New Years Day 2023

Every News Day since 1984 I am gobsmacked by the science fiction feel of the new number I need to write or type. We are 39 years past Orwell's dystopian vision and even 22 years past terror of Kubricks soft-spoken HAL.

The year started with a missed field goal in the Peach Bowl. Georgia's football team is far from my favorite team, but when it gets down to a team from our state against one from Ohio, well I gotta cheer for the home folks. I doubt if I slept till two or later.

If the choir had sung at today's service, I'm not sure I would have made it in time. As it was, we could slip in just before eleven and no one knows how recently we were abed. I'm glad we made it. It was a beautiful service of new beginnings. The congregation, as one might expect, was small, and there were no musicians except our pastor (who has a beautiful voice). She led us in singing the first hymn a cappella, interspersing each verse with her quiet prayer. Her elegant pastoral prayer included a beautiful poem. I consulted Mr. Google when I got home and found the poem attributed to in one place to Michael Dougherty and in another to Howard Thurman:

When the carols have been stilled, 
When the star-topped tree is taken down, 
When family and friends are gone home, 
When we are back to our schedules 
THE WORK OF CHRISTMAS BEGINS 
To welcome the refugee, 
To heal a broken planet, 
To feed the hungry, 
To build bridges of trust, not walls of fear, 
To share our gifts, 
To seek justice and peace for all people, 
To bring Christ’s light to the world.

Her sermon is one that I wish more could have heard.

After church we drove through McDonald's for our first meal of the day, Egg McMuffins, and ate them as we drove toward the Lock and Dam Park for the annual First Day Hike. The McMuffins made us late so we had our own own walk along the river to the upstream nature preserve. It was a beautiful day and as always I enjoyed this winter hike --- despite the lack of wildflowers and greenery --- for the clear view of the lay of the land.

We started the path behind campsite 9.

The trail follows the river upstream.

I remember this huge multiple trunked Tulip Poplar from previous walks here. Alas it is much smaller since two of its trunks have fallen.

The trail ends at this wetland.

A observation shelter at the wetland.

Despite the recent wet weather the mass of Resurrection Fern on this tree is already mostly brown.

Not a lot left of the dam.

The mighty Coosa below the dam flows on toward Alabama.

I was pleased that the fencing around the lock is pretty sturdy. I think we could safely bring the grandgirls here next time they come.

At home again it was time soon for the annual New Year meal of Hopping John and such. It was absolutely delicious!

Left: Hopping John (black-eyed peas, tomatoes, rice, turkey sausage) with a splash of hot sauce and a dollop of plain greek yogurt. Right: A couple of cornbread sticks (made in cast iron inherited from my Mother) and some mixed stir fried veggies. The greens and the black-eyed peas are required for good fortune in the coming year. 

Now we are off one one more walk before the sun goes down. 

The skyline of our downtown from beneath the Turner-McCall bridge.

Another skyline from the levee.

Another skyline from the levee.

The Oostanaula in sunset from the Fifth Avenue
 bridge.

The Oostanaula in sunset from the Fifth Avenue bridge.

The City Clock through the branches of a tree at the old courthouse.

Two great Rome landmarks: the City Clock and Schroeder's New Deli.

I this was the first season for the green and red decorations... the one in blue has been around only a little longer.

A window at Schroeders.

Gleaning Facebook: Lock & Dam Park, Dusted

From the Coosa River Basin Initiative Facebook: 

 

Walking with the BotSoccers

Saturday I joined a Georgia Botanical Society field trip at the half-way point. I missed the morning trip to the Nature Conservancy's Black Bluff Preserve where the 40 or so BotSoccers examined that beautiful north slope biome for early spring wildflowers. The Dutchman's Breeches were exuberant. I stopped by for this shot on my way home.

Update, April 6: Richard Ware sent the plant identifications that label the pictures below. Thanks, Richard!

