Musings

While the coffee was brewing, I stepped outside. The birdbath was frozen solid.

We’re somewhat overdosed on driving, so we didn’t today. Walked to do our errands. Mini-crabapple?

Sample of the residential architecture in our neighborhood; these units are a bit larger and fancier than ours. Same feel, however.

First chore trek took us to the Farmers’ Market. I talked to a bean guy, and bought some black beans from him. Also got a turkey leg, butchered yesterday (TMI?), the grower said. Stew to come. This is a watermelon radish, the sign said, with black radishes on the left edge. Did not buy or taste either one.

Near the FM is the northern terminus of the Railrunner commuter train that goes down to Albuquerque and beyond largely in the Rio Grande valley. Love the roadrunner graphic that flows from the locomotive across the trailing cars.

During a later errand trek, we found a largely untended urban cemetery behind a Mickey’s and similar fast food places, nail salons, and the like. On a slight hill.

Companion shot to the first one from the cocktail hour.

Apparently this sky warns of ❄️. The highest peaks nearby are already 🏔.

Posted at 6:41 PM | Comments Off on No driving

Coming in from the east, we began our New Orleans wander in the Lower Ninth Ward. It’s mostly still abandoned with some pockets of trash remaining.

The Claiborne Avenue bridge crosses the flood control levees and a shipping canal, hence the section that will rise out of the way.

Downtown, finally. River. Riverboat.

Statue honoring emigrants to New Orleans. I might have chosen “immigrants.”

Jackson Square, with statue in the middle. [We won’t discuss which Jackson.] Cathedral named after Louis IX of France, the only French King who is a saint, so the name is Cathedral-Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France. Seems strange to have saint and king linked. So New Orleans.

New Orleans means beignets and café au lait at Café du Monde. Yes, the business has changed greatly since I first came here in 1967, but it’s still beignets and café au lait at Café du Monde.

New Orleans means street cars.

New Orleans means the maid of Orleans…here Joan is gilded.

New Orleans means upstairs balconies and architectural detail.

Sometimes the balconies are double-tiered.

Down at the market we found this gigantic bow, so large it takes multiple loops of chain to hold it.

Then we shifted neighborhoods and walked past legendary Tipitina’s. I was surprised to read it opened in 1977; I thought it was older. Must be the archaeologist in me.

Random building in the Touro quarter. It is quieter and very residential compared to the French quarter.

And, as my dear friend KW sometimes writes, that is all. 😀

Posted at 1:20 PM | 2 Comments »

We had a miscellaneous errand over toward downtown, so we strolled around that area. This is the view of downtown from Jackson Street bridge. You many have seen it in a movie or in advertising art.

Turns out the libraries are closed for the holiday, so we used the book drop. Our regular branch is closed for renovations, so we used a different branch, over by the MLK center. [TMI, pretty sure.]

One of my favorite public art pieces of all time. MLK stating that he has a dream, I’m guessing.

People live around here now, in some rather expensive new apartments and not in the crack-infested public housing that was here.

Nice reflection in window of business undergoing renovation…sign is for an axe-throwing business. Have fun, it states in multiple ways.

Pansy (etc.) triangle by the MLK center. Your federal dollars at work. National Park Service property.

We discovered that we didn’t know that the Grady HIGH SCHOOL football team has a practice field. More tax dollars at work.

Posted at 6:45 PM | Comments Off on More than tax dollars

Hmm. Poorly framed, so just a snapshot. I do like what I was going for, however. Blue, blue sky.

This Acer is golden orange, in contrast to the red of yesterday’s specimen.

On one stretch of trail, I saw many of these leaves—sycamore, I think. These are among the largest. Interestingly, most were “face-down.” I hypothesize that the asymmetric weight of the stems must tip them that way.

Posted at 6:35 PM | Comments Off on Park prowl

Quite a wander today.

Along the BeltLine to a section that was weeds and puddles last time we walked there…a ways past this rhino.

All the way to Krog Tunnel (and twenty steps into Cabbagetown). So much fresh paint I almost got a “tunnel high.”

This was such a long wander that we stopped on the Kroger/Starbucks chairs opposite the old Sears building (huge), and in front of the Brand New Kroger.

Posted at 8:25 PM | Comments Off on Tunnel high

I’ve been watching this project progress over the last week-plus, and today I found a new fence and gate. I suspect after this the gate will repose closed.

Elsewhere I found a reflective birdbath, autumnal mode.

Love dahlias. We’ve got a torrent of rain at the moment, so I’m guessing by tomorrow: no pretty dahlias any longer.

Posted at 7:24 PM | Comments Off on Fading green

“Leaves of three, let it be.” But, no, not that species this time. Say: kooood-zoooo.

Entrance to the underworld? [Caves, etc., being a portal to the underworld is relatively common in mythologies around the world. BTW.]

Posted at 5:23 PM | Comments Off on For real

Urban travel today is likely to involve routes underground, whether you are in a vehicle or afoot. A tunnel in the central civic-ceremonial zone of WashDC.

Ronald Reagan building parking/security team joke.

A rose to you for getting through the traffic.

How many US citizens under the age of, what?, 40? know what this is…that it’s not just an aesthetic combo of shapes and colors. Often, in my (limited) experience, the eraser would solidify and the bristles would get bent before the eraser was used up.

