Musings

We loaded up and when The Guru fired up the beastie (complete with a full electrical charge (yay!)), it gave us this temp. Time to head south, we agreed. It even dropped another degree by the time we crossed the Potomac one last time east of Harpers Ferry. The water sparkled in the sun; we were southbound; life is good, we also agreed.

The landscape was mostly open and we saw a few “fancy” houses. I tried not to think about the ugly history of slavery in this former(?) tobacco-farming region. (We saw very few (surviving?) tobacco barns, unlike this latitude on our northbound leg.)

It was Sunday and perhaps that is partly why this was the only active farm vehicle we saw….

All the horses I remember seeing on the many mini-farms had lovely jackets. I don’t think they’re anything like the old-fashioned “horse blankets.” I suspect these are high-tech and perhaps even Goretex.

I loved the low sun angle at this, our last rest area of the journey.

Proof that home is not far ahead…the Gaffney peach. And attendant power lines….

Such a great trip; such a diversity of experiences! We especially enjoyed last night’s socializing with our friends from Venezuela* (presently in northern Maryland). Still smiling!

* And, yes, the terrible things you have heard about people starving to death, lack/absence of medicines (including for malaria), and brutality by…well, you get the idea of what’s happening in Venezuela…yes, what you’ve heard: true, true, true. Soooo, so sad. We are glad they are safe. For now….

Posted at 9:14 PM | Comments Off on Winter tour concludes

Our tour of eastern Maryland began in Virginia. We bumpity-bumped over cobblestones down to…

…the mighty Potomac, with the ice-whittled remains of a wharf.

Finally in Maryland, we found Mattawoman Creek, spelled Mataughquamend by Captain John Smith back in about 1608.

This is Back Creek, just off the Patauxent.

And this is the Severn River. Now that’s an assortment of interesting names and places.

Posted at 11:38 PM | Comments Off on River views

The Guru went out with me to gain our vitamin D. The foot was feeling pretty good, so we went farther afield, and found this tree, which has outgrown the space allotted to it during the last landscaping, some time back. Trees are powerful!

Farther along, we discovered that someone forgot to turn off their sprinklers.

And another homeowner kept the fish-pond oxygenating, creating ice balls and other glazed shapes.

Posted at 5:42 PM | Comments Off on Slow art

In the waning light of the mid-to-late afternoon, I finally got myself outside. I plotted my route a block at a time, staying in the sun as best I could. Eventually, I found myself with no choice but to continue in shadow if I didn’t want to backtrack, and I struck out through the undiminished cold…buoyed when I found these fleurs.

After almost twenty minutes, the foot (arch) was beginning to twang, and I began my loop back toward the warmth of the house. En route, the light on this ill-maintained garage caught my eye.

I was so lucky the sun was out; otherwise, I suspect I could only have continued purely on adrenaline and cantankerousness.

Posted at 9:39 PM | 1 Comment »

Laughing, we enjoyed an extended family gathering over order-in pizza, then walked down to the park. Some enjoyed the zoo, others the playground, and some of us loved the sunshine…mmmm vitamin D.

Even though the electric in our hybrid didn’t get us home, we got some good views of the sunset/dusk sky, and saw the light-strings atop Stone Mountain that evoke a white conifer’s shape.

Posted at 10:27 PM | Comments Off on Win win

Yesterday’s image was about absent leaves. Today’s images are foliage. MaNachur has decorated this decorative cabbage-family specimen with a single Acer palmatum specimen.

These desiccating hosta leaves provide quite the contrast, no? Their venation pattern creates all the texture, looking rather like the puffy zones created between lines of stitches on quilts.

Posted at 5:57 PM | Comments Off on Flip side

Here, the solstice was…gloomy. So I give you recent photos (from Tuesday)…

…and from Monday.

Posted at 11:23 PM | Comments Off on Solstice substitutes

We made a post-luncheon wander in a neighborhood (rather) far away…many different sights, like this watertower…

…and this nandina-framed window.

Posted at 6:39 PM | Comments Off on Inner NW Athens

Misty this morning. I think a character said that phrase on the first episode of “The Crown.” That’s what we started binge-watching. And not because we also had a misty morning.

I couldn’t take a better picture (get a better angle) on this yard-art unless I stepped in the flower bed. So this is my offering.

I took advantage of the morning fog and grabbed my walking sticks and headed out, looking for a bit more up-and-down than I’ve been doing…to work just a bit on endurance. Of course, any work constitutes making progress for me these days.

Posted at 10:18 PM | Comments Off on Reality in historical fiction series TV

We struck out for new territory…re-visiting a long-ago*-favorite walking spot, this relatively new park at what once was Ponce Springs, and now has new apartment blocks framing it. We dodged raindrops…and saw only one pair of mallards…and no turtles.

We did see evidence (I’m pretty sure of this) of an earlier visit by a GreatBlue…but s/he’d made tracks. Harharhar.

*Long-ago meaning before TheFootThing. [several beats] Also, the unstated subhead of this may well be: “I took blood from a snake.” Not my words, but reported to be those of TheVeterinarian.

Posted at 8:12 PM | Comments Off on Where are the turtles?