Dem Bones

Dem Bones

Dem Bones

With apologies to James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938), I present Dem Bones. In this case, they are (I assume) deer bones that I came across in the woods behind my office building. While yesterday’s picture was taken in the large lot north of my building, these were in a narrow piece of bottom land along a stream, to the west. I go down there now and then but much of the time it’s too we to walk through. With the heat we’ve been having I expected it to be dry but no such luck. It was mostly a boggy mess. These were just up hill from that and are probably the remains of a deer that was struck by a car but not killed immediately. It managed to get into the woods before succumbing to its injuries. Of course, that’s only conjecture. But there are the bones, regardless.

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Harmonia axyridis (Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle)

Harmonia axyridis (Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle)

Harmonia axyridis (Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle)

I went out into the woods beside my building today. When I started working here this property (actually, three separate parcels totaling about 17 acres) was mostly a field with occasional trees. Even as recently as 2011, when I started taking a picture a day for my initial Project 365, there were more open areas than what I’d consider woods. Over the course of the last five years it’s really grown up into a young woodland. I came across a Micrathena spider today but had a hard time getting any pictures and none of them were particularly good. Then I saw this little lady beetle (commonly known as a lady bird or lady bug) and was happy to be able to get a few good pictures of it. I’m pretty sure this is a multicolored Asian lady beetle and that’s what I’ve put in the title. I’ll make a correction here if I discover he’s something else.

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Dead Bumble Bee

Dead Bumble Bee

Dead Bumble Bee

Just over a month ago (June 24, 2016) I posted a picture of a dead wasp that I found on the floor of my office hallway. I liked the fact that I could get very close and use a long exposure (because it wasn’t alive and trying to get away from me) to get more depth of field than is usually possible with a live wasp. Today I was walking back from a meeting in another building and saw this dead bumble bee on the path. So, naturally (we’ve all done this, right?) I picked it up and brought it back to my office to get the ‘dead bee treatment.’ This exposure was 0.8 seconds at f/32.

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Origanum ‘Kent Beauty’

Origanum ‘Kent Beauty’

Origanum ‘Kent Beauty’

Per the Missouri Botanical Garden, Origanum ‘Kent Beauty’ “is a hybrid ornamental oregano (O. rotundifolium x O. scabrum) that is grown primarily for its attractive flowers and foliage.” Cathy has had some growing in our garden off and on for many years and we love its delicate, pink flowers, as well as the pale leaves. It’s not completely hardy here but makes it through all but the worst winters and grows quickly enough to be treated as an annual. We don’t use it for cooking for two main reasons: the leaves are not pungent enough for that and we have regular oregano growing in our little fenced herb garden.

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Battleground National Cemetery

Battleground National Cemetery

Battleground National Cemetery

Because our church meets at 4:00 p.m. we don’t have anything planned in the morning. This morning we went to church at Grace Meridian Hill at the corner of Monroe and 13th Streets N.W. in the District. On the way home we stopped at Battleground National Cemetery on Georgia Avenue (which is also US 29) between Van Buren Street and Whittier Place. It was established shortly after the Battle of Fort Stevens, in the summer of 1864 and is one of the United State’s smallest national cemeteries with the graves of 41 Union soldiers who died in the the Battle of Fort Stevens (there were a total of over 900 killed or wounded in the battle from both sides).

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Papilio glaucus (Eastern Tiger Swallowtail)

<em>Papilio glaucus</em> (Eastern Tiger Swallowtail)

Papilio glaucus (Eastern Tiger Swallowtail)

The buddleia is blooming and is attracting the fluttery insects in fairly substantial numbers. The most obvious, if not the most numerous, would have to be the eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus). There is generally at least one and on occasion two or three on the little bush at any time. There are also lots of bees, of course and the carpenter and bumble bees seem particularly attracted. I saw a hummingbird the other day and we’ve seen the occasional sphinx moth from our kitchen window. A happy time of year for viewing insects.