Our first stop: the Verrocchio exhibit at the National Gallery of Art. Verrocchio has many names in the literature (WikiPee indicates his birth name was Andrea di Michele di Francesco de’ Cioni), but most cognoscenti refer to him as merely Verrocchio, referring to the goldsmith he trained under, poor guy. He was an accomplished goldsmith, architect, painter, and sculptor. One of his mentees was Leonardo da Vinci.

Verrocchio’s Alexander the Great. Is that a dragon on your head, sir?

Love the sandal strap details. Many art historians think Leonardo painted the ghostly terrier.

This is Goliath’s head with David’s foot in Verrocchio’s version of the same moment as the famous Donatello statue of David. We saw the latter in Florence; I like both. Again: footwear detail.

We got lunch in a downstairs museum café, and headed to the mall. Left: view of Capitol Hill. We went that way last time. We went the opposite way this time.

Toward the Washington monument, all sparkly clean and open for business again.

And from the hill at its base, we could see our quarry, the Lincoln Monument. But first, at this end of the Reflecting Pool, the WWII Memorial.

Sobering to see over 4000 stars here, each representing 100 American war dead.

We climbed out, paralleled the pool, and worked our way through the crowds up the steps and into the main room of the Lincoln Monument, which the Romans would have called a cella. Many old guys in wheelchairs…this weekend’s groups of Honor Flight members and their attendees. One group whose members we kept encountering were from “Flag City,” Ohio.

We tore ourselves away from the Abe and visited the Vietnam Maya Lin wall. Sobering also. It’s all about the names, each life lost.

Enough malling, we headed back to our parking garage. [Ended up with 16K steps for the day. Outdoor mall-walking.]

The “island” out there is a sunken ship. There are over 230 of them in shallow Mallows Bay, on the Maryland side of the Potomac, a bit downstream and opposite Quantico. Look at GooSatView and see how many you can count. Many are steam ships and many date from WWI.

We paid $6(!!) to cross this bridge over the Rappahannock, the next big river south of the Potomac, both flowing into Chesapeake Bay. The beams are pretty, and the light was nice, but I prefer the bridge that spans the two peninsulas way NNW of here, plus the crossing is cheaper.

Posted at 9:27 PM | Comments Off on Mall walking plus

Taftsville Covered Bridge, with autumn complement of leaf-peepers….

When no longer farming, used a large quaint barn, barnyard as event space.

Fall color mosaic varies. We are westbound here—nice light.

Main gate, Vermont state fair, with ginger breading.

Armory with asymmetric towers.

Ticonderoga’s mill dam. There were at least two mills on the river, both long gone.

Lucille Ball was the backer of the original Star Trek; her money, exclusively as I understand it, got the pilot made, then a second pilot made with new actors, and on the air. She and Desi were divorced by then, but the studio name stayed, and she ran it.

Modern transporter footwear.

Magic hallway—Drew, our guide, said that was the filming term. The arc was long enough that actors could walk/run-and-talk for a bit before reaching the end.

Warp core.

Bridge of the Enterprise.

Traditional double bridge.

Modern highway bridge.

Apologies for late/”10:22pm” post; we had a l-o-n-g drive yesterday and I was pooped/too busy navigating.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Built environment, especially bridges

After a nice walk through the trees on a boardwalk high above the St. Laurence, we popped out by La Citadelle de Québec. We opted to look from the entry gate and not take the tour. You can’t wander around because this is still an active military base, plus it is the official residence of the Queen of Canada, who is also Queen of England, and I’m sure rarer than rarely visits, let alone stays in the Citadelle. Apparently electrification is important to the mini-moat around the exterior wall.

This is known as the Children’s Courtyard, within the Petit Séminaire de Québec, a Roman Catholic secondary school. Turns out where I was standing was the goal. The young man (second from left) stopped just in front of me and extended his foot toward me, tapped his toe immediately in front of my feet (no fudging!), and quickly and simultaneously deftly turned to continue the game. I really felt like a darned tourist, right in the way of real life.

On the slope as we worked our way down from the heights, we found this door. It’s not on a straight wall, and is not flush with either wall, the dark or light one. Rather strange. It is 51 Rue des Remparts, and is for sale. Across the street are two cannons. Who wouldn’t want to live here? Plus the plaquette notes that this was the home of Louis-Joseph de St-Verán, Marquis de Montcalm. You may know him from Québec history from the phrase Wolfe and Montcalm, referring to the leaders at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham here in 1759—both died from wounds they received in that battle.

Of course, demi-lune means half-moon, literally. Maybe that’s what it means here. However, on the open highway, it indicates a place where a driver can make a 180 and reverse direction. This meaning doesn’t quite make sense here?

Demi-lune is one of my words for this trip. Another is vitesse. It’s another driving term. It means speed. Vroom-vroom.

Kitchens get hot. Kitchens in ancient buildings are retrofitted in awkward ways. Thus, they are often cramped, with poor ventilation. Apparently, that’s the case here. Not only is this portal a vent, it’s a storage area for a rack of bins of food. No lie. Without plastic wrap or any other dust/fly protection over the bins. We did not eat here.

Coast Guard ship Amundsen. Monitors fisheries, and perhaps does research. Dramatic late-day light.

We ate in the lower town. Yum.

Nothing against the many fine foods and beverages I consumed today, but this was hand’s down the best: a maple syrup whiskey cream liqueur. A gift from our dinner waitress. The maple flavor was exquisite. I didn’t ask the brand, but a prominent one is Sortilège…with Canadian whiskey, of course. WikiPee says French Canadians call this miracle beverage eau de vie d’érable. Heaven in a glass.

Posted at 9:25 PM | Comments Off on A day in Québec City