Charlottesville (8/27/2014)

In my continuing report on my travels, one more picture of Charlottesville.  The students were back in town and we went in search of a cup of coffee. There is a Starbucks located right on university row and again it was a pleasure just to walk on a busy sidewalk with tables and students enjoying lunch.  Driving through Charlottesville I was amazed how bike friendly the place was.

I picked up my coffee, and the cup collapsed, burning my hand.  Oh well, I got a refill and a coupon for a free beverage.  Nice service.  Thanks Starbucks!

Charlottesville (8/26/2014)

On the road again this week after a long hiatus.  Thank goodness this road trip took me to a great city.  Somehow Charlottesville embodies a lot of what I like in a city: it has atmosphere, a city center and great places to eat.  Classes had just started at UVA (I think this was the first day of classes).

After a day of teaching, most of us involved with the training decided to go unwind on a terrace of a wonderful pizza restaurant.  Sitting there with a micro-brewed beer we talked about the class, work in general, people we had in common and life itself, we started noticing that a person jogged by at least every 30 seconds.  Being all men in our group, the scantly dressed women joggers were the most noticeable, but yes it was approximately every 30 seconds.

Siting there I realized what I missed so much now I live in suburbia.  Charlottesville is very much like the older European cities; but then Thomas Jefferson lived there, and good old Ton was a fan of old Europe, in particular France.  I live in the suburbs.  A major highway divides the area into smaller subsections and all the shopping is concentrated in mini strip malls and grocery stores along the main drag.  Walking and biking along the main drag is dangerous to your health (or should I say life).  There is nothing really going on and if you don't know where you are, you could be in a suburb in any town in the US.  Some readers will tell me that Yorktown has a few interesting restaurants and is a walking/biking community.  It is, but it is small, part is owned by the park service and the development along the water was planned for tourists rather than the locals to meet, great and entertain.  But it is the only thing we have and people hunker for it,  Activities in Yorktown are consistently well attended.  Now we are building town center like developments in Yorktown, but the first thing that went up was another chain restaurant (Subway) rather than a nice funky restaurant with outside seating and a fun place to hang out and go for a drink with your friends.  More in my posting for the next day about this.

I had to take this photo of the public transport in Charlottesville.  It's free.  Yes we have free transportation in Yorktown, from one tourist attraction to the next, but it is not like this.

Richmond (8/25/2014)

Traveling later in the day to Charlottesville, I decided to go have lunch at my favorite restaurant, to find it was closed for the month of August.  So I decided to walk on and go to my second favorite place in the "fan."  I really used to enjoy my lunchtime walks in the "fan", but since we moved offices my daily walks moved further up town. It was nice to be back and somehow I liked what I saw in this picture; a more European feeling downtown.  I have nothing really profound to say about this, other than I like the cobblestones, the old building and the mature trees.  Just a nice composition in my eyes.

Yorktown (8/24/2014)

It was a great weekend for a bike ride.  The weather was unseasonably cool but it was a bit windy.  After we left home we first did what we call the tour road, which is the tour road in the Yorktown Battlefield.  It was a busy day there, lots of runners and bikers.  The sky was absolutely gorgeous, clear blue with nice puffy clouds.  From the tour road we biked on to the coast guard station, where we stopped to look over the York River at the Moore House, a nice colonial house located on a site with considerable history.  The photo below was taken at a small cemetery near the Moore house.  We parked the bikes and went to look over the York River.  The other photo is looking over the York River.  After our stop we continued our bike trip along Wormley Pond, a place I have taken pictures at before (see my post of 4/2/2014).  We biked a total of 18 miles, a nice training ride for our yearly trip to Salisbury, MD to ride the Seagull Century. 

During our ride I still cannot believe all the trash along the road.  It is really amazing the crap people throw away, but on this trip Bud light won the prize.  I want to bet that some teenagers needed to clean their car before they got home.  It is amazing to see what people throw out.  I need to do a week-long series on trash I see during my walks, bike and car trips.  I should title it scenic trash.  Who knows stay tuned.

