I made it to Washington DC. I took the super shuttle to the Malice Domestic hotel in Bethesda, which meant I got a mini tour of the city. No matter how many times I see them, the Washington Monument and the Capital are always exciting. I caught a glimpse of the Jefferson monument and the Smithsonian Castle. Then it was on through the city. We passed embassy row, Dupont Circle, the National Cathedral and Rock Creek park - maybe not in that order.
One of the things I want to do after I write this, is to find a map of Washington on line. I have no sense of where I am and I’d like to have some idea of where I am and its relation to where I want to go.
I’m here for a mystery conference, but how can you go someplace and not see some of the city? So, tomorrow, once I know where I am, I am going to hit the subway. In the past when I’ve come for this conference, I have always just missed the cherry blossoms, but I saw a sign at the airport that said tomorrow is the last day of the cherry blossom festival. This year I might actually get to see them.
I enjoyed the spring flowers in Chicago. We have lots of flowers in Southern California, but I not lilys of the valley, lilacs or violets - at least, that I’ve seen. I probably looked a little weird inhaling as I walked past the lilacs bushes. And on the way to the grocery store, I stopped to admire the dainty white bell shaped lilys of the valley. I really wanted to get a whiff of their sweet scent, but I would have had to kneel on the sidewalk and I wasn’t willing to get that weird. I wanted to include of photo I took of the violets and lilys of the valley, but they look like tiny white and violet spots lost in a lot of green. So I included a photo of the giant pots of flowers in the grocery store shopping center. Just a side note, those pink hydrangeas are poisonous, but lovely all the same.
I love crocheted flowers and made one as my plane was getting ready to take off and I couldn’t use my e-reader. I have had the Nook since Christmas and this is the first time I’m using it. Here’s the problem - it’s supposed to be great for travel, but you can’t use it when the plane takes off and when it get’s ready to land. I did a mini poll on the way back from the rest room on my flight from L.A. to Chicago, and there were more people reading paper books than tablets or e-readers.
I am sure one of the big topics this weekend will be paper books versus electronic ones. Publishing is going through a lot of changes. Who knows how it will end up. I always think about people saying that letter writing was dead because people just phoned each other. But now, rather than phoning each other, they’re texting or emailing each other, which is really letter writing, even if it’s written in weird shorthand.
8 comments:
We do have lots of flowers in So. Cal. but most are non-native and take so much water. And with water scarce and the price for it skyrocketing I just can't seem to bring myself to plant too many flowers.
And on the letter thing, you know that they actually still require kids to learn cursive and they test them on it in high school. For what? Instead spend the time teaching them to spell, use complete sentences and proper syntax.
Dollhouse Miniature, I have been replacing most of the flowers in my yard with succulents because of the water issue. I thought I'd found one with pretty red flowers last year until I looked at it this spring and saw that the plant had vicious looking spikes. And then I got the name of it - crown of thorns.
The flowers were nice, but the thorns too creepy looking, so I pulled, wearing gloves, of course.
Lily of the Valley is poisonous too - it has cardiac glycosides. Check with the Poison Lady while you're at Malice.
Anything that encourages people to read is a good thing, and I think ebook readers are fun and exciting. I can carry my library with me wherever I go and download the news or a book from wherever I am. It's like magic!
It looks like you missed the cherry blossoms by a month, but the festival is a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Japan's gift of the 3,000 cherry trees. That sounds exciting! Enjoy!
Hope you have a great trip! Please let us know how it went! Chrystle
Ellen, wow, so lilys of the valley are poisonous, too. I just left the poison ladies workshop. I'll have to find her and ask how cardiac glycosides work. Thanks
Planner, though the cherry blossom festival ended yesterday, the flowers apparently ended a long time ago. The closest I got as buying a tote bag commemerating the 100 anniversary.
Chrystle, sorry you're not here at Malice. So far the trip has been great, except for the coffee I dumped on my white blouse. I knew there was a reason I never wear white.
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