The Thursday Ramble: I've been there.

Photo From https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122233334282262582&set=pcb.122233334540262582

There is generally a special pleasure in seeing photos of places I have been, and I have traveled a lot in north America and Europe, so it happens often.  There are places we have traveled to, to see things that we have seen and read about on blogs.  Inspired by Angus we spent a few hours in St. Andrews last spring and I am often thrilled to see his photos of places we visited, and wishing he would post a travel guide so we could have found a few places he frequents that we didn't stumble across (there is a great bookstore there - someplace.) 

Glasgow was not on the original agenda for our visit to Scotland last May, it was added when I found a good price on really nice airline seats from there to fly home.  We were so glad we added Glasgow, we really enjoyed the city and the people.  It is post industrial city with amazing architecture. We arrived in Glasgow by train from Edinburgh, the train station is a masterpiece. We were so enchanted by the area around the station, that we walked back there one day to explore. 

I was shocked a week ago on Sunday to see news reports of a tragic fire, the building that was destroyed (see first image) was just beyond the glass roof on this side of the station. The station and the hotel in the station are closed, there is smoke damage and ongoing engineering assessments. It has been determined that the remains of the building that burned are unstable and must be taken down before the front part of the station can be safely reopened. (Platforms on the other end of the station are providing limited train service.)  This was a strange sense, of "oh I have been there" "how terrible."   

My World of Wonders: March 18, 2026

What is happening today? Happy Birthday to Karen, my dear sister. I hope you are 29 again, that would make me 27. 

Where have I been this week? The gym, the pool, Whole Foods, the Farmers Market, Mt Vernon, Old Town for a walk, Harris Teeter (local supermarket.) 

What have I been up to in the kitchen?  Fried Shrimp, coccus, and salad. Pork Tenderloin, and focaccia. Butter fried chicken, cauliflower au gratin, and cornbread. Beef and Guinness pies. 

What made me smile this week? I was in my local independent bookstore on Saturday afternoon, and it was packed with people browsing and buying books. It is nice to see people reading, and especially nice to see them doing business with a local merchant. 

Who have I talked with this week? Ruth, Lynn, Amy, Michelle, my sweet bear, Marcel, Warren, David, Linda, Paul, and Tom. 

What random thought came from a comment this week? I posted last week about Huntley Meadows. Two things notable about the place. It was a military test zone for decades. It was converted to a wildlife preserve about 40 years ago, it is amazing how nature heals. Beavers. For several years there was a shallow pond with trees around the banks. The Beavers were taking the bark off of the trees, so the rangers ringed the trees with fences. The Beavers responded by by removing the dam and draining the shallow pond. 

 

Travel Tuesday: Grandma Moses

A couple of weeks ago I took the subway into the city, to wander a couple of museums.  At the National Portrait Gallery there is a show of the work of Grandma Moses. I was blown away, I have heard of her, but I had no idea what her work looked like.  

 

Monday Moods: A Little Something

Somedays all it takes to make someone's mood better is a little something, a kind word - just the right thing at the right time.  Last week I went out to Huntley Meadows park, for a walk in the woods and boardwalks over the the wetlands.  I was too late for the morning birds, the 500-plus millimeter lens crowd was leaving as I was coming in. Photographers with lenses that cost more than my car. They know when the birding is at it's best.  It was one of the first warm days of spring, the landscape is that shade of wet-brown that happens post hard freeze winter, with only the earliest sprigs of green.  The biggest sign of life was what you can hear, it is frog mating season, look back at last Tuesday's extra blog for a listen. It was a good walk, but nothing special. Nothing that would lift my spirits.    

Near the back, as I was turning the corner to return to my car, I noticed this painted rock, a simple message, left there intentionally to remind random strangers that we are all rockstars in our own way. It made me smile. It reminded me of my painting rocks in 2020, to cheer people up, to encourage them to vote, leaving them carefully placed along the trails here on Mt. Eagle and in Dyke Marsh - my daily walks in the year of covid isolation. I hope that one of those rocks did for someone, what this one did for me, a little something that reminded me every day, is a good day in some way.  

The Sunday Five: Water-Water Everywhere

1: Did you grow up drinking from a garden hose when outside? 

2: Do you leave home without a massive water bottle? 

3: Do you often buy bottled water? 

