Saturday, March 08, 2008

A Walk in the Park...

While at the museum, a friend and I ran into one of our college cronies, Max Lust. It was good to see him and catch up a bit. You can see some of his cartoon adventures by CLICKING HERE. The weather had cleared up a bit. Although still drizzly, the park was right there and perfect for an afternoon stroll.

Above is a picture of one of my most favorite places: the Bethesda Pavilion. In summer I come here to lay out on the grass and watch the fireflies in the early evening, or watch the swans swimming by, or the dragonflies hovering over head. It truly is a magical place.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude finally got The Gates in the Ramble! Well... actually they didn't. This is just construction netting up for the restoration of the Lake. During the showing of the Gates, they were not allowed to put them up in the Ramble as it's a bird sanctuary.

This is one of the statues that was built into the Bethesda Pavilion of an owl. With statues, I always imagine what they've seen and try to vicariously experience the secret and silent existences that they have. Did this owl see the frail woman in her 70's doing a ballet piece on skates dressed in a purple leopard-print leotard as well?


No one believes that I can speak bird (even though I can speak one or two dialects). Usually, they just hack it up to me being eccentric. However, if you were to have been there, you would have seen me chirping to all the little chickadees. From all the surrounding bushes, they flew and gathered around me. I wasn't just talking to myself... they were listening back. Here's a shot of a few of them doing just that.

3 comments:

Jean Katherine Baldridge said...

As always, your photos are so lovely. my favorite, which is WONDERFUL!, is the one at the very top. and also the owl!, which I wonder how old that statue is..it is such a different, whiter color! I wonder--did it get a spring bath?

congratulations on the wonderful work you did for your dear friend. some people just think about doing stuff, and don't do it. some people DO it. You DID it.

Andrew Thornton said...

Thanks, Jean!

I'm not sure. The next time I'm there, I'll make sure to look out for some of the placards and see how old it is. Or maybe I'll Google it. We'll see.

And thank you for your kind words as well. I'm one of those types of people who when they put their mind to something will stop at nothing to achieve it. It may take time, or it may take a huge involvement of people, but eventually... eventually the desired things happen.

Anonymous said...

tee hee. I was going to say... Christo's netting is a bit shabby :)