Downtown Brunch

Last Sunday we took the subway downtown to meet daughter Rebecca and Son-in-law Sean for brunch. Sean's parents, who we had visited the day before, also joined us. The restaurant was in the Conrad Hotel, and the skylight in the lobby attracted me:

Visit to National Cathedral

Saturday Tim and Zenny, Rebecca's in-laws, joined us in visiting National Cathedral.

I'm not certain if the above is called a chapel or an altar, but it sure looked pretty.

Summer activity for old college students

I've written about the Golden ID program at the University of Maryland. One of our members has been organizing summer events, and Monday we toured the Riverdale Mansion which I described last summer when I attended a musical event there. The mansion was built in 1802, and the estate once included lands that became part of the University.

Inside the mansion:

Visiting goats

In a still rural part of Howard County, there is a farm open to the public where parents take their children to see horses, cows, chickens, lambs, and especially goats. A few weeks ago, our neighbor Paul and I took are wives who both have a fondness for goats.

The open fields of buttercups and dandelions caught my attention:

Lunch in Deale, Maryland

Fired oysters and Maryland crab soup on Herring Bay on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay yesterday. The restaurant was Skipper's Pier.

Another photo of the midshipmen's sailing boat

I'm putting this in for two reasons:

1. To provide a relief from too many autumn foliage shots.

2. Because I like this shot as much as the one I showed a day or two ago.

Naval Academy sailboat

On the boat trip this afternoon, we passed this colorful which Dan says is used by the Naval Academy to train midshipmen.

Waterfront lunch

Today my friend Dan invited me for a boat ride with a friend of his who wanted to get out on his boat one more time before putting it away for winter. That's Dan on the left in the photo below and his friend Bill on the right.

We headed out of Annapolis Harbor, into the mouth of the Severn River, north into Whitehall Bay, and slightly west to Mill Creek where Cantler's Riverside Inn sits along the bank. Bill backed his boat into an empty slip and we went into the restaurant for lunch. Here's Bill's boat at the docks of the restaurant:

The food was great. I had a cup of Maryland crab soup that might have been the best I've ever had. The soft shell crab sandwich was excellent as well.

We passed a lot of sail boats on the way back to Annapolis Harbor. The mild weather tempted many people to get out on the water one more time.

Lexington Market

Last Saturday we went with out neighbors to Lexington Market in Baltimore. The picture below shows Pam and Marianne on their way to the entrance of the market which, as the sign says, has been in continuous operation since 1782.

The big draw for us and many was Faidley's seafood which brags that it has the best crab cakes in the city. They were certainly among the best I've ever had.

 

 

 

They also feature a raw bar whose oysters looked tempting, but we didn't sample any.

Pam took all of the above interior shots. In addition to the crab cakes, we also bought some cake to take home. The coconut cake is delicious. I haven't had any of the other yet which is red velvet.

 

Winter ground cover

A patch of green like this in the winter woods in Patuxent State Park catches the eye.

 

I call it ground cover, but actually I have no idea how big these plants get.

Visiting Brookside Gardens and thinking about Capability Brown

Looking over the rolling landscape created at Brookside, I thought about an article I recently read about Capability Brown, 18th century British landscape architect. Throughout Britain, he created gardens that appeared natural but actually were thoroughly artificial, and his style influenced landscape architecture since. Prior to Brown, the wealthy landowners favored for their country estates formal gardens with geometrically straight lines, a style popular in France and Italy. Brown replaced these with pastoral fields, ponds, and woodlands. This style of landscaping is now common in the U.S. and can be seen in Central Park in New York City as well as most golf courses.

After walking around the park, I checked out the indoor exhibit where another visitor called by attention to the angel trumpet plants:

Seaton Street NW, Washington, DC

Walked around the Dupont Circle area while Pam was getting her hair done and thought this street was colorful:

This afternoon at the Upper Patuxent

 

Autumn in Patuxent State Park

Yesterday was a beautiful day in the woods, however, with temperatures a very unseasonable 80 degrees I wished I'd had more water and fewer clothes.

County Fair time

Volunteered to work the Izaak Walton League's booth this year at the annual Montgomery County Fair in Gaithersburg.

Strolling thru Adams-Morgan yesterday

After brunch with Rebecca, Sean, and Sean's parents yesterday, we meandered through this DC neighborhood on our way back to the car. Although many of the small front yards were attractively landscaped, this one stood out for novelty:

Maybe we should consider an elephant decoration for our yard?

Patuxent State Park in Winter

The Patuxent is the longest river which lies completely within Maryland's boundaries. Near the headwaters the river is a designated trout stream, and the surrounding land is a state park.

Although most of the park is forested, the section I prowled around this afternoon, near the Howards Chaple Road crossing, contains many open fields.

In the woods I came across this stone fence which goes back to when it was all farm land.

These sights make me wonder about how long ago the fence was erected and about the farm family who lived there at the time.

Brookside Gardens this afternoon

It's so close, so I really should visit more often.

More crocuses

This grouping is from my walk today along Sligo Creek Parkway:

When I turned on Wayne Avenue on way to downtown Silver Spring, I found these along a hillside:

 

 

And these:

 

 

Visit to a Gothic Cathedral

Since this semester's History of Architecture has been studying Gothic Cathedrals, I've been eager take a new look at the closest example, the National Cathedral in DC.  This morning I drove down and took in the standard 30 minute tour.

As I knew beforehand, the building has been under repairs from damage done by the 5.8 earthquake in 2011, and the construction noise occasionally made it difficult to hear the docent.  Much of what I heard I already knew but not everything.  For example, I hadn't realized that the site was selected because of the relatively high ground.  Although all the examples we've studied in class are in Europe, the Washington Cathedral design follows the standard cross shape with an east-west layout so service goers are praying while facing east, towards Jerusalem. 

I had a chance to look at the standard Gothic features such as pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and flying buttresses and appreciate the beauty of the stained glass and sculptures.  Because of the construction, I took only one picture, that of the stained glass in the Maryland Bay:

Recently I went back to look at my notes from a class a couple of years ago entitled History of Science and Technology because I remembered an excellent lecture on Gothic Cathedrals.  The professor made the point that technology is not neutral but rather is a reflection of the concerns and aspirations of the surrounding culture.  The religious nature of the Middle Ages caused the people to direct their intelligence to building houses of prayer with high interiors to direct attention towards heaven and to include as many windows as possible because light was equated with God.  Since the building material was stone for permanence, the engineering challenges of handling the stress of the weight lead while allowing for windows lead to the solutions we see in the Gothic architectural design.

I'll probably come back when the construction is complete and the weather's warmer.