I Love Ferris Wheels
Originally uploaded by Karon
Retreating Glacier
Originally uploaded by Karon
Mendenhall Glacier started retreating in the mid-1700s because its annual rate of melt began to exceed its annual total accumulation. In the 1950s the ice was still all the way up to the point of land sticking out into the lake.
Sudden Shaft of Sunlight
Originally uploaded by Karon
Don’t you just love it when you are lining up a shot and suddenly you have a brief shaft of sunlight.
Sometimes it is good to walk home in the rain
Originally uploaded by Karon
Cathedral Illumination
Britt, Erica and I caught the first night of the National Cathedral “Lighting to Unite” illumination show tonight. It is absolutely gorgeous and runs from sunset to midnight tonight, Saturday and Sunday so there is time to see it. I suspect it is less crowded if you go after the families have left to put the kids to bed.
One of the reasons I like where I live
The courtyard of the part of the complex where I live is planted with dogwood trees. My kitchen and living room windows look out over flowers this time of year.
Dawn at the Tidal Basin
I was at the Tidal Basin before 7am today to photography the cherry blossoms. Sunrise is lovely but the effort it takes to get up that early just convinces me more than ever that I am not a morning person. It did turn out to be nice if rather overcast and I never needed the umbrella I had brought with me. The lighting really wasn’t very good for photos the first couple hours thanks to overcast skies except for about a wonderful 10 minute stretch where the sun came out from the clouds and hit the Jefferson memorial beautifully. I think the whole morning will be worth the photos I got then.
I was interviewed by the Weather Channel. Or Channel 7 doing interviews for the Weather Channel. Not sure which. But we had a nice chat about the trees and how it wasn’t quite yet peak thanks to the cooler weather the last few days and they they took some close up shots of me taking photos for the “B roll”. I assume I was coherent but it was still really, really early so I’m not entirely sure.
Another benefit of being there at such an ungodly hour was I had the Jefferson Memorial to myself for a few minutes. By the time I got around to the Roosevelt Memorial the tour buses of high school kids were out in force. But the sun came out then and for the last stretch of the circle around the basin I even had blue skies. I was stopped by two family groups and asked to take photos of them. That is about average.
The plan after the tidal basin was to have a big breakfast at Les Halles or that restaurant at the Willard. However it was after 11am so I went for the steak frites lunch special at Les Halles. The plan was also to go over to the garden behind the Smithsonian castle but I was absolutely beat. I couldn’t figure out why I was so tired when it was only 1pm until it hit me that I had already been downtown over six hours and covered almost five miles. Tomorrow is a busy day so I came home and had a nap on the couch. This made the cats very happy.
Now I am awake and starting to dig through all the photos I took.
Happy Easter
Originally uploaded by Karon
Thanks to egg sleeves I picked up in the wonderful gift shop at HIllwood, I have fancy hardboiled eggs for lunches this week. The Palekh style ones are lovely but I particularly like the creepy big-eyed waifs holding icons.
It was another lovely Hillwood tour on Saturday even if the weather wasn’t great for touring the gardens. There were a few more people in our tour group than usual thanks to a docent shortage. One docent had become suddenly ill. Another docent, the native Russian speaker, had to be pulled to do a private tour for the Russian Cultural Minister. He showed up without letting anyone know he was coming over. HIllwood has one of the largest Russian art collections outside Russia so I expect this must happen often to them.
SPRING!!!
Originally uploaded by Karon
Yay, spring is here. I don’t know why this winter has bothered me so considering it was rather mild but I have been anxiously awaiting spring. Seeing the trees blooming in front of Whole Paycheck made my day Friday night so I walked over Saturday afternoon to get some shots.