aquatic gardens

Keith by a lotus pond having a happy birthday

great flotilla of lavender blue water hyacinth was the first sight to greet us as we arrived at the Kenilworth Aquatic gardens in North East Washington DC.

female black swallowtail butterfly sipping nectar rarely sat still for a portrait

one of many beautiful water lilies in the ponds blooming

this blurry photo reminds me of the great stained glass artists John La Farge and

Louis Comfort Tiffany

Keith kneels to make photos by one of many ponds at the

Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens

This memorial holiday weekend Washington DC has had a perfect string of days after a hurricane Earl passed by at sea on Friday sweeping away the 90ºF heat wave for a while. All week I have been dreaming I wanted to go outdoors on the first day that wasn't going to get over 80ºF. Saturday was Keith's birthday I didn't want to dictate where we should go. I let him decide on his own and sure enough after 11 years together he chose the exact place I wanted to go on his special day. Kenilworth Aquatic Park and Gardens! We spent two hours strolling slowly with our cameras looking at the birds and flowers and the whole scene along the Anacostia river where the tides fill the marsh with river water then drain it nearly dry and back again.

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens is one of those out of the way places that takes a little navigating to find but once you are there it is heaven. US Parks runs it and does a pretty good job maintaining the 11 acres of ponds, wilderness trails and board walks. It is teaming with wildlife some native and some invasive making it a demanding job to keep under control . First I saw a large river muskrat rustling the dried lotus leaves to build something in one pond. Much later we spotted a beaver den not 15 feet from one of the boardwalks. The first bird we discovered was a small adult green heron in a shallow lily pond fishing. Keith and I both took some pictures of it moving along slowly on the hunt. Then we spotted a few turtles on a log sunning which reminded me of one I had as a pet in the 1960's.

Soon we saw there were bigger birds closer to the river. Canada geese were making a lot of romantic declarations. A great blue heron perched on a fallen tree in one channel while preening some blue gray feathers before it slipped into the water to fish. Finally from the board walk we saw several Snowy egrets also on perches and in the water hunting small fish. There are tad poles and minnows in all the ponds making it a great buffet for so many of these marsh birds I am sure it is a haven to them as well as for me. There were butterflies, eastern tiger swallowtails, black swallowtails like the female one seen above, a bunch of orange and brown smaller butterflies and the migrating wonder, orange and black Monarch were everywhere. Numerous dragon flies were hard to catch near enough to photograph clearly. It was a challenge to get perfect photos but the excursion was well worth the effort and one I would gladly repeat soon. I took 98 photos and haven't yet finished the editing but you will be able to see them in my flickr Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens set soon.

August 21st

rotunda of NGA

selecting flowers 

portrait of a young man by 

Corneille de la Haye, 

French, artist active 1534-1574

water and light

early bug collectors painting

fun with the camera

crisp reflections water

strawberry shortcake

favorite indoor fountain topped by mercury 

detail of another favorite painting's fine hands

Portrait of a Merchant, c. 1530

artisit Jan Gossaert, Netherlandish 1478-1532

I went with Keith to the National Gallery of Art for Lunch. We had a great meal and a delicious desert. Strawberry short cake as seen above. Something about the mix of the red strawberry sweet & tart, rich whipped cream, mixed with yellow sponge cake is so good this time of year. We played with our cameras all around the gallery and looked at books and enjoyed the water fountains and a few rooms of masters artworks. I discovered a small work of art in the Dutch wing who's subject was insects and I had to document that for comparison with my bug pictures posted here recently. I am not the only artist interested in bugs! I think this artist Jan van Kessel had to use pin down techniques to capture his insects. Later I found a theme in my photos on my birthday at the National Gallery of water and details. This began with my favorite fountain in the central rotunda. The sculpture of Mercury who was the messenger of the gods and represents the arts is posed so deftly on the ball of his foot, above the smooth sound of water falling over the edges of his big marble bowl. It is very relaxing to sit in that round room listening to the water fall as people pass. Other pictures of water and light reflecting were outside in huge pink stone bowls of falling water under the sun mixed with shade from Oak trees. The portrait of a young man caught my eye years ago and became a favorite painting. This picture is only about a foot tall in that architecturally detailed frame it is a very intimate view that to me, speaks about love of youthful innocence. I wish I could get a better photograph of the young man's portrait, but the NGA's website has a good close up if you follow the link. Artworks on the wall with highly varnished surfaces are very difficult to photograph. I don't use flash because it only reflects back off the mirror like surfaces of the paintings' varnish. I believe flash also harms pigments in paintings, so it is annoying to see others use flash.  Another painting I like is a Netherlandish portrait of a merchant and in that picture all the details are amazing. I shot the hands but again on the NGA website they have better pictures you can see it all in very fine detail. Keith let me go where and do what I wanted on my birthday with the proviso that we needed to drop by the farmer's  market at Penn. Quarter just a couple blocks from NGA at 8th and D Sts., NW so he could buy more locally grown flowers for his ikebana arrangements blog. I was delighted to go there and find more fun things to photograph. We brought home a nice batch of flowers including richly perfumed tuber roses and a type of bright green pod on a milkweed related plant that is new in floral arrangements. On  Sogetsuatelier.blogspot.com   Keith's blog, where he posts his ikebana arrangements you can see them in the first photo, today. Look for one tall sunflower and the fuzzy green pods below. Thanks to Keith and everyone who sent birthday wishes, gifts and to all my friends and family for a happy day. Back at home I watched an engaging costume historical Merchant Ivory film on cable after our trip to the gallery called The White Countess  while Keith was in ikebana class. If you like Merchant Ivory movies this was their last one before Ivory died.  When Keith got home from his class we topped the day off with a cold salmon dinner, more cake and gifts. August 21st, 2008 was a delightful 53rd birthday.