Wildflowers on my walk

Like many old guys, I'm walking daily for health and enjoying it even though I have to get out early on these hot days.  Every day I pass by wildflowers alongside a wooded area of the park.

Because the exercise requires that the walk is nonstop, I don't bring a camera.  A few days ago, however, I came back with one.

And, of course, when the lilies in the pond flower, they always attract my attention.

Overnight to Bethany Beach

Tuesday we drove down for a couple of days to take advantage of the perfect weather.  Pam took this picture the evening of the first day.

Past Potomac high water

 At the top edge of this picture is most of a plastic lawn chair that apparently came down river in a flood until it stuck in the branches.  The chair is about 20 feet above the current level of the river, and the tree is on Nolands Island upriver from the Nolands Ferry boat ramp. 

Yesterday's level was 1.80 at Point of Rocks and 3.21 at Little Falls.  I was there to fish and landed three smallmouth bass and one bream and hooked and lost three other bass.  Losing fish is common when fishing for smallmouths, but in recent years I've lost very few so I believe the law of averages caught up with me.  All of the bass but one were hooked on a chartreuse bullet head darter that I ordered from Joe Bruce of Westminster, Maryland.

June Fishing

Fishing at the pond has been very slow.  The only good outing was an evening a week or two ago when I caught two good crappie and a largemouth all within a half an hour or so.  It's probably key that it was an evening rather than an afternoon.  On the afternoon trips this month (2 or 3) the only catch was a small bass one day when I felt like fishing the 7 foot fiberglass rod that I haven't used in about 20 years.  In May I wrote that bluegills were pretty much a sure thing at the shallow end, but that certainly is no longer the case.

I did another trip this month based on wanting to use a particular rod.  That one was to Thomas Point Park because it is a close place to fish the salt with my 9 weight rod.  Didn't catch anything, but it's a nice place that I intend to return to.

Yesterday I set out to fish Antietam Creek near the Civil War battlefield, but it was high and off-color from a recent rain.  Instead I continued to the Potomac at Shepherdstown, West Virginia which was running pretty clear.  I didn't want to wade very far, but I did manage a nice smallmouth and a bluegill within a short time.

The June fishing trip to the Gunpowder is described on June 7th below.

Gormania, West Virginia

Spent a couple of days visiting.  Above is Pam, her sister Kathy, and Kathy's husband Bernie in front of Kathy and Bernie's home which is the house that Pam and Kathy's mother grew up in.





Their clematis plant was so handsome I wanted a picture highlighting it.












Gormania is very near the headwaters of the Potomac River, and the river flows a few feet in front of the house.

The House and Yard: Early Summer

 

Masemore Mill on the Gunpowder River

The agricultural mill was built in 1793 and is now a private residence.

Yesterday I fished the Gunpowder for the first time in a couple of years.  Although I got only one fish, I felt satisfied because the last visit or two I caught nothing.  The river is a nationally known trout stream, and being located near a highly populated area it gets heavily fished.  The trout have become very wary and hard to fool, so any fish caught is cause for pride.  The one I got fell to an old fashioned wet fly.  He was a brown trout of  only about 10 inches, but he fought hard on the  four weight fly rod.

I was concerned when I arrived in the parking lot in the late morning because it was filled with cars and was relieved to realize they didn't belong to fishermen.  There was a gathering of Maryland state troopers and men and women in business attire.  As I suited up in my waders, I listened to them planning an upcoming event that would be attended by the Governor and also heard mention of the name of the famous fisherman Marylander Lefty Kreh.  I checked into this later and discovered that a trail  along the river was to be named for Lefty and that next week there will be a dedication ceremony.

A Lesson Before Dying

Early in this Ernest Gaines novel the reader learns that a young black man in Louisiana in the late 1940's has been convicted of a murder he did not commit.  Racial injustice is not the primary story, however, because I believe a white man caught in the same circumstances and using the same disastrous judgment may have also been found guilty.  A white man would not have been compared to an animal during the trial, though.  Ironically, it was the defendant's own attorney who in an effort to save him from execution says there would be no more justice in killing him than killing a hog.

It is this comparison which moves the story forward as another young black man, Grant, is pressured into regular visits to the condemned man to convince him to face death as a man despite what has been said about him.  Grant is a contrast to the jailed man;  he is intelligent, educated, and attractive to the women of the black community.  He is also somewhat confused and indecisive about his own life and feels restricted by the limited opportunity of his economically depressed racist surroundings.  He often thinks of leaving with his married but separated pretty girl friend, but stays and continues his job teaching school which he finds unsatisfying.  As he gradually effects change in the prisoner, he also changes.

