Charleston Pictures Take 1

Whew! Have I got a lot of stuff to put up here. I am so far behind. I went to visit my friend E. in Charleston, and we had a lot of fun.

We took her dogs to the dog park where they ran around with some other dogs in this funny loop that of course went right through the water, so they were very pond smelly.





Then the next day we went to Magnolia Plantation. (click on the name to see their website).

Unfortunately the 1st day the skies of vengeance opened upon us and we got completely soaked. So we only got to see part and had to come back a 2nd day. Here are pictures from both days.

The plantation






Tomorrow I'll post pictures of the The Petting Zoo and The Swamp.

Rain Rain Go Away

So, most of the week I have spent either at work or commuting to/from work. But that is okay, every once and a while you need a good work week. And it really makes the time fly by.

The rain though... I am so sick of the rain! It rained a bunch yesterday so I spent most of my day just watching movies, reading books and chilling out. Which is nice, don't get me wrong... but I would prefer to be out of doors.

I did get a short chance to go outside for about a half hour. I went over to Manassas NP but instead of walking I plunked down and did a few watercolor sketches in my new sketchbook with my new travel kit. It was fun to use it, and I can totally see me carrying it around everywhere I go for a few quick paintings here and there. Plus I like the fact that all pressure is off with the sketch book. It's time to play with color and paint and it doesn't matter what I mess up because it's not expensive paper and it's not supposed to be something complete and hangable.

But then the rain came (again).

Anyway... today I went to Wegman's (one of the great grocery stores I have around here). And an author of a book I really loved "The Omnivore's Dilema" Michael Pollan was there to give a talk and also sign books. I didn't have a ticket but luckily, they had some extra seats so I got to go hear him talk. They have some nice conference-type rooms upstairs so it wasn't like he was standing in an Aisle giving a talk. Anyway, I decided to get his newer book "In Defense of Food" and get it a signed.

Here's Michael Pollan (okay so this was taken with my cell phone camera, so it isn't the best. I wasn't expecting to see anything so exciting at the grocery!)


He was a really nice guy, even though he had a plane to catch he signed every person's book, even though he did not have enough time dedicate the books. It was interesting and he gave a nice talk, and he had a lot of humor. Like I said I really enjoyed his 1st book. So much so I mailed it to Harland. It really influenced me to join a local CSA.

A CSA stands for Community Sponsored Agriculture. A few of my friends have joined CSAs in various other cities, and another friend of mine got one near here last year. I got in touch with her and joined up this winter. When the farm starts producing various produce I'll be getting one box a week. I have a feeling I will be freezing some of it, so I have been working on eating everything in my freezer this month. I really miss my parent's garden, and I like to support local farms. So I am really excited about the CSA and can hardly wait for the 1st delivery.

And as it is raining once again outside, I guess I will go clean.

DC outing

Hello, today I went to DC to the Smithsonian museums... but it was so nice my cousin, Bob, and I decided to walk around. We walked around a little too much, I got some sunburn on my right shoulder and nose. That big schnoz of mine always gets burned the first time I'm out and about.




Here are some pictures of the Washington monument. I have to admit that these guys made me miss Harland a little more acutely than usual. I don't see too many soldiers around these days (I do see some Air Force guys from time to time and some Marines... but rarely Army guys).


Anyway, I'm willing to put up with a little pinkness for a beautiful day like today! We decided to walk around the malls and take in some sights. Neither Bob or I had been to the WWII memorial, so we decided to head on down there.





Here is the view of the Lincoln Memorial from the WWII monument.


We also took a look at the White House...
And who is that in the red dress? Someone visiting for Mothers' day? Michelle? Her mom? I wonder.... too bad I don't have a telephoto, I am not much of a paparazzi. There are also 2 men on the roof. Serious business.


Anyway, Gossip aside... we went to the Natural History museum and also to the American History museum. We didn't have enough time to see all the exhibits (naturally - I never have enough time at any of those museums! Too much!) but we did catch some highlights. The new star spangled banner exhibit is really nice, as is the new exhibit on Lincoln. Here are some pics from the natural history museum.



And this last picture is for Harland. In the American History museum they have some original scores from Duke Ellington, including Caravan. Harland likes Jazz music, so I knew he would appreciate this.

Take me out to a ballgame...

Yesterday I went to a ballgame with some friends from work... Lucky for us the rain held off and the Nationals won a game! They won 6-1, and a big part of that was that Duncan playing for the Cardinals made an error on a play. He didn't catch a foul ball, and that ended up putting a guy on 1st base in time for someone else to make a home run! It was pretty exciting. We had awesome seats right near the 1st base. We were only a couple of rows back. I'm not sure I've ever sat that close to a big league game.

Anyway here are some pictures.






They always have a Presidents race... Teddy's the fan favorite but he never wins... George beat Abe in this one.



And also I did some watercolor paintings... I'll throw these into the mix too.

Burke Lake

I love spring for many reasons... but one is because I love flowers springing up, and one of my favorite plants are ferns - and they are so neat when they're popping out.






Okay so getting to the story... yesterday was the first truly beautiful day here. It was in the mid 70's and just sunny and wonderful. I thought to myself, I need to get out. I should go to Great Falls National Park.

I wasn't the only one with that idea.


While I was waiting I did get this cool snapshot of new leaves above me (from my sunroof).


So after 45 minutes and going about a quarter mile or so... I turned around and left to go to my favorite regular place, Burke Lake Park.

Now I've mentioned the park about 100 times because I go there almost every week. When Harland is home we both love going there one day on the weekend. I usually go in the morning, and I usually run there... so I have never taken my camera... so something good came out of this anyway.

So here are some shots of and around Burke Lake!

Easter Bluebells

Spring is a neat time here in Virginia... Every week things keep changing. I have posted 2 separate posts today, so keep reading...

This morning I decided to take a walk to see the bluebells (again, always super muddy every time I hit the bluebell trail...silly April showers). I thought everyone would be at church or cooking Easter ham or finding Easter eggs, but there were a lot of people at the trail. And a lot of muddy dogs.

Here are some of the pictures I took while I was out and about. It is a pretty sunny day, but it was only in the low 50s today. Unlike last year when we wore short-sleeved shirts to see the bluebells.



This one was growing about waist-high in a tree...

Mom and Dad come to Washington

Hey everyone, haven't posted in a while, I've been pretty busy lately.

Last weekend my parents came for a trip to see the cherry blossoms. They've never been to DC during blossom season, so they were pretty excited. The thing is, while DC is pretty during blossom season - so is every where else because there are tons of cherry trees and pear trees everywhere flowering at once.

So here are some of their cherry blossom pictures (I didn't go with them - I had already committed to volunteering by handing out race packets to runners in the Cherry Blossom 10-miler. If you volunteer then the following year you are guaranteed entry... it usually sells out in a few hours).

Anyhow here are some pictures...

Alex Trebec was the Grand Marshall of the parade.




Then that night we went to the Kennedy Center to see the symphony play the background music for an old Buster Keaton film "The General". It was hilarious. I can't believe they did all those stunts back then... makes our use of CG look lame. :)

The next day we took a walk over at Manassas Battlefield and as usual I saw a cool bug (remember that spider?).
Here are some other pictures... the blue bells weren't quite out yet.