Christmas Caroling

Photograph taken on Thursday, December 11, 2014 by Henry
Christmas Caroling

Christmas Caroling

We had our third annual Christmas caroling outing this evening. It was cool out, somewhere around 35°F, but the wind which had been blowing earlier in the day had died down, thankfully. I checked my journal and last year it was around 30°F and the year before that in the mid 40s. We had 23 people this year, down three from last year but a few new folks came. Once again, we rode in a trailer behind a pickup truck, fitted out with Timmy on the drums, Amanda at the keyboard, Deb on Bass, and Bret on guitar. We had a good time but I think everyone was ready to get back to the church for hot chocolate and cookies by the time we were done.

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Sashimi

Photograph taken on Wednesday, December 10, 2014 by Henry
Sashimi

Sashimi

Cathy and I went out for dinner this evening and I had an assortment of sashimi, one of my favorite special treats. Cathy didn’t partake, preferring a teriyaki chicken to anything raw. But I enjoyed this immensely.

I think mackerel is my favorite and I could enjoy an entire plate of just that, I suppose, but there is something special about variety. I ate all the ginger, as I love the tang it adds but only had a little of the wasabi. I prefer the taste of the fish, and wasabi has much too powerful a flavor and totally overpowers the more subtle flavors. I’ve never really understood its appeal, unless people actually dislike the taste of the fish and want to mask it.

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Wet Weeds

Photograph taken on Tuesday, December 09, 2014 by Henry
Wet Weeds

Wet Weeds

Merriam-Webster defines a weed as “a plant that is not valued where it is growing and is usually of vigorous growth.” That sounds about right. It’s easier to define what you mean by the word “weed” than it is to decide what qualifies as a weed. Some plants are easy—most of us consider dandelions to be weeds. Crabgrass and nutsedge are another pair that won’t get much argument. What about when it’s something you planted? If it gets out of hand, you might consider it a weed. We have a few things like that and this might qualify. Where we had two trees cut down we have a pretty vigorous growth of black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia), purple vervain (Verbena bonariensis), and Virginia knotweed (a.k.a. painter’s palette, Persicaria virginiana var. filiformis). This picture is of knotweed, and we might need to start treating it as a weed. It is pretty, though, and more so with beads of water on the stems.

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Starbucks

Photograph taken on Monday, December 08, 2014 by Henry
Starbucks Mugs

Starbucks Mugs

I was going to post a different picture today but didn’t think it would be well appreciated. I drove Dorothy up to this Starbucks in Germantown this morning to catch a ride back to Richmond. After they left I thought I’d go up to Black Hill Park for pictures of the dawn. I wish I hadn’t. After I turned around and was coming down Clarksburg Road towards Clopper Road I deer dashed in front of me. Sorry to say the deer didn’t make it. I was going to post a picture of the deer and the car, titled “Oh, Deer” but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Some of you would have simply felt bad for the deer. For me, I don’t want to look at the car.

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Ilex verticillata (Winterberry)

Photograph taken on Sunday, December 07, 2014 by Henry
Ilex verticillata (Winterberry)

Ilex verticillata (Winterberry)

Holly isn’t my favorite genus but there are hollies and then there are hollies. What I most people think of when you mention holly is thick, leathery leaves with spines along the sides and end. To my way of thinking, they are not ideal in a yard, especially if you like to go barefoot. Ilex verticillata, on the other hand, has leaves that do not impale your feet. They also lose their leaves in the winter and make up for it with an abundance of bright red berries. It is aptly named winterberry.

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Grant Stephen

Photograph taken on Saturday, December 06, 2014 by Henry
Grant Stephen

Grant Stephen

We were out and about today and decided to see if we could visit our friends, Keith and Collyn and their one week old bundle of boy (I mean joy). As you will probably have guessed, they said we should come. Not being around newborn babies that often these days, I forgot how small they are. Collyn was good enough to let us hold him for a while. He’s a beautiful little boy and was quiet while we were there. I took more than just a few pictures, as you might imagine but I think this is my favorite, with Keith tickling his tiny feet. Congratulations to the happy parents and their newly enlarged family.

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Sir Harvey of Schmidlapp

Photograph taken on Friday, December 05, 2014 by Henry
Wearing Armor

Wearing Armor

I’m not a big selfie-taker but I thought you might enjoy this. I visited the fourth grade class at WCA today, wearing mail and a knight’s helmet. The fourth grade studies medieval Europe and their teacher and I thought they would enjoy seeing real armor. The chain mail is actually pretty fine and was made for protecting divers from small sharks. It’s close enough for this purpose, though. The helmet, which is quite heavy, is more authentic and is pretty impressive. I don’t think I’d visit a fourth grade class without that sort of protection.

