an infrequent repository of mostly new stuff
Snowy River
Fresh snow got home before we did on Christmas Day. After dinner with family in DC, we drove back south, headlong into waves of a big storm as it broke over the hills on the way north. The last hour of driving was spent tacking back and forth in the dark, looking for cleared roads. We’re getting used to this by now, and the novelty has definitely worn off.
Mirror Pond
Our house is surrounded by over 300 acres of woods and overgrown hay fields. The land was bought by a big-time developer just days before we moved in, but has laid fallow for almost 30 years. We’ve savored the quiet it provides, a buffer between us and the rest of the world, and it’s a haven for all sorts of wildlife. We frequently take walks there in the evening. Continue reading “Room With A View”
Silo and old barn on the edge of town.
Fall snuck up on me this year. Maybe I was just too busy to see it coming. There’s a heavy frost due in the morning. Geese mutter in the corn stubble. Continue reading “A Nip in the Air”
”Marianne,” one of the Museum’s Log Canoes
How do you get a hundred or so independent-minded skippers to sail their boats in a tight formation in the same general direction for a few miles?
Tell them it’s a race. Continue reading “MASCF Part 3 ~ A Parade of Sail”
Big snow storm tonight. Took two hours to get home, and Terri is still stuck in town, staying with friends.
It’s already deeper than the dogs. Emily is outside with them, and they bound through it like antelope, or burrow like groundhogs. I can hear her laughing in the dark.
It will fall through the night and into tomorrow.
A good night to be warm inside by the fire.
We’ll have a White Christmas.
Maple Grove, Scottsville
Some in the yard, and Route 6, Irish Road, just west of town. Route 6 runs all the way up into the mountains, through the Rockfish Valley, then up and through Rockfish Gap. On the way, it winds through apple orchards, along streams, past log cabins in quiet coves, lots of farmland and forests and a few small crossroad villages. Continue reading “More Scottsville”
Rockfish River above Schuyler
Rockfish Gap has been a natural gateway through the mountains for thousands of years, Once travelled by Indians and wildlife along a footpath from the coastal plain to the Ohio Valley, today a highway, four roads, two railroad lines, and the Appalachian Trail all converge on this spot. Black Bears still follow the route as they move from one valley to another, lumbering along on the shoulder of the road like pedestrians. The Blue Ridge Parkway begins here, heading south, as does Skyline Drive, going north. From the crest of the ridge there’s a view that stretches for 20 miles down the Rockfish Valley, and it’s one of the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen. As many times as I pass through there, my heart still hurts when I see it. The Gap and the Valley both are named for the Rockfish River that winds below, and it’s astonishing to think the entire view was created by that little stream, small enough to throw a stone across. Continue reading “Rockfish River”