Rocky strolls by the house a couple times a day with his owner, Martha. He likes to roll in the grass.
I met Gypsy for the first time this evening while she was walking her owners by the house. She loved having her picture taken!
I planted flower seeds for sunflowers, zinnia and marigolds. The zinnia have taken over the part of the garden where we have planted vegetables in the past. The vegetables have never done too well, but the flowers are…
This is the end (as well as the end) of the hollyhocks. Now the seed pods become the focal point as the birds and ground squirrels harvest the goodies. If anyone is interested in some seeds, please let me know.
This is the hibiscus which Roger bought through mail order last year. I wanted to get a close up of the bee, but it kept flying off. The dinner plate size hibiscus in the side garden seem behind this year.
This is another picture of the dahlia taken earlier in the month. It is in full bloom now and looks more like a pom pom. I’ll have to check and see if any of the others have bloomed…
This is why I wanted the new camera – to be able to take close ups like this one of the ant.
In case you can’t tell from the self portrait below, the camera is a Canon Digital Rebel XT (8 mp).
This is a picture of Valerie’s new camera, taken by yours truly, the new camera. I came all the way from Japan. Valerie took me out of the box for a little while and then ignored me for a week. Something about me lacking a memory card. Well, a nice large 1 GB card arrived and I was in business. I am way smarter than Valerie right now, but she’ll come up to speed soon. Hmmm, maybe cleaning that bathroom mirror is in order.
Two different cameras – Canon PowerShot 200 (2 mp) vs Canon Rebet XT (8mp). I bet you can tell the difference…
I headed out early on Sunday morning to cycle the length of the Mount Vernon bike trail which runs along the George Washington Memorial Parkway. I parked at Roosevelt Island. I was amused by these idiots who parked their car with their bikes hanging over half of the trail.
When I was approaching Reagan National Airport, I whipped out my camera and held it up to try to get a picture of the plane. This is what I got – the plane flying off the corner of the frame. Though a bit blurry, I was tickled with the results.
I never knew this power plant was on the edge of Alexandria City. I thought the elbows coming out the side of the building and down to the bike trail were cool. The trail was right next to the Potomac River here, one of several places in the 17 miles.
The ride through Old Town Alexandria is along Union Street. These flowers caught my eye on the way by. The trail goes to Jones Point next, where there is a dog park, which I briefly visited because the signs indicate there is a detour through there…no trail, just dogs. Backtracked…
This marsh is in the Belle Haven area of Fairfax County. There is a really long wooden bridge which crosses over the area. These bridges are probably my least favorite part of the trip since they can be slippery. From Belle Haven, the trail gets curvier, hillier, but shadier.
I made it to Mount Vernon after climbing a killer hill – long and straight up. At least it seemed that way after 17 miles. I had to stop twice to get all the way up it. Upon reaching the end of the trail, I rode around the circle in front of the mansion and then headed back the way I came – minus the dog park detour…
QOC holds informal orienteering training on Saturday evenings during the summer which I am usually unable to attend. I printed the maps for today’s Great Falls, MD event and dropped them off in Potomac. This deer was eating the flowers next door.
Then I headed to Great Falls and ran the training exercise on my own. This was one of the control locations which were marked by engineering tape. Warm morning with a ton of spider webs in the woods. I must have gotten at least 30 in my face.
Heavy rains overnight, flooded basement in the morning. Aggghhhh!!! It turns out the outlet of the sump drain was plugged – this caused the water last month as well, though we didn’t figure it out correctly at the time. Called Roto-Rooter at 5:30 AM and they were there by 10 AM. I went to Boot Camp and then to Home Depot for a utility pump.
This is Roger, Matt, and Sarah coming from La Tasca in Arlington, Virginia. We met there for dinner and had sangria, tapas, and paella.
The Chinese Cucumbers that Roger planted have started to blossom. The only other vegetables we planted this year are trombone squash. Tomatoes will have to come from the Farmer’s Market…
Roger’s dahlias are starting to bloom. This one was tucked in the shady side garden mostly out of sight. We don’t pull the bulbs every year like you should, so we get surprises like this one.