More photos of Historic Jamestowne

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown, aka, Historic Jamestowne. While visiting this island, Red and I attempted to absorb the richness of our country's history and realizing that this was the place where it all started. We walked the pathway that pointed out the ruins of a number of buildings which once stood, and we tried to visualize what this colony of English settlers must have looked like in the early 17th century. Below are photos of what we saw while walking around. And if you click here you will be directed to Red's blog which also has photos of Historic Jamestowne.

This is a depiction of rowhouses that were built (I think in the latter part of the 17th century), when Jamestowne became a bustling outpost.

This photo shows the foundation of where the rowhouses once existed.



Along the pathway while walking around and viewing the ruins and foundations I found this "family" of Canada geese. I guess they were eating seeds found in the grass. I know it's not a really sharp photo, but this was the best shot I could get. It's not easy getting photos of birds, albeit large birds, in a very tall grassy area.


Due to the muggy weather, which Red and I are not used to, we decided to take a drive around the island and cool off in our air conditioned car. In doing so, we came upon an area called Black Point. Time to get out and see what this area had to offer. What we saw beyond all the trees was a small beach setting looking across the James River toward the mainland. There were several dead trees, some still standing while others were fallen over. While heading back to where we parked our car, a deer ran across our pathway. I guess she was wanting a drink of water. Of course, we did not have our camera ready, and she disappeared rather quickly. But we were able to get a picture of the bald eagle who kept eyeing us.

East Coast Vacation

Red and I have returned from our week long vacation back to the Mid-Atlantic states. We visited what is known as the Historic Triangle, which includes Colonial Williamsburg, Historic Jamestown, and the Yorktown Battlefield. We also visited George Washington's boyhood home, called Ferry Farm located in Frericksburg, VA. This is where we did some tour guided bird watching on the property. We then drove to New Jersey to visit relatives and participate in a family reunion. The following day we drove back south again to continue our vacationing historic areas. We managed to visit Annapolis, MD, Washington, DC, and Mt. Vernon, VA. And as usual, never enough time to visit everything we wanted to see. Nevertheless, we did enjoy our vacation and we have spent the last several days going through and editing our photos - a very time consuming activity. Red has posted about our flight to Richmond, VA and posted a few pix of our visit to Historic Jamestown.

Here are my photos (with comments) - sorry if some of them are repeats of what Red posted.

This is a view of the James River. As you may note, the weather was mostly cloudy, very warm and humid, quite muggy for most of our trip.This is a close-up of the sign seen in the previous photo. I think you can see an enlarged view of this by clicking on it. If you can see the enlarged view, you will note that there are quite a few archeological digs going on there in Jamestown. The most active one (photos below) was located between the Memorial Church and James Fort. Here is the sign regarding the most recent excavations. If you want to be able to read it, click on the photo to get an enlarged view.

Here is the statue of Pocahontas.

And here is Captain John Smith's statue.

These are views of the James River with a cannon (not sure if it is authentic or a replica) used to protect the people of Jamestown.

We saw this boat go by on the James River - is this a barge?

And this stone is a tribute to the original settlers from England (1607) given by the Society of Daughters of Colonial Wars (1928).

And this "house" is a research center which is private, not open to the public. I was so attracted to this building and its landscape I just had to post it. Not only is the building itself very attractive, but the lawn and the crepe myrtles around it were breathtaking.

Vacation time

My daughter, Heidi, aka Red, and I will be flying to Richmond, VA early Wednesday morning. We are planning to visit Jamestown, Yorktown and Williamsburg Thursday and Friday.

Friday night we'll probably stay in Fredricksburg so that early Saturday morning we can attend a birding tour at Washington's Ferry Farm. The tour begins at 8 a.m. and lasts for 2 hours. It will be led by Paul Nasca, a birding enthusiast. There have been over a hundred species sighted at this location, so I hope to see a few that I can add to my life list.

After the birding tour we will drive up to New Jersey (southern end) to attend our family reunion. This family reunion is on my mother's side where the majority of this family has lived and stayed in the Norristown-Philadelphia area for many decades.

Last week I went shopping for a new piece of luggage. My old luggage does not have wheels except for the largest piece. I think it's a 29-inch bag, large enough for a two-three week trip. But this trip is only for one week, and I don't need anything that big. So I got myself a Samsonite 21-inch upright.

It certainly has plenty of pockets on the front, as well as several more pockets and pouches inside the bag. And there still seems to be plenty of space for clothes, too.

Sunday we will drive in a southerly direction. We are hoping to visit Annapolis before heading to Washington. Can you believe this native of Baltimore has never visited the capital of her home state?

