He said walk this way. And she did.

Literally on the water.

Mallards.

My brother-in-law told me that the foam on coffee, when it's made with a French press, is considered the best part of the coffee. I agree!

My new vegetable garden, topped with my newly harvested worm castings.

Today I planted a winter cover crop of annual rye. By March I should have a lovely bed of grass.

Moss, my next obsession.

As I slowly replace my lawn with bedding areas I'm careful to avoid digging up any mossy areas. Some people say that a moss yard is hard to maintain -- too delicate -- but that just makes me want it more. It's such a nice green right now and it should be rewarded for being so beautiful in the dead of winter.

Apple Pencil Holder. My entry in the First Monthly Tchotchke Challenge.

You can read about the origins of this challenge over at God Bless Y'all Real Good. And you can then read about our revised schedule here.

And that's the way it will probably go with this particular Challenge. Rules may change weekly or daily. Because we are rebels. Can't you tell from our tchotchkes?

[And as a side event I'm going to find out how many different spellings there are for tchotchke.]

Chocolates from my sweet little girl.

The banana curry was wonderful. Next I'm going to have the Rosemary Caramel.

Alum Can House: Part 5 (the end I hope)

The Garth: a garth is a garden cloister. A place for reflection and serenity. You can only enter the garth from inside the house.
The Driveway: when this herringbone driveway was being installed, Mr. Van Os Keuls used lots of leftover metal (screws, cans, wires, plates, etc) to create the floorbed for the bricks. FN said he never expected the driveway to survive, given that unusual construction. But last it has. More than 8 years. FN seems to admire his neighbor's elan.
The Entrance: the house's entrance is now in the back, along with a nice grove of bamboo.

Alum Can House: Part 4

This is Friendly Neighbor approaching me. And on top is a picture of FN's classic suburban Everyman house. It's so neat and tidy. Almost like he made it extra special neat and tidy to contrast with Alum Can House. A little passive-aggressive, methinks.

Alum Can House: Part 3

The Friendly Neighbor, let's call him FN, told me that the architect-eccentric Mr. Van Os Keuls is naturally very proud of his house and likes to have people take pictures. So I did. FN even encouraged me to knock on the door b/c Mr. Van Os Kuels would take me on a tour. I did tap ever so gently, once, but got no answer so I backed off. I HATE drop-ins and am not inclined to do it to strangers, forgodssake.

Alum Can House: Part 2

Here's what it looks like from the front. That structure taking up most of the front yard is called a garth, according to the very friendly and informative neighbor from directly across the street (whose name I immediately forgot after he shook my hand).

I got up close and personal with that aluminum can house.

Lordgodinheaven make me stop buying cheap MP3 players.

I'm addicted (big surprise) to my MP3 player. Not for music but for podcasts about this and that: politics, history, movies, books, etc. But I'm afflicted with an inability to buy top-of-the-line. So I buy cheap, it breaks, of course nothing can be fixed today, especially if it's cheap. I promise myself that I'll do the research and buy a good one. Do I? Of course not. Here's my latest. 40 bucks. Let's see how long it lasts.

Now THIS is a house to brag about.

Just a few miles from my house is this wonderful place! I confess I've never driven by it but I will in the next day or two. I haven't thought of it in years, but all my chatter about local buildings brought it to the surface of my cortex. It's just what it looks like: a house covered in aluminum cans. Here's an article from 2003 (again, link might not work etc):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A24517-2003May7¬Found=true

Suspicious building is directly across from Shalom, where I buy chicken. It's extra-special chicken, blessed by a rabbi (or whatever) & and "brined."

Suspicious building. And so ugly that it's almost appealing. On University Blvd. Been empty for years. Or is it?

Another of those Goodman houses. This one is on Arcola.

Oliver and me.

I've only read the first couple of paragraphs of this article in the New Yorker but it sounds interesting. Called Greening the Ghetto by Eliz Kolbert. [I'm not sure I can make the link active, but I'll try. If interested enough, you can probably get the article by googling "greening ghetto new yorker."]
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/01/12/090112fa_fact_kolbert

More about mushrooms. Morels in this case.

Why can't I remember this? Mushrooms ARE fungi. ("Fungus" sounds so poisonous. "Mushroom" sounds so benign and homey.) There are morels, picked one April in the most unlikely place: in a patch of woods near a very busy intersection at the junction of Takoma Park, Langley Park, and Silver Spring. My dad discovered this source decades ago. It's common among morel hunters to not reveal the exact location of a good source of these delicacies so I won't say any more. But they are definitely not poisonous and will cost you big bucks if you try to buy them or order them in a restaurant. And they are yummy sauteed in butter.

Each year, the best.

My friend MW is married to a great professional photographer, HDB. They have two adorable boys. These are four of the cards sent over, maybe, the last four years. Greetings inside are as good as the photos on the outside. Starting in the upper left and going clockwise the greetings are: Foam for the Holidays, Got Holidays?, Lighten Up Your Holidays, and Deck the Horns. Are they clever or what?

This has to be a fungus.

It grew in the same compost heap with those root-like things.

Mycorrhiza, possibly, at the bottom of my (leaf-only) compost pile.

This stuff looks and feels like roots. Some gardeners (see 12/8/08 entry on this blog http://www.sky-bolt.com/garden/) describe it as a fungus. Wikipedia's entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycorrhiza) makes me think that it's sort of in between a root and a fungus. It's an association, rather than an animal, mineral, or vegetable. I trust Wikipedia these days over just about everything else on the Internet.

Gus. Having fun with his new toy. It's FunGus!

Fungus. It's so pretty. Too bad about the name.

This is growing at the base of a huge tree felled by the beavers. Speaking of whom. The park gestapo cleared out a lot of underbrush, limbs, twigs, and other debris around the pond last week. All of it was what the beavers were working on. I suspect they wanted to "clean things up." You know, make everything all neat and tidy. That was good beaver food they hauled away! The park manager will be hearing from me.

Compost, I guess. Or maybe more precisely leaf mold. I'm digging in a pile that's a couple of years old. Leaf mold, I assume?

I'm putting buckets full of this stuff (along with worm castings) on my newly enlarged vegetable garden. A whopping big 5 x 10 foot garden. Now that the days are finally getting longer I can start to think about what I'll plant. And when. More likely I won't think about it enough, or at least not in a linear, logical way, and I'll end up planting sort of randomly throughout the spring.

It's so not me. But I love my hand-me-up bag.

Soft-shell crab and oysters. That's what we ate at Mike's, on the South River near Annapolis.

I may have been born in DC (now-gone hospital at the corner of 16th St and Florida Ave, NW) but my taste buds are Maryland all the way.

More tiny ice balls. I can't stop taking pictures of them.

Found while puttering around the kitchen, pretending to clean.

The hawk was back today! And some day I'll get a good picture of him.

There's a big hunk of suet at the top of that ratty-looking feeder. That's what pulled him in. And I think he's a red-shouldered hawk, not a red-tailed. His tail had distinct white bands. Bottom picture is from: www.dpughphoto.com

I've known these apartments for my entire life. So glad that they haven't been torn down.

"This historic Art Deco apartment complex was built in 1941, and is an important example of pre-World War II apartment design in Montgomery County." From: http://www.silverspringdowntown.com/go/montgomery-arms-apartments

My very own hand-me-down push mower!

Thank you Carolyn (mom of an old friend).

I don't know what these are.

These woody nubs, I don't know how else to describe them, have been at the pond's edge for years. Although the beavers may have nipped at them a bit, they aren't responsible for them. They look like above-ground roots. They're just a tiny bit creepy.

Ice on the pond today.