New Kent (8/21/2014)

Yesterday, on my way back home, I decided to take a diversion to find cheap gas for my car.  New Kent County usually has the cheapest gas prices on my daily route and since I do not work in Richmond on Fridays, it was time to fill up the car for the weekend.  I decided to drive US 60 all the way to Williamsburg to look for cheap gas and then take the Colonial Parkway the rest of the way.

New Kent County is an up and coming locality, it’s tucked in between Richmond and the Hampton Roads area and it is slowly becoming a place to live and commute from.  As such it is an example of contrast.  You have areas that are heavily build up and developed, expensive wineries and more poor/rural areas.  Today’s photograph is a prime example of this.  I drove by this abandoned group of buildings, located right along US 60.  As you can see it is completely abandoned and someone even thought it was an excellent place to dump an old recliner.  A friend of mine looked at the photograph and was taken aback by what appears to be a fairly new metal roof on part of the abandoned building.  In other words someone try to fix the place up but gave up mid-point.  From the looks of it the building might have been an old motel, or maybe just a few apartments. 

Going a little further along US 60 you can find an expensive sub-division.  It is a prime example of urban sprawl.  The development is along part of the Chickahominy River and it is really very nice.  However, if you need groceries, you are forced to drive at least 20 minutes or more down the road to find the nearest grocery store in Toano.  There is a convenience store around the corner, but you pay more for less choice and lesser quality. 

As European I often still have a difficult time wrapping my head around it all, but then I take the car to go grocery shopping at a supermarket less than 5 minutes from my home.  I wish I could take the bike, but my excuse is that US 17 in York County is too dangerous for bikes and that I would be foolish to ride there.  Talking with our county’s planners we are told this highway is a thoroughfare and not for bikes.  Makes you wonder why all the stores are on that street.   But even if we bike, there is no bicycle parking near the store.

Back to urban sprawl and New Kent County.  I find this photograph is so darn indicative of what is going on in many rural counties.  Some owners of desirable tracts of land are able to get rich and move out of the counties by selling their land to developers, while others in the county suffer.  I am sure that the establishment I took a picture of was a thriving county store/gas station that employed a few people, but the big corporate world somehow out-competed them.  People had cars and could easily drive to Walmart and other stores like that in the “big” town; closing these county stores forever and leaving them to crumble to become evidence of a very different past.  They become blight of the neighborhood and people become more cavalier about it.  People loose pride in their surroundings, so why drive to the sanitary dump when you can get rid of that old recliner right there in that parking lot of the abandoned building?  No it is not just New Kent, even here you see mattresses just tossed out along the side of the road.  What is society coming to if we do not appreciate our surroundings, nature, and the places we live?  As society we are poisoning ourselves by fouling up the only place we can live, mother earth.

Fort Monroe (5/18/2014 posted 8/20/2014)

I am posting this photograph today as my answer to the photographic challenge by Cee Neuner, one of the blogs I follow.  The challenge was for a black and white photograph of any type.  So back in the archives I found on I took in May of this year at Ft. Monroe in Hampton.  Ft. Monroe was continually active as an Army base since the civil war and it is my understanding that Abraham Lincoln even visited the place.  Part of it is a real fort with walls and a moat.  A few years ago it was closed, made a national monument and parts were turned over to the state.  Absolutely no better place to take pictures.  I have posted sifferent pictures of Ft. Monroe, just check out the "labels" section of this blog.

I love black and white photography.  In my far distant past I had the ambition to become a photographer.  I did an online course, got all the books from Ansell Adams and even bought a second hand copy of the Time Life photo course.  I studied the various photographers of the time and I experimented with all kinds of filters, including red filters to make skies and clouds even more dramatic.  At home my bedroom also served as a dark room.  I landed a few wedding shoots and I taught darkroom techniques when I was drafted in the Army.  I guess I was an instructor in those days already, which is probably why I drifted into the direction I am in right now.  But I’ve never forgotten my love for photography.

