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The James River Journal series will live on as a book.
It will include condensed versions of all the stories I wrote, with new commentaries, plus more picture than you saw in the paper.
The book will sell for $14.99 and should be available in early November.
You can pre-order online by going to http://www.timesdispatchbooks.com.
Later, we will have copies on sale here at the newspaper.
Photographer Kevin Morley and I also will be signing books at various events. Stay tuned.
The James River Journal installment that runs Monday (Oct. 19) will be the last. I hope you hate to see it go. I know I do.
The year passed quickly. Photographer Kevin Morley and I began the project—a story a month for a year—last November with a piece about Richmond in fall.
We started in November with the idea that we would finish in October 2009, then turn the series into a calendar for 2010.
The calendar may or may not happen. But the Journal will live on in a bigger, better way. How? Find out by reading Monday’s paper.
Hundreds, and maybe thousands, of people attending the Richmond Folk Festival noticed an unpublicized star—the James River.
Numerous people strolled along the river or walked out on the catwalk that juts into the James from the western end of Brown’s Island.
While people on land played gospel, bluegrass and all sorts of music, on the river a great blue heron stabbed a fish and cormorants dove for meals to the tune of the rushing rapids.
It has always struck me as strange how local officials publicize the Canal Walk when, to me, the canal is basically a big tub of water. People are naturally drawn to the James, its rapids and its denizens.
Anyone who visits the James surely has noticed a plant, 1 to 3 feet tall, that grows along the banks, on islands and between rocks.
This is water willow, and in warm months it is emerald green, with small, declicate white-and-purple flowers.
Now, however, the plant is turning to gold.
The willows shift from green to a warm yellow this time of year. The colors will be brilliant for several days before the leaves turn brown.
If you are on Brown’s Island for the Folk Festival this weekend, stroll out on the catwalk that juts into the river near the island’s west end. Look about 30 feet to your right, upriver, and you’ll see a small island covered with the golden willows.
It’s worth the walk.
Some people refuse to give up on summer.
I’m one of them.
I love to swim and snorkel in the James. I visited several sections of the river Sunday (Oct. 4) with photographer Kevin Morley to gather material for our last James River Journal installment.
At Pony Pasture Rapids, several people were wading, body surfing and swimming in the river.
After Kevin left, I got my mask and snorkel out of the car and plunged in. I would have been warmer in a pitcher of ice water.
After a few minutes, however, I sort of got used to it—until I got really cold and had to get out. It was worth it, though. The river is low and clear now.
Was that the last plunge of summer? If the temperature climbs up to the high 70s or so sometime soon, maybe not.
