Saturday out for arts

 A trip to the movies with my partner Keith Stanley weekend before last was to a great Artist film about an artist I didn't care much about but was curious to learn more. It was to see Mr. Turner and the friends who said it's a must see were right it was full of stuff I love, drama, costumes, historic settings and in this case the story of a painter who had a big impact on artists who have followed him.  It's nominated for Oscars and even without that was an educational experience full of beautiful cinematography.

After the movie we went for lunch at our favorite downtown tea house called Teaism where they serve all sorts of teas and Asian influenced foods. We both enjoyed a heaping plate of Korean Beef Barbecue with brown rice and a Chinese Cabbage salad followed by a Salty chocolate pecan oatmeal cookie! Too good so it's a good thing we walked six miles over 12,000 steps around downtown before the movie and after lunch. 

Teaism has great big Koi fish in a pond at the base of the lower level stairs that always want to come greet anyone who comes near their home. After we said hello I suggested we continue down the block and go see some real Turner paintings at National Gallery of Art just a couple blocks away. My favorite Turner in the collection of about six is this one of a moon lit night showing a pier and port where coal ships delivered coal from the mines of United Kingdom to London. 

detail of the lower right corner of the full painting above. 

If you get a chance to see it in a theater it's going to be better than on a small screen with all the spectacular Turner like skies...

Walk at Fort Totten

Sunday morning early we got up and drank our coffee and donned our warm clothes to go for a nature walk in local National Park Fort Totten a Washington DC, Civil War era ring dirt fortress that is now mostly forest. We had planned to meet a tour that a local geologist and botanist were leading but I got the meeting place wrong in my head somehow thinking we were suppose to meet at the Metro station... We never did find them but we couldn't help enjoying the woods on our own while looking around on trails we hadn't explored hoping to run into them. We both took our cameras and just hiked the length of the park and down over the hill towards the rail road tracks. Exploring and enjoying the trees and sunshine.

 When we walked up the hill from the metro station to the edge of Ft. Totten road and the beginning of the long strip of woods that makes up the park we found a first trail into the woods edged with white flowers I believe are snake root. They are showy and are available in nursery for home gardens. The wind was blowing the around so this close up shot is blurry because they were waving in the breeze as my camera shutter snapped.

Once we got into the woods we saw these tall single stalked goldenrods blooming in the dry sandy soil along the edges of the trail. It was mostly distributed near where the forest edge opened to the fields of the park grounds. 

One of them had a big bumble bee sitting on having a nectar meal and maybe collecting some of that nice yellow pollen. Also in these trail pictures notice those stones that cover the way. They are gray and white river stones deposited eons ago on top of this high hill in NE Washington DC. 

High overhead we heard and saw the red napped woodpecker calling and drilling for food in the dead tree branches. I used the zoom to capture a record of our sighting at the fort park. A matching woodpecker was on the tree next to my window at home one morning recently and here is a closer look. Same bird right?

 We made our way to a new area we hadn't explored down the hill as it turns out not the best area to walk since we are allergic to the native poison ivy and we saw a lot of it mixed in the edges of the trail plants with invasive English ivy. The trees in the park are huge and very tall so much that it hurt my neck to look up at them hunting for leaves to identify them. There were areas where the forest floor was covered with little seedlings of oak seedlings.

This shot is looking back up the hill we descended on our walk from the top to the bottom across behind the transfer station.

This is the large leaf magnolia we later learned is an American tree that has moved north in recent years finding homes in new forests delivered by bird carrying seeds to the new warmer climate here. 

At the bottom of the hill were a lot of toppled trees long gone towards bare wood and ready for decaying to take them back to the earth. A squirrel was scampering over them as we walked by and posed for a portrait briefly. 

Finally on top of the hill again we notice this interesting lichen growing on the leaf littered floor it was a brightly colored series of browns and yellow gold surrounded by new growth that looks like Japanese "invasive" honey suckle vine and blue and huckle berry.

