saramerry99's PhotoBlog

May 13: Our Anniversary, Day 2

2012-05-15T03:02:54Z

For the second day of our anniversary celebration, we went on a wonderful hike at Catoctin Mountain Park, part of the national park system. It was an 8.3 mile hike, strenuous according to both our legs and the guidebook, and really quite wonderful. It goes by Cunningham Falls--which are pretty though low water this year (says both Patrick's memory and a photo on a sign). We were more than a little exasperated by all the people out on the rocks and in the water despite the strongly worded signs warning of the danger of serious injury on the rocks and in the water AND the signs requesting folks to stay on the boardwalk to let nature recover. Sigh. We saw some far less exasperating vertebrates as well. Lots and lots of adorable chipmunks, a couple of which even stood still to be photographed, a Pileated Woodpecker (think Woody Woodpecker with the red head) which are very large birds indeed, and a Timber Rattlesnake. The rattlesnake was an especially cool encounter because we were on Wolf Rock, which is pink quartzite (alas the color doesn't really show in this pic) and has some big crevasses in it--so the snake was on the other side of a two or three foot wide crevasse and about two feet down. In other words, were were completely safe and it barely seemed even to notice our presence. And we got to look our fill and take photographs. :D I've never seen a wild rattlesnake before so that was exceedingly cool! Patrick got the best of all of the scenic landscape shots from the views--I think that's from Thurmont Overlook. There were others along the way, but those pics got trumped by the critters. :D It was a wonderful hike!! We were absolutely *beat* by the time we got home, though.

May 12: Our Anniversary, Day 1

2012-05-15T02:49:46Z

We celebrated our anniversary all weekend--we intended to get married on May 13th last year, but actually got married on the 12th. So we get to extend the celebration and extra day. :D On Saturday we went down to DC for the day--we started at an exhibit at the Sackler Gallery of all 46 of Hokusai's 36 Views of Mount Fuji (yes, you read that right--the publisher added 10 more after the initial printing). They were *gorgeous*, but alas no photography was allowed. Not even of the interpretive signs, so I had to write down a wonderful quote by Hokusai: "Prior to my seventieth year, nothing I drew was of particular note. At the age of seventy-three, I could somewhat understand the structure of animals, insects, and fish, and the vital nature of plants and trees. Thus at eighty, my art will have greatly improved, at ninety will have attained real depth, and at one hundred will be divinely inspired. At one hundred and ten, my every dot and every stroke will come to life..." Hokusai (didn't get the name of the translator), 1834. The first picture here is not-a-very-good-one (sorry) of a Thunder Oni (sort of a demon) by Hokusai. This is in the regular collection at the Freer Gallery and photography *is* permitted there. He painted this when he was 87 or 88 and I just adore the life and vibrancy in it. We took a stroll through the Hirshhorn's sculpture garden on the way to lunch--Patrick remembered a Calder stabile being in there but it's moved (or maybe it's in the *other* sculpture garden, I just thought of that). While there a nice couple took our picture for us. After lunch, we went to the American Art Museum and Portrait Gallery (which share a building) for an exhibit called The Art of Video Games. Neither of us especially play video games, but we were intrigued by the idea. The exhibit was muy cool--they basically were making a case for video games as art, but leaving it up to viewers to decide for themselves. After that we walked around that gallery for a while--looked at some folk art and 20th century paintings and crafts and sculptures. Spent a while with the collection of George Catlin's Indian portraits because they're awesome. But I only took pictures on my phone (and they suck). We had reservations for dinner at a place about a block away from the museum--Jaleo, a Spanish tapas place. (Click here for their website.) We ordered many delicious things but I took a picture of my favorite. How can there be any bad with cheese wrapped in ham wrapped in pork then very lightly breaded and fried until crispy on the outside but not even remotely greasy. Then served in coin-sized slices in just the right amount. :D It was delicious! We also got potatoes and bread with tomatoes and manchego and hanger steak and a wee little pork hamburger and chicken (which was amazing). It was a wonderful meal celebrating a wonderful anniversary! :D After dinner, we walked back to the Hirshhorn, where they had a work installed--it was a film with music and images, sort of variations on the theme of "I only have eyes for you", projected onto the outside of the (round) building. If it actually looped, it was a long loop--it was an hour or so before we started seeing something we recognized. It was kind of like a film and music approach to something like MC Escher's Metamorphoses--starting with something then changing it while repeating while changing...so every time was different but elements kept recurring. Hard to describe, but cool. We were lucky, because as it turned out the last night for the installation was May 13, so we caught it just before it left. We got home fairly tired and very happy. :D

May 9: More Urban Nature

2012-05-15T02:31:40Z

The parking lot goslings are growing! :D And in other good news, I was wrong about that one egg being a dud--I think Mom-Goose was just out getting a bite to eat or something, because she's back to sitting that nest. I think the other goslings might have belonged to a different pair of geese. I keep looking for the goose on her nest every day I drive through the parking lot. I was delighted to note the other day that when the grounds crew at the metro station mowed the grass they gave her a wide berth--so her little chunk of grass is unmowed. It's very cute.

April 25: Urban Nature (x5)

2012-04-27T02:57:38Z

The parking lot goslings have hatched from their eggs, so I took my big camera so I could get some pictures of them today. Boy are they cute!! In the first pic they're crossing the parking lot with mom and dad leading and providing rear support. The second one has one of the parents being all hissy and protective (though not at me, thank goodness). I think these are the ones from the nest I've been keeping an eye on, but we've been seeing parking lot goslings around all week. Then this evening, as I was walking to the parking lot, I noticed a wild rabbit hopping along the narrow not-quite-a-sidewalk on the other side of the little street. It was quite tolerant and let me get a bunch of pictures, though I never offered to cross the street toward it.