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A Small Basket

A Small Basket's Lid

A Small Basket’s Lid

I’m sorry to say that today’s photograph is mostly filler. I’m tempted to say all filler, because it’s not really much of a photograph. We have this little basket that’s been sitting on our mantle for a while now. I’m not entirely sure where it came from (and Cathy isn’t here right now for me to ask). Anyway, I took some close up pictures of it today and that’s all I have. This is the lid from the basket (which is also woven).

Actually, when I went to get them off my camera, I got a bit worried. I take the pictures from my camera and put them into directories with the date as part of their name. When I went to get pictures for July 22, there were none. I panicked briefly thinking I hadn’t taken any for today. But my computer and my camera don’t seem to be on the same page in terms of daylight saving time and the computer thought they were taken at 12:05 tomorrow morning. The time recorded by the camera within the image was correct, however, showing up as 11:05 PM today.

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Megachile sculpturalis (Sculptured Resin Bee)

<em>Megachile sculpturalis</em> (Sculptured Resin Bee)

Megachile sculpturalis (Sculptured Resin Bee)

I went out to photograph insects again this afternoon. It was hot out, but that’s when the bees, wasps, butterflies, and dragonflies are at their busy best. The first thing I saw was a four-toothed mason wasp (Monobia quadridens), a mostly black beast with very distinctive ivory markings. There was also a dragonfly out in the yard, which Brady identified for me as a female widow skimmer (Libellula luctuosa). But my favorite bee for the day is this sculptured resin bee (Megachile sculpturalis), which I think is quite pretty, in a stinging-insect sort of way. It is native to east Asia and was first reported in North Carolina in June, 1994 but has subsequently spread over the entire eastern half of the continental United States.

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Xylocopa virginica (Eastern Carpenter Bee, Female)

<em>Xylocopa virginica</em> (Eastern Carpenter Bee, Female)

Xylocopa virginica (Eastern Carpenter Bee, Female)

The bees and wasps are out in force and if it were not so hot, I’d be spending more time photographing them. I did go out a little early this evening and got a few pictures, including this one of a female eastern carpenter bee (Xylocopa virginica). This was taken with available light, so it’s not as sharp as and has less depth of field than I’d like, but it’s not a bad picture. You can see the bee’s dorsal ocelli, the three simple (single lens) eyes in the center of her face, just above the two antennae. I happen to think that bees and many insects are among the most beautiful creatures in the world. Of course, the same can be said for fish, birds, mammals, and other classes, so maybe I just like animals. And plants.

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Cloud

Cloud

Cloud

I was in south Rockville this evening, meeting the guys at Matchbox for dinner. I got there a little early and of course I had my camera with me. The sky was a really amazing blue and there were fluffy white clouds moving across it. Rather than take a picture of just a cloud, I decided to include a light post in the picture, hopefully breaking up the monotony at least a little. Still, it’s just a cloud on a beautiful blue sky. The pizza at Matchbox it killer, by the way, and paired with a vanilla porter, it was a wonderful meal.

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Flowers In The Rain

Flowers In The Rain

Flowers In The Rain

Some weeks I expect to have things to take pictures of but it works out that I don’t and I have to work to keep this thing going. Other weeks I somehow know ahead of time that it’s going to be busy and it’s going to be a struggle. This is one of those weeks. I don’t have a lot extra happening and in fact a couple days I don’t have anything after work, but I just have a feeling it’s going to be a dry week. This evening it rained, actually, so not dry in the literal sense. I love the colors of the garden in the rain. They are more intense when the sun isn’t so bright on them. This picture really doesn’t do it justice, but the yard looks nice right now. Unfortunately, the forecast is for hotter each day this week and approaching 100°F by the weekend. Not looking forward to that.

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Reflections

Reflections

Reflections

We had a nice long weekend away, tracking down some of Cathy’s family history. We also got to see some pretty sights, including the Delaware Water Gap, the Quiet Valley Living Historical Farm, three very different cemeteries, a train museum, and we even went to a coal mining museum. The Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour and Anthracite Heritage Museum were closed by the time we got there but we were able to walk around a little and saw such things as a 13,000 pound chuck of anthracite and the adit where tours go down into the old mine workings. If we’re ever back in Scranton, particularly if it’s as hot as it’s been this weekend, that should be high on our list of things to do.

