And I believe that I remember them with my heart from the magic placed that was my grandparents' house in Mount Vernon, NY. Their azaleas were clipped, formal foundation plants. I seem to remember that a few of them were transplanted to my parents' house when we moved there. The exposure must have not been as good and they didn't seem to bloom as well. Maybe I am imagining the whole thing , but I have always loved azaleas and this very early childhood recollection seems as good a reason as any.
Does the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival count as a museum? MAD makes the rules and MAD says yes.
- hand spun and hand-dyed, rovings and batts of wool in natural and rainbow of colors that make you reach out to touch the fibers. Many of the vendors sell breed-specific yarns and you are able feel the differences between Corriedale, Border Leicester, Romney, cashmere to mention only a few.
the show. MAD's favorite is Jacob's Sheep, an ancient breed with two rows of horns that was dwindling until a program was initiated to stabilize and re-invigorate the breed.
MAD was accompanied by MADOD (pregnant-with-twins Older Daughter) who gave her an excuse to buy yarn to make baby items as well as the joint purchase of Vintage Baby Knits, inscribed by author Kristen Rendgren to Baby A and Baby B. And we purchased yarn for each other for what has become our annual birthday gift exchange. Thank you , MADOD, for the excuse, for the birthday gift and for the day spent together.
Originally sent to Parliament for the United Party, she was a founder of the Progressive Party and its only elected member as well as the only voice in opposition to apartheid for 13 of her 36 years in office. She visited Nelson Mandela on Robben Island and visited lesser and unknown people and places where injustices were being committed in the name of the government. She never gave up and was instrumental in the establishment of a unity government only retiring from elected office in 1989 .
What MAD doesn't do for you! Hot hot day -in case you didn't figure it out yesterday, MAD hates heat. I walked up 16th Street across from the lovely descending terraces of Meridian Hill a/k/a Malcolm X Park trying to stay in the shade. Followed the sign directing me left onto Belmont for the Meridian International Center, looking down at purple "snow" and sniffing up at what turned out to be the fragrance of wisteria hanging over a brick wall, only to find out (1) the turn onto Belmont (an uphill walk) only was necessary for drivers and (2) I was too early for Metropolis Now (shoulda paid attention to real, as opposed to perceived, time). Only thing to do was go away and come back later.
And am I glad I did - Metropolis Now is sort of the opposite of the calligraphy exhibit yesterday. That was as old as it gets in China and you can't get much newer than this stuff. That was one overlay for MAD. Add on MAD's trip to China in November 2008, the venue of the almost private White-Meyer House and the formality and thoughtfulness with which this show was hung and I had an extraordinary unexpected experience. Since I am not particularly interested in contemporary Chinese art.
gigantic stainless steel Ants - whose picture is the exhibit's logo. - so magical, even playful, in person with their size and many colors. Volunteer Amy Tomlinson told me that she thinks of them as a reminder of the contrast between the traditionally collective nature of Chinese society and a new emphasis on the individual. Wei Qingji's Spiderman 2 evoked the same connection to me.
ooked like the Temple inside a dream. Visits to both an embroidery and a silk factory were evoked by Liu Liyun's silk and cotton composition A Volume of Landscape depicting ordinary household objects in embroidery and silk sculpture. New Pictures, old materials and techniques.
Wang Xiaohui's self-portrait photos in a succession of clothes from the beginning of the 20th century through now - printed on rice paper .
Liu Qinghe's Untitled scroll showing a diversity of faces in ink using a material as spiritual tool that both adheres to tradition and fosters innovation.
Hot day in the district. Escalators and elevator outage at the U Street Metro Station . At the bottom of that inactive escalator, spotting a hugely pregnant woman walking up, MAD offered to carry up her two hugely heavy bags of groceries. She didn't speak English and MAD doesn't speak whatever she speaks, but somehow the offer was communicated and accepted. At the top, she offered her thanks with a bottle of iced tea and her hand. Sometimes worlds can be communicated without words.
al, Clerical, Cursive, Running and Standard are presented in the form of rubbings, scrolls and carvings. Even though I may have seen them all before separately, seeing them together made me aware of the lovely differences between these types. I learned about the eight different brush-strokes called radicals that make up standard calligraphy, the version that every child learns in school and saw the Four Treasures of the Scholar's Studio.
MAD is so out of practice that I almost forgot to write this post.
schools that have closed as well as a special exhibit of art "Local Color" by Martha J. Smith whose paintings quietly explore relationships between people, many between women and especially between women of color. Some of these paintings are hung in a lecture hall that feels like the students and lecturer have just walked out.
The time has come to tell you about Grover - you know, cute and furry from Sesame Street.
of Grover's emergence. Each time I walk down the street I get to see the status of the Spring flowers. There is a yard of red tulips across the street that are getting ready to pop and I can't wait to see them in action*. 
There is a triangle at the corner filled with ground covers and Daffodils (almost finished blooming) that I hadn't seen before. One yard has Bleeding Heart in bloom. It's the Whole Wide Everything Else in the World Museum, right on my block.
In memory of Abraham Lincoln, assassinated this day in 1865, I visited the self-contained exhibit Forever Free - Abraham Lincoln's Journey to Emancipation on view at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, main building of the DC Public Library.
divided into six thematic sections to describe in his own words what we know of Lincoln's attitude towards to slavery and how he politically worked to end it. You walk around it and read the story which is densely illustrated with autograph writings, photographs, political cartoons and maps (yay maps!) as well as background art showing the context of the time in which the 
events took place. With a timeline running horizontally across quite a bit of information is packed onto its panels. It does, however, gloss over the fact that the Emancipation Proclamation only 
applied to the states then in rebellion; reading closely you are reminded that it took the 13th Amendment to the Constitution to abolish slavery throughout the rest of the Union.
If I can tour it, I can blog it. Notice I didn't say I did tour it, but Nationals Park offers tours and so do museums, so Nationals Park can count as a museum (?) Remember, MAD makes the rules.
ow fun to be able to get to a baseball game with a 10 minute subway ride. Having arranged to meet near the exit for the ballpark, my son got on my train and came right into my car.
