Lyndon Johnson Memorial Grove

Right by the Pentagon is a parking lot for the Lyndon Johnson Memorial Grove. We hadn’t been there for quite some time. I was looking for places to capture water photos for the 52Frames challenge last week. It started with a walk across the foot bridge over to the park. You can walk along the GW Memorial Parkway with a clear view of the Washington Monument. Walking past the Memorial takes you to the marina that is filled with all sorts of watercraft. There is another clear view of the pentagon from here. We always try to avoid the paths that are surrounded by geese - as they can be rather nasty. We then passed under the bridge and saw a fisherman trying his luck. There were a lot of opportunities for water shots including one with a spider and web dangling above the water. We aren’t able to walk as far as we used to. My husband keeps having dizzy spells from the medications he is taking and my plantar fasciitis is quite uncomfortable - so much so that I’ve decided not walking for a week is in the cards this week since nothing else seems to be helping. It’s always a joy to find places like this to some the time, but I wonder for how much longer. 

Replacement Sun Visor

It was eighteen year ago this month that we moved to Capitol Hill from the Midwest. After I retired from the Library of Congress we stayed on another three years until we found a condo we liked and moved to northern Virginia. Because it gets quite hot and sunny in DC’s urban jungle one of the first things I did was buy a sun visor. I’ve had it now for eighteen years. It is made out of straw and it can not be adjusted. I prefer visors to baseball caps because the baseball cap squishes my hair flat and I just look funny wearing one. Lately I have been getting ridge marks on my forehead after wearing the visor - and they last the whole day and it looks like I have dents in my head. That’s something I didn’t have to worry about when I was younger. So I searched to see what the options are these days and found a Furtalk visor that was adjustable, but also foldable - not that I’d ever use the foldable option. I tried it for the first time this week. It looks fine and feels fine. Now the indentation is a solid line rather than here and there. At least it’s not as obvious. So I kept the old one anyway - for now. I can’t believe we have been here eighteen years and it’s even more remarkable that the straw hat still looks as good as new - except for the ridges. 

52 Frames Water Weekly Photo Challenge

The subject for the 52Frames photo challenge this week was “water.” I wanted to do something that was more involved than I had originally thought. It started with a photo of the pond at the Smithsonian American Indian Museum. Then I placed that image on my iPad behind a bowl of water to get a distorted look. Then I turned it in to a long exposure shot. But that wasn’t enough. To bring it to life a Pyrex container filled with water, oil and dishwashing detergent - to create bubbles - was placed on top of the iPad with the converted image. The final composite was created with two layers. The top was made fifty per cent transparent and the lower layer was more defined and less intense in color and more moody. My husband liked this image best. There were a few alternatives from the Lyndon Johnson memorial grove, a rainy day shot of the building across our condo, and some leaves in the neighborhood park. One of those was actually liked more on instagram. But to be true to my desire to actually create a project we preferred this one. I love editing the images more than taking the photos. Sometimes it all comes together. I hope this is one of those times.   

Eighteen Year Anniversary - Midwest to DC

Our grandson was three years old; he just turned twenty-one this month. It was eighteen years ago also this month that we moved from the Midwest - where we lived for thirty years - to DC. At the time we thought the tiny 500 square foot condo that we bought on Capitol Hill just down the street from our son and DIL would be used for routine visits - and not become our permanent hime. We left behind all of our friends, colleagues and a 2500 square foot home with an acre of land. I found a walk to work job at the Library of Congress which was a very unusual thing indeed since my career had been in health care. Now I am retired eight years already and we moved to northern Virginia five years ago. I oftentimes wonder if I would rather be back in the Midwest - especially since our family moved to central Virginia and after the pandemic upended all of our lives. We still go in to the city at least once a week because my husband loves it and it’s a good opportunity to get photos for my weekly photo challenge. But I do miss our friends and the old home and our beautiful borzoi Tatiana. We haven’t been traveling like we used to and so we are sort of “stuck.” We used to visit the Midwest every year and take overseas trips to visit family. It’s not all that bad, but I just don’t have the conversations I used to and we don’t socialize that much even though the condo here does have events now and again. It’s just not the same. I know I don’t miss the snow and the ice, but I never lived there without having to work in it. I know if we tried to go back it would never be the same. That’s just how it is. 

