You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.
Nativity crèche 2024 and some other bits and bobs
Melvin has taken the traditional Nativity crèche into his personal charge and stands guard over it well into the night.
There he is, still at it in the morning.
We'll go along and reassure him.
Kristin has been collecting bits of these handcrafted crèches, or presepi, since living in Rome through the 1980s; most of these presepe pieces come from Naples, where the tradition is strong and there is a small mid-town street known as 'Christmas Alley'.
The cult of the presepi began in the 13th century, often attributed to St Francis of Assisi -- it's traditionally put out on 8 December, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and disassembled again on the Epiphany, 8 January.
The crèche normally has figures for the Holy Family and probably any passing magi or shepherds, maybe donkeys, sheep, etc., but the figures can extend way beyond that as well . . .
. . . like to cabbages, fruit baskets, beans . . .
(Krisin's set-up has even got a dinosaur -- not Neapolitan -- back there between the shepherd and the dead fish; because they were alive then, too, weren't they?)
. . . fish, bags of baguettes, baskets of 100 tiny separate eggs . . .
. . . carts, displays, barrels and amphorae. Almost anything.
Some Neapolitan craftsmen who'd come to Syracuse, Sicily, to sell their wares told us (some years ago) that they were selling very little, and that the ancient craft might be on its way out, but . . .
. . . on our recent trip to Naples, we found the artisans' premises bustling, even in October.
Perhaps Melvin is also keeping watch over the Peruvian crèche, or presebe.
These are already assembled, no need to trouble oneself searching everywhere for the sacred little bits and pieces in the shops.
{Everbody needs a hobby.}
Even more Magi
An aerial view of various nativity presentations
New Birds
Kristin has just received some of the works of her favorite bird artist and is mounting them on the wall.
The artist is Karen Bondarchuk, who's been winning awards at the annual Birds in Art exhibition in Wausau, Wisconsin, which is where Kristin first became aware of her art.
Crow and poem
Some of the pieces round the birds collection, like the huge owl's eye, are by the same artist.
Staunton's Christmas Parade
Freezing crowds of high school band members, first responders, church proselytizers, and military academy marching trainees with fake rifles are gathered up N. Augusta St a few hours in advance, on this god-awfully cold night, and . . .
. . . we almost feel guilty not joining them. (Here's a representative Staunton Christmas Parade in December 2019.)
Drones aloft
An extremely gifted artist, June Jordan, lives upstairs here in the Old Y, and the upper corridors display many of her works, but this at the top of the stairs is my favorite.
Lake Sherando
17 December 2024, the cold snap is seriously beginning now.
Two geese that got left behind
Not everyone is capable of conversing with geese.
Nor are there very many people crowding the swimming beach these days.
This is the lake seen from the high point of the 'Cliff Trail'. According to topographic maps, we're only about 60m, or 200 feet, above the lake at this point (I had guessed at 150 or perhaps 200m).
Kristin is taking advantage of our appreciative views of the lake to bolt out into the lead.
Montgomery Hall jungle trails
21 December 2024, it is really cold today, and . . .
. . . we're not very well prepared for this blistering wind.
So we've switched trails from the longer Scout trail to the Yulee loop.
The Yulee trail parallels the Scout trail along here, and . . .
. . . we're passing the 'tepee' that's facing the Scout trail below.
Some interested person or persons, whilst we were gone last month, has added to the solidity of the structure and left a toy baby's buggy and empty plastic water bottle for passersby.
We're hurrying.
And soon returning to the carpark
The Augusta Springs Wetlands 'Upland Trail'
26 December 2024, very chilly but at least it's a sunny day
Lots of water in the ponds, it's been raining a lot in our absence perhaps
Fern Gulley in the Montgomery Hall jungle
27 December 2024; we've started out on the easier Yulee trail.
But it's not as cold today as we'd expected.
Ouch, somebody's lost a foot.
So we're turning down by the 'tepee' to join the Scout trail, which a bit farther along passes by the entrance to the . . .
[Photo from 28 April 2024]
We're darting up the Fern Gulley as we've understood it heretofore, but . . .
. . . we recently noted that someone had begun clearing the gulley farther up the hill above the Expressway trail, and we're going to chance it.
For the most exquisite hiking, this needs to be normalized somewhat, and we're sure that the staff will be looking into that in the spring.
-- Good grief, what now?
(Not another foot!)
And now we're successfully onto the Expressway trail somewhat higher up, and cutting off about 15 minutes of convoluted trail mini-loops all along the hillside.
Next up: Dispatches are awaited
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All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 20 December 2024.
