Perhaps at their peak today. Blooms open about the same time as forsythia but they don’t last nearly as long. Rain, wind, or frost often decimate them overnight. For years we’ve called them northern magnolia (to distinguish from the more popular evergreen southern magnolia), but their correct name is probably saucer magnolia. They were 1993 gifts from David and Wena.
Ours are mostly quite small trees, overlooked and perhaps stunted by a preponderance of many tall oaks. But they stand out in the winter and early spring by holding onto most of last year’s now very light brown leaves.
Home to 50 years of Christmas Messiah concerts on Princess Anne Street, Fredericksburg, Virginia. And, from further away, the other side of the spire as seen from Chatham Manor across the Rappahannock River in Stafford County.
Hartwood Precinct ready to open at 6am, 3/3/2020: Robert Bady, Debbie Bittinger, Bob Jankovits, Judy Feather, Heather Smithson, Amy Gardner, Margery Schafer, Edwin Ridout. By closing time at 7pm, we’d checked in 898 of our 5,199 registered voters and by 7:15pm reported these results: Joe Biden 487, Bernie Sanders 195, Michael Bloomberg 111, Elizabeth Warren 69, and 34 votes divided among the remaining 10 names on the ballot.
Can’t believe I initially labelled this a bluebird. That must have been wishful thinking. We had seen a couple of bluebirds at this birdbath recently, and robins we usually only see briefly in a flock on the front lawn.
The start of the DHRT Half-Marathon has a few hundred yards of rails, a restored ancient wooden caboose, a decrepit freight car, and “The Rocket”, a working railway pumper cart. Race volunteers use it as a moving platform for photographing the runners approaching the finish. See this moving illustration. Among the Fredericksburg Area Runners Club members who finished the race this day was Vic Culp, longtime director, in black hat at back.
