Day 121 - Eye candy

Spring in the world! And all things are made new!
~Richard Hovey~

The early azaleas are in different stages of bloom and this bright lavendar-purple "Herbert" species is one of my favorites.

Day 120 - Time waits for no one...

Not so terribly long ago, we sat on the floor playing with these brightly colored cars. Now he's going to be driving one. My #1 grandson called last night, all excited with his news ... he got his learner's permit yesterday. *sniff*

Day 119 - Rainy Days and Mondays

Ah well, it's good for the grass. Makes the flowers grow. Replenishes the water table. Blah, blah, blah. Do we really need to make up for the drought all in one stinkin' week? And besides that, it's cold too!

Personally, I could do with a little more sun.

Day 118 - Wardrobe change

It's been a busy day - I wasn't really having that much fun and almost let it get away from me without taking a picture. Since I spent a good bit of it pushing the iron around on summer clothes, this is as inspired as I got. :)

Day 117 - Where the lilacs grow...

From bud to perfumed beauty in little more than a month.

"Where the lilacs grow...

and the happiness shows...

on the faces of children...

and flowers and trees...

Where the good times meet
and the living is sweet
And there's never a cloud in the sky."
lyrics from "Where The Lilacs Grow"
by Slim Whitman

Day 116 - ...but only God can make a tree.

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree...

Joyce Kilmer

In honor of Arbor Day, our weeping maple (and pink dogwood in the background.) See Lew's Pics for another view of the dogwoods and a cherry.

Day 115 - Spray 'n' Wash

Tackling another spring ritual, Lew hit the deck today with the power spray to wash and prepare it for a water seal treatment. Since the forecast is for rain tomorrow, it may be awhile before it's dry enough for that step.

Day 114 - More bud progress

Another shot of the bud I've been following. We should have full-blown lilacs any day now.

Day 113 - Spring break

With spring sunshine and April showers comes the seasonal ritual of mowing the rapidly growing grass. Having finished the front yard, the 'gardener' (aka Lew) took a break before continuing the job in the back.

Day 112 - Cherry Blossoms, northern style

Since we're north of the city, our cherry blossoms start peaking about 3-4 weeks later than those in Washington, DC. We only planted our two trees 3 or 4 years ago, but they've produced massive amounts of blooms this season for our enjoyment. Even the rain and chillier temps of the past two days hasn't dampened (pardon the pun!) their beautiful display of fluffy pink.

Day 111 - Any boat in a storm

In weather fit only for ducks and boats, I reverted to some playfulness and asked Lew to float one of the grandkids bath toys in our driveway "lake." Staying low (and dry!) on the porch, I imagined our much-in-need-of-a-mow grass as "shore growth," and got a miniature lakeside effect. Imaginary, of course. ;)

Day 110 - Edgar Allan Poe, author - 1809-1849

We're on a roll. Knowing we had yet another famous author who lived and was buried in Maryland, we made another cemetery run today to the gravesite of Edgar Allan Poe at Westminster Hall and Burying Ground in Baltimore MD.

Poe actually has two gravesites here. The original, shown above, was next to his grandfather and brother in the Poe family plot, towards the back of the cemetery. In 1875, after renewed interest grew for the neglected writer, a monument was added and his remains were re-buried, along with his wife and mother-in-law/aunt at the front of the cemetery. Fascinating Poe info can be found at the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore.

Lew's post has photos of the house/museum where he lived as a young man and the monument burial site.

Oh, an added note and a little touch of irony to yesterday's post ... Francis Scott Key's son, Philip Barton Key, is also buried in this cemetery. He was murdered in Washington, DC by his lover's husband!

Ain't history fun? ;)

"Quoth the raven, 'Nevermore' "

Someone has a sense of whimsy - this raven is attached to the front gate of the cemetery, right at the Poe monument.

~ ~ ~

Lest you all think we only know where deceased authors are, not so! We also know that very-much-alive Tom Clancy (Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, etc.) lives down on Maryland's Eastern Shore. However, while I'm all for going to some lengths and/or an extra mile or so to get a good photo, the Eastern Shore is a good half a day away and, uhmmm... it's not gonna happen!

Day 109 - F. Scott Fitzgerald, author - 1896-1940

Knowing where to find a perfect photo op for this week's literary theme, we trekked on down the road today to F. Scott Fitzgerald's grave at St. Mary's Catholic church (Lew has more photos and some church history) cemetery in Rockville, MD.

Francis Scott Key, author of The Star Spangled Banner and a distant cousin, was Fitzgerald's namesake. Key is also buried in Maryland, at Mt. Olivet Cemetery, here in Frederick. His gravesite appeared in my Project 365 last year, here.

"So we beat on, boats against the current,

borne back ceaselessly into the past."
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

The last sentence in The Great Gatsby, considered to be Fitzgerald's masterpiece.

Day 108 - On my reading list

A house without books

is like a room without windows.
Horace Mann

Earlier this year, I joined What's In A Name, a reading challenge hosted by a sweet young lady, Annie. I figured I could handle this one since the requirements were really easy - read one book from six different categories and share a written review of each - with a whole year to complete the challenge. These are my choices, and so far so good - I've read three, and written reviews for two on my regular blog. (I'm soooo not good at this part - reminds me of book reports in school!)

