Landscape of Virginia

As I get older I reminisce, mostly about my time with one of the most beautiful girlfriends I ever lived with....I know, one always wants to know just who that was but if you'll forgive me I will move on without revealing her identity...and during my time with her we moved to Philadelphia to live in Center City on Spruce Street. While we were setting up our place in our new diggs we awoke on a Sunday morning to an idea of heading out to Fairmont Park and watching the sun rise over the city. The park is on the western side of that city and it has some high hills that overlook Center City if one is to look eastward. I was not in the mood to get up let alone drive my car out to the Park that morning, I sighed "oh noooo" but then acquiesced and got up and dressed. I felt the heat of every ray of sun on my face that morning in the pain of my awakened state. But I did drive us out to the Park when the city slept. Once we got their we saw a man standing under the hi...

This is a slow season for me, a time when schoolwork is asking a lot and so on and so on...I need not explain any further. Well I do come out with a pen and ink occasionally during these slow times for my paintings. Such is this one...don't ask I don't know what this is about it just 'is' whatever it 'is'

One eating spot that almost all agree has the very best pizza is Annia's #5 on Alderman Road. Its a simple restaurant with no frills added into its decor but its good menu items can't be beat. The reason for being called "Annia's #5" is unknown, in as much as we don't know why there is a 5 in its name. When asked the owner is enigmatic and you will leave still not knowing why the "5" but hey its ok...its an existential absurd question and answer so move on. The enjoyable part of this place is that its usually open when one has the hankering for a pie. And that is a winner in itself. So enjoy the art, I enjoy the place and the people who own and run it. Its one of Charlottesville's landmark spots on many townpeople's radar.

One of the American traits is to pop into the local fast Mart or locally here in the south is the 7/11, but in our little part of the world its better known as the 7 Day Jr. which is particular to Charlottesville. This one has some folk-law with regards to my past and my story. It use to be a frequent stop for me, either for smokes and a soda, or simply to ride my bike over and pick up a six pack. Often I would find the store had some improvements done to its interior with new displays or a new arrangement of shelves. It was always interesting to see just what that new thing was and just what it looked like. This frequent stop in was eliminated in my life due to the fact that I no longer drink beer nor smoke cigs, so now if I am thirsty I might stop in for of all things a bottle of water...but just that, nothing more. So even more frequently I just keep on going till I get home and I can get a water from the fridge door. My new fangled fridge has that capacity of all things it...

There are cheap places where you can have a low cost breakfast and then there are those places where you can have a "made in-store" low cost breakfast that is well worth the money spent, the Blue Moon Diner has always been one such place. It has had a 'make-over' recently but it still holds its own even after putting on a new look. The diner has been around as long as I have so its at least more than thirty years in its lifespan. Yeah, I guess its nothing more than a much longer lasting restaurant than others are and have been in this town, and I too must admit it is a 'greasy spoon' but its a good greasy spoon. In as much as the restaurants around here have gone over to a healthier menu eliminating food high in HDL and cholesterol this type of place has outlived its style of food fare. Yet it hangs on and almost an historical location now that its been existing for so long. I liked the older building which I too painted a canvas of (and one ...

The city has a market near downtown that is a local anomaly where native and newer city dwellers alike buy there food. The store is packed with items such as perch and bass that have been caught by local fishermen and sold to the butcher inside. Its then packaged and sold to its customers. Locally grown vegetables also are put out on its shelves for purchase, it houses almost anything a cook might want that can be found to grow in our little area of the world. Its a great store and one that has its own aura from the outside streets looking in. I snapped a few photos while running across the street before it and I brought this store into my collection of canvased memories so that it won't be forgotten as Charlottesville grows. This along with other city buildings are not going to be around forever due to progressive land restructuring. New hotels are going up as I write in the downtown area and I'm sure this store is being eyed due to its location. It is the ...

I often have fun with my imaginary characters when I have some free time at home, and such it was during this snowstorm where we had eighteen inches or so to sit through. I pulled out my pens and some drawing paper and got to work. It resulted in a couple of drawings, one a basketball scene with some weird type of goings on that I don't even know what its all about. Then a second drawing of a business man passing by with some ever so strange guys around him, this to could be about anything at all. Even with drawing these figures in a lot of ways I am sort of a passerby of my own creativity on the drawing paper. I don't even know why this drawing is the way it is...it just is.