Katie, Ellen, Jenny, and Jessie
These are four of Dorothy’s friends, Katie, Ellen, Jenny, and Jessie.
Tagged With: Rock Creek
Youth Band Practice
Youth Band Practice
The (mostly) youth band practices to an empty room. With the loss of last year’s seniors, the youth band had had to rely on a few adults to fill some gaps.
Youth Reunion
Youth Reunion
Four of Dorothy’s friends went off to college this fall. She’s seen three of them a few times since then but Hannah Marie Roop went too far to come home for a weekend. We’ll she’s here for Thanksgiving and her parents let here have some of her friends over to see her this evening. A couple had left by the time I took this and two more came after I did, but this is as complete a group picture as I got. There was considerable laughter and much joy.
Rock Creek After a Rain
Rock Creek After a Rain
It rained quite hard over night and into this morning. When I got to work, the drainage pond next to my building was full to the overflow. It was a busy day, though, and I wasn’t able to get out and take any pictures. On the way home I stopped and walked a little by Rock Creek. It wasn’t as high as it would have been this morning but still quite swollen. Also, this is just downstream from Lakes Needwood and Frank, which act as a flow limiter to the stream below them. The stream, seen hear over a fallen tree, is usually about three feet lower than this, though, so it’s still quite high (for a little stream).
Categories: Miscellaneous
Tags: Rain, Rock Creek, Streem, Water
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Cathy
Cathy
Last year I posted my final photo-a-day photo after ten years of taking at least one picture every day. That photo, like the first ten years earlier, was of Cathy on a walk we took on the North Branch Rock Creek, leaning against a large sycamore tree. We actually took the same walk today, a year later. The Kengla trail runs from the Kengla House, which is across the street from the entrance to Meadowside Nature Center, north to and under the Intercounty Connector (the ICC, MD 200). There it meets the Rock Creek trail, which crosses the creek. We took the right hand side—we didn’t cross the creek—and followed that up a side creek past a large drainage pond to the Norbeck Meadows Neighborhood Park, between Valley Forge Drive and Custis Drive, both off of George Washington Drive, a little further than we went on last year’s walk. It’s a nice walk and fairly easy.
Cathy
Our favorite spot is a small side creek that has two, very large sycamores growing on the bank, with the creek going between them. The photo of Cathy I posted on December 31 last year was taken there and took a few more of her there again today. The first of them is Cathy just above where the two trees are and the second is standing next to the tree on the southern side of the small creek. I’m pretty pleased with them both.
This year has been a challenge and I don’t think I need to elaborate on why. The restrictions imposed in response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic have become quite tiresome. We continue to work mostly from home, although we both go to the office now and then. I try to shop for groceries early on Sunday morning when the store is least crowded (not least because I simply dislike crowds). We have tried to get out and walk as much as possible and did that most weekends. We also managed to get away for a few days, as you may remember from early October. We’re surviving, obviously, but there are times when we just want to take a break from it all. Nevertheless, we continue to soldier on as best we can. Here’s to a better year in 2022.
God bless you all.
Rhododendron periclymenoides (Pinxsterbloom Azalea)
Rhododendron periclymenoides (Pinxsterbloom Azalea)
After work Cathy and I went for a walk on the northwest branch of Rock Creek. The wild pinxsterbloom azaleas (Rhododendron periclymenoides) are in bloom. That’s what’s shown here. Unlike the Glenn Dale hybrid azaleas, which is what most people think of in terms of Azaleas, at least in our area, none of our native azaleas are evergreen. The flowers are also a bit different, but that’s not a bad thing, either. I think native as well as other non-evergreen azaleas should be used more than they are. I’ve got two Exbury azaleas and if I had more space, I’d have more.
Categories: Flowers and Plants
Tags: Azalea, Native Plants, Pinxsterbloom Azalea, Rhododendron, Rhododendron periclymenoides, Rock Creek
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