In addition to talking about knights and armor, I showed pictures of castles and told them about many of the design features. Most of the pictures were of English castles, because I know those so much better than those from France or the rest of Europe but there were a few in Germany and Hungary included. I think the kids enjoyed it and learned something. I know I had a good time.

Many thanks to Steve for letting me borrow his armor for this.

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Ridgid

Photograph taken on Thursday, December 04, 2014 by Henry
Pipe Wrench

Pipe Wrench

I was looking around for things to photograph today and happened to notice a pipe wrench that I had been using a little while ago. Also known as a Stillson wrench for Daniel C. Stillson who invented it, it was patented on October 12, 1869 (U.S. patent #95,744). I like the textures in this picture. My title for this post, “Ridgid,” refers to the brand of pipe wrench that this happens to be, manufactured by the Ridge Tool Company, Elyria, Ohio.

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Salami and Cheese

Photograph taken on Wednesday, December 03, 2014 by Henry
Salami and Cheese

Salami and Cheese

We were out until almost 10:00 this evening and I didn’t have time to eat until we got home. We also had friends staying, who got here before we did. I was fairly peckish so I put out some salami and cheese and we enjoyed that while we chatted the rest of the evening away (and a little of the morning). In this picture, we have four cheeses. Clockwise from the left are a wonderful aged gouda, creamy soft butterkase, sharp cheddar with whiskey, and cheddar with caramelized onions. There was also some Gorgonzola, just out of the frame on the right.

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WCA Play Auditions

Photograph taken on Tuesday, December 02, 2014 by Henry
Emily, Becky, Dorothy, Michelle, and Lauren

Emily, Becky, Dorothy, Michelle, and Lauren

Want to do something that will make you gray before your time? Try directing a high school play. It starts early, with the auditions. There is never the perfect cast for a play, especially when you are at a smallish school with fewer actors and potential actors than you need. It’s made worse by the competition with sports, which pulls some of the most promising out of contention. Then, oddly enough, the students have their own ideas about which part they should have, often without regard to whether they really could pull it off. As you can see, Becky (second from the left) is already starting to feel it, and the auditions had only just started. It’s going to be a long time until April.

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Eastern Phoebe

Photograph taken on Monday, December 01, 2014 by Henry
Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe)

Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe)

I had a meeting this morning over in the next building. I took my camera with me and on the way back, wandered into the woods for a little while. There is a small drainage pond that has mostly silted up but, particularly during the wetter times of the year there is standing water there. It was unseasonably warm today, into the low 60s, and there were quite a few birds about. I watched this eastern phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) fly from a branc near the pond and (I assume) catch insects just above the water. He’s fly down, hover briefly, and then return to the branch. Of course, I really need a longer lens, a tripod, and quite a bit more time if I’m going to get really good pictures of birds, but I like this one pretty well.

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Christmas Lights

Photograph taken on Sunday, November 30, 2014 by Henry
Christmas Lights

Christmas Lights

I’m not a big one for Christmas lights, although I can appreciate them. I’m also not a big fan of putting up Christmas decorations early. I know that it’s after Thanksgiving and that makes it officially Christmas season. In fact, today is the first Sunday of Advent, so there really cannot be any objection to decorations. Along MD 124, Church of the Redeemer has lights on their trees, as you can see. I was going to pick up Dorothy at a friend’s and was a little early so I stopped to take a few pictures.

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Nature’s Snow Globe

Photograph taken on Saturday, November 29, 2014 by Henry
Nature's Snow Globe

Nature’s Snow Globe

There was a enameled bowl on the concrete bench in front of our house and it had filled with rain water (and a leaf). Dorothy noticed it this morning and turned it out onto the bench and I took some pictures of it. It doesn’t move like a regular snow-globe, but otherwise, it sort of looks like that, I think. Anyway, pretty without much effort, which is always a treat.

