Author: WmX

I stumbled off the track to success in 1968, started chasing shadows that summer. Since then, In addition to farm-laborer and newspaper photographer my occupational incarnations include dishwasher, janitor, retail photo clerk, plumber, HVAC repairman, auto mechanic, CAT scan technologist, computer worker and politico (whatever it takes to buy a camera.) I am on the road to understanding black and white photography.

weather change

tree in fog
I’ve spent days this summer watering 398 whips, little trees, in the Tidewater.

weatherunderground
I made a moveable drip irrigation rig. Watered every two weeks. Nature is doing the work for me this week. Graph courtesy wunderground

Big Pharmacy

foo house
September 13, great discussion by the entrance corridor review board regarding proposed big box pharmacy which desires to locate at 1170 Emmett Street (southeast corner of the Barracks/Rt 29 intersection). The ERCB made comments based on the entrance corridor design guidelines and deferred the matter in hopes that the applicant will return with a plan that will complement the community.

International welcome IAD

Dulles
This group poised to welcome an international traveler at Dulles yesterday. The assembly, the density of loving intent, the excitement of expectation, they made my day. Lucky traveler.

Arilus cristatus

procreating
The reproductive cycle of the wheel bug initiates in autumn. When a pair of wheel bugs encounter each other and have coitus, the female will lay 40-200 small, brown, cylindrical eggs on a tree twig, and eventually die. The eggs will hatch in the next spring into eighth millimeter long red nymphs, which will undergo 5 molts until they reach the adult stage the following summer.
They are predators upon soft-bodied insects such as caterpillars, Japanese beetles, etc., which they pierce with their beak to inject salivary fluids that dissolve soft tissue. Because most of their prey are pests, wheel bugs are considered as beneficial to the garden as ladybugs. They are also known for eating stinkbugs.-Wikipedia
(these two in a q.alba)

Eacles imperialis

mothra
Eacles imperialis is one of a few saturniid species in a regional decline throughout the northeastern US, with some New England states lacking records for many decades. A colony on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, has been the subject of scientific and local political activity, especially concerning preservation of sensitive frost-bottom oak/pine habitat.–Wikipedia