Tuesday, November 28, 2023
Monday, November 27, 2023
It's Started!
Sunday, November 26, 2023
Saturday, November 25, 2023
Christmas Spirit
It's beginning again to look a lot like Christmas on DOG (Duke of Gloucester) Street in Williamsburg and Fido here is helping everyone get into the spirit in front of the men's clothing store.
Friday, November 24, 2023
Thursday, November 23, 2023
Happy Thanksgiving!
"Thanksgiving services were routine in what became the Commonwealth of Virginia as early as 1607; the first permanent settlement of Jamestown, Virginia, held a thanksgiving in 1610. On December 4, 1619, 38 English settlers celebrated a thanksgiving immediately upon landing at Berkeley Hundred in Charles City County, Virginia. The group's London Company charter specifically required "that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantation in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God". This celebration has, since the mid 20th century, been commemorated there annually at present-day Berkeley Plantation, the ancestral home of the Harrison family of Virginia." -- Wikipedia
Still, I find it rather amusing that it wasn't even until the late nineteenth century that the holiday was made official by an act of Congress, a body which has never been known to get much of anything done in a hurry. :-)
So why the photo above? Well, whenever I think about Thanksgiving, I frequently think of how formidable these shores must have appeared to those folks who landed here for the first time from a more settled existence abroad--deep, seemingly impenetrable forests filled with all manner of as yet unimaginable dangers. No wonder, then, why some of them might have felt a deep sense of relief, not to mention thanksgiving, to have survived even a year upon leaving their homeland.
Wednesday, November 22, 2023
Fall Blend
Tuesday, November 21, 2023
Monday, November 20, 2023
Bliss
Sunday, November 19, 2023
Saturday, November 18, 2023
Friday, November 17, 2023
Tower Window
Thursday, November 16, 2023
Gold
Wednesday, November 15, 2023
Concert
Tuesday, November 14, 2023
Kiln Kingdom
Monday, November 13, 2023
The Wind and the Leaves
Sunday, November 12, 2023
Ginkgo
Saturday, November 11, 2023
Friday, November 10, 2023
Thursday, November 9, 2023
Gray Day
Finished reading O'Neill's book last night. It's his account of the role he played in exposing and arresting Robert Hanssen, the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent who spied for Soviet and Russian intelligence services against the United States from 1979 to 2001.
Wednesday, November 8, 2023
Tuesday, November 7, 2023
Monday, November 6, 2023
Round Food
Sunday, November 5, 2023
Thursday, November 2, 2023
Expo

Wednesday, November 1, 2023
Three Ordinary Girls
Tuesday, October 31, 2023
Mycology
Monday, October 30, 2023
Footbridge

Sunday, October 29, 2023
Ox
It's actually an ox. While there are many more specific reasons why it's an ox rather than a cow, I like this explanation:
"An ox . . . is a bovine, trained and used as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castrated adult male cattle; castration inhibits testosterone and aggression, which makes the males docile and safer to work with. Cows (adult females) or bulls (intact males) may also be used in some areas.
Oxen are used for plowing, for transport (pulling carts, hauling wagons and even riding), for threshing grain by trampling, and for powering machines that grind grain or supply irrigation among other purposes. Oxen may be also used to skid logs in forests, particularly in low-impact, select-cut logging." -- Wikipedia
Saturday, October 28, 2023
Photoreceptors
I find red maple trees fascinating, especially around this time of year when they offer a whole range of colors. And I've heard that different people actually see different colors, depending upon the particular array of photoreceptors in their eyes.