Outdoors
I don't grudge a rainy Saturday if it's mild and quiet. Today was such a day, so after piano lessons I walked up toward Oakland, Schubert Impromptus still banging around in my head. One of my favorite things to see (and photograph) is untamed greenery on brick and stone. Even if its seeming improvisatory growth is meticulously planned (like a Schubert Impromptu), the effect is just as powerful. Secrets, things forgotten, little moments of the sublime, all pulling one further into oneself, inviting contemplation of our relationship to nature. These are the kinds of environments to ponder nineteenth-century philosophy, which I do quite a bit in my line of work. It's nice when now and then such ideas don't seem at all dated or outmoded, but alive and well in the flowers and vines that slowly creep over our walls.
Since I'm at Shenandoah for three weeks in the middle of summer sessions, Katie and the family descended on Winchester for the long weekend. Seeing Germany beat France at the Union Jack was the highlight of Friday.
Saturday was spent driving down the Skyline Drive for a perfect picnic (complete with giant beetle landing on my sister). The view of the Blue Ridge Mountains was beautiful to see, but not ideal to photograph in the high midday sun.
Late Afternoon
in Everyday, Golden Hour, Outdoors
