Make Way for Ducklings, Virginia-style

Who remembers that childhood book about the momma duck and her little ones in Boston.  Last Thursday Joe and I were driving to National Airport [I refuse to use the new name] and found that traffic had halted on the 4-lanes where my street, Washington Blvd., crossed over I-66.  Was there a traffic accident?  Had that bus broken down?  If so, why weren't the cars behind it passing?  As we got closer, I saw a mallard duck (female) in the road, scooting from the center line back toward the curb.   Then:  Ducklings!  She was encouraging her 11 little fluffies that it is okay to walk on this non-grassy hard thing . . . "just follow me".  And so they did, with the help of a large man who had stopped all the cars in my lane. 

Momma had no trouble crossing and then hopping up on the curb.  But the curb was twice the height of the little ones.  They walked toward my car - hoping, I suppose, for a break in the "wall".  Eventually with Momma's encouragement the duckling leader gave a great leap and flapped his tiny undeveloped wings, scrabbled with his little feet and made it over the curb.  And so the rest followed, and onward they went, across the sidewalk, under the guardrail, and down the grassy slope on the other side.  And we drove on toward the airport.  Here are three photos of the adventurous ducklings.

City Alien? What's that?

On a recent quiet Sunday, Joe and I went to the National Gallery  of Art's East Building.  There are two exhibits of interest right now.   The first is paintings, woodcuts, etchings, sculptures by Paul Gauguin, made during his years in the South Pacific.  The second is the video work of Nam June Paik; they are in the Tower, which is difficult to find - appropriate, I think, because I find his work inaccessable. 
But that's beside the point.  On the walk to the East Building we passed by a large canopy erected on the Mall.  Beneath the canopy were chairs and tables, college age women and men, and things.  The things were electronic - no, robotic! and the three-wheeler in the image was rolling merrily around, turning, reversing, forward, left, right, as commanded by a young man with a remote control device.  What I loved about this was not just that it reminded me of one of the Star Wars robots, but also that the shiny dome is reminiscent of Anish Kapoor's "Cloud Gate" [a/d/a "the bean"].  And the most playful addition is the appropriately-personalized license plate.

PS:  Look at the shiny dome - the large canopy is reflected on the right side.

National Volunteer Week and Garlic Mustard



Canada Goose and the Potomac River



Spring Beauty - really; that's its name.





So what do National Volunteer Week and Garlic Mustard have in common?  And what on earth is garlic mustard? 

Well, it is a plant, one that shoots up in early Spring.  It has a pretty flower, less than 1/2 inch across, 4 white petals; leaves are more or less heart-shaped and a bit serrated.  After blooming the plant dies away but can return year after year.   It spreads by seed and can produce up to 1,000 seeds.  The seeds can lie dormant for up to 5 years.  In addition its roots emit a toxin that kills the roots of adjacent plants.  Garlic mustard is an very invasive plant that is really very nasty  In other words, this plant will overtake and kill all the wildflowers that make Spring woodlands so interesting.  Here's what it looks like:

This plant is easy to uproot, as the roots grow more or less sideways and are shallow.  It is the ONLY good thing about this plant!  Although someone said you could make garlic mustard pesto. 

Next:  National Volunteer Week.  By Presidential Declaration, the week of April 10 through April 16, 2011 is National Volunteer Week.  So the C & O Canal Association's chairman of the Volunteers-in-the-Park committee organized groups of volunteers to yank out garlic mustard plants at specific places in the C & O Canal National Historical Park.   (The Park is 185 miles long so that's a lot of sites.)    I was one of 7 people who spent 2.5 hours at Carderock yesterday afternoon filling plastic sacks with this nasty invasive plants.   My back ached for the rest of the day.  But I slept very very well, thank you.





Disappointed?

Plans for a nice holiday in the Dominican Republic are over.  Cholera incident at our resort (Casa de Campo) and a colleague of my daughter-in-law who returned last week from there with cholera.  We were traveling with son, daughter-in-law, her dad and stepmom, and most precious of all, our 2-year-old grandson.  We adults could easily have handled the risk and taken the few precautions (bottled water only, no uncooked food, etc).  But not the child.  Too much concern about him touching everything - floor, doorknobs, furniture - and putting his fingers in his mouth.  So I cancelled my plane reservations and now have five days with nothing planned.  Not sure how I want to handle them, but there we are.  I think the biggest disappointment is for my son, who planned all of this around his birthday (Feb. 21) which this year is also President's Day holiday.  He's had to scramble to find another warm-climate resort at the last minute on a holiday weekend.  I wish him well.

White's Ferry, in Maryland

Once upon a time the best way to cross a river was by ferry.  In the 19th century the C & O Canal Company put out of business more than a few ferry companies that crossed the Potomac River between Maryland and Virginia.  Upstream from Washington, DC there were Edwards' Ferry, Spink's Ferry, Noland's Ferry, White's Ferry.  White's Ferry is the only public ferry left. 
Today was spectacularly beautiful out at White's Ferry.  The sun shone as best it can on these wintry days, and the sky was pale and beautifully blue.  A good day for a long walk on the C & O Canal towpath with friends.  There were just 8 of us:  Pat, Barbara, Bill, Linda & Tom, Debra, Laura, and me.  We started at White's Ferry and walked upstream about 3 miles, ate a little something, and turned about and walked back.  The ferry is iced in and not running right now - which must be a real pain for those commuters who cross the state line to drive to work.
Here's a few photos, and a link:


a bit of history

 

The  General Early is iced in and stuck for a while.



