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.