This is the archive for the ‘road trips’ Category

2010 is under way!

January 16th, 2010

Well, the holidays are over and school has started. My first classes were yesterday. Right now I’m headed to VA to my Mom’s to dedecorate her house and to celebrate her birthday! My decorations at home are down except for greens around the door but it has been too cold to deal with that.

We’re driving down the Delmarva peninsula and it is still cold, but I hear it’s already over 50 degrees in Virginia Beach. So that’s good! Here the ponds are frozen and the fields which will soon have green things growing are all brown and stubbly but the sky is full of birds in “V” formation—I wish flying to Canada but that won’t be until around March. Yeah, I know, in Philadelphia, I still have to deal with Feb. and March but the days ARE getting longer and stuff is starting to grow. Really!

Get’s me making plans for my garden— the catalogs have been coming for almost a month now and we have been having snows that melt slowly watering the ground so I hope there will not be any dry spells this summer to turn my world into a dust bowl.

My back yard has a place that needs seeding but other than that it’s pretty ok—just maintenance and veggies. But the front – under the living room window, is a shady place that is just a mess of pacasandra and a stunted azalea bush that need work. There’s a project to think about.

Or perhaps along the side walk—we could revisit that as well. I like to plant seasonal things along my way from the house to the car. Then, if I’m busy at work and don’t have time to wander my garden, I don’t miss the changes.

Cranberries

November 2nd, 2009

Well, it’s November, Halloween is over and the Phillies have been scary, so whatch gonna do? It rained all week but now its bright and sunny. Maybe this game will turn around too.

We were on location last week in cranberry bogs in NJ and it was just after the yearly harvest.

To harvest the cranberries the bogs are flooded and the cranberries knocked off the plants. As they float in the water they are gathered up and then the water is drained. All around the edge of the bog were missed cranberries, lying on the ground like jewels. They just had to be this month’s header image. (View older header images.)

Here’s to cranberries, some of which we’ll eat this Thanksgiving. And here’s to the ones that got away.

Ruthie’s Garden

September 7th, 2009

Spent the weekend at my Mom’s in VA Beach. Her garden is the view from her balcony. Between the boats and the birds she comes up with enough intrigue to keep anyone busy. Her favorite birds are a pelican named Braveheart and an egret named Fan Fan.

Rudee's Inlet

Ruthie’s Garden

Mom is a painter but for a number of years due to being a caregiver for my Dad and her own health issues she hasn’t been able to work. Lately she has been wanting to get back to it so we helped her dig out her supplies, order more paints and set up a studio space.
Go Mom!

Beach to Bay

September 6th, 2009

Visited my Mom in VA Beach this weekend. On the way down we stopped in Pocomoke City at the Pocomoke City Nature and Exercise Trail, Cypress Park. It is part of Maryland’s Beach to Bay Indian Trail, a National Recreation Trail, was recognized in 1993 and links a lot of trails and museums along “ . . . patterns established by the American Indians and followed by the first European immigrants.”

Start of the trail

Start of the trail.

The short trail, part boardwalk and part path, is entered by passing a small park with large civic bandstand and picnic areas, under the Route 13 overpass and goes through white cedar, cypress and other trees and bog areas.  In need of some repair it was a fun stop on our 5 hour drive down the Delmarva peninsula.

Information on the Cypress Part is available at: 410.957.1334

Lichen

August 16th, 2009

The lichen in the title heading above is growing on a foundation stone from a house believed to have been built in about 1628 by John Alden in Duxbury, MA. I removed my previous header images but they may be see HERE.

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