Category Nature
Memorial Day Weekend – Jetskiing
What’s better than going fast on a bike in pouring rain? Going really fast on a jetski on a broad Maryland river. My friend Tim and I decided to seize the first 90ish day of the season by going jetskiing on the South River (near Annapolis), just above the point where it flows into the Chesapeake […]
Container Gardens, Year 2: Pink and Green, with Fish
You may recall that the upshot of last year’s apartment flood was my moving into a new apartment with a balcony, which I promptly filled with an array of potted plants. Having thus broken my many-year hiatus from gardening, I intended to expand my gardens this year in some ambitious ways; namely, I wanted more color, flowering vines, and . . . drum […]
Downpour
What’s more fun than going fast on a bike? Going fast on a bike in the pouring rain. The week so far has been wet and dreary, and there’s no break in the forecast until the weekend. So when the skies cleared this evening, I ducked out of work and to get in a quick ride before the clouds […]
Flowers in spite of the firm
Last weekend was cold, rainy, and I had nothing to do. I was SO BORED. This weekend, on the other hand, the weather has been gorgeous, the cherry blossoms are opening, and I had a ton of things I wanted and needed to do. So, when last Friday rolled around, did I get any last […]
Boise – Life Aquatic
A new aquarium recently opened in Boise. It’s a relatively small affair, stuck in a random strip mall between a pawn shop and a party place. But it’s the only aquarium in town and had been getting a lot of attention among the younger-than-ten crowd. Since yesterday was a day off from school, Heather and I took the kids to check […]
Death Valley
Death Valley is the hottest, dryest and lowest spot in North America. It’s an extreme moonscape; a fantastic geological kaleidoscope of rock, salt flats and a handful of insane plants. It’s also only about 150 miles from Las Vegas, so on Monday morning we packed our lunches, filled our water bottles, donned our Lawrence of Arabia costumes, and […]
Billy Goat Trail
I went hiking yesterday on the Billy Goat Trail, which clambers along the Maryland banks of the Potomac River for several miles below the Great Falls. It’s a crowded but lovely hike. The weather was gorgeous and the leaves, although just past their peak color, were still spectacular. The profusion of fall color and the extended […]
Fall Planting
My summer pots were wonderful, but now that the subtropical heat and humidity of the DC summer had ceded to the chilly fall, they were looking a little tired. So guess what? Today was fall planting day! I headed out early to the Merrifield Garden Center and, when I got there, discoverd I had the place to myself. That’s because […]
The Aftermath
Irene is gone and the weather is back to normal. In fact, today was gorgeous, with lots of sun and temperatures in the mid-80s. With the humidity only around 45%, it was one of the best days that we’ve had in a long time! I was about to say that everything else is back to […]
Hurricane Report: 9h00
The bulk of the storm passed me in the night (I’m the pink dot to the lower left). The eye is now is now sitting on top of New York (the pink dot to the upper right). Right now in DC we’re only getting a light rain. It feels very calm and ordinary after yesterday’s stormy energy. The […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 