While I usually shy away from posting pictures of people, I can’t help myself posting this picture of my beautiful wife.  This picture was taken near one of the access points to the real fort, at a point where a foot tunnel exits the wall inside the fort.  It just felt right for this picture.  If you are in the area, it is a place well worth visiting; a place that drips with history.

Richmond (8/19/2014)

After eating my lunch at my desk, I generally try to get a lunch time walk in: good for the digestion, great in clearing the mind (sometimes), and good for the total steps I try to accumulate each day.  Regular readers know I am one of those fitbit junkies that David Sedaris wrote about in the New Yorker.

Well today I decided to walk by the line of television trucks that are lined up along 7^th street here in Richmond; all trying to cover the McDonald trial.  As regular readers of my blog know, I write a bit about my travels throughout the state, although they have been less lately; regular life; my hobbies (mostly sailing); nature or things that relate to nature; and an occasional gripe on politics, or may be better the polarization of politicized issues such as the environment and global warming.  I have come to the conclusion that the Supreme Court was wrong when they decided that “companies are people too.”  I really think big money is to blame for all the political impasse, controversy, polarization and anger that I see in this country.  It’s a shame, this is such a great country, and at this time in history no one seems to be able to get along.

Oh well, getting down off my soap box, I had to take a photograph of the lineup of television trucks along the street.  I even saw the vehicle of my favorite TV station in Norfolk in the lineup.  In the plaza there are lots of empty tripods, I guess that is where a certain television station or anchor put his or her claim on a few square feet to broadcast the latest and the greatest from. 

But getting back to money and politics, for those of you who are not from Virginia, judging from the television vehicles, the entire state is glued to their television sets to hear the latest and the greatest from the “trial of the century.”  Our ex-governor is on trial for allegedly taking bribes or shall we say loans from an owner of a pharmaceutical company in the hope that he would push this somewhat unproven supplement.  From the reports it seems that the ex-governor claims that it is all his wife’s doing and that he is Mr. Clean and Mr. Trustable.  No idea what the results are going to be of this trials, but one thing seems for sure: this marriage cannot be saved.  I am putting my money on the prediction that the governor and his wife will file for divorce after the trial.  The Virginia soap opera will continue.  With this photograph I just want to document that a trial is going on and the obvious excitement it evokes, at least among the journalists.

Seaford (8/17/2014)

It was a very quiet Sunday morning when I went to the boat to prepare it to receive a coat of nonskid paint in the cockpit.  I took this picture at 10 in the morning.  I was the only one there, and there were even very few people at the public boat launch in the far back of the photograph.

Typing the word cockpit makes me all the sudden realize that airplanes also have cockpits.  Interestingly the dictionary says its origin is from an enclosed area where they had cock fights.  It goes on and says it is also the name of the quarters of warships where the junior officers are housed.  A very interesting juxtaposition here.  On small water crafts like sailboats and smaller motorboats the word “pit” in the word cockpit sounds more true to its meaning; it is a well where you stand in and do most of the boating and having a nonskid floor is important. 

Oh well.  An egret was standing on the dock, peering down, probably looking for a juicy morsel like a small crab or small fish.  At low tide (which it was) the mud flats are often overtaken by fiddler crabs.  Neat little animals; the males have one huge claw and one that is the normal size.  Females have equal size claws.  Makes you wonder if size matters in this part of the animal kingdom as well.  There are so many ways of being attractive to the opposite sex in the animal kingdom; it is amazing.  Even in our own species, the humans, different cultures have different (physical) things they look at to judge whether that person makes a good mate.  It is absolutely fascinating what evolution did to further a species and facilitates selecting mates that would make my offspring more successful than yours.  That’s what Darwin called “Natural Selection” and “Survival of the Fittest.”  Guess that is also why we called out boat the "Beagle."

Anyway, there had been heavy dew fall, and after drying the boat and waiting some time, I had a successful day getting the nonskid paint down.  It is now safer down there; it looks better and hopefully less sensitive to water getting into the core of the boat.