This morning, I went down to breakfast early and then was back in our hotel room, doing a little writing in my journal. I opened the curtain just enough to give me a little light to work by and these four stripes appeared on the wall. The sun was reflecting off the windscreens of four cars parked outside and shining up through the hotel room window, which was covered with condensation, giving the light the speckled appearance you see here. I took this picture as an abstract, really. It has no real meaning, but I think it’s a pretty pattern.

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Union Pacific #4012

Union Pacific #4012

Union Pacific #4012

We spent today in Scranton, seeing the house where Cathy’s great, great, uncle lived and the church where his family were members. We also found family graves in two cemeteries. The highlight for Cathy, I think, was finding the death certificate (on microfilm) of her great, great grandmother in the Albright Memorial Library, which is a pretty amazing building.

After that we went to the Steamtown National Historic Site, where we enjoyed looking at old locomotives and other train cars. This is the Union Pacific’s locomotive #4012, a 4-8-8-4 Big Boy, among the largest and most powerful steam locomotives in the world. It is 132 feet, 10 inches long and with a loaded tender weights 1,189,500 pounds, yet it was capable of reaching speeds of over eighty miles per hour.

If you or your kids like trains, you could do worse than spending a half day at this place. Lots of nice equipment in the remaining portions of an old roundhouse. Recommended.

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The Eastburger

The Eastburger

The Eastburger

I’ve already posted a picture from today (two, actually) but I thought I’d post one more. We had a fairly long day of sitting in offices and then driving around, we saw some interesting things, and while at the Quiet Valley Living Historical Farm we got a call from Dorothy saying she was fine, in spite of what was going on in the city where she is living. We sent text messages back and forth until fairly late (which for her became fairly early the next morning). With all the running around, we never managed to stop for lunch.

So, in the evening, after the Historical Farm and a short stop back at our hotel, we went to the Trackside Station Grill & Bar in East Stroudsburg for dinner. I was pretty hungry and decided to go all out. I ordered the Eastburger, which is described on their menu as “Two 8oz Black Angus burgers, grilled cheese sandwich center, layers of lettuce, tomato, & beer battered onion rings, on a pretzel bun, served with house made honey mustard.” You had me at a pound of ground beef with a grilled cheese sandwich center.

To answer the obvious question, yes, I cleaned my plate.

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Family History Safari

Gilbert Cemetery - Thyme For Remembrance

Gilbert Cemetery – Thyme For Remembrance

As I mentioned in my last post, we went on what we decided to call (half jokingly) a ‘Family History Safari’ in northeastern Pennsylvania. Yesterday we drove up to Stroudsburg and visited the Delaware Water Gap. We enjoyed a quiet drive up the Old Mine Road through Worthington State Forest, on the New Jersey side of the river. Anyone who tells you New Jersey doesn’t have anything worth visiting has never been here. It was lovely, quiet, and peaceful. This morning we started with a visit to the courthouse to see if we could find any records about Cathy’s ancestors. We were sent to the archives but the archivist was out. After waiting a little while, we went to the local Historical Society office in the Stroud Mansion. Guess where the archivist happened to be? Yes, that’s right.

Merwinsburgh Hotel

Merwinsburgh Hotel

Cathy spent a while looking through old newspapers and I found some information on Pennsylvania’s 67th Regiment, in which her great, great, grandfather served. From there we drove to the little village of Gilbert, which you can literally miss by blinking (we did!). There we walked around the local cemetery and saw the church in which her great grandfather was baptized. We drove north from there to the old Merwinsburgh Hotel, where her great, great, uncle lived and worked for a time. Nothing earth shattering in terms of discoveries but a nice day.

We finished the day by spending about an hour and a half at the Quiet Valley Living Historical Farm, which was nice. While we were there I got a phone call from Dorothy saying she was fine. She wanted to let us know, so that when we saw the news we wouldn’t worry so much. We hadn’t been listening to the news so we didn’t know what was up, but shortly after that we started getting messages from friends asking if she was alright. She was.

