Palm Sunday in Staunton, 2008

As is the custom in Staunton, four of the downtown congregations held a joint Palm Sunday street procession this morning. Just like last year, the ecumenical march began at Trinity Episcopal Church and ended at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, and a quintet of Dixieland-style musicians played "When the Saints Go Marching In" and "Lord of the Dance." This year I took some photos (including four of the churches in the montage below), and a video, which I may post on YouTube in the next day or two.

Clockwise, from top left: Emmanuel Episcopal, Second Presbyterian, Trinity Episcopal, St. Francis of Assisi Catholic, Ebenezer Baptist, Augusta Street Methodist, and Central United Methodist. All of these churches are located in downtown Staunton.

Maple Festival: 50th year

After church, Jacqueline and I drove out to Highland County, where the 50th annual Maple Festival was being held. It was bright and sunny but very chilly, having snowed the night before. (But not as much as last year!) We bought the standard maple donuts, maple popcorn, and an assortment of arts and crafts. We took the long way back home, heading north into Pendleton County, West Virginia, which is sparsely settled but very scenic. All in all, it was a busy, rewarding day.

The town of Sugar Grove, West Virginia, lies just beyond the gap. The mountain ridge in the background is the Virginia state line, and that white stuff around the top is snow!

Posted (or last updated or commented upon): 16 Mar 2008, 9: 08 PM .

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My blog practices

My general practice is to make no more than one blog post per day on any one category. For this reason, some blog posts may address more than one specific issue, as indicated by separate headings. If something important happens during the day after I make a blog post, I may add an updated paragraph or section to it, using the word "UPDATE" and sometimes a horizontal rule to distinguish the new material from the original material. For each successive day, blog posts are listed on the central blog page (which brings together all topics) from top to bottom in the following (reverse alphabetical) order, which may differ from the order in which the posts were originally made:

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* part of "Macintosh & Miscellanous" until Feb. 2007

The date of each blog post refers to when the bulk of it was written, in the Eastern Time Zone. For each blog post, the time and date of the original posting (or the last update or comment thereupon) is displayed on the individual archival blog post page that appears (just before the comments section) when you click the [LINK / comments] link next to the date. Non-trivial corrections and clarifications to original blog entries are indicated by the use of [brackets] and/or ~~strikethroughs~~, as appropriate so as to accurately convey both the factual truth and my original representation of it. Nobody's perfect, but I strive for continual improvement. That is also why some of the nature photos that appear on the archive pages may differ from the (inferior) ones that were originally posted.

The current "home made" blog organization system that I created, featuring real permalinks, was instituted on November 1, 2004. Prior to that date, blog posts were handled inconsistently, and for that reason the pre-2005 archives pages are something of a mess. Furthermore, my blogging prior to June 1, 2004 was often sporadic in terms of frequency.

Blog errata
(preliminary)

April 4, 2008: "Andy Ashby" should be "Andy Jones"

April 3, 2010: "Mike Morgan" should be "Nyjer Morgan"

: "" should be ""

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