pulease pass the buttah

If I hadn't been on my way to teach, this SO would have come home with me. Two lbs of lovely salted butter. Now that it's cooling off, I am craving being amongst my baking toys and having hearty foods again.

And oddly, after weeks of silence and nos, I have three ESL gig interviews lined up. Let's hope one of them works out.

Happy All Hallow's.

rainy day ramble

Peacocks & Peonies~is the title of these windows.

Yes, I love this flame sculpture. 

This looks ugly in the photo, but it's a burnt orange wall with these glittering objects that have lights that wax/wane. 

Undulating ceiling over the inner courtyard/cafe area.

Curried butternut squash soup.

Pan-fried bread~a gustatory revelation. (not that I need to add fried foods to my life, but yum!)

thither & yon

Finally made it to the Eastern Market for a sunny adventure. It was a typical farmer's market, albeit one that is 136 years old.

Since it was so nice, decided to just keep walking down Pennsylvania Ave. The line to get into the Library of Congress was too long, so I skipped it this visit. 

They classily have their very own pylons. 

And, since it was across the street, climbed the steps to the Supreme Court. 

The view from the steps. 

How I've never been to the Botanical Gardens, I don't know~but I was delighted to stumble upon them.

It was Bat Day, so lots of kiddie activities scattered throughout the place. No bats, though. 

In the Tropics Room. 

Guess which room this is? 

These were the coolest flowers~coming with their own cunning little cup. 

Cacao pods!!!! 

Sooo many orchids.

A wall in the Children's Garden~there were all manner of little spades, watering cans, and plant containers so the kids could dig and water and move things around. (No, I restrained myself from joining in. I really need my Littles along with me so I can indulge in the truly fun things!) 

Lil  'shrooms for little bums. 

These were my favorite of the entire day~large scale dandelion sculptures.

A very NY moment on a tree-lined avenue.

One of my favorite food trucks. 

There was a random pop-up Moroccan exhibit in the middle of the Mall.

Made it to the metro just as the dark storm clouds were piling up.

the magic of libraries

I was going to say the magic of books/reading, but it's the spaces as well that are wondrous. I picked up my absentee ballot, got a listing up upcoming classes/author events, and perused some magazines and DVD titles while overloading my tote with books to bring home with me. For free!! I think our public library system is one of the very best things about our country. 

And the fourth and final cat, the princess Chausette, has finally deigned to be friendly. I was running around, cleaning and getting ready to run errands, turned around? And there she was on my bed. She helped me pick out earrings and then wandered off to find some sunny corner in which to snooze.

And so, another week ended. My car's tires are all rotated now and some fun outings are planned for the weekend. Onward.

get comfy

No poetry today~just a pictorial walk-along. I stumbled upon the fact that the Gem & Mineral Exhibit at the Smithsonian was closing yesterday for renovations. And, as it won't reopen until 2019, I hopped on Metro and zipped into town to have one last stroll. (I've heard that it's going to be a vile Genius Bar sort of virtual exhibit from now on. The entire POINT of the Smithsonians is the real artifacts. But I digress.) 

Some examples of my birthstone~none were for sale in the gift shop. 

More shades of topaz. 

This is about 7 feet of crystal from Arizona. 

Fuzzy crystals! 

The rainbow array of what can be dug up from our planet. Pretty cool. 

Had to return to that weird paper-floating-through-the-room exhibit. 

Grabbed a burrito for lunch and hung out in one of my favorite gardens. 

These were shaped like sweet peas, but the pods were huge. No signage as to what they were.

The same vista that had cherry blossoms earlier this year. 

The Pacific end of the WWII Memorial. There was some kind of small ceremony going on at the Atlantic end~lots of Greek flags and a brass quintet. Just a lovely moment. 

It always seems to be so windy by the Washington Monument~I'll leave a moment for you to insert a joke about hot air/gas and Congress... 

Since it was a gorgeous day, decided to walk over and say hello to Lincoln and to beg his ghost to impart some kind of wisdom/decorum to the current West Wingers. 

There's something about this monument that moves me every time I climb the several hundred steps to visit.

Department of Agriculture has a elegant facade.

Happy last Friday of October. The days are dragging, but the year is zipping by.