Landscape of Virginia

Reading a blogger in Philadelphia Pa I am filled with thankfullness for the peace of biking in the countryside around here, I am thinking we aren't very full of congestion everywhere we turn as I was in Philadelphia riding my bike. The blog I read was a sorry comment upon the hopelessness of fighting a gallant fight but with little hope of winning the war of bikes against automotive transportation in the big cities. Here in this small town in Central Virginia we are blessed with a rush hours that last about an hour and a half. We can get around most problems in our town, we also have a good number of committed people who bike to get to work or who take a bike instead of driving a belching car. Hurrah for our small town's efforts to be helpful for us to ride instead of drive. I've never looked back since leaving Philly, but in many ways it shows up that I made the right decision to come to Central Virginia. I've never been sorry to have been spending my time ...

Today, I got out of town. I went up to ride a trail with a friend, some paved mountain roads and some dirt. The dirt was the best, it was packed down from recent traffic and rain so it was a nice smooth packed surface for us. Going downhill was a howl maker. The thing was that the road surface would change at an unexpected moment on a downhill run. It would go from packed earth to gravel in a heartbeat and then it became a little trickier to stay upright. Both Chief-John and I made it ok. There were some close calls but we managed. We traveled north of C'ville up across a ridge and then downhill to some pastoral landscapes with horses, longhorn steers and other lovely animals like anti-biking farm dogs. It was all good! It turned out to be a twenty eight mile ride, over two mountain pass roads and along some really nice bottom land. The weather couldn't be beat, it was cool under the canape of tree limbs and there was a dampness in the air. We enjoyed it all...

It was a successful couple of days painting up on Pantops Mountain at Peter Jefferson place, what a great view to paint. For the last couple of days at noon I have been up on the third floor balcony of the Martha Jefferson Hospital at Peter Jefferson place painting a landscape of the view. It's tremendous and breathtaking in it's scope, it gives the viewer a complete panorama of Charlottesville and the mountain ranges beyond it. It shouts out "paint me" every time I have seen that view, so for the last couple of days I did just that I painted it. Yesterday was the start of the painting, and storms could be seen taking formation. It would be a great location for a "weather cam" because you can see clouds forming so well from up their on Pantops. I painted for an hour and a half, just getting the painting situated and getting the under - painting started, and making sure I took a close look at the buildings and their respective locations in the ...

Just getting better after an illness struck me on Friday two days ago, I'm starting to feel more like myself now. I am in a field where people often exchange illnesses with each other, and it seems like that is what happened this time too. Eight people where I work came down sick on Friday. Now on to the better news, tomorrow is our last working day for the school year and then I am headed out to paint once again. I have put aside time to devoted to my art. I will be working in oils, acrylics and watercolors no doubt all at various spots I have scouted out during the school year around this town of ours. I am hoping to get something good out of all of this. It's been four month since I lifted the brush to paint so I'm hoping I still have what it takes. I guess we'll find out. I've been out photographing some of the late spring activity of the flowers of Belmont, I will include one in the heading of this post. They come from just picking up my camera and...

We at Post High were treated to a U.Va. baseball game with our students, it was the NCAA regional game with hosting U.Va. playing Oregon (last years champs). It was a well fought game but in the end we did have it to take the cake. With two important players out from injuries from the first of two games with Oregon we fell short. I hope for the speedy recovery for those two injured players (Milcat and another player but I'm not sure exactly who-was it B. Gyer?) , they are both champs for helping the team take us to the highest point yet for our baseball team of the University in our hometown of Charlottesville, Va.. All of our students had a really great time cheering on the Cav's . Goo Hoo's Goooo ....until next year. I personally have enjoyed there state of the art stadium for the last three years, it's a hell of an improvement for we fans of baseball. Before it's existence we sat in aluminium bleachers that might have held between fifty and a hundr...

At our school which is a small outcrop from the local high school, we took a trip to a place in Virginia that I had never seen before yesterday, Natural Bridge is a very nice day trip from where we are located. I was impressed with the fact that there is more to the park than one natural phenomena. There is a nice walk to an Native American village with people from the original tribe that was living in this area of this part of the world long ago. And some of those members who are decendents of that tribe was their weaving, making jewelry and cooking pancake looking food stuffs over the fire on a griddle at the village. It was truly nice. Then to walk further on the trail past the village was a bridgeto a cave which we could take a long look downward into the darkness, and even beyond that was a waterfall. There was a lot to see at this tourist attraction. Granted there was the typical tourist center at the start to this trail, but otherwise it was mostly a natu...

School is out for the three day Memorial Day weekend, and everyone was tired and taking a break laying down for a moment as the last bus slipped out of the parking lot. It seems one of our hard working teachers had not too much sleep last night, because she had collapsed after work around 7pm and awoke at 3 am unable to return to sleep she got up and got dressed. During the last couple of weeks all of our teachers have been meeting with parents and all concerned persons involved in all twenty-two of our students. Try doing that day after day and whistle Dixie. They were all beat by today when it all came to an end. So, I can fathom how they might want a little rest after all that they went through. Our students are moving on soon. I snapped a few photos of them as they came to school this morning just to remember those who are graduating next month and others who are all a part of my life today. I never thought I would be able to say, "I love my work". But toda...