravel, Sibelius, and Mozart.  This is a picture of some of the cello players and the big base.  Absolutely worth going to listen to when they come to your area. 

Fort Monroe used to be an Army base that was handed over to the community.  Hopefully they will be providing more concerts and events for the community.  Last time I was there was to see the tall ships coming in.

Yorktown Battlefield National Park (3/15/2014)

Walking through the woods this weekend you run into old dead stumps such as this and you wonder how old this guy was when it died and how long it has been standing here while dead.  Still seeing remnants of trees that I know came down as the result of hurricane Isabel in 2003, you can only speculate that this guy most likely died more than 15 years ago.  Even as a dead tree it served as a very valuable part of the community.  There is so much evidence of woodpeckers and other birds in the area and you know they feasted on the bugs that were feeding on the rotting wood, or maybe on the organisms that were breaking down the wood.  I have always been fascinated by mushrooms and they are definitively also part of this process.  It is an amazing microcosm of life that lives on a tree, while alive and when dead.   So much proof that everything in this living world has some important function or is good for something; although that might be counter-intuitive when I walk these woods in the summer when I get attacked by ticks, chiggers and mosquitoes.  It is so important to understand that every organism is part of that web of existence; we need them all for this world to function.  Yes some species are out of whack, such as the deer population, but that probably we disturbed the natural balance, like the removal of predators, forced changes in migratory habitats or simply urban sprawl, just to name a few. 

 

Manassas (3/12/2014)

This is my first restaurant review on this blog, but it is well deserved.  I am spending time on the road again, and been in Front Royal this week and then ended up in Manassas.  I love ethnic food, and I am always on the hint for authentic food if I can help it.  At the recommendation of Yelp, I visited this hole in the wall called El Mirador.  El Mirador is a Salvadoran restaurant, and some of the food is somewhat Mexican sounding or looking but much more flavorful.  I hope the photo give you an idea of this place.  This in an absolutely great restaurant to eat at.

Yorktown Battlefield (3/9/2014)

Walked the dogs on the battlefield this morning.  It was a beautiful day and took this pictures of two joggers coming by.  A great day for exercise.

Williamsburg (3/8/2013)

Went to Williamsburg yesterday to see a movie (The Great Beauty) at the Kimball Theater on Saturday (more about the movie later).  I purposely went an hour early to walk through Colonial Williamsburg to look around and take some pictures.  Naturally I can show pictures of old building, gardens, and the church; but Colonial Williamsburg is so full of small details that make is special.  Take this lock for instance.  Nothing special, but it just feels right.  I fell in love with this picture.  The simplicity, texture and color seem right to me.  I really think litle treasures abound in this town and you can enjoy the little stuff.

The Kimball is a great place, been there to see opera and to see more alternative (foreign/language) movies.  A nice place to go and have a little culture in the area.

Now about the movie: The Great Beauty is an Italian film that the newspaper compared to the modern La Dolce Vita.  I am a tremendous fan of that (6-hour long) epic movie, so yes I was looking forward to it.  I was definitively not disappointed, and now the day after I saw it I am still impressed.  To me it is a movie of loneliness.  It is about a famous author/reporter in Rome who turns 65 years old.  He lives the high life, has a lot of friends, debaucherous parties, etc but is surrounded by loneliness, people dying, empty people, lost love, you name it.  He seems envious of ordinary people and does not even realize his neighbor is a wanted criminal (just a insignificant sub-plot, but indicative of the movie).  I enjoyed it tremendously, but often wondered why the rest of the audience was laughing about very sad situations that try to tell a story.  Maybe their way of coping with it.

Yorktown (3/3/2014)

Although it never gets old to me, I hope it does not get old for whom ever is looking at these pictures (but I have yet to get any comments on my pictures, so maybe no one is looking), I have been showing this pond before.  Well maybe the winter is getting old, it has been an amazing winter.

Coming home from 10 days on the road we got a forced day off, because it snowed throughout Virginia that Monday morning.  Taking advantage of it we went for a walk out back.  It was snowing and dark and somewhat spooky.  Then to think, that the day before you could hear the salamanders in the pond.  Since these are ephemeral ponds and dry during the summer, it is to the salamander's evolutionary advantage to try to breed during this season, but yes it seems counter intuitive.  This pond is 5 to 6 feet deep in the middle and it dries up completely during the summer.  If it had a permanent pool, you can expect fish to live in it and these fish would eat the baby salamanders, making breeding impossible in ponds with a fish population.  In 2003 we saw the pond go from completely dry to overflowing overnight during hurricane Isabel.  Most species would breed when it is a little warmer.  I think bald eagles are also about to breed, and it is interesting how some of these species can do this in the cold; but then it is to their evolutionary advantage.  Nature is neat, and as I say, nature (and evolution) is very parsimonious, and evolution has figured it out.

Claytor Lake State Park (2/28/2014)

The last week of February was a state park week.  I started out staying the Sunday and Monday at Occoneechee State Park, Wednesday I walked part of the New River Trail, and Friday on the way home I had a brief stop over at Claytor Lake State Park.  

This state park is also very boat oriented, but the cabins look nice and there are a few nice trails on it.I briefly walked this trail, which is less than a mile, but it had some nice stands of tulip popular on it that were actually fairly old.  This photo was taken at a point where you can take a trail down to the river (New River) and parking area.

New River Trail (2/26/2014)

Since I have not been posting much here a treat (two pictures).  On the 26th of February I needed to travel to Wytheville to give a class.

On the way I stopped in Draper to walk a piece of the New River Trail.  It was late in the afternoon and freezing.  I got back after the sun went down, but it was beautiful.  I walked approximately 4 miles, from Draper to the river and back.  Here are two pictures of the walk.  Absolutely worth doing.

Occoneechee State Park (2/23/2014)

I have not been posting lately; too much travel and just too much to do.  That does not mean that I did not take any photographs.  The weekend of Feb 22 we spent at Occoneechee State Park.  It is a very modern state park with cabins that have all the amenities you need to have a great weekend.  The park is a little power boat/fishing centric, but there are some good trails and we went for some great walks in the wood.  The night skies were wonderful and we were able to identify a lot of constellations during our walks at night (including Leo and my favorite Gemini … being a Gemini).  Jupiter was right in the middle of it.

On Sunday we had a great walk along Lake Kerr and this picture was taken along the lake.  There is no real beach or a place to swim.  In fact swimming is discouraged because of the current.

The nearby town was great, with some nice restaurants.