T-storms rumbled through town yesterday afternoon. Pictured above the big tent that ate the view of the mountains from CHO downtown.
Rt 29 No
I received a request from China for pictures of Charlottesville so I biked north via the John Warner Parkway to our “Main Street”, the curiously named Seminole Trail. Why is it named that? No one seems to know.
Most likely it was a trick. Mad Men work, advertising to attract the gullible.
It is a remarkable area, this Seminole Trail, a land of many lakes and places to shop. The lake above was built in association with the newly constructed Arden Place. The name sounds so wonderful, Arden, garden, ardent, verdant…
Arden has some advertising literature which really nails the essence of this area…
Neither urban, nor rural. Rather, uptown vibrancy.
Arden Place is a luxury Charlottesville apartment community offering unparalleled levels of quality and service. Located off Route 29 No. in the center of the area’s best shopping, dining, and entertainment, you’ll find you have more time to spend on what is important to you.
Headed South on the Seminole Trail I encountered Wildlife. One wonders why these creatures would prefer a parking lot to the aquatic expanses of a detention pond?
This is an informal detention pond on the west side of Route 29.
This is a formal detention pond in the course of construction. At a later date nature band-aids will be added to its gently sloping sides.
Possibly geese seek out parking lots because they are upstream of these ponds, closer to the source (rainfall) and therefor comparably pristine?
In the course of my three mile ride along Rt 29 (from Arden Place to Barracks Road) I saw one pedestrian.
Ended my ride in the East Belmont/Carlton section of Charlottesville.
(Please, if you can direct me toward a silviculture resource for dry ponds and extended detention dry basins do so. It seems that these pits offer new ground for growing fabulous specimen trees in an urban setting.)
Light switch?
This evening, 7:00-9:00 pm, there is a City roundtable discussion about budgetary matters. It’s hard to take these meetings seriously after many years, hard not to be sarcastic. The public attends, and speaks. Roundfile…
Budgets are about shepherding and allocating resources. The little money adds up to big money. Our City pats itself on the back for being “Green”. Buying battery operated cars. Hey fellows? Where is the light switch? 13.7 footcandles of light falling on that newspaper. The hot spots on the sidewalk are 47 footcandles! Super size me…
A lighting designer could take the electricity being used on this bridge and light a small village.
Elsewhere on Locust Avenue, north and south of the bridge, illumination levels are sensible, around 0.2 footcandles.
Running through the tanning salon.
Beneath the Locust Avenue bridge is the Richmond Road, Route 250. I tried the pedestrian experience beneath the bridge. There are narrow sidewalks on the left and right. Harrowing.
Locust Avenue
The Michie-Morris House is named for its initial owner, Hay Watson Michie, who built the house in 1898. Michie was the wife of G. R. B. Michie, an investor in the Locust Grove Investment Company, and purchased the property before the area was platted by the development company. After the Michies moved to The Farm in 1909, they sold this house to the Morris family.
Hammock
Justice Haden of Belmont.
Hammocks were developed by native inhabitants of Mexico for sleeping. Later, they were used aboard ships by sailors to enable comfort and maximize available space, and by explorers or soldiers traveling in wooded regions. Today they are popular around the world for relaxation; they are also used as a lightweight bed on camping trips. The hammock is often seen as symbol of summer, leisure, relaxation and simple, easy living.–Wikipedia
day of rest
“Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”–Matthew 18:19-20
Pollard
One consequence of pollarding is that pollarded trees tend to live longer than unpollarded specimens because they are maintained in a partially juvenile state, and they do not have the weight and windage of the top part of the tree.–Wikipedia
Pollards cut at only about a metre or so above the ground are called stubs (or stubbs). These were often used as markers in coppice or other woodland. Stubs cannot be used where the trees are browsed by animals, as the regrowing shoots are below the browse line.–Wikipedia
whois
Who is this guy? Was there an outlet, a manufacturer of glorious cause statues in the US at the turn of the century? What kind of rifle? Is he in uniform? Who paid for the statue? How much?
reenactors
Our City is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year. That is put into perspective when one sees a 30th generation Japanese rice farmer displaced from ancestral fields by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear melt.
We don’t have that sort of multi-generational continuity here. We don’t have any 250 year old trees, people get impatient and cut the big ones down. We do have a nuke-u-lar plant the next county over. We care for the parts of our history that don’t interfere with the seamless operation of automobiles.
We are sensitive revisionists, we ask “is the military statuary appropriate?”
We remake the place. We remove the parts that offend. Then we apologize.
John
Local photographer/professor/writer John Mason posted an informative piece:
“tracing the geneology of stereotypical images — especially photographs — of African suffering, victimhood, and brutality, from the anti-slavery movement of 200 years ago to the blindspots and hubris of Invisible Children.”–JEM