Travel Tuesday: Oxon Hill Farm

 Just across the Potomac River from us in Maryland, and then hidden down a narrow side road, is Oxon Hill Farm. During the War of 1812, the farmers here witnessed the British making their way up the River stopping at Alexandria before retreating. From here they felt Fort Washington being blown up (by the Colonial Army to prevent it's powder reserves from falling in the hands of the British.) After the Civil War the US Government created St Elizabeths Hospital to care for veterans experiencing mental health challenges.  Oxon Hill Farm was part of St Elizabeths for nearly 100 years, proving food and also a peaceful place for patients to tend the farm and heal. It is now run by the National Parks Service. 

Alexandria across the River, we live just to the left of this on top of the next ridge to the south. 

 

Monday Mood: 15 Days A Year

 If you spend an hour a day on something, that adds up to just over 15 days a year (24 hour days.) An offhand remark I heard recently asked, "why do you give Zuckerberg 15 days a year in your head?" 

That is a very good question.  The handful of posts on Facebook from family and friends would probably only take about 3 minutes a day to see, the rest of it is addiction, based on an algorithm designed to keep you scrolling, the more you scroll the more advertising you see, the more money a man who will never have enough earns.  It is a hard addiction to quit, but we can be stronger than the pull. 

What could I spend that hour a day, 15 days a year doing? 

Blogging, and reading blogs takes about an hour a day. I enjoy it, I get to select what content I see.  Posting allows me to exercise my creative abilities. 

I walk an hour a day.  Walking is physical, and mental time. If I am walking outside, I do it in silence, only following the internal conversation. 

I read at least an hour a day. I am on the way to finishing about 80 books this year. Add an hour a day to that, and I would easily go over 100 books a year. 

I enjoy painting, and keep promising to sketch. I should claim that nearly an hour a day, and dedicate it to art. An hour a day would make a real difference. 

I miss old fashioned cards and letters. I send a few, I should send more, I should use some of that hour a day, to write to people. 

I should spend more time listening. 

As we get closer to the end of the year, I start to seriously think about what I want to do in the coming year. Realizing that one hour a day, is 15 days a year, leaves me this Monday reexamining what I spend my hour a day on. 

What hour a day, could you move from what you are doing, to what you would like to do? 

 

The Sunday Five: Out To Lunch

 1: When you are or were working, did you take lunch with you, or go out most of the time? 

2: Where did you eat your lunch when working? 

3: Was there anyone you regularly met for lunch? 

4: Are you more likely to go out to breakfast, lunch, or dinner? 

5: Is there a restaurant that triggers memories for you? 

My Answers: 

1: When you are or were working, did you take lunch with you, or go out most of the time? I almost always went out, often picking up lunch to take back to the office. 

2: Where did you eat your lunch when working? At my desk, a habit formed in my builder days when I really didn't take a lunch break, I was always available. 

3: Was there anyone you regularly met for lunch? Most of the last 15 years I worked, I was friends with an government insider. We would meet for lunch about once a month, and talk about events. He was my mole, I was his outside source. 

4: Are you more likely to go out to breakfast, lunch, or dinner? Lunch by far, I love going out to breakfast, but usually only do that when traveling alone. 

5: Is there a restaurant that triggers memories for you?  East Street Cafe is on the upper level of Union Station in DC, I was surprised to see it was still in business. Oh the conversations that have taken place there.  

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post - 50 States in 52 Weeks - West Virginia

A Shay locomotive, used for logging in the mountains of West Virginia

West Virginia, is Wild and Wonderful, John Denver sang about it. It is west of Virginia, it was part of the original Virginia territory. Is the only state that was once a part of another state (Virginia.) 

When we had the other house, in Lexington, Kentucky we drove through or flew over West Virginia coming and going. 

Coal mining, and hardwood timber are traditional industries.  Most of the state is too mountainous for modern agriculture. And coal mining is a shadow of what it once was.  There is some oil and natural gas production in West Virginia, and strangely as a spin off from that glass production. Natural gas wells that are marginal in commercial production, provide sufficient gas to fuel many glass factories. Blenko in Milton is a favorite stop of ours.  

