Posted on

Bridges

Curt looking for The Hole in the Wall

 

This is going to be fun.

It is true that I should have left 15 minutes ago. Yes, it’s still dark, and the mountains to the west are a deep cold blue like waves crashing on a beach of stars; but the horizon in the east is glowing embers. Fifteen minutes is easy to make up. Normally not a problem when driving 2 1/2 hours east, to the Chesapeake.

But crews have been replacing two of the old steel truss bridges on the River Road along the James. In the semi-dark I sit at temporary stop lights blinking on deserted roads, deep in the woods – no work crews around, no other cars, just me sitting in the dark, alone, listening to the car idle and the katydids and the tree frogs and the fish jumping in the Hardware River below, dutifully waiting tor some imaginary line of cars to pass so the light will turn green and let me safely pass. Is that a police cruiser in the weeds on the other side? A ticket would make me really late. I have to do it all again at the Rivanna. I love these old bridges, and will miss them when they’re gone. I miss the one they took down a few years ago on the road north from town. A double insult to be delayed by their funeral.

 

deadrises at Gwynn’s Island

 

Continue reading “Bridges”

Posted on

Tangier Island Mirrored

Two images, taken eleven years apart

 

As we walked the island I kept having flashbacks to previous trips – things half remembered, familiar in some way. It wasn’t until I got back, though, and started going through the photos, that I realized I had photographed many of the same views taken before – some of them almost exactly – but eleven years apart. We even walked a similar clockwise route around the island.

Makes me wonder, if I could find photos from that first trip back in the 1970’s, how similar those old photos would be. How little has changed. The same boats, hauled up in the marsh, still decomposing decades later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on

Tangier Promenade ~ Chesapeake Float 2015

Mailboat Harbor, Tangier 

 

Around the corner from the ferry dock is Lorraines’s, the only place on Tangier Island, we’re told, open for lunch today. It is closed. This according to Lorraine, who is sweeping the steps. Tonight is the Senior Prom, and the Prom Dinner is at Lorraine’s, so they’ve closed to decorate and make preparations.

She says, however, there is one table of four that has not been pulled into the banquet table and decorated, and she can set that for five. As long as we only want crab cakes she will serve us lunch.

Crab cakes it is.

Continue reading “Tangier Promenade ~ Chesapeake Float 2015”

Posted on

The Inner Islands

Crab Shacks in Mailboat Harbor, Tangier Island

 

It’s been almost fifteen years since I took these photos on Tangier Island. The girls were small, my hair was not grey.

Tomorrow at sunrise I’ll be headed that direction. If the weather cooperates, I and about a dozen other fellows in small handmade boats will leave the Eastern Shore and head for these inner Chesapeake islands – Tangier and Smith. Never been to Smith Island, so this will be my first time.

Thursday night looks grim. Gusts to 30kts, big nasty seas in Tangier Sound, not to be trifled with in small craft. We may stay ashore that night. But the weekend looks very promising.

More later.

One way or another.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on

Elizabeths

Steve Earley in Spartina near Elizabeth City 

 (Photos and text, video to come.)

Eighteen months ago it was the Elizabeth River. Now Elizabeth City. Steve tells me his home port of Chesapeake originally was to be called Port Elizabeth. There are other Elizabeths in his life even closer. HIs world seems thick with Lizzies, and he seems rather fond of them all.

 

Elizabeth City from the water

 

I’d never been to Betsy Town, as he calls it. Elizabeth City was never quite on my way to somewhere else. I’ve been missing out, apparently, and will have to come back. Shores are lined with cypress and gum and slash pine, and at one time large tracts of Atlantic White Cedar, prized for shipbuilding and shingles. The water is steeped in the tannin-filled effluent from the Dismal Swamp, the color of strong black tea.

 

The Dismal Swamp Canal


Continue reading “Elizabeths”

Posted on

The Ballad of Holland Island House

The Ballad of Holland Island House from Lynn Tomlinson on Vimeo.

 

This is a lovely piece. You’ll remember last year, while sailing near Deal and Crisfield, I wrote up the story of Holland Island. It has been one of my most visited and favorited posts.

This animation on the same story, made with clay on glass and set to music, is really well done, and the medium lends itself well to the subject.

A nice post on Colossal is here, with additional links:

This is Colossal: Holland Island House

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on

Hudson Icebreaker

 

My father-in-law’s family was in the chandlery and barge business on the Hudson in New York, for a century or more. His mother’s family was in the tug business, a match made on commerce, as it were.

A fine article and video on the icebreakers of the Hudson. Many communities along the river still rely on barges to supply them with essentials, like heating oil, salt for roads, and bulk staples.

Icebreaker Sturgeon Bay on the Hudson