Spring flowers

Moon phase: Waxing gibbous
Weather: Warm
Phenology: Leaves are coming in

Crocuses (Crocus vernus).

Spicebush (Lindera benzoin), a shrub with obovate spicy-smelling leaves and red berries. The leaves and twigs make a nice tea and the berries can be used like allspice.

I honestly have no idea what this plant is; it wasn't in any of my books. I can't tell if it has 5 or 6 petals, so I don't even know where to start.

Ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea), a mint family member with some very interesting common names (gill-over-the-ground, creeping charlie, etc.). The leaves make a nice tea.

Okay, I was totally wrong. It's actually henbit (Lamium amplexicaule). They're both in the mint family, with purple flowers and roundish leaves. The main difference is that henbit is more upright and ground ivy more creeping. Here's a picture of ground ivy. (You can see why I was confused!)

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.