I’m looking forward to settling into the chair on the porch tonight to read this Atlantic article about Vanuatu and climate reparations: What America Owes the Planet.

Lovely night camping beside a creek in West Virginia. I’ve arrived safely in Solon, Ohio although a near-disaster on the highway in Charleston scared me. Not sure how my car was able to stop within inches of the car in front of me.

Bummed to see I will miss the appearance of Robin Sloan near Chapel Hill on Saturday. His Moonbound book tour takes him to MacIntyre’s Books. Alas, I will be in Cleveland (running Towpath Twilight race Friday evening).

Malia and I picked 30 pounds of sour cherries this morning. We are home now, it’s nearly time for the Champions League final, then I will get to the pitting and canning (I use and dole out jars of pie filling for holiday pies).

A bowl of Montmorency tart cherries.

In line at Levering Orchard in southwest Virginia for the annual sour cherry picking adventure.

Sign with instructions to get buckets

Rainy night. Stepped outside to close the grill (left open by family after hot dogs foe dinner). This box turtle was against the house with an insect in its mouth.

Box turtle eating bug

We toured the White House today. Short but sweet. Beautiful weather.

The White House

Checking on the flowerbed and I noticed this tiny (about 7 cm long) box turtle.

Tiny box turtle poking its head out.

And here’s the male Eastern box turtle up close.

male easter box turtle in profile

Walking the hillside below our house, my brain registered another turtle before I consciously saw it. Can you spot it?

Eastern box turtle in the fallen leaves on hillside

On the hillside below our house, Carolina climbing-milkweed (Matelea carolinensis) on a fallen log.

vine on fallen log

Raindrops and Turtles

Another walk in the woods to find box turtles and listen to the birds and cicadas.

Decided to walk the path along my rock-wall property line. It’s been raining and dripping since last evening. Thirty seconds after thinking ‘the turtles will be out today’ I came across this male box turtle with his head against the rock.

Hum of Cicadas

From Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a moment in the woods to listen to the birds and cicadas.

Over on the Zuiker Chronicles, I wrote about our recent road trip to Montgomery, Alabama to visit the Legacy Sites, which are beautiful spaces and displays and art that commemorate the horror and evil of slavery and lynching.

Waterfall in the preserve

I’m in Northern Virginia for a work event. I needed a walk and saw the Winkler Botanical Preserve nearby.

I observed the eclipse in Carrboro, North Carolina using binoculars with lens filters. I also used the perforated pizza pan to project shadows onto the back of the adirondack chair.

Purple flower

The hillside below our house is showing its wildflowers. In this nook are wild ginger, pennywort, and rue anemone. Lovely spring.

With warm weather and a big group of friends, today’s Sunday pickup soccer was pure fun. Then coffee and Colum McCann’s new book, American Mother, on the porch as birds chirp away.