Filmfest DC Turns 30!

Hello friends, I invite you to join me at Filmfest DC — Washington’s only international film festival — celebrating 30 years! The festival opens Thursday, April 14 and closes Sunday, April 24. This year’s anchor venues are Mazza Gallerie and Landmark E Street Theater, with special screenings at the Embassy of France. Tickets are on … Continue reading →

Travel Theme: Routine

My January is half melancholy, half relief. I slip back into well-worn patterns, and find comfort in the familiar. There is beauty there, and surprises too. Ailsa’s Travel Theme, Routine, made me think of these — glimpses of other people’s ordinary moments. 1. Early commuters streaming to work in São Paulo. An hour earlier, I ambled through the sleeping city to São … Continue reading →

Renwick’s WONDER

The Renwick Gallery is often overlooked in the kaleidoscope of DC’s free museums. The historic building, the first in the United States designed expressly to be an art museum, usually hosts crafts and decorative art collections for the Smithsonian American Art Museum. I must admit that I made it here a grand total of once or twice in … Continue reading →

Hiking over Harpers Ferry

This week’s travel theme, “Below,” made me think of the serenity I felt while looking down on Harpers Ferry, where the Potomac and the Shenandoah rivers meet. It was a fine autumn day, and we decided to explore Maryland Heights, the highest of the mountains overlooking the town. Here’s what we saw: Your journey can begin … Continue reading →

My Richmond Five

I’ve been meaning to visit Richmond for years, and this was finally the year to do it. Here are the five favorites from that sunlit weekend. (1) The Virginia State Capitol. Designed by — who else, with that neoclassical look? — Thomas Jefferson, the Capitol is impressive when it comes into view: an immaculate Roman temple atop a … Continue reading →

Discovering Great Falls

President Theodor Roosevelt called it “the most beautiful place around here.” Great Falls, shared by Virginia (today the Great Falls National Park) and Maryland (part of the C&O Canal National Historical Park), is our Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls, rolled into one and scaled way down. It is a spot where the normally sleepy Potomac rushes … Continue reading →

Travel Theme: Pink

It is almost time. It may snow next week, but — no matter. The trees are waking up, the earth sighs with its first blooms, the birds are looking for mates. Spring is about to burst. And in DC, spring means Pink, like Ailsa’s Travel Theme this week, the pink of the cherry blossoms. My … Continue reading →

Visiting the Library of Congress Reading Room

Twice a year–usually on Presidents’ Day (February) and Columbus Day (October)–the Main Reading Room of the Library of Congress Jefferson Building opens to the public. The Jefferson Building is impressive on any day (here is what it’s like to visit), but, unless you have a Reader Registration Card, the Main Reading Room is accessible only … Continue reading →

Travel Theme: Dance

Dance is this week’s travel theme from Where’s My  Backpack? So, here we go, a collection of colorful frolicking from the months past. A king and the Maypole at the Maryland’s Renaissance Festival: Montresor and Fortunato, doomed by Poe long ago, stumbling over the bones at the Westminster Hall & Burying Ground: Performers practicing backstage at the DC Turkish … Continue reading →

Dumbarton Oaks: That “Chambered Nautilus of Gardens”

Dumbarton Oaks is one of Georgetown’s crown jewels, a grand home, a museum of Pre-Colombian and Byzantine art, and a symphony of gardens perched atop the old neighborhood’s highest point. This spring, I came to see the wisterias. The gardens are spectacular in any season, but mid-spring, I think, is my favorite. The aromas are tantalizing, but not yet … Continue reading →

My Garden, in Spring Color

And just like that, at long last, my gardening season begins in earnest. I love the newness of it all: Everything is crisp, fresh, and, for the moment, somewhat in order. Each day, I begin with my spring color survey. Here’s this week’s palette. My greens:  Maroons: Purples and blues: A blaze of yellows:  All … Continue reading →

Farewell, Cherry Blossoms

They budded, they bloomed, they floated to the ground. Here’s what the Tidal Basin looks like covered in a snowfall of petals, a charming farewell. More about cherry blossoms:  Waiting for Cherry Blossoms The Cherry Blossoms in DC Wisteria season (late April): Dumbarton Oaks: That “Chambered Nautilus of Gardens” Waterlilies and lotus blooms (June/July): Water … Continue reading →

The Cherry Blossoms in DC

Life is short like the three-day glory of the cherry blossom  These are the glory days. There are over 3,700 cherry trees around DC’s Tidal Basin. Most of them are Yoshino cherries (Prunus x yedoensis), renown for their tangles of single, white flowers, each one a simple star of five petals. On peak bloom dates, … Continue reading →

Family Matters at Dyke Marsh

Now that spring has finally sprung, I look forward to our walks at my favorite local place to watch the seasons turn: the Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve. Just south of Old Town Alexandria along the scenic George Washington Memorial Parkway, Dyke Marsh does have its scrappy patches, the old wounds still visible and, in places, growing. Still, there … Continue reading →

Waiting for Cherry Blossoms

Thwarted! Our excellent Sunday plan was to wake up early and greet the sunrise at the Tidal Basin, followed by a “walk in the clouds,” an early-bird stroll among DC’s famous Yoshino cherry trees, all abloom. We came, the Sun lazily obliged–but the cherry trees? After days of delay, they are still taking a rain … Continue reading →