an infrequent repository of mostly new stuff
Datura Inoxia time lapse
One night, about 30 years ago, I was walking down a sidewalk in an old neighborhood in Richmond, on the way home from a social engagement. It was very late, the streets were empty. I was tired and pleasantly overstimulated – much scintillating conversation, coupled with subtle inebriants consumed on a visit with some very creative friends.
Atherston Hall B&B in Urbanna, Virginia
Urbanna really is like Scottsville on the Rappahannock, even more than we imagined.
The old town of Urbanna is only a couple of blocks long in any direction. Resting on the bluff above the harbor, it’s easy to walk the whole thing in a few minutes. Several stately buildings pre-date the Revolutionary War: the old Custom House, a former Scottish general store, the original courthouse converted to a church in the 1850’s. Side streets are narrow and shaded by big trees.
For me, a trip to the lower Rapphannock now entails a stop at Merroir. It’s a requisite ritual reward, a local Mecca for oyster worship, a station of the cross whereupon to leave an offering when I visit the Church of the Sea. This is the first time I’ve brought Terri, however – a duty I have neglected for several years, and of which she has reminded me repeatedly.
Every year for our anniversary, T and I try to go somewhere new. We don’t need to go far – west is the mountains, east is the Bay. We can arrive within a few miles of a place we’ve been before and have it feel completely different. This year – just upriver from Deltaville, and Gwynn’s Island, within sight of the creek that leads to Irvington, and beyond that Windmill Point, all places we’ve been before – Urbanna gets the nod.
This is kind of crazy. A timelapse of boats swarming into Amsterdam for a sail festival.
Billed as the largest free nautical event in the world, Sail Amsterdam is aquinquennial (every five years) gathering of 600+ boats and tall ships that sail in a circuit in the Netherland’s North Sea Canal before mooring in Amsterdam. The 2015 event was held just last week and according to the NL Times a record-breaking 2.7 million people arrived to watch the maritime spectable that included at least 50 tall ships and hundreds of smaller watercraft. This aerial photo and a timelapse filmed by Boyd Baptist really captures the enormity of the event. (via Jeroen Apers)
A bunch of folks got together to make some noise for a totally amazing and totally illegal show in Richmond, Virginia last weekend. Two bands came down from DC, one from Richmond. Friends from way back, and some new. Continue reading “Live Jazz in Richmond VA”
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