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Delaware Water Gap

Delaware Water Gap

Delaware Water Gap

As I’ll illustrate tomorrow and the next day, Cathy and I went on a little ‘family history safari’ (Cathy’s words). She has ancestors and various relations who lived in the Stroudsburg and Scranton areas of northeastern Pennsylvania. She had some places she wanted to visit, including a few cemeteries, and so we took a couple days off work and this morning we headed up to Stroudsburg. We decided to do a little sightseeing, as well, so today we drove to the Delaware Water Gap, just a few minutes outside Stroudsburg. This is where the Delaware River cuts through the Appalachian Mountains and it’s a pretty spot on the river, if you ignore the roar of traffic from Interstate 80, that also takes this path (and I can’t say that I blame the highway folks from doing that, it makes a lot of sense). This picture was taken from the New Jersey side of the river, looking downstream with Pennsylvania on the far bank.

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Zinnia

Zinnia

Zinnia

I was over at Laurie and David’s house this evening and, as always, I stopped to smell the roses, metaphorically speaking. In particular, I got down on the ground to spend a little time up close with a few zinnias. Most people who know me well have found my lying on the ground in a garden at one time or another, or at least know it’s something I do. Paul and Janet got there while I was thus and commented on it. They weren’t particularly surprised to find me like that, though.

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Glitter

Glitter

Glitter

It was a slow day photographically. That happens fairly often, I suppose. This take-a-picture-a-day thing is great in theory. If I didn’t work or was able to get outdoors to different places every day, it would be a lot easier. As it is, my life isn’t all that interesting. Nine days out of ten there’s nothing of any note to photograph. Oh, taking pictures of flowers, insects, and the occasional sunset is all well and good but some days, even that doesn’t happen. So, I look around the house for something a little different. There was some glitter on the dining room table, left over from a recent baby shower (well, the ‘baby’ is 8, but whatever). So, that’s what I photographed. I like the fact that this one star-shaped piece is standing point down in the tablecloth. You can also make out the reflection of the tablecloth pattern in the center of the star.

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Chewed Stuffed Animals

Cathy and One of Her Old Stuffed Animals

Cathy and One of Her Old Stuffed Animals

After a day off and a beautiful wedding yesterday, we spent much of today going through things in Cathy’s mom’s shed. I took two more trips to the dump and we got through a lot of things. It isn’t exactly my idea of ‘vacation’ but a day off from work isn’t always about travel and seeing the sights. It needed to be done and it was good to do it. It was also good to be with David and Maggie, who leave tomorrow on the long drive home.

One thing that we had to do was go through a big, lidded basket filled with stuffed animals and dolls that belonged to Cathy. Unfortunately, the mice had already gone through the basket and most of the creatures inside were a little (in a few cases a lot) worse for the wear. There were one or two that even the mice wouldn’t touch, but for the most part, everything went to the dump. But I took pictures of Cathy with many of them as a remembrance. In the case of this picture, it’s a mouse that was totally disrespected by the other mice.

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Edy and Laurie

Edy and Laurie

Edy and Laurie

As I write this, it’s been a week since this picture was taken, but as always, I’m posting this with the date the photo was taken, not when it is finally put on-line. We had an absolutely wonderful time at the wedding of Laurie and Edy this evening. The ceremony and reception were both held at the Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, Virginia. We had never been there before but it reminds us quite a bit of Brookside Gardens, in Wheaton, Maryland, where we go often enough. In fact, seven years ago I met Laurie and her mom at Brookside Gardens to take some portraits for her graduation announcement. I know it’s cliche to say so, but it seems like only yesterday.

The wedding itself was lovely, under a mostly sunny, blue sky. Then, while the wedding party was involved in taking a few pictures, we were able to roam about the gardens a little while. This was taken as the bride and groom walked down towards a pond for a few more pictures.

It was also good to get caught up with Laurie’s sisters and her brother, who is heading off to college in the fall. Jack and Sue will be empty nesters for after raising five wonderful kids. Karlee and Nate will still be home from time to time, of course, and the others will visit, but this year will be an adjustment for them, as well.

Anyway, it was a lovely way to celebrate with a lovely couple and their families. We were honored to be invited and included in the festivities.

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