When we get to Washington we are hoping to visit the Museum of Natural History (a favorite of mine), and the Library of Congress. We also want to visit the memorials on the mall and hopefully will visit one of the Smithsonian buildings. I'm also hoping we'll get the chance to visit Arlington National Cemetery. I haven't been there since I was in high school, the year after John F. Kennedy was buried there. There's always so much to see and do in Washington and the surrounding area.

Monterey Bay Birding Festival

The third annual Monterey Bay Birding Festival will be Fri, Sat, Sun, Sep 21, 22, 23 this year. Go to their web site by clicking on the link above. Here is the checklist of birds seen last year during the festival. There are so many trips planned it is hard to decide which trip(s) I would like to attend. The Monterey Bay area, a large part of the central coast of California also known as the Pajaro Valley, is quite extensive and geologically diverse - such as wetlands, marsh areas, grasslands, woodlands, etc.

Various and numerous trips are offered and the cost is certainly more than affordable for each trip. Most trips seem to have a limit of 20 attendees - so the earlier one registers, the better the chance of getting your choice of activity.

Oh, so many choices! Watsonville wetlands, Monterey Bay, Elkhorn Slough, Pajaro Dunes, Big Sur, Santa Cruz, Carmel Valley and River, or Pinnacles National Monument. Two of the trips offered are pointing out that there is a possibility of locating a California Condor - those trips are full-day events - one to Big Sur and the other to Pinnacles National Monument. The Big Sur trip will also have bird banding demonstrations.

Can you imagine an opportunity to see more than a hundred species of shorebirds and songbirds?

Salad, anyone?

These are some of the different tomatoes my husband is growing this year. They are ready to be picked, and DH and our son are presently in Alaska - biking, fishing, and backpacking. My daughter will probably pick them tomorrow, adding to the ones we already have in the refrigerator. I think it's time to offer some to friends and neighbors. The two of us can't eat that many by ourselves; and we are preparing to fly back to the East coast early Wednesday morning. I think we both will have to take these tomatoes to church on Sunday, and then whatever is left over I will take to work on Monday and Tuesday.


These are a few of our Roma tomatoes. These are my favorite; I really like their flavor best. I prefer this type for tossed and taco salads. If there is an overabundance this year I will probably freeze them and try to make homemade tomato sauce this winter.


These tomatoes I call grape tomatoes - I think they were supposed to be cherry tomatoes, but they are the size of large grapes. To me, cherry tomatoes are about 3-4 times larger. These little goodies make a great nutritious snack food during the day.


And here is a prize cucumber.
Bon appetit!

House Finch video, by request

Here is the video as is. I have not learned yet how to edit them, or if that is even possible. Just a word of caution for those who may have a slow connection - it may take a while to upload. Enjoy.

Fledgling? or LBJ?

Yesterday, around dinner time, this LBJ stopped by my window feeder. It sat there in the feeder for the longest time doing absolutely nothing. It just sat there, not even bothering to eat any of the seed, and I was thinking something might be wrong with it.

I got up from my computer and stood there at the window watching the bird, expecting it to fly off, but it didn't. So I slowly backed up to retrieve my camera, returned to the window and started snapping away. I couldn't believe it wasn't bothered by what I was doing. From what I could tell it looks like a recently fledged female housefinch -- those of you who may know better, please correct me if I'm mistaken. Just click on the photos to get a larger view.It finally began to eat some of the seed. I kept looking around for mama or papa, but didn't see either of them. Actually, this LBJ was all by itself. There didn't seem to be any other birds around at the time, except for a hummingbird. I thought it would be fun to capture this little critter on video, and so I got started. As I was filming, one of our cats decided she wanted a piece of the action and rubbed up against the lens of the camera. And in the midst of this comical scene Red's laughter (my daughter) is recorded and we both can be heard talking about the cat. I was hoping to figure out how to edit the recording so I could post it. But I'll have to leave that for another time.

Announcement

Welcome to my blog. Those of you who regularly read my posts will notice that my blog has a new look. The new look has been designed by my daughter, Red (aka Heidi). I hope you like the new look. I think Red should consider being a graphic designer, don't you? But she really loves her job as office administrator at the church where we are members.

Dad's visit

My husband's dad, 91 years young, came to visit us last week. He flew in from Phoenix - a two-hour flight into San Jose. He arrived Saturday, July 21, and just flew home yesterday (Monday, July 30) These two photos were taken at church Sunday. The first one is during coffee time and the second one was just before bible class began.

This past week we visited our nephew and his wife who live just north of Santa Cruz. We visited them Thursday evening for dinner, and then again Sunday for a picnic. These beautiful flowers were sitting on the table welcoming all who arrived. I think I was told they are Star Gazer Lilies.

