By Tim Jon I guess I’ll never really know which was more invigorating—the biting cold or the close brush with celebrity; my walk that morning along a narrow, primitive dirt road in Eastern Loudoun County included hefty doses of these two sensations, and lots more to offer in the way of memorable moments for the…

By Tim Jon Brooding, that’s it: given the hypothetical challenge of coming up with a single word description of today’s subject matter, I could do far worse than this—but as you know, there’ll be much more.  The somber visual presentation of an historic brick building, virtually surrounded by ancient headstones, mature (mostly leafless) trees, and…

By Tim Jon “This must be what a kid in a free candy supply house feels like,” I thought to myself as I explored one of my favorite places on Planet Earth during a belated reunion tour. Or better.  You see, I’d long and carefully monitored the progress of the Dulles Air & Space Museum—…

By Tim Jon Maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t get any pictures from that climb up the first hill; I certainly know it’s a good thing that I didn’t try. Going up what seemed like a 30-degree gradient, with no shoulders along the roadway, and a guard rail that I wished were a lot…

By Tim Jon I was on a recent foray into our area’s attractions of interest, when a unique portion of our locality’s past sort of reached out and joined in on the visit: on my first-ever official tour of Union Cemetery in Leesburg, I suddenly found myself in the mythically named Potter’s Field.  This was…

By Tim Jon I remember the bright sunshine, tempered (and then some) by a cold, biting wind. I remember a longer drive from my “native soil” than I had expected; most of all I remember the more-than rewarding scenery: roaring (or was it “soaring?”) water smashing through the rocks, leaving a seemingly eternal spray in…

By Tim Jon With few exceptions I’ve always been a person who’s obeyed the laws of the land; I find life is just—generally speaking—much easier that way—probably for everyone concerned. This adherence to our social conventions keeps me from doing certain things and—in today’s instance – from going to the wrong places.  I believe the…

By Tim Jon  I went to Paris, and it took my breath away; actually, what this means is: I visited an historic village along the Blue Ridge Mountains, and I relaxed enough to be able to feel the air being pulled into my lungs. Doesn’t sound quite as romantic that way, does it? Life can…

By Tim Jon My memory mostly consists of an immersion in green. The lands lying between the paved (or mown) surfaces and the Potomac River in northeast Leesburg strike me—during the growing season, anyway—as a riot of growth and fertility.  I’ve traipsed many of the trails under the jurisdictions of Balls Bluff Regional Park and—a…