Sunday at the Arboretum

 For a walk today on this beautiful Sunday we took a picnic and walked the woods and meadows of US National Arboretum. We parked in the lot by the collection of State's trees and headed down an abandon roadway into a meadow at the edge of a wood and soon up the hill into the forest.

 Spotted off in the woods an orange lichen growing like a big flower on the forest floor and the soft green mosses were smooth and velvety. Sassafras one of our favorites to identify as kids, due to the odd shape leaves and the bright red orange color that comes early in late summer known also for digging the roots to make a tea. Then near that was a dogwood turning red too.

Snake root flowers white at the edge of the forest floor 

 Red viburnum berries were spectacularly red and the leaves had great visual texture.

White wood asters were plentiful and blooming

 The pretty dark green leaves of spotted wintergreen or dragon's tongue were going to seed in a bed of fern like moss. 

We make our way to the visitors center to sit down and enjoy our picnic sandwiches and cold ice water and a break at the necessary room. From there we headed out to the formal knot garden and sniffed a few leaves of scented sages and geraniums. Admired the orange rose hips and then on to the view of the big meadow with the Capitol columns 

Children have lots of room to run and play here safely as you can see these three toddlers were making the most of the open space. parents were nearby under a big shade tree on a blanket relaxing with their picnic baskets. 

The sun was warm but not too hot and the air was too. It was a lovely two hour visit and I look forward to seeing the leaves on all those great trees turn in the coming weekends of autumn.

quilts, birthdays, walks and what not.

Quilting by hand, little by little carefully to save myself misery. That misery always comes if one does too much hand work in one sitting and it is a lesson I learn, then forget and have to learn again.  Over Labor day weekend I got carried away and after putting a recently completed improvisational pink and neutrals top together I began quilting with a mad abandon. It was so exciting to be trying something new. The batting was new, a mix of organic cotton and bamboo fiber which is very soft and drapes very nicely, much more so than just cotton batting I have used before. The other exciting thing was trying some spiral in the design of my quilting. Up until now most of my quilting has been variations using straight lines in diagonal or grid patterns. This set me on a roll and I got carried away. I didn't check how much time I spent bent over layering the quilt then drawing on the top and quilting the spiral. So I had to hang it up for a while and ice my neck to reduce the swelling.  I was lucky it was Keith's birthday last week and we had lots of things to do besides sit and quilt because it is a kind of addiction once I get on a roll. The birthday fun gave my neck and arm which were very aggravated a chance to rest.

Being 49 and turning 50 is a big deal, kind of like hitting 30 is for a 29 year old only different and since I am beyond that and marching quickly towards my 60th I understand that Keith was feeling a little anxious about his future. We decided to do what we love doing the best together to celebrate his big day. We packed up our gear and went for a hike and picnic out in nature. I wanted him to see the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens this summer and that is what he decided we should do for his big day. It was warm and we were covered in head to toe protection from the sun's harmful rays, the mosquito and tick bites, as well as the most dreaded poison ivy rashes. 

 You can see he was rather weighted down with his big zoom lens and that bag which carried essential things like lunch and water. So when we got home we were both hot and stripped off all that stuff to cool down and enjoy the delicious chocolate buttercream iced cake from Whole Foods and tall glasses of iced water with a mountain of gifts for him to  unwrap.

One special gift I gave him is a new orange patchwork coptic bound journal I made into which he may make notes on turning 50 or what ever he decides to write. I think he deserves to have a big smile for being such a great partner all these 15 years we have been together. Bookbinding is another one of those hand made projects that has to be done a little at a time to keep from aching pains. Next weekend I take these 4 hour glass quilt blocks I made to the charity sewing day at DC Modern Quilt guild's next meeting. That is where they will be assembled into a quilt for a homeless kid. This is just one of 100 quilts for Kids challenge. I am looking forward to seeing what the rest of the blocks look like when they all come together in Heather's Hourglass quilt.