I had an interview for a position with the Green Business Council in the next county over today. After my interview (which I think went pretty well, but who knows), I went to the historic part of the county seat, Ellicott City.

Ellicott City was founded in 1798 and was originally a mill (I believe a grain mil) and was home to the first railway station in America (on the B&O Line). The old part of town is really neat--though my favorite aspect of it was not the part people typically go there for.

Main Street is lined with row-buildings, which are now homes to many many a Quainte Shoppe--more antique stores than you can shake a stick at, boutiques selling upscale clothing, boutiques selling upscale pet accessories (seriously, it was called "Yuppy Puppy"), boutiques selling neat handcrafted stuff "to show the sparkle inside"--and some restaurants and cafes. I didn't pay a lot of attention to the Quainte Shoppes (though I did eat lunch at a very cool tavern), I'm afraid. Some of the original signs for the original shops (or organizations) are still around--though the storefronts are now occupied by different Shoppes. My favorite of those was for Center Lodge--apparently an old fraternal organization

Visually, it just had so much neat stuff going on. One of my favorite things was the juxtaposition of lovingly restored and maintained old buildings rubbing shoulders (or backs) with buildings equally old but less cared for (though still occupied and in use). I also loved the narrow little alleys with stairs between stone buildings (some vine covered). And the way the buildings layered vertically as well as horizontally--Main Street runs along a narrow valley (a creek that runs to a river at the bottom of Main Street) so anywhere off Main Street is, essentially, *above* it and one can look across to the buildings (houses, churches, etc) on the other side, while still seeing the ones at your level and the tops of the ones on Main Street. That's a terrible description--look at the second picture again. :D

The picture of the cairn of rocks in the middle of the river is also from Ellicott City--well from the Patapsco River that is at the bottom end of Main Street. I have no idea why, or how, someone went out into the river to make a cairn of rocks like that. I do know that the river (and Ellicott City) flooded pretty badly during the hurricanes in September (Irene and Lee, which did nothing but drop insane amounts of rain around here). So presumably someone has gone out since then to create that cairn.

Huh.

The last picture is of a rhododendron (or azalea, I'm bad at telling them apart) growing outside our building. For some reason, about two weeks ago it developed a few sporadic flowers. Yeah, in November. In the last day or two the leaves have changed color from a sort of sallow green to orange-brown-gold-green. It ought to look hideous with the pink-mauve flowers. But somehow it doesn't.

I looked at the second pic for a while. Your description is perfect. The rock cairn fascinates me...I've got to give that stone stacking a try! Interestingly, my friend stabeez posted this today.. I'd go with rhod'ron on that flower. It's very pretty. Good luck with the job! Keryl · 2011-11-15: 21:45

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