You might die, but if anything is noted as the cause of death, it will be loneliness.
There are no people doing art or even visiting Terzo Paradiso unless you count our unruly bunch. Here’s what we saw (and what we did).
First we explored random spaces.
And then we found some art to see (but only after getting lucky).
After a short nap in the hammocks near the circles, we found the projector and those glowy rocks from Land of the Lost.
There were no Sleestaks. So here are two for good measure. They covet the glowy rocks.
There was dirt.
There was also very silly science. But it was arty.
Not surprisingly, the room was better than the dirt.
Watch this video. Really.
Rhine took pics too. It was hard not to.
We got lucky and found another human who told us how to cross the highway, go down the stairs and find even more art. Or rather more art places with not much art. Something like that.
Rhine woke up from his long nap, dreaming of Sleestaks and late 1970s TV.
The space rang a long cool echo of lost civilizations and the empty planet to come.
So there was dance.
And reflection
We climbed back down to reality using a ladder that was too short to reach the sky.
Sometime last summer (during the height of the pandemic), “the shrine” on my property was designed by Allen Kitselman and implemented by Claudio and his brother. On 9/12 it was properly initiated with a Ganesh Chaturi ceremony led by Karthik.
Here’s how that went down.
First, Karthik shared the significance of Ganesh Chaturti, read some ancient text, and made an offering.
Ready for the ceremony
Karthik leads the reading
Incense
Ganesh at the shrine (and everywhere else in the universe too)
In the verdant woods of Virginia
A gift for the mantle
Then it was off to the river for part two of the ceremony, a small prayer with an earthen Ganesha moorti which Jackie immersed in the Shenandoah river in a traditional way (plus kayaks).
We kayaked several miles together. Had lunch. Saw eagles. Reveled in nature. There was a cheeto sighting.
When we were getting ready to depart, the truck failed to start. But we persevered (with some help from Skaggs and a trusty hammer).
And then some fabulous food and conversation.
All in all, an excellent day. The shrine is consecrated and new friendships blossom.
The bluebells are peaking in mid-April this year (a bit early), so we are outta here, headed to Norway for more winter. Because we, um, actually we think we’re nuts.
Back in May we paid a visit to the eagles lining the Shenandoah just north of our house. They’ve all grown up and are now flying around. On our latest trip down the river (it flows north, so just how to put that is kinda tricky), we saw 7 eagles. A few of them were captured on film.
The day itself was majestic and crystal clear.
The Shenandoah River
All of the eagles’ nests we know how to find along the route (three) were empty this trip, but there were lots of eagles flying around up and down the river.
spot the eagle
the view
spot the eagle
Oh and we ran across an Econoline 360 too. No doubt left by the big 2018 flood. This is perfect for our friend TC Boyle.
Econoline in the river
Amy paddled over to check it out
Dear @tcboyle, we found you a new abode not on, but IN the shenandoah river. Here is @AmyBarley modeling it. (It is about the same price as the shack, but cheaper than BOB'S FENCE.) pic.twitter.com/ugj6PJFuYn
We started flood preparation in earnest the day before the flood crested (assuming that it crests today, that is). Fortunately, the great people at NOAA have a hydrograph that is extremely helpful for flood preparation. Here is the sensor nearest us at Millville.
The Millville hydrograph was wrong this time
Predictions said that the river would crest at 7am on June 4th at 15.6 feet. The prediction was off by 2 feet so far, but as far as we can tell from observation, the crest will happen soon.
We moved the boats up and rescued the submerged tables.
Then it was time for a cocktail. The Last Word…hmm.
Last Word, hopefully not appropriately named
mogli got a workout in the flood
The flood in earnest started overnight. First major indication of prediction error was that the car bridge submerged around 10pm. Jack and Eli arrived from DC (Jack came down from NY) around 11. We ignored the road closed signs, drove in the back way to our car bridge and forded the now lake-like creek in the dark.
In the morning, we woke up to discover that the crest had not yet happened. Time to move the cars!
On this day I knew the shot, the reason I brought my camera on the expedition. The day before there was a magnificent scene of the moon high over an eagles nest along the river. I wanted to capture it on “film.” This next day, I got that shot, but did not. Over the 24 hours the moon had moved more than I knew, and was beyond the nest when I arrived at the spot shown in the last photo here. That was good luck! I took photos of this and more, and as I headed home an eagle soared over me, and as I turned to watch, did 3 large 360’s over the *other* nest mounted along the river nearby. The eagle drew me back to a high perch above the nest and tree to take the first 2 photos here. It’s in there!