Black and White – Page 93 – photography from the Chesapeake Bay watershed by Bill Emory

Maladera castanea

picking them off by hand — Maladera castanea (the asiatic garden beetle) flies and eats at night.
AGBs belong to the order Coleoptera. The order contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms.
I am having a yearly run in with these insects. They function like a self reproducing electric utility. They top trees, preferentially feeding on new growth at the top of trees: “the terminal leader”.
The AGB is a major drag on my afforestation effort. The establishment of a forest or stand of trees in an area where there hasn’t been forest for centuries is a challenge. All the complexity has been removed, roots, biomass, beneficial fungi, and that has created a zone that is remarkably hostile to young trees, a fragile system.
Complexity is good in natural systems. When people farm, the complex system is removed. The dirt remains, to be used as a media for the desired plant making chemicals to promote growth and chemicals to control insects necessary.

Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Spaces

BRC worksession April 28 — Mayor Signer and Vice-Mayor Bellamy are briefed by City Manager Maurice Jones. April 28th the Charlottesville City Council met in work session to hammer out details of a resolution to be considered May 2 at their regular session setting up a commission.
The resolution is available on the City’s website.
NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that City Council does hereby authorize the creation of an ad hoc blue ribbon commission on race, memorials and public spaces and tasks the commission with the mission to provide Council with options for telling the full story of Charlottesville’s history of race and for changing the City’s narrative through our public spaces;

hurt paw

ouch — dropped a rock on my foot

Ohio

Country Crust Bakery — 4918 State Route 41 S, Bainbridge Ross County, OH. Not the part that Chrissie Hynde sang about.

vulpes vulpes

dead fox — collateral damage, fox kit, struck in the road, made it to the sidewalk

Plan 6010

Tom Tom Street That Work — Student from UVA Architecture School attaches a text block to an oak on Garrett Street.

early motor age

old gas station — Perkins Hollow

strategy

garden at Monticello — How do trees decide when to leaf out? Do natives know better when to produce leaves?

indigenous fruit

pawpaw — The paw paw is the largest edible fruit indigenous to the United States. Asimina triloba has had numerous local common names including: wild banana, prairie banana, Indiana banana, Hoosier banana, West Virginia banana, Kansas banana, Kentucky banana, Michigan banana, Missouri banana, the poor man’s banana, Ozark banana, and banango.-Wikipedia

Rappahannock

looking toward the Bay — View from Norris Bridge toward Windmill and Stingray points.