West Virginia is a very pretty place to visit, a very difficult place to earn a living. 

Foodie Friday: Around the Kitchen

Sweetie Bear posted this image a few days ago, of the bin of kitchen towels, and inspired me to post about a few things from the kitchen. 

When SB moved in, I had a serious paper towel habit (kitchen roll for those on the eastern side of the pond).  I went through 2-3 rolls a week. Somehow, and I think he suggested it, but he is not sure he did, I started using washable kitchen towels. And lots of them. These are "bar mops" simple 16 by 16 terrycloth towels, I buy them by the dozen. When I start cooking I grab two or three of them out of the bin, and use them to wipe down things as I work.  I then toss them in a bin to be washed, dried and reused. We use about 1 roll of paper towel a month these days. These do a better job, and maybe-just-maybe help to save the planet. 

I work clean in the kitchen.  I start by making sure the dishwasher is ready to load when I start.  Cookware and utensils are rinsed and put in the dishwasher as I am done with them.  Work surfaces are wiped down as I go. Items are returned to storage in the refrigerator or pantry as I work.  I have never worked in a professional kitchen, but this is how kitchen staff are trained to work. Work clean. It reduces cross contamination and makes clean-up easier. 

My mother was afraid of knives, and never owned a proper chef's knife until I left one behind in her kitchen one Thanksgiving when she was in her early 80s. I was cooking dinner, and went out and bought a knife to make it easier for me. Like many my mother cooked with paring knives, little short, often dull. She would hold an onion in her hand and cut it up.  As an adult, I read- then later watched videos and learned to use a full size chef's knife. I have four or five of them, and I know how to use them. We try to keep them sharp. A good chef's knife is a universal tool, learning to use one, and being comfortable with it, will transform your cooking in ways that are hard to describe. No one should graduate from high school without demonstrating basic knife skills.   

When we sold the other house, we parted with hundreds of books, maybe thousands of books. We had two homes with books in them, and we were moving it all into the smaller of the two. A lot things had to go. I gave away nearly all of my books, but I kept almost all of my cookbooks. I have over 100 of them.  If I want or need to research something, odds are the reference work is at hand.  Some of them, probably 20% of them, are simply fun reading about food, culture, technique - I enjoy reading them. 

The Thursday Ramble: Thankfulness

 

For my readers in the United States, Happy Thanksgiving. For all of my readers, take a moment today to reflect on all of the things we have to be thankful for. 

We wake up each morning to a fresh day, a new start. 

If you are reading this, you can read, you have internet access, and some kind of an electronic device that science fiction 50 years ago. 

We miss those who are not here with us today, because they were an important part of our lives. Celebrate that they were a part of your life. 

The United States holiday of Thanksgiving has it roots in harvest festivals of the past. Marking the end of the season of hard work, giving thanks for the bounty of the earth, and wishes that the harvest will sustain us until the next season. My ancestors were at the first Thanksgiving festival that English refugees celebrated all those years ago. 

I am thankful for:

Reasonably good health, 

A comfortable home, 

Good food, 

Fresh Water, 

Friends, family, 

For being able to read and learn, 

For an education that changed me as a person, 

For having been able to help others live a better life, 

For my daily walks, 

For all of my blog friends, 

For enough.  I have something Elon Musk has never had, and that is enough. When you find enough, you find inner peace. 

Have a Wonderful and Thankful day! 

My World of Wonders - aka The Wednesday Ws The last one for November in 2025

 

Where have I been this week?  The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to hear the National Symphony Orchestra. The MGM Casino at National Harbor (before you worry, I lost $2 playing video poker and I had a nice walk inside on a cold blustery day.) King Street.  The treadmill in the gym, the pool, an long drive out to Fairfax Virginia in search of art supply stores. Mt Vernon for a long walk in the cold. Fresh Market and Trader Joe's for a little shopping. 

