uneasy marriage

CA stack CO tracks
It struck me this morning that the park I walk through owes much of its existence to successive technologies. The streetcar technology (smokestack above) has been abandoned. The other technologies that undergird this public space are sewage collection and high voltage electrical transmission.
dog running in snow woods
Rivanna trail, winter weather.
Geology and topography have graced the park with a river. So far, in our political wisdom, we have discouraged building in the river’s channel.
The industrial and the natural features maintain an uneasy balance, remarkably it feels like a park.

empty rooms

Sunset Hill, Lee’s Ridge, furniture and personal items cleared out.
table covered with books wall covered with pictures
This table was in the alcove to the left of the chimney. Photos of Joan and the Bills on the table and wall.

SB 1263 Deeds Votes against bicycle bill?

Quincy Florida bikers

SB 1263 Bicycles; permits operators to treat a stop sign as a yield sign in certain situations.

floor: 01/27/21 Senate: Read third time and defeated by Senate (16-Y 22-N)
YEAS–Barker, Bell, Boysko, DeSteph, Ebbin, Favola, Hashmi, Lewis, Marsden, Mason, McClellan, McPike, Morrissey, Petersen, Spruill, Surovell–16.
NAYS–Chase, Cosgrove, Deeds, Dunnavant, Edwards, Hanger, Howell, Kiggans, Locke, Lucas, McDougle, Newman, Norment, Obenshain, Peake, Pillion, Reeves, Ruff, Saslaw, Stuart, Suetterlein, Vogel–22.

St. Mary’s Whitechapel

St Mary's WhiteChapel
Couldn’t walk around in DC during the inauguration, this seemed like a fallback. I’d been told that George Washington’s mother, Mary Ball, went to church here, a quick internet search didn’t provide confirmation, but she was born in this parish.

Near Lancaster, at the corner of White Chapel Road (Route 201) and River Road (Route 354) a mile from the Rappahannock River, is St. Mary’s Whitechapel, where an Anglican chapel of ease has stood at the site since the 1650s. President James Monroe’s grandfather was the builder of this structure. This parish also has a long association with the Ball family. The current Episcopal church, which dates to the eighteenth century, is a striking rectangular building with a hip roof, and the Flemish bond brickwork shows signs of significant repairs and alterations over the years. Inside, a gallery installed in the south end of the building was paid for privately by the Ball family for their own use in the 1740s. The one-piece baptismal font dates from 1718. The lovely church stands among numerous tall trees near the ancient graveyard at 5940 White Chapel Road, Lancaster. More history of the church and visitor information is available at www.stmaryswhitechapel.org and an information kiosk at the site.–George Washington’s Virginia– John R Maass

paper plates

stand up children eat cake
this possibly in Albemarle County in 1980. Lost in the fog of time. These children would now be in their late 40s. Yum. Cake!