57 and counting

Limenitis arthemis astyanax on the green brier leaves in the woods! 

 This is my 57th Birthday and it's a typical August day. Heat is building and rain storms are possible later as it peaks a down pour is possible. I was lucky to have a cooler day this past Saturday to go with Keith to the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens for an afternoon of walking and photographing and a picnic lunch... I took about 45 photos and it took me three days to get them and my other daily pictures edited. I am going to load them up on my flickr.com pages for those who want to take a look. But here is a sample of the things we saw.

asclepia the swamp milkweed flowering (we have some in our garden too!)

the tide was out and so the muddy flats are exposed

lotus pod with leaf

Look closely for the frog!

Keith with the zoom lens and lunch in his shoulder bag 

a quick self portrait with the marsh background

the mud when the water is gone shine in the bright light

the Anacostia river banks have stone walls along the edges

Anacostia River isn't so wide but looks like it could have been a great place to swim years ago

black and blue butterfly that posed was a high point on the forest walk. 

we even had a face to face with this faun who soon high tailed it off into the marsh 

It was a great day to be out in nature. We are fortunate to have this national park less than five miles from our home. It's a shame we missed the peak bloom of the lotus flowers but the pods and late bloomers are always worth the trip and the creatures were delightful to see not all of them posed for the cameras.

I also received a box from my pal Betsy Kidder for my birthday. It came early and is loaded with 25 years worth of the letters I have written and sent to her a few other choice gifts for quilting and art making. I found these photos of us together back in 1995 when I was on chemo therapy for Kaposi's Sarcoma and expecting my life to be over soon, who knew I would still be here to celebrate 57 all these years later! I am looking forward to re reading the stories I wrote over these crazy years of fighting for my life and pursuing my creative dreams.
Betsy lives on the beautiful Ipswich River and tidal marsh next to the Atlantic Ocean. I was there a few years ago for a birthday and it is a magical place to be this time of year in New England.

1995 Betsy and Frederick 17th St. NW Washington DC. 

We became good friends at Pratt Institute Brooklyn NY in the 1970's where we both majored in Printmaking fine arts.

To top off my birthday week I also finished the piecing of my Rose Star Quilt and now am ready to begin the quilting of it with batting and a backing cloth. It means I can begin to play with new designs and patterns on my quilting felt wall which is very exciting after 8 months of working on this one project. I took a couple photos of the back of the quilt top laid out on our living room Asian carpet. If you look carefully and blow up these photos you will see many of the paper pieces are still in place. I have since removed them all but the edges.