Rivers have a bad habit - they flood; note the height of the three most famous floods.

For some history, Wikipedia has a short one, including reference to a few of the recent times the ferry was shut down.  Reading that list, I'd avoid crossing in early December:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White's_Ferry
I drove home via Canal Road to Chain Bridge just to see what the skaters were up to.  And there they were - several hockey games in progress.  Little people and big people all playing together, and more arriving as I stood there.



Skaters and shadows on the C and O Canal at Chain Bridge, DC



Wintertime blahs

I think that when I was much younger, winter didn't get to me as much as it does now.  It's not just the cold, all the time cold.  It's also the short days, waking up in the dark, and darkness returning in late afternoon. 
I spent a week on an island in Southwest Florida, at Sanibel.  I was warm there.  The days weren't much longer - sun rose about 7:15 am and set about 5:35pm. 

But the midday warmth made all the difference.  And the warmth slows things down, including people, who are warmed up and friendly.  The friendliness begins with a joke at the Chamber of Commerce.

There's a beach there.  It's not groomed, ever, except for the guy in the truck who drives on the beach and picks up pig knuckles (crabbers use them for bait and they wash up with the tide).  The beach has no lights, so no one's there at night except stargazers.  The reason is because on summer nights sea turtles crawl up the beach and lay their eggs in the dunes. Then 35-40 days later the baby turtles burst from their shells and scamper back to the sea, at night.   Lights would disorient them and they'd go the wrong way.  But why is the beach not groomed?  I couldn't get an answer to that.  But here's what it looks like.  Some of that stuff is red-brown macroalgae washed up in the storms a week before, but most of it is shells.  Lots and lots of large pen shells, many white scallops and small whelks and others that I cannot name.



Despite what it looks like, this is not man-made trash.  It's mostly large shells and macroalgae washed in by storms.



A funny beach creation has pen shell goatee, scallop shell nose, barnacle-crusted sunglasses, and macroalgae hair.

And there are always shell seekers walking on the sand or in the low tide shallows.  I've joined them, and brought home sacks of shells.  But I don't do anything with them.  They just stay in their sacks.

Ardent sheller at early morning low tide

Also shore birds galore.  Long-legged willetts, three kinds of gulls, and there are terns and little tiny things that scoot along just at the edge of the waves, stitching back and forth so quickly their legs disappear.

And in the wildlife refuge or out on Tarpon Bay, I see great large birds - cormorants and egrets and herons and the wonderful white pelicans.

cormorants and white pelicans share one of the oyster shell bars in the bay

And at the end of the day, the sun goes down behind the palm trees.

Bayou Bakery brings back memories

 There's a new restaurant in Arlington.  The Bayou Bakery has been open about 3 weeks now, near the Arlington County Courthouse.  The wonderful thing about this place is that it serves New Orleans style food.  The chef grew up in New Orleans, and knows what makes authenticity.  The website's opening page brought back such memories:  It shows fresh beignets.  http://bayoubakeryva.com/index.html

Joe and I, many years back, had headed for New Orleans.   He knew the city well. I'd never been south of the Potomac River in Maryland.   We left Chicago in March on the night train - there was snow and ice on the sidewalk along with an ace of spades playing card as we walked to the train station.  The following morning we entered Mississippi, where the sun shone and flowers bloomed.  We arrived in New Orleans in mid-afternoon, in what felt like summer weather.  I thought we'd landed in heaven.  Azaleas and exotic-looking greenery everywhere.  Warm and humid air surrounded us. 

We left our baggage in the French Quarter apartment of a firend of Joe's and went to the Cafe du Monde for coffee and - - what else?  Beignets. 



 I'd never heard of them.  Was dubious of all that sugar - - and as if there wasn't enough coating the pastries, each little table held a shaker full of more powered sugar.   (Wearing black wool dress in Chicago made sense, but here was unwise - not just hot & humid weather, a lap sprinkled with white was unappealing).  Three puffy squares of fried dough covered with a thick layer of powdered sugar.  I was an instant fan.  And I still am.  I've made beignets here at home.  Not often, though.  It's a time-consuming process.



I was not so attracted by the chicory coffee.  I drink my coffee black, which isn't wise in New Orleans.  Way, way too bitter and strong.  I learned to add water when I was out.   And at home I'd use just half as much New Orleans-style coffee.

Bayou Bakery gets it right with both the beignets and the coffee (which I still drink black).  Here's a link to Joe's initial blog about the place: http://joeb-tallyho.blogspot.com/2010/11/new-orleans-comes-to-arlington-virginia.html.  And a follow-up, continuing to rave. http://joeb-tallyho.blogspot.com/search/label/Bayou%20Bakery



Next thing is to try the Bayou Bakery's muffaletta sandwich and compare with the ones we go at Central Grocery on Decatur Street.