Who have a talked to this week? My sweet bear. The Arts gang. Paul, Giuseppe, Larry, Ruth. 

Who have a traded messages with this week? Spo, Sassy, my sister. Kell who is planning a long delayed trip to Florence. The Arts gang. 

What have I been up to in the Kitchen?  Chilli, Steaks, roast beef, baked bread to make dressing for Thanksgiving.

What is happening in the photo above? The crew is putting a bow on the green package, lifting it in place with electric chain falls from overhead, in the Atrium at the MGM Grand Hotel at National Harbor. There was a crew of 15 people changing out the Atrium display for the winter holidays when I was there the other day. 

What made me go Huh this week?  While out and about, we decided to have lunch at McDonalds, something we rarely do, and I almost always think this is the last time ever.  We waited 25 minutes for our order to be filled.  Will I ever again? 

What is happening? Our old friend Kent is going to be in town for the holiday, and we are meeting for lunch on Saturday. Next Monday is a big arts party, then on Friday we are installing an art show. The party and the show opening being on the same week is driving me nuts. 

 

Travel Tuesday: Into the City

One morning recently I was in a mood for a train ride. I left early, taking the condo shuttle bus to the subway station. 

Two stops on the subway, I got off at King Street Station and walked across to the Alexandria Railway Station.  I bought a ticket on the Virginia Railway Express train into Union Station in Washington DC. This is a commuter train, running on the mainline tracks. A full fare one way ticket was $5. It is only about a ten mile ride. 

I found a seat on the upper level facing the direction of travel. Great views. 

The exit out the front of Union Station, across to the Capitol Building. 

The Folger Shakespeare Library, is behind the main building of the library of congress, I was an hour too early to see the inside (I will go back.) 

A nice new passenger waiting area at Union Station in DC. 

One of my favorite views, crossing the River on Long Bridge from Virginia into DC. The alignment of the Jefferson Memorial and Washington Monument was accidental. 

Monday Mood: Get Away From It All

The quote below was the subject line of a marketing email from the cruise line for next springs grand adventure: 

"Save on Wi-Fi so fast, you’ll forget you’re at sea"

Oh hell NO. The photo above is what you want to be mesmerized by on a cruise. If you are going to spend your days staring at a screen, on your phone, on a tablet, or on a laptop, stay home.  On our Atlantic crossing last April, we did have Wi-Fi, it was included as part of a discount package, and honestly it was terrible.  It was spotty, working one minute and not the next, it was SLOW, and it had built in preferences, Facebook always loaded, blogger often took five minutes to load. I won't do that again.  There will be about ten days next spring when I won't be able to reply to comments. A digital detox - many of us need to do that from time to time (fret not, I will schedule posts so you have something to read each day.) I will get away, by getting away and not dragging my wonderful electronic world along with me every minute. 

Last Thursday evening we attended a National Symphony Orchestra performance.  There was a couple, about ten rows back from the stage, who spent most of the evening staring at their phones. I guess the Orchestra was just background music for whatever was engaging their minds.  Sad really that they found it impossible to escape into the glorious noise for two hours. 

I often miss calls to my smartphone. I leave it on the desk or the bedside table when I am in the other room, or I have the ringer turned off. If it is important, leave a message, and I will call you back. Even better send me an email, I will read and respond when I can. 

My mood this Monday. Ready for a digital detox.  

The Sunday Five: Thankfulness

Thursday of this week is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. A pause, after the harvest season, to give thanks. 

1: Who are you thankful for having in your life this year? 

2: Who have you met this year, that you are thankful for? 

3: What have you left behind this year that makes your life better?

4: What have you learned this year, that makes your life better? 

5: What adventure from this year, will be thankful memories for years to come? 

My Answers: 

1: Who are you thankful for having in your life this year?  My Sweet Bear, my blog friends and readers, the water aerobics gang, the arts committee, and my sister. 

2: Who have you met this year, that you are thankful for? Amy and Linda of the arts committee, they are dears and so helpful. 

