February 29th, 2012

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Wednesday Feb 29. I’m confused

Wednesday, February 29th, 2012

Why do they call it leap year? Leaping to me is the equivalent of skipping over. The more appropriate name is bissextile, but that could cause even more confusion.

I had a wonderful 75th birthday yesterday. The McDonnells took me out to the New Kent Winery, east of Richmond. It was sunny and quite comfortable to have our picnic lunch, with their excellent wines, on the porch. We took a tour of the wine making process. The buildings have been constructed, for the most part, from recycled timbers, brick and stones. A busman’s holiday for me to marvel at the craftsmanship in using large 100 plus year old Long Leaf Yellow (Pitch) Pine beams. Siding and wainscoting made from huge resawn Cypress sinker logs.  The winery is set in Pine forested rolling hills at the headwaters of the York River. Here and there the Sweet Gum trees are just starting to show their purple blooms amongst the otherwise still bare deciduous trees .

These first signs of Spring have aroused a wish to try and do a short road trip through the Carolinas to Florida to visit a number of friends. I still have some shopping to do for things that I need to bring along for the boat before I leave March 13 and a bunch of loose ends to deal with on the “book” project. Stay tuned.