Black Run Summer Hike

I previously posted about the Black Run Preserve (click to read post)  and posted photos from a Black Run hike (click to see photos).  I recently went for a visit and saw some excellent improvements to the entrance and new markings of various trails.  Black Run Preserve will be developed as a multi-use space for non-motorized biking, hiking, nature and bird watching.  There will be no camping or fires permitted.

Although the entrance is now gravel and includes a fence line to welcome you, the rest is presently left natural.  There are talks of a parking lot and restrooms, but that is far off.  For now, we get to enjoy it as a natural and pristine environment.

This land was, at one time, a cranberry bog.  There is little that remains but what remains has created a very rich environment.

The trails are marked clearly and it is an easy walk through the South Jersey sandy soil.

Nature’s abound including wild berries such as blueberries, huckleberries and maybe even some cranberries.

This was interesting.  Does anyone know why butterflies would huddle in one place on the trail?

Thanks for visiting!  Come back again soon.

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Downtown Dairy

While on business in Richmond Virginia, I looked down a side street and saw a strange but very cool building.

Built in 1914, the Richmond Dairy Company building remains one of Richmond’s best examples of the creativity and eccentricity of respected Richmond architecture firm Carneal & Johnston. The building was commissioned by the prosperous Richmond Dairy Company, which was started in 1890 by dairymen J.O. Scott, A.L. Scott and T.L. Blanton. The chain grocery stores and cardboard cartons forced the Richmond Dairy Company out of business in 1970, but the forty-foot tall milk bottles on either side of the front entrance to the building remain. The building has served many uses over the years, including its current form as rental apartments. – Photos courtesy me.  Text courtesy of: http://www.visitrichmondva.com/listings/Richmond-Dairy-Co-/1664/

Monster House Revisited!

Well, if you previously visited the original Monster House post, here is the follow-up.  I did go to visit again and guess what?  The birds are gone!  So it appears that there were two large birds sitting on the chimneys at the same time.  It originally seemed that they may have been fake birds placed there to deter other roosting birds, but in fact they were roosting birds!

Here are photos of the front from a different angle, the side, and rear of the building.  You can clearly see that the birds have flown off.

But now a new strangeness appears…Take a look at the third photo. Zoom in to the middle and upper windows. Do you see eyes and faces?

Monster House!

It seems that this house has seen better days.  No one lives here anymore and no one cares.  But I can’t help to look at it every time I drive by.

This is the first time I took a photo of it.  It’s also the first time I noticed something strange about the house.  Click on the picture and look closer.  I don’t know if they are real or not.  I didn’t see them until I uploaded the photos.  Do you see them?

UPDATE:  Click here for part two.

Dinner in Philly – El Vez

We had a nice dinner with friends this weekend in Philadelphia.  We went to a place called El Vez which is popular for Mexican dishes.

We had a delicious “BAZOOKA” LIMON guacamole as an appetizer.  It is made with goat cheese, pistachio, chile flake and roasted tomato.

We tried the pulled pork tacos with slow roasted pork, avocado salsa and smoked jalapeno vinaigrette and sea bass tacos made with sweet potato puree, grilled scallions and fried jalapeno.  Delicious!

For dessert we enjoyed the El Vez flourless chocolate cake, peanut custard with caramelized bananas, chocolate sauce, peanut butter ice cream.  Also, the tres leches cake and orange flan.

Also pictured are shots of Philadelphia City Hall and a local landmark known as The Union League which was established in 1862.  The “League” was founded to suppress the rebellion of the American Civil War and to preserve the Union.