New York Photos

Moon phase: Waxing crescent
Weather: warm

Some photos from my recent trip to New York. This was the view from the hotel room, looking out over Riverside Park and the Hudson River.

A display of various hominid skulls in the Darwin exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. The one in the upper left is Homo floresiensis, a recent find estimated to have lived until about 18,000 years ago, or possibly more recently. I wrote a letter to the Washington Post after their article on H. floresiensis mistakenly called it an ancestor of modern humans (repeatedly). They didn't publish my letter, of course, and I don't think they issued a correction. But this issue makes me so mad: just because something is an extinct hominid doesn't mean it's an ancestor of ours. (And in this case it's historically impossible, since our subspecies, H. sapiens sapiens, is at least 150,000 years old.) There were at one time many branches on the hominid tree, and we just happen to be the only ones still around.

Okay, I'm done ranting.

The wolves in the North American Mammals exhibit. I wanted to take a photo of them the first time I went to this museum, back in 2000 at a time when I was completely obsessed with wolves. Of course back then I only had my film camera, and it just couldn't take low-light photos. So of course I had to take the picture now that I have my digital camera, which is excellent for low light. I love the northern lights in the background. I saw the northern lights a few times when I was up in Wisconsin and once in Canada last summer, though none of those times was it as amazing as the photos you see in magazines. You really have to go way up north to see that.

The skyline with a gibbous moon. Next time, I'll post photos from Central Park.

Cherry blossoms and Tidal Basin

Moon phase: Waxing crescent
Weather: Warm
Phenology: Oak flowers are everywhere

I went to the Cherry Blossom Festival a few weeks ago, and it was (as usual) crowded with tourists, but it was still beautiful, especially after the sun set.

Woods

Moon phase: Waning crescent
Weather: Raining

Around town

Moon phase: Waning gibbous
Weather: Lovely
Phenology: Apple blossoms are out

An alley in Bethesda I take on my way to my favorite comic book store. I love the lines in this one.

Some pics from the Mall. I don't spend much time downtown; I'm usually up in Northwest where I live and work, or out in Montgomery County. When I do go downtown, I feel like a tourist and I have to take pictures.

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.