Old Elk and All Saints: A Backyard Review
Author: David From http://www.musingsoverabarrel.com/ • Apr 26th, 2025Category: Blog Entries.Local
Christians, to the Paschal VictimOffer your thankful praises!A Lamb the sheep redeems;Christ, who only is sinless,Reconciles sinners to the Father.Death and life have contended in that combat stupendous:The Prince of life, who died, reigns immortal.Speak, Mary, declaringWhat you saw, wayfaring.“The tomb of Christ, who is living,The glory of Jesus’ resurrection;bright angels attesting,The shroud and napkin resting.Yes, Christ my hope is arisen;to Galilee he goes before you.”Christ indeed from death is risen, our new life obtaining.Have mercy, victor King, ever reigning!Amen. Alleluia.
Christians, to the Paschal VictimOffer your thankful praises!A Lamb the sheep redeems;Christ, who only is sinless,Reconciles sinners to the Father.Death and life have contended in that combat stupendous:The Prince of life, who died, reigns immortal.Speak, Mary, declaringWhat you saw, wayfaring.“The tomb of Christ, who is living,The glory of Jesus’ resurrection;bright angels attesting,The shroud and napkin resting.Yes, Christ my hope is arisen;to Galilee he goes before you.”Christ indeed from death is risen, our new life obtaining.Have mercy, victor King, ever reigning!Amen. Alleluia.
Happy 420 day to all who celebrate! Also, Happy Easter if that is more your jam.
This was a very busy weekend. I don't normally plan 4 outings in a single weekend, but this weekend we did.
I started Saturday morning by getting up early and meeting the Audubon folks at York River State Park. We identified 51 species, which is a nice number for a couple of hours of birding. The 35 minute trip home took 2 hours due to an accident that shut down the highway. In the evening we attended out first Richmond Flying Squirrels game of the year. It was a beautiful night for baseball and they won, which does not happen often when I attend games.
On Sunday, we got up early to go to Bryan Park birding, and specifically to look for the Great Horned Owl that lives there. I've been out birding a couple of hundred times, and somehow I have never seen an owl. That changed this morning. We would have missed out again, but a friendly birder who had seen it earlier told me where to look, and then 15 minutes later when she can down that trail she stopped and showed me exactly which tree to look in. I paid it forward a few minutes when another birder came through looking for the owl. The photo is very bad because I took it at extreme zoom distance, staring back into the sun. The original photo is unrecognizable as an owl, it's just a dark blob, but after playing with the photo sliders in gThumb I at least got it to a point where it is proof that I did see the owl.
An Easter tradition here in RVA is Easter on Parade. The city closes down about six blocks of Monument Ave, which is paved with old brick pavers and features 2 lanes each direction and a very wide, shady and grassy median that serves as sort of a park for the locals. People show up dressed for Easter (some nicely, some outrageously) and the parade is the people watching. People picnic in the median, the people that live on the street have friends over for Easter parties, and there are street vendors and food trucks and it's just a generally fun way to spend the afternoon.
For Easter dinner we had ham, mashed potatoes, honey-balsamic glazed carrots, cranberry sauce, and rosemary and olive oil bread. The carrots were something I had never made before, and they have changed how I think about vegetables. They were that good.
It was a crazy week at work, so the links are a little sparse this week.
Elect Disk - A manifesto, or maybe just a rant, about what late stage capitalism is doing to us, along with three things you can do to reclaim some peace.
AI Rant - A fabulous rant about the AI-ization of everything.
Homestar Runner posted a new video. If you are the type that will care, you probably already knew this.
Some thoughts on what the dramatic decline in longform reading may be doing to us.
That's all for this week. In a world where you can choose to be anything, choose to be kind.