My complaint against some novels set in the segregationist South is that the characters are simplistic;  all the blacks are good and all whites bad.  Although Gaines writes using simple words and sentences, his characters are not at all simple.  The black characters are a mix of flaws and good intentions, and most of the whites are not so much evil as unquestioning of the society they were born into and its privileges to them and the injustices to others.  This is the way most people are in my experience.

A Lesson Before Dying is often taught in schools alongside the classic To Kill a Mockingbird.  The novels take place in similar Deep South locales, at times not far apart, and with an inter-racial crime crucial to the plot, but the stories are much different.  I very much admire them both.

More May fishing

Four or five trips, all to the pond except Friday, May 11 to the Patapsco where I caught my first smallmouth of the season.  Other than that, it's been all bream.  Been using sponge spiders the past two days.  I'm catching on every trip because on the shallow end of the pond it's pretty much a sure thing this time of year.

Daughter Rebecca receives Masters

Tuesday at the New York University's Institute of Fine Arts.

Short but pleasant trip to the Apple.  Good dinner Monday night in Brooklyn and lunch Tuesday on the Upper East Side.

Father looking all of 65 years and daughter a lively 28 years.

May Fishing, so far

Have been out four times and caught fish on each trip.  Two were short trips to the park pond, and I caught only a few bluegills.  Best day was yesterday at the pond when I caught two rainbow trout, one largemouth, and 6-8 bluegills all on an olive marabou streamer. 

Only other notable trip was last Wednesday, May 2.  That afternoon I walked over to fish the pond  and realized that it was in the process of receiving another stocking. As I watched, I began a conversation with the guy who appeared to be heading the crew, and he told me at their previous stop they had put in a couple of 10 pounders.

Now, how many times in my life am I going to have a shot a 10 pound rainbow trout? And at a 10 minute drive from my house? As I drove my brain starting working: Should I have exchanged the five weight fly rod for something heavier? Should I go back and get a net? Was the guy who told me the story having a good laugh with the rest of the crew about my gullibility? What the hell, I'll press on.

Northwest Branch goes under Route 29 at the fall line, and the stream descends very rapidly through a series of falls and rapids. It's an amazing sight for just outside the Beltway, and between the fast water there's some fairly deep pools. There were a couple of fishermen there including a guy my age with hip boots and a spinning rod who I thought I had seen at the park pond as it was being stocked.

Yeah, I saw some stocked trout swimming around in confusion, but none looked anywhere near 10 pounds. I fished for a couple of hours and didn't catch any of them. Oh yes, I did catch an 8 inch bluegill. Not for a second did I think I'd hooked a monster trout.

Greg in Performance

My son Greg has played in a heavy/thrash metal band for a number of years.

 He's played with other bands and went on a three month tour with one, but Burning Shadows is always his main group.  Greg writes almost all the music, plays lead guitar, and does some of the vocals.






I chose these two images from the band's website.  I don't know who took the pictures.

Maryland Day

An annual family oriented event at the university.









Watched half of a lacrosse game:

Flags from many nations.  I'm not certain of the significance.

Beekeeping demonstrations...

 Cooking demos...











As always at these events, there was a wide variety of food.  I chose crab cakes which were very tasty, but the grilled food sure smelled good.

 
It's much less of a cow college than when I was an undergrad, but the College of Agriculture remains a place of interest.

Upper Patuxent Catch and Release Section

Hadn't fished the stretch of water down from the Hipsley Mill Road crossing in a number of years, so I drove up there yesterday afternoon.  Although I don't normally think of the Pax as pretty in comparison with most trout streams, it looked so nice and the day was so pleasant that I didn't feel all that disappointed that after two hours I caught only two fall fish and no trout. 

After a bite of lunch, I spent the last half hour walking back upstream towards the parking lot.  When I came to a deep slow moving run that looked very promising earlier, I decided to give it another try and was rewarded with what might be the best trout of the year so far.  The rainbow fought hard, and my estimate of him was about 14 inches when I got him into the net.  Used the same olive marabou streamer all day.

With George and Margaret at Bethany Beach

As always, we had a fun overnight with great food and conversation.  That's them above with some anonymous passer-by in the frame behind Margaret.

Foundations of Architecture

In the last few weeks of this class, we've been focusing on creating hypothetical changes for the Journalism building, one of the newer structures on campus.




My changes evolved into a greenhouse with an entrance from the atrium under the stairs. There would be brick walls leading into the greenhouse which would have a matching brick wall. Each wall would also serve as a planter for small shrubs.

The past 10 days fishing

Three trips total, two to the pond in the park and one to the Izaak Walton League Lake. Last week caught a largemouth bass on a short trip to the park, and some bluegills at the Izaak Walton League. Yesterday stayed at the park pond longer a got a couple of crappie, some bluegills, a largemouth, and a rainbow trout. Everything caught on marabou streamers, black last week and yesterday chartreuse was the most effective color.

