All Souls' Day Eve - Williamsburg

In one sense there is no death. The life of a soul on earth lasts beyond his departure. You will always feel that life touching yours, that voice speaking to you, that spirit looking out of other eyes, talking to you in the familiar things he touched, worked with, loved as familiar friends. He lives on in your life and in the lives of all others who knew him.

- Angelo Patri -

Today we took a day trip to Williamsburg, which we try to do every fall. We usually take the Jamestown/Scotland Ferry and the Colonial Parkway for maximum scenic benefit. This is how I get my fall foliage fix, and a good opportunity for the three of us to spend time together. The weather was perfect, close to 70, clear blue cloudless skies and windless. We stroll the streets of the historic area, eat, shop and some of us poke our un-ticketed heads into fenced off gardens.

We have made this trip many times, but this time we stumbled into a garden I have never noticed before, just outside of the tourist area on the campus of William and Mary. There was a sign at the entrance to the brick walled garden inviting people in, but the sign that drew me in was the fall color from a Coral Bark Japanese Maple. The garden was small, but it was packed with many species, in beds linked by a circular path of crushed oyster shells - the traditional Tidewater paving material.

We spent a lot of time in this garden (2/3rds of us enjoying from a bench). When we were ready to leave, I passed a plaque at the other entrance to the garden dedicated to Gregory S. Adams, class of 1981 (with the above statement). He apparently died at a young age and this garden was planted in his memory. I do not know who Gregory S. Adams was, but I figure he was one or two years older than I am. Whoever he was, he was well thought of and missed - enough so to have a very nice garden created for him. It was a good place to spend to spend part of the day enjoying the weather in a garden.

There were several Ligularias (Farfugium japonicum) in the garden including this one in full bloom.Jerusalem Cherry (Solanum pseudocapsicum) is pretty but poisonous.

This is the Coral Bark Maple (Acer palmatum 'Sango Kaku') that drew me in.


Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) is one of my favorite small trees. The sweet aroma from the flowers was almost overpowering and could be smelled well beyond the garden wall.

In the center was another favorite tree, a Gingko with unusually large leaves, but it is still too early for these to turn to golden yellow here.
Outside the garden wall was yet another tree on my A-list, the Chinese Pastiche (Pistacia chinensis). This tree is street-wise tough, has great fall color and interesting fruits.

Although I once spent my share of time in church, All Souls' Day was never part of my experiences there, but I do think that taking a moment to remember the dead, whether we knew them or not, is not a bad idea.

If you would like to see more of the Adams garden, you can click here and see a slide show of what it looks like in other seasons. I'll post more Williamsburg pictures as time permits.

A Little Wild Around The Edges

I live in a very urban and largely democratic neighborhood, but I am not speaking of our collective political persuasion, which by historic voting trends does tend to be Democratic. Despite the fact that John McCain lived in the neighborhood for a while as a child, and not without a valiant signage effort by my Republican neighbors - this area will likely vote for Obama in overwhelming numbers.

The democratic word that I am referring to is spelled with a lower case "d". We are one of the few residential neighborhoods in Norfolk where everyone has equal access to the waterfront. In most other areas these prime pieces of real estate are on private property, but our neighborhood is surrounded by a narrow strip of public green space that lets anyone enjoy the views. Most of public space is encompassed by a sea wall which protects the shore line from falling back into the river and limits flooding (sometimes). This seawall is a great benefit to the human residents of the area, but wildlife suffers. In the few remaining areas where there is no seawall, wild things grow. There is a diversity of plants that provide homes for marine and terrestrial animals, and it is not uncommon to see several species of heron, egrets and other water birds grazing in the shallows for a meal.

At this time of year one our most prolific, but often unnoticed natives is at its showiest. Baccharis halimifolia (called Saltbush here) has previously flowered and is now about to send forth its fruits which are the showy white parts. Much like dandelion seeds, Saltbush will be creating floating clouds around the water's edge in the next few weeks. This plant is well at home on the edge and can tolerate a great deal of salt flooding, and is one of the first species to reclaim disturbed wetlands. It is semi-evergreen, gets about 10' tall or more, and I like its craggy bark as well. This a a sure sign that fall is coming to Tidewater.

In the following pictures you can see some of the other species trying to live in this narrow tidal zone. Enlarging the first picture will give you a closer look at a "salt meadow". This was some sort of Golden Rod, but I do not know what species. The unusual little Pickleweed (Salicornia virginica) has no true leaves, just green fleshy stems that go red in the winter. It is a halophyte and several species of Salicornia are not only edible, but are being evaluated for use in biodiesel production. This could be an interesting possibility for former agricultural lands that have become salinated, or for areas with limited quantities of fresh water, but with abundant salt water.
I would guess that this little flower is an Aster relative, but what I found interesting was that there were many of them growing in an area that frequently gets flooded with salt water.Another one of our under apprecieated natives is Celtis occidentalis or Common Hackberry. The best feature of this tree is its ability to grow where other trees wither. It is tolerant of salt, wind, cold and hot weather, pollution and poor soil. I won't say it is "pretty", but the fall color is a fair yellow, however the bark is fantastic. There are close ups of this bark in one of my previous blog posts, for which I need to apologize for its weird bent (not sure what I was thinking).

The reed growing under the Hackberry is the scourge of the mid-Atlantic coast - Phragmites australis. This plant is rapidly colonizing wetland areas, choking out native species and turning diversity into monoculture. Like many scourges, this one is man-made. A common misconception is that this plant is an introduced non-native species. This plant is indeed native, but in the late 1800's, genetically superior Phragmites australis was introduced to North America. Disturbing wetland soils encourage this plant to grow, and unfortunately there is no easy way to eradicate it. Maybe we could return it to its traditional use and make thatched roofs with it - lots of thatched roofs.
When introduced plants take over, or when these wild areas at our fringes are not preserved, little guys like these Periwinkle Snails have no place to live, and crabs and fish that like to eat them go elsewhere or go hungry. What happens in wild places not only has an effect on the food chain, but on the quality of our lives as well.