Bonus pic:

When we were at the library yesterday, I finally pulled a turn-the-tables move, and got a picture of Lew behind the camera. :)

Day 107 - The Reading Place

We shouldn't teach great books;
we should teach a love of reading.
~ B. F. Skinner ~

I love this statue at the entrance to the C. Burr Artz Library in Frederick. It epitomizes the joy of reading and reminds me of my own times at the library when I was a child.

The lower section in the above photo is the Children's Area of the library.

Day 106 - Book news

This week's theme is literary...

The bright pink of this week's book review section in the Sunday Washington Post was an eye-catcher. It featured, what else... women authors.

Day 105 - Field of gold

Too pretty to be a weed, this field-growing brassica (wild mustard family) showed off its cheery yellow goldness in all its glory today under our deliciously blue and sunny skies.

Day 104 - The Red Thing

Haven't a clue what it's supposed to symbolize, but this interesting metal sculpture sits outside the entrance of Flights of Fancy, a whimsical specialty gift shop on Shab Row in Fredericktowne.

Day 103 - Peep Show

So I'm sitting at my computer last night (well, actually about 1:00 am this morning,) putzing around and playing a game. About the time Lew comes walking out of his office to go to bed, I looked up and noticed what I thought was a big ol' bug latched on to the outside of the patio door. On closer inspection, we discovered this cute little odd-colored frog critter peering back at us. Instinctively, I grabbed the camera to get a shot. Clearly, Project 365 has me well-trained!

Day 102 - Squared circle

A trip to the carwash is clearly in order. but I thought the car wheel made for an interesting metal shot. (I toyed with the idea of moving the car up a little so the logo would be straight, but decided that was really a weee bit much!) ;)

Day 101 - Bud progress

Woo Hoo!! We have sun! With temperatures to match! :)

Soooo, I boogied my cloud-weary self outside to enjoy it while it lasts and got a progress shot of the lilac bud I shot last month. In less than 3 weeks, it's developed dramatically. Won't be long at all until we have yummy flowers.

Day 100 - Rusty

The only thing separating our back yard from the dairy farm field behind us is a rusty ol' wire/barbed wire fence. Barely hanging on to the wooden and equally rusty metal posts that hold it up, it has definitely seen better days. Since it's his fence and he clearly has little interest in keeping it in sound repair, I'm thankful that the cows have been moved to another field but often wonder what the farmer is going to do when the silly thing disintegrates altogether.

Day 99 - Game token

Monopoly game tokens have changed shape and composition a bit over the years, but as long as I can remember they've been made of some kind of metal. I think the original 1935 version had pawn-shaped, multi-colored wooden pieces, and then again during the 40's when there was a metal shortage due to WWII. When I was a kid, they were some kind of lead or pewter color, but this deluxe version, which also has an additional moneybag piece, is goldtone.

Day 98 - Sentimental silver

This week's theme is metallic -

After his parents passed away, Lew inherited his mom's silver, which she received as a wedding gift. They were married just shy of 61 years. We enjoyed many a wonderful meal and good conversation around the dinner table using it and warm, pleasant thoughts of them come to mind when we use it now.

Pattern/monogram close-up

Day 97 - Someone's in the kitchen

Since today was much like yesterday - in the kitchen - my photo ops were a little limited. So, I took another food picture - pumpkin apple bread. Yummy!

Day 96 - Freezer fixin's

My siblings are coming for a visit next month so I spent some time in the kitchen today making some goodies in advance. The aroma of these lemon poppy seed muffins baking made it real hard not to sample one (or 2) before storing them in the freezer.

Day 95 - Open to interpretation

You learn something new every day, and my something new for today was a Hi Cop Stop sign, (minus the "reserved parking" part) as we approached a Welcome/Rest stop along the highway. Wondering what the heck a Hi Cop Stop was... a place to say "hi" and get to know the local constabulary? A hi-gh concentration of policemen? A private police party spot? ...
... we pulled in to investigate and maybe say "hi" to a trooper. ;) The more we thought about it, the more we remembered that this particular rest stop, on Route 70 near Myersville, was the one where the Beltway snipers, who killed 10 and critically injured 3 in their 2002 killing spree in the DC/MD/VA area, were apprehended. Upon further consideration, we decided it was probably a bit of both the first and second guess, but it tickled my funny bone at first glance.

Day 94 - Reflection

Cold and windy April showers were the order of the day, so the patio door was the extent of my outdoor ventures. This pool of water made a nice mirror.

Day 93 - Concrete textures

I usually get annoyed when I spot a vagrant weed coming up between the concrete pavers on the walkway. Today I decided to make the most of it and took a picture of the cool textures instead. That thin arcing line hanging off the leaf is a hair!

Day 92 - Bridges and bathrooms

Taking advantage of a gorgeous spring day without rain, we went for a drive and ended up at the Roddy Covered Bridge spanning Owens Creek in Thurmont, MD. Built in the 1850s, it's one of the six surviving historic covered bridges in Maryland, three of which are here in Frederick County.

On the way home from the cherry blossoms on Saturday, Lew had me snap this photo to send to his friend, Bobby. The name itself was cute and funny, but I had a hard time wrapping my brain around a wheelchair accessible port-a-potty... I think I'd rather pee my pants!