3: What have you left behind this year that makes your life better? I drastically cut back on Facebook and reading the news, my life is better for this. 

4: What have you learned this year, that makes your life better? That most artists worry that their work is not good enough, create anyway. We are our harshest critics. 

5: What adventure from this year, will be thankful memories for years to come? Visiting St Andrews in Scotland. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post - 50 States in 52 Weeks - Washington

I have been to Seattle several times for meetings or conferences, the cruise we did to Alaska back in 2008 was from Seattle.  Washington State is the farthest northwest state in the continental United States. 

Back in the summer of 2019 I had a board meeting in Seattle, and then rented a car for a week to drive around the the State of Washington.  We went north from Seattle, and toured the Boeing Factory, the last 747 freighters were working their way down the line.  We went north from there, with a couple of ferry crossings to the waterway that separates the United States from Canada. We took a whale watching boat tour and had incredible pie on a native American reservation. Over a couple of days we worked out way west to the farthest northwest point in the continental United States. Then turned south along the Pacific Coast.  Shortly after crossing into Oregon, we turned Northeast, and visited Mt St. Helens. Drove west from there deeper into the mountains and then back to Seattle to return the rental car, spend a night in a Hilton across the street from the airport and fly home. 

It was an amazing trip. I would do it again anytime.  

Western Washington is rocky, forested, wet and beautiful.  The mountains are amazing, and the plains east of there are fertile. Seattle is home to tech giants, and Boeing. 

When you have a chance, go and explore this beautiful corner of the country. 

Funky Friday: Parking Stories

It must have been a wild night, some Wizzard left their broom behind. 

Back in the 1980's I worked for a home builder that had a landscape maintenance crew, a couple of guys and a truck and trailer full of mowers, leaf blowers and rakes. The lawn guys were often young and colorful. One of them was late one Monday morning, he explained, that he had gone to Nickel beer night at Rosie O'Gradys Church Street Station on Saturday night, woke up on Sunday afternoon in bed with three strangers of various genders. He couldn't remember where he parked his car. Finally about 8:00 AM on Monday morning, the police informed him that his car had been towed from the front lawn of the Federal building downtown Orlando. He had no idea how the car ended up there. Fortunately the police just wanted him to pay the towing charges.  

One of the project managers at AARP, had a son with schizophrenia. He borrowed her car one weekend, had an onset of being unwell and left the car idling at a traffic light in DC, and took the subway home. The police found the car a couple of weeks later, parked under a bridge with a young lady running a "small business" out of the backseat. Practicing the oldest profession as they would say. Her insurance company insisted that if they had the seat cleaned there was nothing wrong with the car. She was creeped out by the car and sent it to auction the next week. 

My exes, first ex, was known to over indulge in alcohol. He once walked away from her car, left it idling with the keys in it, at a traffic light, and went drinking in a nearby bar. He was very angry when he came back a couple of hours later and the car was not there. That was better than the time he hit a boat on the expressway - after one to many beers. 

Sweet Bear and I moved in with one another a year or so before I finished my BA.  He registered my car with campus security so he could drive it to work if needed, or I could drop by to pick him up.  As a result, I had a faculty parking sticker the last year I was a college student. The faculty parking was much closer, but the student lot had nicer cars in it.  

I have led such a quiet life, but I have known a few colorful people. 

Thursday Ramble: My Golden Years?

A comment from a neighbor and post by Doc Spo, have me thinking about the best years of my life.  I am nearing two years since I retired. And I have been thinking about what that means. 

In my mind it is hard to fathom that I am old enough to be retired. I remember my paternal grandfather retiring, he seemed so old (and would die in less than 5 years.) In reality he was about the age I am now. My parents retired early, in their late 50's, then went back to work for a few years and retired a second time in their 60's. They didn't really seem old to me, until their health started to seriously fail in their 80's. But here I am past my middle 60's and no longer working for a living. 

At the pool recently a friend was commenting on his retirement. He worked for a major auto manufacturer for 30+ years, and retired. Was bored and went back to work a few months later. Then they told him he had to work weekends, and he said, "No I don't - I quit", and that was the end of work for him. 

