Wednesday, 17 January 2018
It seems to me I used to say we get snow every other year or so here in ATL…our neighborhood anyway. Not this winter…we’re on our second pretty-much-cover-the-grass snowfall. We had a bit more this morning when the snow stopped, but all day it stayed cold—and shady in this location—so the white stuff is hanging around. For now.
Monday, 15 January 2018
We’re looping today…I’m posting a few pictures from the last few days that I didn’t have access to on each day…you see, it gets complicated to remember charging cables and downloading cables…you know, the Stuff that goes with the Things you choose to take on your trip. Or that we did. Sooooo, we neglected a certain download cable, so these are harvested from the camera that I didn’t have access to each day.
This is a log version of one of those square-footprint buildings that we saw in, was it Virginia?
And this is a view from the east side of the National Gallery across an interesting art-inhabited plaza toward what the Goo indicates is the library of the Art Research for the NG. Which I assume is correct. Anyway…I really liked the juxtaposition of the circle of bollard-stubs around the glittering triangle-shapes. And water-features.
In the Air and Space Museum, this was the reflection on a nose-cone? Not sure…but fascinating.
And a fine view of the capitol atop Capitol Hill, showing how builders carved into the hill to make the building’s lower tiers. Kinda like the remaining parts of Nero’s Domus Aurea and various constructions along the lower flanks of the Palatine Hill in Rome. Well, many other places, too, and not only in Rome. Maybe it’s just an obvious engineering solution to occupying a steep slope if there’s plenty of labor and building stone. Maybe.
Sunshine means shadows. And I loved these fence-lines flanking our route across rural Maryland horse-country. Expensive horse-flesh gets expensive fences that are protective, but unlikely to mar or scar that flesh. And safe fences make good shadows.
This pair of water towers once stood over an industrial factory zone. I’m pretty sure. This was in NC, not far from the SC border, if I remember correctly.
We’re glad to be home, but today was a chores day, and limited in the visual capture department…so I rely on a few recent days to…entertain(?) you, Gentle Reader….
Sunday, 14 January 2018
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….
Saturday, 13 January 2018
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.
Tuesday, 2 January 2018
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.
Monday, 1 January 2018
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.
Saturday, 30 December 2017
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.
Wednesday, 27 December 2017
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.
Thursday, 21 December 2017
Here, the solstice was…gloomy. So I give you recent photos (from Tuesday)…
…and from Monday.
Tuesday, 19 December 2017
We made a post-luncheon wander in a neighborhood (rather) far away…many different sights, like this watertower…
…and this nandina-framed window.