Opheodrys aestivus

Acceptable serpent, also known as bush snake, grass snake, green summer snake, green tree snake, green whip snake, huckleberry snake, keel-scaled green snake, magnolia snake, vine snake, not a green mamba. This snake died crossing the road near Ottoman, Virginia.

Anyone interested in the education, conservation, and research of Virginia's native amphibians and reptiles? Visit the Virginia Herpetological Society website immediately. Best snake photos I've ever seen...

pedestrian facilities

There are those who argue that the age of motoring is drawing to a close. Alas, not soon enough for this rodent. Pedestrians must tread carefully in a world designed for cars.

The City of Charlottesville is in search of candidates for appointment to the Planning Commission. Applications are due close of business today.
To apply, click here.

broken serpent

Maryland

Marmota monax

Five digits on that hindfoot, ground-hog, wood chuck, whistle pig, agonistic sciurid didn't use the cross-walk. National bike week has ended. Daily near death encounters with cars for all concerned.

Sciurus carolinensis

May 12-18 is bike week. For an exciting ride, cycle Route 250 from Park Street to the proposed YMCA location. Helmets a must.

Highgate Cemetery

Job 38:17-19

Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?
Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if thou knowest it all.
Where is the way where light dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof.-- God

Highgate Cemetery

"George Eliot doesn't have any birds either, and look, her tomb is sinking.
That's because they buried her with all her books." I said.
"How do you know her tomb is sinking if you can't see?" asks a girl.
"Because I read the books," I said.
You could hear a day laborer spading up wet earth beside a fallen stone.--Stephen Kuusisto

postmortem 2

Now launch the small ship, now as the body dies and life departs, launch out, the fragile soul
in the fragile ship of courage, the ark of faith with its store of food and little cooking pans
and change of clothes, upon the flood's black waste.-D.H. Lawrence

redemption song

dictionary

monkˇish -adj.
1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of monks or monasticism.
2. Inclined to self-denial; ascetic.
3. Anyone who lives in NYC on an income less than ?

Riverview

The Washington Sub is the middle leg of the old C&O main line through Charlottesville. Most through traffic has been re-routed on the James River line, except for westbound empty trains. This route once hosted the Washington and Richmond/Norfolk sections of the C&O's name trains, such as the FFV, the George Washington and the Sportsman. In addition to these passenger trains, the line hosted through manifest freight service to Washington via the Southern Railway via rights that the C&O purchased in 1890. These trackage rights have lapsed. In 1890 the C&O also leased the old Orange and Alexandria line between Gordonsville and Orange, after the Southern constructed its own line between Orange and Charlottesville.

--Trainweb

Didelphis virginiana

'Possums gestate in thirteen days.

Kill Devil Hills

If the prouerbe be true,?that a fishe beginneth first to smell at the head,?the faultes of our seruantes will be layed vppon vs.
[1581 G. Pettie tr. S. Guazzo's Civil Conversation iii. 51]

vulpes vulpes

inˇatˇtenˇtion Lack of attention, notice, or regard.
Attention required on the line.

bright red thing

Her parents gave her a carving knife, imagining wood block prints and whittled figurines as products of the blade.
She found a dead bird and with her friends set out to determine "cause of death."
They split the bird down its breast, separated organs, checked stomach contents.
In the bird they found a bright red thing. Too bright, too red, they showed it saying-
this is why the bird is dead.

good snake bad snake

Been working with the visual take from my weekend trip. The digital images (90) were completed on the days they were taken. The film images (40) are still in process.

Black cabinet tomorrow.

Work product is affected by tools. What is the digital effect? What is the film effect?

backroads

Emma and I biked 46 miles, ditches running with water from tropical storm Cindy. Thinking about running a bed and breakfast. How would the English cycling tourists get here? There is no public transportation to Slabtown.

Memo to self: find a copy writer capable of making vultures snacking on deer entrails sound romantic.