These are some cheeses (from England, France, Holland, and Maryland, along with some “fresh” Kielbasa (can you even say that?) from the Kielbasa Factory in Rockville. I love aged foods. Perhaps I should have added a glass of red wine to this. Actually, I served four of the cheeses but substituted soppressata for the kielbasa, which is better heated.
Forsythia
The forsythia in our back yard started blooming today. It’s a day or two behind the bushes in our neighbor’s yard because it’s not in as much sun, but it’s still nice and bright when in bloom.
Rapid Oxidation of Wood
Also known as combustion. Fire, if you will. My mom went with me to the farm this afternoon and we pruned some plum trees, cutting out black-knot (see Project 365 Extras). We burned the cut branches and this is from that fire.
Maple Flowers
These are tiny flowers, with stamens about a centimeter long. They are the flowers of a maple of some sort (I think) and they were beautiful in the afternoon sun.
The First Scilla
The white crocuses and this white squill started blooming yesterday. The binomial is Scilla mischtschenkoana which has to be in the running for the word with the most consecutive consonants. Anyway, it’s a pretty little thing. Some daffodils started blooming today, but I can only post one picture here, so you’ll have to wait. I have a feeling you’ll be getting sick of my flower pictures before too long.
T-Bone
There really isn’t a lot to say about this picture. Benton is a little over a year old and is quite the little bruiser. Awfully cute, though.
Flags at Half Staff
In honor of Frank Buckles flags were flown at half staff today. This one is at the U. S. Naval Academy in Annapolis Maryland. To all of our brave men and women in uniform, I thank you.
Hat With a Hat
When she was in graduate school, my mom made this bust of her classmate and friend, Hat (and Hat made a bust of my mom). Anyway, she was using it to display one of my grandmother’s old hats. So, this is Hat With a Hat.
Lani and Adam
What a treat it was to visit with Adam and Lani today. Seth is as cute as ever and his little sister Adelyn is from the same mold. There’s a picture of Seth in Extras, as well.
Crocuses
If snowdrops signal the end of winter, then crocuses signal the beginning of spring for me. None of the bulbs planted last fall have started to come up yet but that’s usual. Those planted two years ago are coming up and these, which were planted in the fall of 2006, are looking good.
Cathy at Great Falls
Picking a picture for today was made more difficult by the fact that I took over 350. Still, this captures the feel for the day pretty well. After taking pictures for the fourth grade at school, Cathy and I decided to go to Great Falls. I actually ran out of “film” (I have an 8 GB card and it will hold about 335 images).
Rain
That’s pretty much the word for the day. It rained all day, sometimes softly, sometimes quite hard. This is the brake light of the car in front of me (stopped at a light — we’re not moving, don’t worry), through the rain on my windscreen. Need to turn on der drizzleflippen.
Youth Band
The youth band played at X-Factor last night (and did a great job, by the way). Dorothy was the lead vocalist. In kindergarten and first grade she wouldn’t go up front with her class for anything. Admittedly, this is a very friendly audience. Still, we’re proud of our girl. And she sounded great!
Rushing Water
After the rain on Sunday the stream in the field next to my office was high. It was still high today (and the ground was very wet). I took quite a few pictures of moving water and like this one best.
Ducks
It rained all day yesterday, sometimes quite hard. When we woke up this morning there was a light dusting of snow on parts of the lawn. When I got to work, the small pond between my building and the next was much enlarged by the rain.
Chandelier
We stopped at a lighting store in Rockville today. It was raining very hard and the light from this chandelier through the water soaked windscreen was beautiful. The chandelier is slowly turning, which made the lights move and sparkle.
Dried Tomato Skin
I was out cleaning out my vegetable garden today and found this old, dried out tomato skin, which I thought looked pretty cool, in an old, dried out sort of way. Some days I feel a little like this.
Moss Sporophytes
18 Markers
This is a set of 18 colored markers that Dorothy got somewhere or other. I really like the bright colors.



