He said that for most Americans our identity is so closely tied to our work, that retirement is a struggle of self identity. How to self identify in retirement is an adjustment that all of us must make.  Almost two years in, and I still struggle with this. I am retired, but then I tend to add what I am retired from, tagging my current identity to my past identity.  I knew this would be a challenge for me, and I will keep working on it. 

We are taught to not talk about money. We are warned as older adults to not tell anyone about money, scammers are always looking for a pot of gold, and family will suck you dry just as fast. 

I have read that the greatest risk of poverty among middle class retirees is an unwillingness to spend the retirement savings that we have spent a lifetime saving. From childhood we are told, taught, to save for the future, no one really talks about what you do with it in the future.  Stock brokers are eager to offer advice that generates commissions for them, and continues to build the size of the portfolio, after all the more you have - the more they can potentially make. 

We have reached the point in life when we are no longer saving for retirement, and yet we find ourselves reluctant to spend against what we have saved. I watched my parents do the same, Dad's investment account was more than twice as much when he died as it was when he retired 30 years earlier. Yes they drew income from it. They lived well, but they should have lived even more comfortably. 

I am struggling with this. Worried that spending $234 on a replacement lens a couple of weeks ago was not absolutely necessary. And our obsession with not talking about money makes this harder. This is still a work in progress. 

What am I most enjoying? Being in charge of my time. I can take a walk, or head to the pool whenever I wish. I can book travel that takes us away from home for a month at a time. Things I couldn't do when I was working. It has taken a couple of years, but I have replaced the social network of work colleagues, with friends and neighbors. I have time to explore my creative interests. I have time to stroll through museums - one of the great joys of living in the DC area is access to world class museums. I can check out a bag of books from my local library, and read all I want (74 books so far this year.) I have time to play in the kitchen, allowing yeast to rise, pickles to ferment, roasts and stews to slow cook for hours. I enjoy it. Cooking is not something I need to do efficiently at the end of a long day of devotion to duty. 

At best, I have maybe 20 more years to do this, if I hit the national average life my life expectancy is closer to 10 years. I will focus not on the years in my life, but the life in my years.  

My World of Wonders - the Wednesday Ws November 19 2025

Where have I been this week? Into DC for a long walk, Mt. Vernon, the Troll Park (it has reopened) down along King Street, the Farmers Market, the Pool, into DC for lunch with Erica, the library for a restock, the Mt Vernon Recreation Center for a tour, the Community Center for an Arts committee meeting, Oxon Hill Farm across the River in Maryland - before becoming a park it was the farm for St. Elizabeths Hospital - the largest mental hospital in the area. The treadmill in the gym, the MGM Casino at National Harbor. 

Who have I talked with this week? Sweetie Bear, Amy, Linda, Warren, Marcell, Erica, Tom, Yadi, and Deirdre. 

Who have I traded messages with this week?  Spo, Sassy, my Sister, Louraine (who is in Paris for the month), Erica, and Omar. 

When is the next adventure? We booked travel for a board meeting in San Antonio in early February. Sweet Bear is going with me.  

What have I been up to in the kitchen?  Beef veggie noodle soup, pork roast, a baked pasta with Italian sausage and lots of cheese, and round steak with roast potatoes, broccoli.   

What am I reading? Page after Page - a book about writing. 

What is on the easel? An abstract nighttime city landscape. 

What am I grateful for this week? That I am not traveling over next week's Thanksgiving holiday.  It is so much more relaxing to just stay home. 

What am I planning for Thanksgiving?  Turkey, stuffing, and a veggie. The fruit cakes are ready, I re-boozed them last week.  

What made me sad this week? News of the passing of Harper hound at Doc Spo's.  She had a good long life and was very loved even by those who never met her. 