While visiting, my daughter and I wanted to go walk down to the beach area. This photo is looking back (east) toward the place where my nephew and his wife live, toward Highway 1. This area north of Santa Cruz is protected from development and will always be zoned as agricultural. The land between the highway and the bay/ocean is all farm land. What you see here is a field of brussel sprouts.


When we got to the beach we could see birds flying out around the water. I not only had my camera with, but also brought my binoculars. The wind was blowing pretty hard and it was a challenge to plant myself firmly in the sand and focus out on the water. I knew there were seagulls flying around, but I could also see dark colored birds. I wanted to know what they were. I finally got a decent glimpse and realized they were all brown pelicans. This was the best I could do for a picture.

On our way back from the beach we saw this bumble bee on a thistle. Photo taken by "Red." Here are other photos taken by Red (my daughter) on our way back to the "farm."

Looking back to the bay/ocean - looking north toward Half Moon Bay.

Looking south toward Monterey. You can see the marine layer (aka fog) between Santa Cruz and Monterey.

And here is another shot looking south toward Santa Cruz and Monterey. We were standing on the dirt road between here and the brussel sprouts.

And here is one more shot of Dad enjoying himself during the picnic.

Not wanting to grow up or grow old

T.D. at 6-1/2 months, aka Timothy. My parents were the only folks who called him Timmy. Friends and other relatives called him Tim or Timothy. And his godparents called him Timmer.

Tim was born July 29, 1972 in Colorado. Before he turned two, we moved to California, so Tim does not remember living in Colorado.

Here is Tim celebrating his 5th birthday.

Summer of 1982 - (Tim is 10 years old) - we took a tour of the Hershey plant, located in Oakdale, Calif. And Tim's t-shirt said "Have a Hershey Kiss."

May, 1986 Tim was confirmed by Pastor Bestul. Pastor Bestul is still the pastor of our congregation. He and his family came to our congregation Dec. 1983.

Fall of 1986 Tim started high school. If memory serves me correctly, the only "subjects" Tim liked was extracurricular sports. Before high school Tim always enjoyed playing AYSO soccer and Little League baseball. Once he was in high school he enjoyed being on the JV wrestling team.


While in high school, Tim would always score high grades in aptitude exams, including the SAT. Here is one of those awards. As for Tim's regular classes, he always was disinterested, therefore, he would only do the absolute minimum to barely get a passing grade.

But here is Tim on graduation day, June 14, 1990. The fun part about that day was that I also graduated from DeAnza Community College with our commencements only a couple hours apart. Good thing the high school was only about a mile down the road from DeAnza. We were also fortunate that my husband's parents came out for a visit to attend both commencements. Quite an exciting day for the entire family.
Shortly before graduation, Tim completed all the requirements for earning his Eagle. We then attended the ceremony in August, 1990.

Beginning Fall semester 1990, Tim started classes at West Valley Community College. He found college classes more interesting than high school, but he was never in a hurry to take his life to the next level, namely a four-year university to earn his bachelor's degree. Tim enjoyed attending West Valley and for several years helped students with their math by working part-time in the Tutorial Center, even while he attended the University of California in Santa Cruz. When Tim finally graduated from UCSC, with a double major in math and physics, he decided to pursue his masters degree in math and decided to attend the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. While living in Alaska, Tim taught part-time in a private high school. Before finishing his masters' degree, Tim moved to Barrow, AK, accepting a teaching position for a community college. After a year in Barrow, Tim then moved to Portland, and taught part-time at Portland Community College and Vancouver, WA. He then finally completed all his classes to earn his masters degree in math from UAF.

Here's Tim grading papers on Christmas Day 2004 when he came home for a holiday visit. Tim was teaching a couple of math classes in the Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA areas.

The summer of 2005, Tim was offered a teaching position at a community college in Saranac Lake, New York. Saranac Lake is about 5 or 6 miles from Lake Placid in the Adirondacks. And Tim lived in Bloomingdale, a borough about 5 miles from Saranac Lake.

And then last summer Tim moved back home. After a month or so vacation in Alaska, Tim then had to start looking for work. He didn't get any teaching positions for the fall of 2005, so he found a part-time job working for REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc). He did get an offer to teach a couple math classes for the spring quarter at DeAnza College, and then taught one more math class this summer at Evergreen College. He is now preparing to go back to Alaska for a month's vacation to bike and to fish. He will leave in a few days and then his dad will join him another week later. But first, we are all going to Santa Cruz today for an art festival that my nephew (Tim's cousin) is participating in. So, here's to you, Tim. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!