walks I like

Keith and I have been walking daily. Before he left to visit family we took an extra long walk and reached a goal I had dreamed about achieving a couple months ago. We walked all the way over to the St. Paul's Rock Creek Parish Cemetery at the top of a big hill. Across the street from the Old Soldier's Home and a U. S. National Cemetery full of Civil War era and the great war graves it seemed like a long long distance up a steep hill at first. Now I can walk up there without much duress in about 20 minutes from home. It has been especially nice this week to go after rainstorms which we have been blessed to have plenty of this week making flower garden watering easier. I like the smells of the wet pine needles and that damp earthy smell of the woodlands all along the way.
I have a few photos to share from my last walk up that way Friday evening.

In side the old soldiers home compound is also the site of a little Victorian gingerbread cottage that the President Lincoln's family used during the summers to get out of the hot swampy downtown area where the white house is located. The summer cottage is not visible from the street but it is open during the day for visitors who have ID so I am planning to make that a trip for one of my walks this summer to get inside and hear what they have to say about the history.
I have walked inside the fenced Soldiers home's 320 acre compound during December's Christmas bird count and it is massive but from the outside it looks very strange to see the old fences as barriers to a part of the city. The good news is it becomes a wildlife refuge from traffic and noise with lots of trees and understory growth. So it is like the Catholic University 180 acre lot on the other side of North Capitol street, off limits without special permission, but with a lot of green space that makes our neighborhood nice. I enjoy a walk  along the edges and I know I can get in if I wanted to go count birds in Dec. again.

gate keeper's house at the cemetery 

Soldier's home perimeter fence 

one of the white marble buildings in the compound of Soldiers home 

Victorian gate keeper's house Soldier's home