Seaford Yacht Club (8/16/2014)

Saturday evening was happy hour at the Seaford Yacht Club.  The evening was organized as laser sailboat race for adults and picnic/happy hour.  We had a lot of fun, sailing little boats, eating, drinking and talking.  The club has a multifarious membership, but what they have in common is the love for the water and in particular the Bay.  We have people that sailed the Caribbean, sailed across the Atlantic a few times to novices.  Naturally politics was not far behind at times, but we could avoid it as well.  It was just good fun.

The boats are owned by the club, and in the summers they are used for junior sailing camp.  Kids from the area spend time learning to sail and have fun in the sun and water.  But the adults get to play with them as well!

Here are two pictures of the races.  One at the finish line and one of me taken by my wife.

Water or Winter Challenge (8/13/2014)

Any regular reader of my blog knows that it somewhat serves as a diary of what I do in life.  However regular readers also know that, so now and then, I participate in a challenge, in particular one from a photo blog I particularly like.  I really do not know what got in her head wanting you to post something that relates to water or the season of winter.  I have plenty of each in my arsenal, but what the heck, to celebrate this mild summer I decided to combine the two.

This picture was taken on January 22^nd of this year, less than 1500 feet behind our home.  It is one of the largest ephemeral ponds (aka Grafton ponds) in the woods behind our home.  In the fall, winter and spring the ponds are typically wet; while in the summer they are dry.  In the summer the area behind our home is teaming with mosquitoes, ticks and chiggers, and to tell you the truth we haven’t gone back there since early May, and I really miss walking there with the dogs.  I guess it is time to spray myself with some poison and venture out.  I kind of feel what’s called “nature deficit disorder” lately.

These ponds are wonderful for amphibians such as frogs and salamanders.  Since the ponds dry up in the summer, they cannot support a fish population which would eat all the tadpoles, and yes the only things we see at times are a few wood ducks and an occasional heron.  So, yes they are great for these critters.  I know I have mentioned that before; but because of this, our ponds are the home of the endangered Mabee salamander. 

A few years ago I walked over to this pond every Sunday at 3 pm for two years in a row (rain or shine), to take a photograph from the same spot.  It is amazing to see all the changes that occur from week to week.  In particular the Sunday after hurricane Isabel hit our area.  No trees down, but the week before there was no water in the pond, and the Sunday after Isabel the water was easily 4 feet deep.  My wife and I are still toying with the idea of producing a picture book about the ponds behind our home.

As you can see, I miss the ponds and I think it is time to brave all the insects and go out back!

 

 

Super Moon in Yorktwon (8/10/2014)

Well, it was “super moon” night last night, and what better way is there to watch it come up over the Chesapeake Bay/York River?  It seemed that a lot of people had that idea and there were literally hundreds of people at the Yorktown Beach.  It was the place to be, that’s for sure.  Yorktown is slowly becoming the attraction our county administrators always wanted it to be.  I just wish that there were a few more places to eat and drink, or should I say, more diversity.  The few places that are there have American fair, and I’m not sure if the sushi place ever opened.  No I don’t want another Mexican chain, or any other chain as such, but a few more terraces where you can sit, relax and drink something would be great; maybe a bit more European flair.  However, last night finding parking was even at a premium.  But for sure Yorktown was the place to be last night. 

Everybody was out there, taking photographs.  It was amazing seeing all the flashes from cameras when we were standing on the fishing pier and looking back into town.  It is actually insane, people taking flash pictures of the moon.  I guess most do not know that it is probably better to turn off the flash when taking moon pictures; our flashes in Yorktown are not going to make the moon extra bright.  It reminds me of what we experienced when I worked in Nepal in the early 1980s.  We were in a hotel in Pokhara looking at the full moon reflecting on the snow of the Annapurna Mountains.  All the sudden a tour group of Japanese tourist came out and the photo flashes started going off like crazy.  They were trying to catch a photo of mountains at night that were at least 40 some miles away.  Pity this was the time before digital cameras, so I bet there were a lot of disappointing faces when they came back home and had their films developed.  But then you still see it in stadiums during sporting events.  People would make such better pictures when they take one or two photography lessons instead of opening the box and start shooting.

