Morris Arboretum

Visited the Morris Arboretum this weekend. Highly recommend it.
The special exhibit was:



Many of the buildings were local Philadelphia institutions, but these are some of my other favorites are below. The entire exhibit is made out of natural materials, and appear to be bio-degradable. There's no information available about how the buidlings were constructed, which would have been really interesting, but they appear to be thin wood with a lot of epoxy of some kind. The trestles are made of wood.

No reflecting pool in front, but still impressive, on a small scale.









Guess where you're NOT ?



Detail from Independence Hall:

Buy This Book !

Who knows enough about shopping in Victorian England ? Not me !

This book is actually an easy read about the social impacts of shopping in Victorian England - how did they do it ? What kind of shops were there ? Who owned them ? Worked in them ? Who went to which kind of shop ? (or, shoppe ?). Is this a pre-cursor to the modern American habit of "shopping as entertainment" - a time when shopping occupied an important part of people's (i.e., women's) daily lives ?

Anyway, highly readable and entertaining.
Available on Amazon, B&N, etc.

Bicycle Cravings....

Just because 'bicycle season' is over doesn't mean that I don't look/ think about bikes, or that I stop riding.

I have found two bikes that I truly CRAVE.

The first is a short wheelbase tandem recumbent from Barcroft. The Columbia. I saw one on the MS 150 ride. My fondest desire is to do some serious touring on a tandem recumbent.... hope i don't have to wait until i retire to do that !


Since it doesn't look like tandem riding is in my near future, I have this bike lined up as a replacement if my Haluzak ever fails.... Titanium, and less than 24 lbs. I never wanted an over seat steering recumbent before, but this one has changed my mind.

Taking a test drive is worth the trip to Virginia !

Link to the Barcroft site.

Fun with George Orwell.....

Every time I read 1984, or anything else by or about George Orwell, I always think of the grammer streamlining in 1984 - double plus good !

Here's the idea for some fun: take a day and use only 1984-ish constructs in your written and oral communications - especially e-mails. I think texting would need something like 'GD++", and 'GD--'.

Better, and more fun, than 'talk like a pirate day'......




More fun with George/ Eric on the Orwell Diaries site.