Tagged With: Water

Potomac River from Turkey Run Park

Photograph taken on Sunday, December 20, 2020 by Henry
Potomac River from Turkey Run Park

Potomac River from Turkey Run Park

As I think I’ve mentioned, we’ve been looking for new trails to walk on lately. What with working from home and not being able to go to church or to visit friends much, we really like getting outdoors. Turkey Run Park, on the George Washington Parkway in northern Virginia is one that I’ve seen signs for over the years but we’ve never actually been there. The walk was about 2 miles in total but felt like more than that. Parts of the trail were a bit muddy and slick and there were a few places where we had to scramble over rocks (scramble may be too strong a term, but you had to watch what you were doing, anyway). There were two places where we had to cross a stream on rocks. And coming from the river back up to the Turkey Run Park parking areas was quite a climb. There are wooden stairs where we made that ascent, which helped quite a bit, but it’s fairly steep. Anyway, we had a nice time being out and seeing the river.

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Rain

Photograph taken on Friday, January 01, 2021 by Henry
Rain

Rain

It was a rainy day today, a quiet way to usher in the new year. In spite of the rain, though, we wanted to get outdoors. We went to a small park owned by the Isaak Walton League and walked around their pond and into the woods for a while. There were hooded mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus) on the pond and I got a few photos of them, good enough to identify them conclusively but not really that great. One of these days I’ll get a long lens but today is not that day. We also saw a hawk of some kind, which flew away from us in the woods. We’ll probably come back here in the spring or at least when it isn’t raining.

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Burke Lake

Photograph taken on Saturday, January 09, 2021 by Henry
Burke Lake

Burke Lake

We met our good friend Jean at Burke Lake this afternoon. We’ve never been there before but it was quite nice. There were a lot of folks there but we walked along the shore on a trail that was less used and it was very nice. The wind coming across the lake was fairly cool but the sun was shining and there were birds and it was lovely. Of course the main thing was seeing Jean, and that would have been nice anywhere, but it’s always better to be outdoors, if you can (unless the weather is really nasty, and then it’s great to be somewhere cozy, instead).

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Patuxent River

Photograph taken on Saturday, January 30, 2021 by Henry
Patuxent River

Patuxent River

We went up county today and to the border with Howard County. This photo is of reflections in the Patuxent River, which here is the boundary between Montgomery and Howard Counties (taken from the Montgomery County side). We were on Annapolis Rock Road and stopped where it crosses the Patuxent. A little further along we found the parking area for Annapolis Rocks, which we’ll return to at some point. It’s a really pretty area and one we’ve never been to before.

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Seneca Bluffs

Photograph taken on Sunday, April 18, 2021 by Henry
Seneca Bluffs

Seneca Bluffs

As mentioned in today’s earlier photo, we walked on the east side of Seneca Creek today, on the Seneca Greenway Trail from Seneca Road to a little ways past Berryville Road. Actually, we went off the main trail shortly after Berryville Road and walked along a smaller trail just beside the creek. That’s where the photo of Rob, Susie, and Cathy was taken and also where this photo of the Seneca Bluffs was taken. There is what appears to be a wier or the remains of a small dam across the creek a little below where this shot was taken. You can see the Canadian hemlocks on the bluff, which doesn’t look nearly as high as it did from the top.

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Ice Runes

Photograph taken on Friday, December 24, 2021 by Henry
Ice Runes

Ice Runes

Although it’s winter and in spite of the fact that there is ice on this sheltered spot on the creek, it was in the 60s today. Very mild and a great day for a walk in the woods. I love these ice crystals. I’m reading a book of essays written by (actually, talks given by) J. R. R. Tolkien. They are to a large extent, about language and if you know anything about him you won’t be surprised that they dealt a fair amount with Old English (a.k.a. Anglo-Saxon). These ice crystals made me think about ancient runes and that may be in part because of the book. I really don’t know.

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Water Main Repairs

Photograph taken on Wednesday, July 05, 2023 by Henry
Water Main Repairs

Water Main Repairs

Dorothy mentioned, when we were in Alaska, that there was a small amount of water coming out the joint where our driveway meets the road. I asked her to call the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) to let them know. When we got home nothing had been done and the water was still flowing, although it wasn’t a huge flow.

This morning the workmen showed up and dug up the road, trying to find the break. They started on our side, since that’s where the water was reaching the surface. They found the pipe that left the main and supplies water to our house but the leak wasn’t in that part of the pipe. So, they repeated to digging on the other side, being careful of the gas pipe running down the middle of the street.

They eventually found the leak almost directly under the gas line between the two holes. They replaced that length of pipe and filled in both holes. Another crew should come to out down proper pavement but we have water again now. All is well.

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Croyden Creek

Photograph taken on Saturday, October 12, 2024 by Henry
Croyden Creek

Croyden Creek

We went for a walk on Croyden Creek today. It isn’t necessarily the prettiest time of the year, but it’s great to be outdoors. We’ve had a dry summer and had a particularly dry September, when we normally get a good bit of rain, so the creek is quite low and there’s a fair amount of brown everywhere. Of course by the second week of October, things are starting to turn brown most years, but this year more than usual, I think. Still, there’s a fair amount of green on the trees. We didn’t see any birds or other wildlife, but mostly it’s about being in the woods.

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Great Falls, Virginia

Photograph taken on Saturday, March 01, 2025 by Henry
Great Falls, Virginia

Great Falls, Virginia

A week ago we had temperatures under 20°F but today it was a lovely day and we really wanted to get out. We decided to go to Great Falls on the Virginia side of the river (not that the falls are in Virginia, but we were). After stopping at the three overlooks (at one of which this photo was taken) we walked on the River Trail as far as Sandy Landing, returning to the visitor center by another route. There were quite a few people out and everyone was enjoying the spring-like day. At one point we heard a noise we couldn’t identify, it turned out to be frogs, chirping or croaking in chorus.

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