Potomac River

This is the Potomac River looking north from the point where the Chain Bridge crosses from DC into Virginia. The river looks so small here, not much more than a stream, yet only a mile or so south the Potomac is close to a mile wide. Much of the granite to build DC was quarried from along the Potomac here and further north. This is technically part of the 'Potomac Gorge' and as you travel north through Great Falls the Potomac narrows even further and becomes a torrent that is both a great place for kayaking and the scene of many drownings as people slip off the rocks into the rapids.

Animals Managing their Environment

Will thought this was a beaver dam, but I suspect it is too small, and I did not see any evidence of a beaver house or den. Still, this small dam and another to its right out of the photo were clearly made by animals. This dam blocks a small stream that runs parallel to the Potomac in its overflow zone. I drive over the Chain Bridge at least once a week, and in the early morning this pond is almost always home to a Blue Heron that stands on the rock in the middle of the pond. The work of the muskrat or beaver that built this dam benefits the heron, the ducks that swim in the pond and probably many other animals and I am curious if these other animals reward the dam builders in some way.

Milkweed Pods

I was at a dinner recently where Mark Anderson spoke. I was a little tired, and Mark sometime takes ten paragraphs to say ten sentences, but I was really struck by one of Mark's points. Mark addressed biology as a source of design inspiration and he made the point that when a function has emerged in nature, the natural design is usually the BEST design for that particular function. E.g. fish generally translate energy into motion more efficiently and effectively than any human design to do the same thing. I think the airborne distribution of seeds by plants like the milkweed is a great example of this.

Milkweed Blowing Away

There was a good breeze and these milkweed pods were breaking up and dispersing their seeds. I think this is a great example of the convergence of beauty and function.

Will Spielberg

Sometimes it seems like Will thinks he is Steve Spielberg's long lost cousin. For about the past year he has been using the family video camera to make his own movies. After his first work behind the lens I edited the film in iMovie. Will quickly pushed me aside and now knows iMovie far better than I do.

The movies almost all feature Sniffler, a stuffed gerbil and Sniffler's numerous stuffed animal friends. Plot and dialog can be weak, but there are usually lots of stuffed animals flying off buildings and driving around in toy cars.

Beautiful to Behold, Divine to Consume

We smoked the turkey outside on the grill this year, which resulted in a bird that was tasty and mouth wateringly gorgeous. Of course, by the time it was carved and at the table it looked nothing like this, but that is why I took the picture.

Not (Yet) Named Game

Will took most of Thanksgiving morning when the rest of us were cooking and designed his own ancient history themed board game.

He made his own game cards and even his own die (I, II, III, IV, V, VI of course). He plays Age of Empires on the computer and I think that was an influence, but he is also very interested in ancient history and he used that knowledge to full effect.

Gameboard

The game that Will designed has both a board like Monopoly or Life, and a Role-Play area where players roll dice to simulate combat (a la Katana). The board itself is pretty complex with four primary cards (Relic, Talisman, True Cross and Holy Grail) required to be in place for the person who draws the Aegis card to win. Or something like that.

The individual spots on the board that a player can land on all draw from ancient history. They include "Design Coliseum, Collect Reward", "Cowardice at the Battle of Thermopylae, Move Back 2 Spaces", "Slave Trade" (which is the the corner square akin to Jail in Monopoly), and my favorite "Assassinate Xerxes, Collect Reward".

I played with Will and realized the rules were a work in progress, but he has thought through quite a lot. A new player gets both money and food. With money you can buy cities - but you need food to buy an army.

A Cat Ballet

I took Eva to a Washington Ballet performance of Where the Wild Things are and it was great! Very innovative, lots of fun and just right for a child's attention span. Eva put on her own ballet here at the house. She likes to do dance performances for us but she hadn't done one in costume for awhile.

Here's a better view of Eva's halloween costume. Will crammed himself in there.

I wish I could have captured the frenzy and energy of this cat and mouse ballet created by Eva. Lyra wanted to dance too.

Halloween

CHARGE! Somehow we don't have a family photo and I don;t knnow why because somebody definitely took one. Maybe it was not on my camera. Bill and I dressed as Romans too although most people took us to be Mr, and Mrs. Bacchus.

Will wanted to be a Roman tribunal for his school Halloween costume contest. He made the bulk of his costume by himself. I just punched the holes and, I must confess, did most of the spray painting because I was worried about the mess. Will received an honorable mention in the contest.

Eva is supposed to be a mouse but it is hard to tell from this photo. A friend of mine made this costume for a Nutcracker production by a now defunct ballet company. Eva was so pleased to have such a fun costume to wear. We were supposed to be a Roman family but Eva broke ranks when she got the mouse outfit. Isn't Lyra funny in her little toga?

Fall Fun

Every young lady needs a tractor. Some friends of ours have a beautiful farm out in the country. We went out for a halloween barbecue and Lyra immediately located the kids' farming equipment.

This is one of my favorite ways to carry Lyra though she is getting a bit heavy for it. Lyra needs a nap but was having nothing to do with her crib or her stroller.