Dutchman's Breeches - Dicentra cucullaria



Wild Blue Phlox - Phlox divaricata

When I caught up with the group they were gathering under the big shelter at the Lock and Dam Park south of Rome, breaking out the coolers, and having lunch -- interrupted occasionally by a question from someone wandering the surrounding lawn and asking about some diminutive plant huddled under and between the grasses.

It took a little determination to pull the curious group from the lawn toward the trail. Along the way they stopped to identify stubborn little green things grasping for soil and water in crevices of the parking lot or ...

Sadie Price's violet - Viola priceana

The first part of the walk was through some large trees such as Shumard oaks, Tulip trees, Mockernut hickories...

Mockernut Hickory - Carya tomentosa


...between lumps of crushed stone on the graveled path.

and maples. This old tree had fallen...

and provided welcome fresh bark to the beavers

Toadshade Trillium - Trillium cuneatum

We climbed past the ancient gravel pit and the metal overlook. I got to talk with Charles Seabrook...

... the South Carolina low country native who has been the Atlanta Constitution's nature writer for a decade or more. Interesting fellow. He talked of having telephone operators asking his nationality when he dropped a dime in a pay phone as a homesick underclassman at the University of South Carolina to try to call his home on a coastal island.

I don't remember what Richard called this fellow...

Hoary Puccoon - Lithospermum canescens

... but it caused a bit of a stir in the group of botany enthusiasts. But then anything green with the possible exception of Sprite cans and privet hedge interested them.

One BotSoccer would declare his opinion of a questionable plant on the hillside while another would politely demur. "Nowadays most folks consider that a variety of such and such." "Not me, I think it should be considered a separate species...." Etc.

Richard Ware, my good friend and the leader for this excursion points out the beautifully blooming serviceberry overhanging the river ...

Downy Serviceberry - Amelanchier arborea
Cutleaf Toothworth - Dentaria laciniata
Violet Wood Sorrel - Oxalis violacea

Downy Serviceberry - Amelanchier arborea

... the sweetshrub, the mayapples, and dozens of others. His friend Max wanders away from the group often and calls out occasionally about an interesting find -- sometime a possibly new find for Floyd County, or even the state.

As we crossed a more open area of grasses and briars I caught this pair of Eastern Blues mating.

The north-facing rock-outcropping beyond the primitive camping area is the prize location. My effort at capturing an image of an early and tiny orchid in full bloom failed. But the bloodroot, toothwort...

Cutleaf Toothworth - Dentaria laciniata

and sorrell...

Violet Wood Sorrel - Oxalis violacea

cooperated better.

It was a great walk. I'll update this post with scientific names when I can get Richard or Teresa to help me...hint, hint. (4/6/08 -- Got 'em. Thanks, Richard!)

Today (Sunday) is the trip back to Pigeon Mountain. How I wish I could go. My photos from that wildflower walk last year may be my most popular post of all time. Next weekend many of my family will be together for Don's memorial service. Maybe I can talk a few of them into an excursion to LaFayette to see the bluebells and trillium and trout lilies.

*******

By the Way: Don't forget to get your submissions in to Learning In The Great Outoors, the carnival of environmental education, hosted for April by Barb at The Heart of Harmony. You can use this handy submission form.

At peace while the nation mourns...

I spent a blissful day walking around the Lock and Dam Park nature trails today. Taking pictures, contemplating the beauty of a river, the calm of a wetland, the graceful flight of a pair of hawks, the delicate tracery of phacelia clinging to a stone outcropping, the clean, shiny red of new poison ivy leaves, the delicate waxy white flower of the May Apple drooping beneath twin umbrella-leaves, the craft in the park walkways and bridges, the majesty of a gigantic tulip poplar and a huge four-trunked red oak. When I tore myself away and arrived home, I downloaded the pictures:

...then I absently switched on the TV.

Back to the cruel world of mankind.

Why must unhappy folk compel others to share their misery?