Pawpaw Quest

I went on a pawpaw quest today and achieved success at the Takoma Park Farmers Market. Thank you to Two Boots Farm for bringing their great fruit to a pop-up sale. I found some new varieties to try, as well as the big, beautiful Shenandoah type. At $9 per pound they are expensive but worth it for the fun native fruit.

Here's what they look like:

I'll take another picture when I cut one open!

Weekend with Warren!

I'm home from a lovely weekend with Karl, Erin, and Warren. Really nice to see them all! I was able to be helpful with meals and Warren snuggles. He's big for his 7 weeks (15 pounds) but not coordinated so he is an awkward fit for the baby carriers. He likes napping on his people though, including snuggling with aunt Sarah while (not) watching ultimate frisbee.

We all went to Early Child Family Education class on Friday which was interesting to see. Very practical coping and socialization info for young parents. Saturday I ran 19 miles around the lakes (yep, still marathon training) which was lovely in the unseasonably cool yet sunny weather. We followed that with gardening and digging potatoes and I made Thai salmon curry for dinner.

I clearly need to plan more long weekends in the Cities.  

Warren was chillin' while parents gardened. 

Beautiful view of downtown Minneapolis across the lake in the middle of my run.

Tummy time to practice those neck and back muscles.

Hanging out with Daddy!

Snuggles with Aunt Sarah

Seven week family photo: Erin, Karl, and Warren.

July Photos

Here's a few summer pictures to share. I'll describe them in the captions. 

Shortcake at Kristie's place. I made the shortcake, lemon curd, and whipped cream and Kori brought blueberries to make it truly Fourth of July colors. We watched fireworks from the balcony after eating it!

The west lawn of the Capitol while listening to the concert practice.

A distant view of the Capitol Fourth megatron. The sunset put on a great show too.

This was dress rehearsal on the 3rd of July...much more comfortable than the crowded official concert on July 4!

Hardy hibiscus in the garden northwest of the Capitol.

They had both pink and red massed in the bed so of course I took a picture of both.

View of the Washington Monument from the rooftop bar of the Hyatt Place on 4th Street. June 26.

Spring!

It's definitely spring now so a good time to share a few pictures and a recipe.

We have drizzly rain today so I rode Metro up to U Street after exercise class to visit the season opening of the 14th&U Farmers Market. I found rutabagas, potatoes, asparagus, Gold Rush apples, a big head of pak choi, and, significantly, strawberries. Yay strawberries! So, after weeding my garden plot and planting Lacinato kale, I made a half batch of shortcake and ate a giant bowl of strawberry shortcake for supper. Now I'm sipping my mug of Scottish tea with milk and sharing the picture with you. Needless to say, the strawberries were gone before I started writing this post--no way I'm putting down the spoon long enough to write.

That's really spring!

For useful reference, here's the shortcake recipe. Reduce the sugar and it is a biscuit. You can replace the milk with part or all cream or yogurt or sour cream to change the flavor and richness.

Christy Brown's Shortcake (or Biscuits)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

2 c flour
2 T sugar (2 t for biscuits)
2 t baking powder
1/2 t cream of tartar
1/3 c butter (1/4 c lard for biscuits)
2/3 c milk

Whisk the dry ingredients. Cut in the fat. Add the milk. Toss and lightly knead the dough until it just hangs together. Roll or pat out and cut into squares or triangles with a knife. Bake 11 minutes, adjusting as needed for the size of the pieces. Eat warm.


In other news, I joined a bit of the Climate March on April 29 (on my bike). It was much warmer and sunnier last weekend than today.

And this was my sighting of the month for April on Metro.

Yep. He's wearing shoes with sparkly teddy bears.

I finally got my assorted pictures hung on the bedroom wall.

And made a good batch of slow rise, free-form bread with pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, millet, and extra bran.

January 2017 in the District

It's been an interesting month...

Look closely on the right and you can see the rows of port-a-potties getting set up on January 8

The  Freer|Sackler has a great exhibit on illuminated Qur'ans right now.

Cranberry cake, I need to make another batch to practice the recipe. Of course I do. 

Time to scrub sunchokes

Beautiful sunrise January 18

I wonder who is on that helicopter, January 19

We ran by the Capitol on the eve of Inauguration 

And I visited the Mall again Friday night. The aftermath of big events is always interesting.

Independence Ave by the Air and Space Museum

Signs west of the Washington Monument 

The plastic grass protectors on the main Mall

And now for the big event

I've been knitting

Gathering at River Park

Joining the streams of people on Fourth Street

We were lucky to be able to walk from home. Many, many people crowded on Metro to get to the March.

Behind us

Kristie and Amanda

Did I mention a lot of people?

All together

We can't get any closer

Amanda and me

We finally ended up at the base of the FAA building across Independence Ave from the Hirshhorn

This was the map of where the Women's March was supposed to be

But it was impossible to march that route with so many people! The crowd was a lot bigger than Inauguration the day before.

Here's a view of the Smithsonian Castle

Maeve was our group's mascot

We detoured to 14th Street the back way since Independence Avenue was totally blocked with people. Good thing I've run all over the area so I knew how we could get to the Fish Market. I left Kristie and the gang south of the Washington Monument and made use of the running shoes I was wearing. The rest of the pictures are from my jog up around the White House and back down Pennsylvania Avenue and the Mall.

The scene at the Ellipse south of the White House 

Looking across from west to east

North of the White House (the sign says Show Us Your Taxes)

All of the nearby streets are jammed with people

Lots of signs and pink hats

No violence or problems

Hundreds of thousands of peaceful marchers. No arrests at all.

Marchers defaulted to Pennsylvania Ave after the other streets filled up with people

Panorama of Pennsylvania Avenue from the corner of 10th St

Near Archives

7th and Penn to the north

7th and Penn to the east

7th and Penn to the south

7th and Penn to the west

Opportunities for great shots of the Capitol

Go rural! We chatted and she is from West Virginia

The Mall

Filling the leftover fences with signs

I don't know who made the photo collage but it's beautiful

The end. People are leaving 3rd and Independence, the site of the main stage.

If you want to see the speakers from the Women's March in DC, C-SPAN live streamed it and has all five hours on video. That's what Elizabeth, Veronica, Natalie, Lissa, and I did when we got home. They were in a bit better position to hear than I was, but it was certainly hard to see and hear from the middle of the crowd. There are lots of news stories with great pictures of course, here's one.

Update: the clean up crews are good. Here's Sunday evening on my way to meet Mary Lou and Shannon.

Just a few pieces of fence and port-a-potties left to pick up by Sunday night.

Corner of 4th and Independence, it looked rather different 30 hours ago!