Waiting for the moon was probably the most interesting.  It was approximately two fingers thick held at arm’s length above the horizon before you could actually see it.  I guess the humidity (light fog) or pollution over the water obscured the moon for a bit, before we could actually see it.  I am posting two pictures I took last night that I particularly like:  the one with the grasses and the one with the reflection of vehicle headlights in the sand (timing is perfect).  It was a nice evening; I still can’t believe what a great summer we’ve had.

Farmer's Market (8/9/2014)

Every Saturday in the spring, summer and fall we have a farmers market in Yorktown.  We go at least a couple of times a month to buy vegetables, fruit and occasionally some seafood.  We either go by bike, or we go by car.  When we go by car we bring the dogs and take them for a walk along the waterfront.
There is all kinds of things available at the market, from wine to BBQ spices to art; you name it.  there are even a few home bakers that sell their ware.But truthfully I am not that interested in that.  In the past years I served on the board of the Virginia Food Systems Council a great organization that encourages the reduction of food deserts, the consumption of regionally grown food, and in that way keeping the carbon footprint as small as possible.  An organization they worked closely together with was the Virginia Farm to Table group.
Both groups are wonderful and I really encourage people to explore their websites.  One campaign they had was the $10 per week campaign, where people pledge to by at least $10 worth of locally grown food.
Anyway here are two photos of our market.  It was a great day and yes we took the dogs.  There were all kinds of dogs; most of them were friendly.  There was even an older gentleman taking pictures of all the dogs.

Chesapeake Bay (8/7/2014)

Came home last night, ate a quick left over/reheated or as we say at home second hand dinner and we went sailing.  It was a beautiful evening; the wind was from the northeast and there were some waves.  Just floating along, with only the main up.  Absolutely wonderful evening.  All the ospreys and their chicks were panicking when we sailed to close to their nests on the channel markers.
On the way out, one of the scallop boats was either ready to go out or doing a test run.  I shot this photo of the boat.  A great sight indeed.  We were back at the slip by 8:30 just in time for it to get dark.  A wonderful evening, absolutely worth repeating.

Jellyfish (8/3/2014)

This week Back Creek was invaded by jellyfish.  They are amazingly beautiful creatures that have a nasty sting at times, and some species even have a deadly sting.  Thank goodness our species in the Bay are not that bad, yes they sting but the hurt is gone fairly quickly.  A fellow sailor who anchors out and goes swimming tells me that there are none in the Bay, but that the creeks are teaming with them.  I really wonder if it is because of the waves and the choppiness of the water, temperature or nutrients in the water. 

The first time I really ran into jellyfish was as a child.  I grew up in the Caribbean, and one day my brother and I were sailing with my father.  I was around ten and my brother is three and a half years younger.  My brother and I were hanging on a line that we had thrown overboard and the sailboat with our father in it was pulling us along.  I was the last one on the line and all the sudden I got stung by jellyfish and I yelled “kwal”, the Dutch word for jellyfish.  My brother starts screaming and crying and pulls himself to the boat as quickly as possible and my father pulled him out.  I was right behind him.  I had some beautiful lashes on my body, while my brother had nothing.  I remember it was stinging a lot and immediately fascinated by the urban legend that the pain would go away when you urinate on it (no I did not try it).  But it was just one of those incidences I will never forget.  I got stung, and my younger brother was not, made more commotion than I.  I’m sure that’s what happens in a lot of families, just interesting and fun to reminisce about.

Anyway the Dutch word “kwal” has two definitions.  For one it is a jellyfish, but it also means a yucky, slimy, difficult person (another thing that just popped up in my mind).  Probably not far off the mark when we look at this picture I shot of the once floating by my boat in the marina.  They look pretty slimy.

 

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)