Canoe Launches

 

 

 

Afternoon temps finally became comfortable enough again (mid 80s) to put my canoe back in the water. These are a couple of the canoe launches in our area. College Landing (shown above) puts you into College Creek. The motor launch at Chickahominy Riverfront Park (shown below) currently leads you to Gordon Creek. The canoe and kayak launch, which normally puts you into the park's namesake Chickahominy River, is currently undergoing a major overhaul and will not be ready for use again, I was told, until the end of this year.

Both of these estuaries, I suspect, would have been well known to Captain John Smith who helped establish the first permanent English settlement in North America. He might have even traveled on them by canoe himself, from what I've read. Anyway, kind of fun to think about as you are paddling along.

 

Covered Wagon

I stopped to talk to some of Colonial Williamsburg's carriage makers about some of the projects they're working on.

One includes this covered wagon that they've built from scratch. The lumber, they told me, was harvested from forests in central Virginia and hand cut for use by craftsmen here in Colonial Williamsburg's lumber yard.

 

Closeups

 

 

 

Rose of Sharon

Smooth Oxeye

Bump-outs

 

 

 

One of the results of the pandemic is a desire on the part of some businesses to make more-or-less permanent the outdoor dining that became popular. Here, for instance, is part of the transformation beginning to take place. Officials are calling it a "bump-out".

 

 

 

What do you think? Would you prefer outdoors or indoors?

 

God-like?!

 

 

 “We know that you are royally blest
Cicada when, among the tree-tops,
You sip some dew and sing your song;
For every single thing is yours
That you survey among the fields
And all the things the woods produce.
The farmers’ constant company,
You damage nothing that is theirs;
Esteemed you are by every human
As the summer’s sweet-voiced prophet.
Muses love you, and Apollo too,
Who’s gifted you with high pitched song.
Old age does nothing that can wear you,
Earth’s sage and song-enamored son;
You suffer not, being flesh-and-blood-less–
A god-like creature, virtually.”

--  Anacreontea

Quiet Pond

  

 

Late Summer

 

There are some definite signs here that summer is beginning to wind down. There are no less than four low pressure systems off in the Atlantic somewhere, something anyone with any modicum of sense living near the coast pays attention to. Also, schools are ramping up. And, hey, we're smack dab in the middle of the NFL's preseason, and the Washington Commanders actually won their first game! Of course, it IS only the pre-season and we all know, I think, what that means--or doesn't. 

Anyway, I'm still enjoying some our late summer blooms. Here are a couple I came across just in the past few days.