University small band jazz

Having seen the big bands last month, last night Stan the Man and I went to the chamber jazz concert. Since it's still Passover, Stan and I had a kosher dinner at Hillel, the university's Jewish center. I don't often have kosher meals but I like the food, and it's healthier than I would have gotten at the barbeque place we often go to before a basketball game or a concert as Pam pointed out.


The first group was a sextet and this, the second group, had the same instrumentation but added a trumpeter as the seventh musician.

April walk in the park

Yesterday.










Pam has researched these yellow wildflowers, but I forget the name.

Another mixed bag from the pond

Largemouth bass, two crappie, and a bluegill, all on the same black marabou streamer. Fished for less than an hour today and about an hour and a half Sunday. Threw them back because Pam already had steak planned for dinner.

Mixed bag from the pond

Two crappie, one rainbow trout and a bluegill all caught on black bead head marabou streamer.





I stopped in mid-cleaning to take another picture because I decided a close-up of the stringer and the two yet to be cleaned fish was needed. The fly is visible attached to the reel.

The House and Yard, Early Spring

Shad Run

The annual spawning run of this salt water fish up into the rivers is early this year, so yesterday I rented a boat from Fletcher's and fished from about 11:30 to 3:30. At any given time there were about 6- 8 other boats of various types out, but the fishing was generally slow. Nevertheless, I did manage six hickory shad, all caught within about a twenty minute window on either side of 2:00 pm. I fished with both spinning and fly gear, but most of the action came while I had the spinning rod in my hand.

I believe that shad migrate in waves, and another wave may have been beginning as I was leaving because soon after I hooked and immediately lost one I saw two other anglers hook up as I was breaking down my tackle.

The picture above is looking upriver towards Key Bridge, and the shoreline to the right is about where I took the picture below last weekend. I love those old wooden row boats that Fletcher's rents and included the bow in the image. Water level was 3.9 at Little Falls.

The woods along the Potomac

Up from Fletcher's Boathouse:

Not what most people picture when Washington, DC is mentioned.





Pam says the yellow flower carpeting the woods is lesser celandine:

Back to the Little Patuxent

Got three rainbow trout today, more or less the same size as Wednesday.




The hike-in trail is well above the stream and switchbacks down to it.




The first two trout also came on the olive marabou streamer I used two days ago, as did a six inch fallfish. This time, however, when I found a fish rising to surface flies I nailed it with this dry stonefly pattern I probably tied a couple of years ago.

Phenology

phe·nol·o·gy (f-nl-j)
n.
1. The scientific study of periodic biological phenomena, such as flowering, breeding, and migration, in relation to climatic conditions.
2. The relationship between a periodic biological phenomenon and climatic conditions.
Although I don't know much about it, this subject often comes to mind this time of year. I'm probably thinking about phenology more this year because the weather's been unusually mild, and I wonder to the extent that normal spring patterns will occur earlier. This year we have noted the early blooming of the daffodils, and to me the woods look more characteristic of April than March.

Some folk sayings reflect a noted relationship between plants blooming and fish migration: "When the shadbush blooms, the shad will be in the rivers." Sometimes you hear that one as dogwood, but I think it's really shadbush, a different plant, and common names attached to different species sometimes cause confusion, I believe.

I've got a book titled Trout Flies and Flowers which consists mostly of pictures of flowering plants such as forsythia and violets and lists insect hatches of interest to trout fishermen that occur at the same time. The sulphur hatch and dogwoods, for example. The book leaves space for the reader to make his own notes for when these happen in his area. One of these years I'll try to do that.

Rainbow trout on the Little Patuxent

Caught two this afternoon, each about a foot long. Got them on an olive marabou streamer. There were lots of insects hatching in the near 80 degree weather- stoneflies, caddis, and midges, and I was surprised I wasn't seeing any rising fish. Then, shortly before leaving, I spotted some rises but couldn't fool them with the dry flies I tried.

Been a while since I fished that stream, and I had forgotten what pretty water it is in the stretch just before the confluence with the Middle Patuxent

University big band Jazz

Always enjoy these free concerts at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Went tonight with buddy Stan the Man.







Director Chris Vidala is a nice guy who puts on a fine show.

A graffiti artist...

...proudly proclaims his old school, Luddite orientation:

Maryland Basketball

The games are always colorful and entertaining, and this afternoon's was the last of the regular season.

Terps defend as Virginia goes on offense.





Athletic events are like circuses. When there's a time-out the cheerleaders and gymnasts come on court so that there's no let-up in action.





Maryland fans always try to distract the visiting team when they're shooting foul shots:







Although we lost in overtime, the mascot always keeps the fans' spirits up.