April 24: Disbarred

2012-04-27T02:51:09Z

As I've mentioned here before, when attorneys are sworn in, they sign their names in the "Test Book" the official register of attorneys in the state. It's just a big, leather bound book with wonderful paper (no lines) and they just sign their names and write the dates. When an attorney is disbarred, the name gets "stricken from the register of attorneys" as the court's order says. An old test book was open to a page with some disbarments on it the other day, so I grabbed a quick shot with my point-n-shoot.

April 23: More Tulips

2012-04-26T02:34:48Z

For Professionals Week (formerly known as Secretary's Day), my boss gave everyone in the office a bunch of tulips on Monday. (On Tuesday she brought in bagels. On Wednesday she took us all out to lunch. I like Professionals Week). I brought mine home to supplement the red tulips I got for myself on Friday. These pictures are from Monday evening. Now, on Wednesday, I can say that the red tulips are starting to get a little faded looking--but they're still cool to draw so I'm not getting rid of them. I haven't started drawing the yellow ones yet, but they are very pretty and cheerful. Who knew that at my age I'd suddenly start to love tulips?

April 21: Tulips

2012-04-22T21:37:02Z

I've been having lot of fun lately drawing tulips from photographs (on the web)--the shading and sheen and texture of the petals is really neat. I prefer, in general, the challenge of drawing from life rather than from photographs. Photography has already done the work of taking the three-dimensional thing and flattening it to two-dimensions, which makes it much easier but less satisfying, in a way. So I got a bunch of tulips when we were grocery shopping to use as life-models. I'm also going to take a bunch of pictures of them in different lighting to use as reference photos later. (So you'll probably see these tulips again. And maybe others--I want to get one of the stripedy Rembrandt tulips and one of the ruffeldy Parrot tulips too.) I also want to take more on the big camera--this was sort of impromptu with the camera I could reach last night (the point-n-shoot).

April 20: Parking Lot Goose On Nest (x2)

2012-04-22T21:29:08Z

The Parking Lot Geese at the Metro station have returned--and they're breeding. I'm quite taken by this one who's made her nest on one of the grass strips in the busier part of the parking lot (though a rather remote corner of the busier part of the lot, if that makes sense). I parked a few feet away and didn't get out of my car for these pictures (and left before she seemed to be at all interested in me). I'm looking forward to the Parking Lot Goslings...I think it'll be a few weeks though (my research indicates ~28 days of incubation for the eggs).

April 17: Space Shuttle Discovery Flyover Day

2012-04-18T01:51:34Z

I've got a *bunch* of posts to make and may not get to them all today--but I figured I'd start with the most awesome and work my way through that way. Now that it's retired, Space Shuttle Discovery is being transferred from NASA to the Smithsonian Institution's Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum out near Dulles Airport. Most if not all of the large aircraft on display at Udvar-Hazy fly into Dulles then taxi over--it really is that close--so we figured that we'd be able to see it land at Dulles. We've been planning to attend the since we knew Discovery was going to the Smithsonian Institution and have had the date requested off work since there was an actual *date*. Today was that day. There were about 2000 people at Udvar-Hazy waiting to see the arrival. Before landing, the shuttle did a low-and-slow flyover of DC and some of the surrounding suburbs so people good get a good look at it--there were many thousands more on rooftops, bridges, the National Mall, etc. (I've seen one spectacular picture of some people standing on scaffolding surrounding the statue on top of the dome on the US Capitol building watching the shuttle go by.) The shuttle initially flew over Udvar-Hazy and Dulles before flying over DC. Then it came back and made another flyover at Udvar-Hazy before coming back a third time for its landing at Dulles. As it was going out of sight the third time there was an ovation for it in the crowd that we were in. It was spectacular! I was totally awestruck and overwhelmed. It was also quite bittersweet--we might have just watched the end of the US manned space program and that's unfortunate and sad. We took a picture of us, and I got a couple of Patrick, which normally I'd share--but you know what we look like and you may not have seen the space shuttle.

April 15: Jackie Robinson Day at Nationals Park (x5)

2012-04-18T02:07:50Z

In keeping with what is now an established tradition (yay!!), Patrick and I went to one of the games during the Nationals' home opening weekend. This year we went on Sunday for a variety of reasons, one of which is that every year Major League Baseball celebrates and honors Jackie Robinson on April 15 and we wanted to be there for that. All major league baseball teams have retired Robinson's number (42) in his honor, but on Jackie Robinson Day every player wears 42. Not just the players--everyone who wears a numbered jersey (coaches, the manager, and, in the Nats' case, their mascot) wears 42. It was muy cool, if a tad bit confusing at times. On Sundays the team also has a couple of players out signing autographs. Our choices were Craig Stammen (a right handed long reliever) and Gio Gonzalez (a newly acquired starter). We decided to get in line for Stammen because there was a chance he'd pitch that day. He was very nice--he signed my sketchbook (and I did a sketch of him on that page later) and our program book (in which we kept score). And he did come into pitch for a couple of innings, so that was totally cool. I also got a picture of Ryan Zimmerman at bat. Zim's is a home-grown National--recruited by the team and brought up through the farm system and now signed to a long-term contract with the team. (Which makes me so happy I could bust. I was going to be so sad if they traded him when he was so incredibly open about wanting to stay here.) And, naturally, I got a picture of the man who made the whole day perfect, my Patrick. :D