Nelson County Rocks

Monika Deppen Wood
November 7, 1947-January 17, 2014

Join me in celebrating the birth of Harvey, son of my nephew Justin and his wife Katherine.  I became a grandpa in July with the birth of Felix and now I’m a delighted to be a great-uncle as well.  Harvey was born on October 27th and lives in Manhattan.  This blog will delight in documenting the two cousin’s exploits over the years.  We’re all so excited!

   

 

Holly and I can hardly wait to see him again around Christmas!

   

In early October, our friend Sue Rucker and I took my favorite hike in the area: up Spy Rock, with its incredible 360 degree view.  I never tire of this amazing place, and it always saddens me how the great majority of Appalachian Trail through-hikers choose to bypass this brief side trip, apparently obsessed with logging as many miles as possible on a given day.  Since it was fall, the majority of through-hikers were coming from the north, having begun their end-to-end trek on Mt. Katahdin in Maine.  We had a pleasant conversation with one hiker who took the trouble to climb the rocky knob, but the rest that morning were nowhere to be seen.  The view, as always, was spectacular.

      

In mid-October, my friend Bob Abbott and I climbed Old Rag Mountain, an “eastern outpost” of the Blue Ridge.  I had climbed it years ago on a quite lengthy day-hike from the  Blue Ridge Parkway and back.  Our climb, though shorter, was surprisingly demanding, with a variety of deep crevasses, narrow rock passageways, and a variety of other challenges unique to this impressive peak.  It had its challenging moments, but Bob and I had a great time and completed the nine mile circuit that leads up and over the summit and then down the other side.  The weather was perfect and the views breathtaking.

For more pictures of our hike, click here

Note: for reasons unclear to me: to see full-sized pictures, you need to click once on a picture below, then again when you see a slightly larger picture.  To return to this page at that point, use the back arrow key.  (Hope to fix this, but so far can’t figure out how.)

Holly and I drove up to New Haven on August 29th and had three great days with Felix and his parents–even getting to babysit one evening while Nic and Alison got to have a dinner date together.  Felix showed us around the Yale campus as well. :)  An exciting new chapter in all our lives…

Left: our official portrait on board the Celebrity Equinox.

Well, we’d pulled out all the stops for our wedding on May 21st, so we did the same for our honeymoon, which consisted of two back-to-back week-long cruises in the Mediterranean.  We started in Athens, sailing through the Aegean Sea with stops at Santorini, Mykonos, and Rhodes, then going east to Kusadasi and Ephesus in Turkey.  Then back to Athens and on to Malta, Sicily, the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii, and finally to Rome, where we spent several  additional days exploring the city.

Holly and I had a wonderful time, despite security issues in Turkey and a last-minute cancelled flight in Rome.  But we did get in and out of Turkey for a day, and we ended up being switched to Air France for the flight home, which was a major step up from United.  A great trip.

Below: click on the subheadings for pages of pictures.

 

Athens: a tour of the major classical sights

Santorini, Greece: Views of the caldera from below and above; exploring the towns clinging to the cliffs

Rhodes, Greece: the medieval citadel of the Knights of St. John; a ride through the countryside to the acropolis of Lindos, beautifully situated above the Aegean Sea

Mykonos, Greece: a labrynth of picturesque streets and walkways from the bay up the hillsides

Turkey: from the port of Kusadasi to the ancient Roman city of Ephesus, along with a family visit in an upland village

  

 Malta: medieval and modern Valetta and a tour around the circumference of the island

 

Sicily: A street-food eating tour of Catania

Italy: the Amalfi Coast by boat and foot

Italy: Pompeii in the shadow of Vesuvius

(note: the large human sculptures spread across the landscape of Pompeii are not from antiquity, but were created by the late Polish sculptor, Igor Mitoraj.  The display ends in January 2017.)

   

Italy: Rome–a romantic final stop on our honeymoon

   

A Game of Thrones Baby Shower for Nic and Alisons’s expected baby took place in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, on June 11th.  Click here for lots more pictures of this well-attended, fun and bit crazy event, organized by Alison’s sister Marybeth.  A great time was had by all.  And on July 8th, 2016, Felix Scott Wood arrived a bit ahead of time to join our family!  Needless to say, excitement and joy abound.  And many more pictures will follow.

 

 

 

click here for more pictures of the wedding ceremony
(most pictures taken by Holly’s niece Sarah–thanks to other friends and family for the others)

click here for a video selection from the wedding ceremony

 

click here for more pictures of the wedding reception

   

My son Tim gave a humorous and insightful toast/roast to the
wedding couple, and Holly’s daughter Lyara gave a deeply
moving testimonial to her mother.

Holly’s son John enhanced the wedding ceremony
with his keyboard prelude and with his dulcimer
playing and his singing of O Perfect Love.  Holly’s
sister Constance read scriptures, and our friend
Sue Rucker read a poem by Maya Angelou.

Thanks to Holly’s sister Pat for catching most
of the two toasts as well as segments of the wedding service on her cellphone!

click here for Tim’s toast

click here for Lyara’s toast

click here for a selection of John’s prelude

  

   

Fifteen members of our extended family celebrated Thanksgiving with great food and company at Tim and Megan’s home in Maryland.  It was great to be back together again (and for Holly to meet members of the Deppen side of the family).   Food, conversation, laughter, and general camaraderie made for a great holiday.

click here for lots more pictures! (the final picture is a brief video that reflects the general hilarity)

My niece Emily stopped by for a brief visit as she was relocating from Chicago to Florida.  We had a great time catching up and found enough time to take The Plunge trail at Wintergreen, which leads steeply down to an overlook with striking views eastward across the Rockfish Valley and to the Blue Ridge Mountains to the southeast.

click here for more pictures posted to Facebook (no login required)