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Celastrus orbiculatus (Oriental Bittersweet)

Photograph taken on Friday, November 28, 2014 by Henry
Celastrus orbiculatus (Oriental Bittersweet)

Celastrus orbiculatus (Oriental Bittersweet)

Cathy and I went for a walk on the Blue Mash trail in Laytonsville. It’s just behind a landfil and is mostly reverting to woods but there are some areas kept open, as well. There is a small pond and around it there were fairly dense stands of oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus), also known as climbing spindleberry. It is a non-native, invasive species and grows much more vigorously than the native C. scandens (American bittersweet). I know we’re not suppose to like invasive species but I find it quite pretty and (probably because I don’t have to do battle with it in our yard) don’t mind it too much.

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Thanksgiving Feast

Photograph taken on Thursday, November 27, 2014 by Henry
The Family At The Groaning Board

The Family At The Groaning Board

We gathered with family for Thanksgiving today. Thanksgiving is more than just a meal, of course, but the meal is certainly a part of the day. We did take a more traditional family picture, with everyone in nice, neat lines, but I thought I’d post this one, showing us ready to being the meal. I won’t bother to list everything we ate, but suffice it to say, there was plenty. We are truly blessed. But more than the food, of course, it was wonderful to be with family.

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Pre-Thanksgiving Snow

Photograph taken on Wednesday, November 26, 2014 by Henry
Pre-Thanksgiving Snow

Pre-Thanksgiving Snow

Well, the forecast was for snow. I thought it was supposed to be overnight but when I got up this morning, it had only been raining. It seemed to be on the edge of freezing as I came in to work. Later in the morning I got an email from my brother George saying there was a dusting on the ground in New Jersey. Albert replied that it looked about the same here. That’s when I turned around and saw the snow for the first time. I guess I was concentrating on what I was doing.

This wasn’t any sort of record in terms of earliest and certainly not the heaviest but it was still rather early and rather heavy for this area. It was coming down quite hard for a while, although it never really stuck to the roads, just to grassy areas and on cars.

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Virginia Aviation Museum

Photograph taken on Tuesday, November 25, 2014 by Henry
1936 Vultee V-1AD Special

1936 Vultee V-1AD Special

I drove to Virginia to pick up Dorothy for Thanksgiving this afternoon. I left a bit early because I knew that traffic was going to be a problem. I also knew that she would not be ready to leave until about 5:30, so I was going to have to find something to occupy my time until she was ready. I decided to stop by the Virginia Aviation Museum at the Richmond International Airport.

My post for Sunday, February 16, 2014 was of an SR-71 Blackbird, on loan to the museum from the U.S. Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. I thought it might be nice to see what else they have and it’s a nice little collection. This plane, a 1936 Vultee V-1AD Special, was custom-built in 1936 for William Randolph Hearst, Sr. and is the only known surviving V-1AD in the world.

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Antipasto

Photograph taken on Monday, November 24, 2014 by Henry
Antipasto

Olives, Chorizo, Tomatoes, and Stilton

When I got home this evening, I knew that Cathy was going to work a bit late. Since I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, I wanted something to tide me over until she got home and we’d have dinner. So, I made myself a plate of antipasti. In this case, it was not a traditional Italian antipasti. There were Kalamata olives (from Grece), chorizo with smoked paprika (from Spain), small tomatoes (which I guess is traditionally Italian, although, of course, they come from South America originally), and a few slices of Stilton (from England). Traditional or not, it was just what I wanted.

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Operation Christmas Child

Photograph taken on Sunday, November 23, 2014 by Henry
Cathy with Operation Christmas Child Boxes

Cathy with Operation Christmas Child Boxes

Operation Christmas Child is one of Cathy’s favorite things of the season. We aren’t terribly good at planning way ahead but in this, she does a pretty good job. She shops at back-to-school time for pencils and crayons. Sometimes as early as January or February she will see something and say, “Operation Christmas Child” as she buys it.

A couple years we loaded boxes into our van from the school, filling the back of the van with the seats removed, delivering them to a local collection point. She is going to an OCC facility this week to volunteer. I can’t say exactly what she will do, because she hasn’t done that before. We’ve helped at a collection point but this will be the next step along the process.

This picture is of Cathy (obviously) with her two boxes for the year, as she dropped them off at Redland Baptist Church.

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Jared and Justin

Photograph taken on Saturday, November 22, 2014 by Henry
Jared and Justin

Jared and Justin

Do you know Jared and Justin? They are sons number three and four of five (and children four and five of six) of Carey and Marilyn. If you have known Carey for any length of time, you have probably seen this look (on Jared, on the left). I knew that Jared looked more like his father than any of his siblings but I didn’t realize until I saw this exactly how much he looked like him, not just in looks but in manner. It’s a bit uncanny.

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