4: When you were growing up, did your home have a well, or a "city water" supply? 

5: Do you drink enough water each day? 

My answers? 

1: Did you grow up drinking from a garden hose when outside?  Yes, the water from the hose was fresh and cold from the well. 

2: Do you leave home without a massive water bottle? I don't own a water bottle.  

3: Do you often buy bottled water?  Seldom. 

4: When you were growing up, did your home have a well, or where you on a "city water" supply? The house on the farm had a deep well. 

5: Do you drink enough water each day? I think so, I am seldom without a large glass of water nearby. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post: Get Involved, Remain Engaged

Volunteering sounds like making a commitment, to being there, to doing things that have to be done, creating obligations at a time in my life when I want fewer obligations and more time to explore creativity. At the same time, I don't want to spend all of my time in relative isolation. Now I am seldom truly alone, my Sweet Bear is nearly always here, this is a desire for social contact with more than just home. 

There was a story on Public Radio about an epidemic of loneliness. A mass shortage of social interaction. Research shows that social media has made this worse, rather than better.  Especially the big platforms that use algorithms to feed us paid content and advertising, rather than the updates from family and in-person friends. I miss getting the daily posting of what Jackie is having for dinner each day. 

That being said, how do we build social contact? The last three years that I worked, social contact in the office fell apart. We worked remotely for 18 months, and when we returned to the office, only about 10% of the people were there any given day. It was good to see those people, but I missed the random walking around talking with people. Management by Walking Around, someone wrote a book on that back in the 1980s. We did it because it fed our creative thinking.  People unrelated to our division, would be doing something we could model, or have suggestions we could not think of without their help. 

When I retired that contact largely ended.  I stay in touch with the person who took over when I left, we meet for lunch 10 or 12 times a year. I hope that my input helps her with being creative. 

What other options are there? Get involved in your community. Go to gallery openings, artist talks, author talks, book parties, take a class, lead a class. When you go, silence your phone and leave it in your pocket. Go to concerts. I can't remember the last time I heard a high school band concert, or the local Gay Mens Choir (in Orlando so it was before 1995.) There are musicians playing tonight in a church or, a bar, restaurant, nightclub, or civic organization near you. Engaging with creative people, will inspire your creativity. 

Volunteering with our community arts group started innocently enough. I entered a couple of paintings in one of the shows, and on the drop off day, hung around and handed the hammer to Kevin, helping him hang the show. I was invited back to help hang the next show. Then I was asked to help with some organizing, then asked if I would serve as co-chair. This has fed my creativity in unexpected ways, that I will write about later this year. 

The goal is to remain engaged, to regularly see people you don't regularly see. To talk to strangers, to become acquainted, maybe to make some new friends. Doing this pushes back against isolation, and feeds your creativity. Try it. What do you have to lose? 

Freestyle Friday: Flaneur

I walk a lot, an hour of more almost everyday.  Probably half of the time this is walking and going nowhere, plodding on the treadmill, 2.3 miles an hour, with between a 5 and 6 degree incline. I watch YouTube videos on my Ipad to fill the time. It is movement, just to keep moving even if I am going no place. But then most walks finish where I started, this one just covers less ground in between.  

For years I had a Nike running poster framed on my bedroom wall, showing a man running a scenic street in San Francisco. The caption read, "There is a fat man, he was born on your birthday, he is wearing you clothes, and he looks a lot like you, and if you ever stop running he will catch up with you." I shouldn't have parted with that one when we sold the other house. 

Other times I walk because I have someplace to go. Sadly many parts of our neighborhood are not pedestrian friendly. But I can walk to the subway station, or Aldi.  

Other times I flaneur, I walk aimlessly. I walk to walk, to explore whatever I happen to see. The photo above was a recent flaneur along the River in old town Alexandria.  I found a parking spot along Founders Park, and walked, with no plan, no goal, just to move along. I went south along the waterfront, out onto a couple of piers to see what boats where in, then further south finding that they are replacing some of the pavers at Robinson Landing, an area that was finished just a couple of years ago, in the place of the old Washington Post newspaper dock and warehouse. Then a block over the Union Street and back north, wandering through the Torpedo Factory Arts Center, and eventually back to the car. It was a delightful walk, with no aim or goal, a classic French flaneur. 

Tell us about your latest flaneur.