Posts from — January 2008

Halving the number of days between December 21 and March 21 lands us on Tuesday February 5, 2008 sometime around noon. As this midwinter hump approaches I am curious about the use of seasons. While I know that “winter” and “summer” are created by the tilt in the Earth’s axis which places us in northern hemisphere closer or further from the Sun at different times of year resulting in variable temperatures; what I don’t know is where winter starts. I mean at what latitude do people call the season winter (for the english speaking world). Do other languages account for more than four seasons? There is of course the rainy season and the dry season in many places. Can seasons be named after colors? Certainly we could look at the color studies of Johannes Itten (page 23) and pick out the seasons quite easily…

In any event, the Red Twig Dogwood is a wonderful plant with particular winter interest that thrives in full sun and should be cut back at the end of each winter. It lives with the other Cornus species in the Dogwood collection at the National Arboretum and is tough to miss this time of year. Happy midwinter…

I am not as new to DC or Capitol Hill – I have been here over 2 years, but I seem to find new favorite places in the city every time I head to a neighborhood for the first time or revisit a park. So here are my top five places in the district, also in no particular order…

1. FDR Memorial. By far my favorite monument on the mall. The waterfalls and subtle power of the quotations and statues decorating the red granite “rooms” are simply beautiful. I have found the monument is best at night when the lights make the water even more peaceful and it is blissfully free of tourists. After dark is also the best time to enjoy the cherry blossoms along the Tidal Basin without the crowds.

Photo Credit: G. Alexander

2. The cheese stand at Eastern Market. Hill residents probably don’t need any direction here, but for anyone who hasn’t spent the better part of 30 minutes camped out at Bowers Fancy Dairy Products sampling the “Cheese from All Parts of the World,” you should head to the market soon. My personal favorites are the Parmesan-gouda (formaly called Perano, I believe) and the drunken goat, which is a goat cheese infused with wine. yum. This image is from the South Hall location the shop has been located in since 1964. After the fire at Eastern Market this past summer, they relocated to the temporary East Hall. New location, but same great conversation, and of course same great cheese.

3. Meridian Hill Park (aka Malcolm X Park). This dramatic park with an Italian flair is set set above the hill on 16th street just north of U street and is one of my favorite places near my old neighborhood in Columbia Heights. Go here to relax in the sun, or better yet, catch one of the weekly drum circle gatherings late on a Sunday afternoon. The drum circle has been going on since the 1950s and attracts professional musicians. I also hear it is one of the best places in the district to watch the 4th of July fireworks.

4. “Awakening” statue at Hains Point. I have to admit that I have only been here once, but have always wanted to go back. This eery statue of a giant trying to claw it’s way out of the earth is way off the beaten path in East Potomac Park. Hains Point juts out into the Potomac river just across from National Airport. No picture here because you have to see it for yourself.

5. Rock Creek Park. This is my favorite spot to go running and I always leave desperately wanting a puppy like everyone else. I can’t tell you where exactly to go in the Park because I seem to get lost every time I visit. I encourage you to take an afternoon and do the same.

Ahhh yes… the elusive Paw Paw tree. I first learned about the PawPaw tree in my plants and ecology class as one of the 300+ plants we met. I’ve seen patches of seedlings on a stream bank in central Virginia, searched out specimens after dark in the Chicago Botanic Garden, and read stories of George Washington enjoying it as his favorite fruit. But I didn’t get to taste a PawPaw until Kate and I discovered some ripe fruit on a patch in Theodore Roosevelt Island this past fall. IT IS DELICIOUS. For those of you unaware of the delights of a paw paw, it comes from the PawPaw tree which is a US native understory tree that grows up to about 25′ in height. The fruit is a little smaller than a mango and tastes something like a cross between banana and vanilla custard. IT IS DELICIOUS. This of course is very confusing to me as we continue to ship bananas and similar fruits many miles to keep our cereals adorned. While it’s true that many of the native PawPaw trees have been lost to development, our landscape is still fit to grow them from the Midwest to the East Coast (the PawPaw tree is native to 25 states). I have this story in my head where at some point early in our post European conquest development someone says that he or she likes bananas better than paw-paws and poof…we start jumping through hoops to procure this exotic fruit only to forever neglect the backyard pawpaw. I would love to start seeing the now elusive paw paw on our grocery shelves but have yet to come by them. While their are people working on cultivars that offer more, better tasting fruit, there doesn’t seem to be too many folks working on the agricultural potential of this darling. The PawPaw Foundation is something of a lonely, but hopefully viable voice.

Although somewhat new to the Washington D.C. area I have gathered a few diamonds, equally through investigation and recommendation, and thought I would share. These are 5 of my favorite places so far (in no particular order);

1. The Museum of the American India food court Mitsitam Cafe

From the Museum website…

“Mitsitam” means “Let’s eat!” in the Native language of the Delaware and Piscataway peoples. The museum’s Mitsitam Native Foods Café enhances the museum experience by providing visitors the opportunity to enjoy the indigenous cuisines of the Americas and to explore the history of Native foods. The café features Native foods found throughout the Western Hemisphere, including the Northern Woodlands, South America, the Northwest Coast, Meso America, and the Great Plains. Each food station depicts regional lifeways related to cooking techniques, ingredients, and flavors found in both traditional and contemporary dishes. While seated in the café, visitors can look out a wall of windows to view the Native habitat and water features of the museum’s landscaping.

2. The Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard at the National Portrait Gallery

The Norman Foster designed courtyard opened on November 18, 2007. The architecture and exposure is intensely elegant and the sheets of water on the stone floor is like a magnet. Photos don’t do this place justice… go see it! (the museum is quite good as well)

3. Venice

It’s not quite Venezia, but its as close as I’ve seen. I only lived in Venice for a few months, but it’s not an easy place to forget. The landscape is so wonderfully layered in section from the tree trunk foundations to the pink and blue sky. Canaletto does the latter with unmatched skill at the National Gallery.

4. Dumbarton Oaks

If you are going to pay to see a garden, it may as well be as beautiful as this one. Although relatively small, the garden is incredibly rich. You can download a copy of Beatrice Farrand’s plant notebook for the garden here, and note the changes since it was built. When I become a kabillionaire I plan to have a personal orangery similar to the one at Dumbarton.

5. The capitol columns at the National Arboretum

The columns were moved here in 1990 after being stored since 1958 following the addition to the East portico of the Capitol. The site was chosen by Russel Page. It’s a Room With a View you don’t often get.

“The instant I’d finished, I heard a ga-Zump!

I looked.

I saw something pop out of the stump

of the tree I’d chopped down. It was sort of a man.

Describe him?… That’s hard. I don’t know if I can.

He was shortish. And oldish.

And brownish. And mossy.

And he spoke with a voice

that was sharpish and bossy.

“Mister!” he said with a sawdusty sneeze,

“I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees.

I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.

And I’m asking you, sir, at the top of my lungs”-

he was very upset as he shouted and puffed-

“What’s that THING you’ve made out of my Truffula tuft?”

-from The Lorax
TM by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. 1971