Fall Leaves in Summer

You would never know it is the middle of summer when you walk through the neighborhood park. With all of the extreme heat and storms, something has happened to the leaves on the trees. When walking under the shade of the trees along the path in the park it feels like fall. Everything was wet and the leaves had dropped from the branches much sooner in the year than normal. Perhaps the extreme heat shortened their life cycle and the whipping winds of the rainstorms knocked them all off. It’s been feeling more like Florida here than Virginia with temps in the high 90’s with humidities to match. We also stumbled upon an “agreeable tiger moth” caterpillar that was scurrying across the path to hide under a leaf. He was black and yellow striped and looked a bit harmless. After the deluge it is finally starting to dry out. I don’t want summer to end too soon - who would? 

52Frames Shape With Light Photo Trending

I’ve been keeping track of it since I was told in April that one of my photos from the 52Frames weekly challenge was trending on their website. And since that first time that I was made aware that such a thing existed, my photo has trended every week since! I still don’t know what the criteria is, but it doesn’t really matter. It’s such a thrill to see my entry get noticed out of about 2500-3000 photos submitted from around the world every week. This time the image was of a banana wineglass that was being held behind the shade in the dining room for the subject “shape with light.” Two layers of the same image were composed and a sunburst was added to give it a kick. The photo began showing on the day after the album opened and stayed  trending for most of the day. My entry didn’t get selected for the top 52 picks, or the 52Frames instagram feed, and has never been selected as a top three. I was introduced to this “hobby” by a friend of ours in the Midwest about four years ago. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long. It has kept us busy finding places to take a morning walk and try to get the best image based on the subject.  I’ve learned a lot, met a lot of people from all over the world, and get a great deal of joy to get selected to the trending board. Thanks 52Frames! 

A Tribute to My Cousin

Last year about this time we traveled to New England. The purpose was to celebrate the life of my oldest cousin. She suddenly passed away the year before following surgery after a cancer diagnosis. It was all very unexpected. We were looking forward to resuming visits - aside from the zoom calls she scheduled once a month - once the pandemic subsided. That never happened. Since there wasn’t a funeral the family decided a get together would be in order. After the event everyone was given a plant - the kind she liked to have growing in her home. It was a sweet gesture. The plant survived the trip home and was transplanted in to a little container where it joined the other greenery above the TV. At the time I also made a photo keepsake of the plant and the person it represented. Every time I look at it I think of Judi. She was always so positive and encouraged all of the cousins and was proud of all of the accomplishments. And she was especially kind to my parents. Now it’s been a year since we got Judi’s plant and it has done well. It’s been a year now - another reminder to celebrate her life. 

Another Doctor Visit

It has not been a good year health wise. No, there is nothing earthshaking thank goodness. But the number of times we have had to go see a doctor is more than it has ever been. So this week we found ourselves at the ENT office because my husband now has ringing in his ears of the pulsatile nature. So in order to avoid any catastrophic issue like a stroke or something we thought it best to have it checked. Of course, additional tests are always needed outside of removing wax buildup and having a hearing test - which turned out fine. We needed to schedule a CT angiogram to check the blood vessels, the head and neck. Of course most of these tests are negative, but until one knows it can be worrying. I’m not sure how older folks maneuver through the health care system anymore. You better know how to pay for parking before you leave the parking structure and know how to email a prescription before the test can be scheduled. It was an ugly reminder at this office that filling in paper work can be tedious rather than completing documents on line before you arrive. These physicians are not the usual system docs where all that information is already stored on line so it all had to be re entered - using paper and pen. Of course another appointment needs to be made for a follow up visit and we are already in to August. Then come the eye appointments and the dental visits. I suppose we should just get used to it.