Indian Museum

Moon phase: First quarter
Weather: Warm
Phenology: Red buds are blooming

These are from a recent trip to the National Museum of the American Indian. I love the architecture.

Instead of just laying out rows of projectile points, they arranged them into beautiful swirling patterns.

Hundreds of Indian languages, projected onto a black wall.

A labyrinth from the Southwest (don't remember which tribe). When I was working at the National Cathedral this past holiday season, I read most of a book on the history and spirituality of labyrinths, which have showed up in many cultures all over the world, from Europe to Asia to America. While today they are mostly used by Christians, they predate Christianity by quite a bit. Labyrinths are not to be confused with mazes; mazes have many dead ends and are designed to confuse you, while labyrinths have a single path that is followed to the center. The author of the book speculated that the labyrinth is an archetype; that it appears again and again in different cultures because it represents the inward journey of the self. It's a spiritual quest where you descend to the inner depths of your subconscious, and when you reach the center of the labyrinth, you slay a monster or are given new wisdom. Then you follow the same path to the surface again.

On a trip to France as a teenager, I walked the labyrinth in Chartres Cathedral, which is one of the most famous. I had never heard of labyrinths before (except in the sense of a simple maze), and I fell in love with the idea. But I mostly forgot about it until I picked up this book to read about them; now I want to learn more.

Snowy afternoon

Moon phase: Waxing crescent
Weather: Lovely and warm
Phenology: Cherry blossoms are peaking

Some pictures from the one snowstorm we had this past winter. Even though I grew to hate the snow when I was living in northern Wisconsin, now that I'm back in DC I kind of miss it. It just seems so strange for there to be bare ground all winter.

I recently posted on the death of Tom Fox. His fellow Christian Peacemakers have now been rescued by the army, and kidnapped journalist Jill Carroll was just released by her captors. There are others still missing in Iraq, and of course many civilians and soldiers are killed there every day. But still this rescue and release are both good news.

Random pics from this winter

Moon phase: Waning gibbous
Weather: Cold and windy
Phenology: Spicebush is blooming

Sunset over the pond at Martin Luther King Park in White Oak, Maryland.

An old oak in the fog. This tree has unfortunately been cut down since I took this picture, which upset me because it was a background figure in many a childhood memory. It didn't even look like it was dying, so I'm not sure why they cut it down.

This adorable fungus is called turkey tail (Trametes versicolor), according to Urban Pantheist, who did a post on it recently. (And thank the gods he did, because I know absolutely nothing about fungi and would never have figured it out otherwise.)

Natural History Museum

Moon phase: Waning gibbous
Weather: Cold & cloudy
Phenology: Daffodils are blooming

Three pictures from a recent trip to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. I love how museums in DC don't cost anything; I remember visiting a museum in New York once when I was a teenager and being amazed that you had to actually pay to get in. I guess I just grew up assuming that all museums are free.

Great Falls

Moon phase: Full moon
Weather: Cool & clear

The Washington Monument & downtown from the National Cathedral grounds. The next few are from a trip to Great Falls this winter.

Birds

Moon phase: Waxing gibbous
Weather: Warm
Phenology: Forsythia is blooming

A peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) soaring above the National Cathedral.

A zoomed shot of a peregrine. The picture's fuzzy, but you can see the pointed wings and long tail.

A turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) at Great Falls. Turkey vultures are a wonderful mix of hideous and beautiful; I love watching them soar.

This white-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) crashed into my back door. She sat there stunned while I went out to take some pictures, and when I came back she was gone.

Here's another photo of the cathedral in the afternoon light.

Tom Fox

Moon phase: Waxing gibbous
Weather: Warm

Tom Fox, an American taken hostage in Iraq, has been found dead. I was thinking of doing a post on him anyway, because I've been so worried about him, but now I really have to.

First of all, Tom Fox was a Quaker and a member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, and he was in Iraq to promote peace and help out the citizens affected by the war. I didn't know Tom Fox, but it's a small small Quaker world, and I know people who knew him. I've probably seen him at Baltimore Yearly Meeting gatherings, which I went to a few times as a teenager. He was a member of Langley Hill Meeting in Virginia, and of course there a many ties between Langley Hill and the meeting I grew up in, Bethesda Friends.