Beauty in the Strangest Places

This morning I went out back to get some firewood. Along the way I noticed a ring of ice crystals inside a piece of PVC pipe I have stuck into the vegetable bed (I use it to support a cold frame). I grabbed my camera and took this photo.

Paddling with Orion

The Potomac is only about a third of a mile wide at Memorial Bridge, but at night it seems much wider. This part Thursday Peter, Moulton and I took advantage of some unseasonably warm weather to do an Ice Pirates paddle. As we paddled down dead center in the river, the cars on the Virginia side were far enough away to be no more than a hushed drone. To our left, the monuments shone as always. They appeared large until I looked up. There, revealed through an opening in the clouds, was the constellation Orion, dwarfing the rest of the scene. Orion is, of course, a fixture in the winter sky, but somehow its (his?) enormous presence seemed particularly striking this evening out over the relative darkness and open expanse of the river. The rest of the paddle home on the calm river was graced by his presence.