Travel Tuesday: A Sunday Afternoon Walk in Old Town Alexandria

The Raven Knows 

My unkind thought was that it was a couple of weeks to late for Halloween 

 

Monday Mood: Still Learning

 Dora over at Having Coffee With Peppy, wrote about reading and writing, and learning the fundamentals of the three Rs (reading, writing, and arithmetic - apparently spelling was not in the basic skills list.) And that got me to thinking about how learning those basic skills, 60+ years ago, has shaped my life. 

I had difficulty learning to read, my brain is one of those that recognizes a word if the first and last letters are in the right place and more or less the correct letters are in between in any random order. Once my I made the leap to reading without being worried about spelling (yes my brain works that way) reading was easy. 

The first winter my family spent in Florida, the Spring Hill community center offered a class in speed reading. My father wanted to take it, and talked me into going along. He struggled with it, I took to it like a duckling to water.  It was short adult education class (I was just a teenager) that changed my life. I still read 30 to 60 pages an hour. 

Spell check was life changing for me. First it highlighted my spelling mistakes. Second by working through the corrections, my spelling has vastly improved over the past 30 years.  Third I write faster than I did when I was checking the spelling in every sentence against a copy of 30,000 words. 

Dr. Dee McGraw (she was amazing) at Rollins taught a seminar in advanced writing. The format of the class was to read a set of source materials, write an essay on based on those materials. Then reread the source materials, and add some new source materials, and rewrite the essay, we did this four of five times over the course of the semester.  That class taught me to research and write. Not by burying myself in endless research before putting pen to paper, but by starting, reading, and editing as an ongoing process.  

Serving on the Journal of Family Law in law school taught me the value of good editors. Good editors make writing clearer, without changing the meaning.  There is only one editor change that to this day I regret not fighting against. 

I still read lots and lots, I still write, I still explore the world, I still practice. There is an old saying that as long as you are green you are growing, as soon as you are ripe you start to rot.  I am still green, still growing, still leaning. 

The Sunday Five: Creative Writing Prompts 2.0

1: Who blocked the doors?

2: Why did they block the doors? 

3: Is this for your safety or the safety of those inside? 

4: What will happen to the building? 

5: When will the doors reopen? 

My answers: 

1: Who blocked the doors? The office manager at Dewey, Cheatem and Howe blocked the doors, 

2: Why did they block the doors? the party was getting out of hand, and word had gotten out on the streets that they were celebrating a major victory that would impose a 50% wealth tax on the 1%, and the place was being mobbed, 

3: Is this for your safety or the safety of those inside? she had to block the doors, the place was dangerously overcrowded, and more people wanted to join the party, endangering those in the space and those who wanted to crowd in, 

4: What will happen to the building? in a day or two the plasters, painters and flooring people will come in and redo the interior, new furniture will be ordered, there is already talk of turning the place into a grotto, a pilgrimage site for the average person, 

5: When will the doors reopen? work will recommence in a few days, when the party dies down, and everyone recognises that there is still work to be done. Much work, many more changes that must be made. 

Please share your answer or answers in the comments, it can be five answers, or a single narrative, be creative, and have fun. 

Oh, the real answer is this office building is being converted to apartments, with million dollar views of the Potomac River. 

The Saturday Morning Post - 50 States and 52 Weeks - Virginia

Virginia is near and dear to my heart, I have lived in the state of Virginia since late 2008. I am not from here, but I have chosen to live here. 

Virginia was critical in the American Revolution, several of the founding fathers of the country lived in Virginia. George Washington, the first President lived about 8 miles south of where I do, he had dinner the Fairfax family a week before he died, in the Fairfax family home, located just in front of the building I live in. 

Virginia stretches from the Atlantic coast to the appalachian mountains in the west.  It boarders Washington DC, and Maryland on the north, at one point it is less than 2 miles from Pennsylvania. To the south is North Carolina. The western border is West Virginia and Kentucky, parts of the original British colony of Virginia.

Virginia has a deep, and at times troubled history. In the todays world, government and defense are major employers. 

There are still parts of the south east and west of the state that I have not explored. Something for us to do. 

I like it here, I chose to live here.