April 2023 – Page 2 – Black and White

scooters

dead scooter — I have never ridden a scooter. Can someone tell me about scooters? I see them abandoned in all manner of desolate places. Are they abandoned because the batteries have died? When you rent a scooter does it inform you of the battery charge level? When the battery dies does the machine stop abruptly? If a user repeatedly parks a scooter in forbidden places (blocking sidewalks) do the scooter companies have the capacity to block the user from renting?

Liriodendron tulipfera

The tallest individual at the present time (2021) is one called the Fork Ridge Tulip Tree at a secret location in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. Repeated measurements by laser and tape-drop have shown it to be 191 feet 10 inches (58.47 m) in height.[4] This is the tallest known individual tree in eastern North America.–Wikipedia

First tulip poplar leaf I’ve seen unfurled this year.
Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards sale April 15

Industry remnants

smoke stack water tank — Woolen Mills technical improvements.
The Woolen Mills Historic District encompasses a village central to the history of the city of Charlottesville and Albemarle County since a mill opened there in 1829. Located at the foot of Monticello Mountain, along the Rivanna River, Woolen Mills developed into one of the city’s and the region’s most noteworthy industries, producing cloth for military uniforms from the late-19th century through the 1950s. Although many of the company mill town’s early factories are now vanished, its brick mill buildings of the late-19th and early-20th centuries remain, as do brick and frame houses in a range of styles built during the mid-19th through the early-20th centuries for or by mill employees. Home to generations of families who worked in its mills, the village was annexed by Charlottesville in 1963. The Woolen Mills Village Historic District’s period of significance begins with 1847, the date of the earliest company-built housing, and ends in 1962, the year the mills closed. At the time of its listing, the historic district still evoked a late-19th century industrial village.–VADHR

Rivanna Trail

Trail next to the river in Charlottesville, a good idea, solid execution, a favorite of the people.

Surveying

spring morning — Spring mornings are a delight for the eye and nose. A low hemophagic critter index prevails but it is warm enough to volatilize a universe of scents.

a thousand people in the street

Market St west view — “Now in its 21st year, the Charlottesville Marathon & Half Marathon is one of the oldest and most coveted races in Charlottesville. It has been defined as America’s Destination Marathon because of its scenic beauty and historical background”–Charlottesville Marathon

Market St east view — Traffic calming. People in the street. It is a magical moment when the people displace automobile and truck traffic. Incredibly, the mass of humanity is quieter than one idiot with a bad muffler or a loud stereo.