This week’s Ten on Tuesday is focused on things you like about where you live:

1. How protective we are of our identity. Coming from New England, I know how touchy one can get when outsiders confuse New Hampshire and Vermont or try to make New York part of New England. But that does not begin to compare to how a D.C. resident feels when someone tries to claim that they live in Washington, D.C., when, in fact, they live in Virginia or Maryland. Also, that if you are referring to us as “Inside the Beltway” or “Washington” it is obvious that you are not referring to the local municipality and its citizens but to the federal government.

2. Height restrictions. People (particularly our friend John) will tell you that more high density residences are the key to keeping open spaces open. But I still love that in D.C. how high a building can be built is limited. (Contrary to what people will tell you, it is not restricted by the Capitol dome, but by the width of the street the building sits on.) With a few rare exceptions, no building in D.C. is taller than 12 stories, which means that you can always see the sky, unlike in many cities.

3. Green space. The District has a lot of parkland, ranging from triangular pocket parks where three streets meet to the C&O Canal towpath, which runs between a defunct canal and the Potomac River. Plus, we have Rock Creek Park, one of the largest urban parks in the country and where you would swear you’d left the city limits when you’re inside it.

4. Political awareness. Whether it’s because they work for someone in the Capitol or because they have no representation within it, nearly every person in the District knows a great deal about politics. Sure, people elsewhere know plenty, too, but I bet D.C. is one of the few places where half the population can reliably tell you how many electoral college votes we get. (For the record, it’s three.) Plus, we’re a die-hard, indigo coursing through our veins kind of place, where marriage equality was recently legalized and medical marijuana is also likely to become law. We’re so heavily Democratic, mayoral and council seat elections are routinely determined in the primary race, rather than in the general election, and District law has been re-written to force non-majority party membership on the Council.

5. A wide diversity of food. Yes, you can find chain restaurants and crappy hot dog vendors. But you can also find farmers’ markets every day of the week at various spots around the city and Eastern Market handily located on Cap Hill. And the restaurants range widely from New Haven-style pizza (not as good as pizza in New Haven, but far, far better than anything else within 300 miles) to Ethiopian injera to Salvadoran pupusas to chili half-smokes. There is a growing awareness of vegetarian food (finally!). Asian restaurants are starting to filter in from the Virginia ‘burbs. There are always plenty of fancy restaurants for celebrations and we have a growing supply of cupcakeries and independent coffee houses.

6. Free cultural resources. Sure, New York may have more museums, but we’ve got them beat by allowing free access to nearly all of ours. The Smithsonian is an amazing resource to have at your disposal — from the Museum of the American Indian to Air and Space to the National Zoo. We also offer a number of great, free festivals down on the Mall from the National Kite Festival in March to the recent Folklife Festival to September’s Book Festival. And that doesn’t even look at the daily Millennium Stage offering at the Kennedy Center, Friday night jazz, or the plethora of outdoor film screenings during the summer.

7. A well-balanced transit system. Our Metrorail system is clean. We’ve got lots of bus lines. We’re building a street car line or two. They add more bike lanes every year. You can walk lots of places. And you generally can find street parking in your neighborhood if you have a parking permit.

8. Politics and Prose. One of the best bookstores in the nation. Knowledgeable, friendly staff. Daily author readings. A great members’ program. Remainders. And a decent cafe, to boot.

9. Local sports. Our beleaguered Nationals now boast the first winning pitcher of an NL squad in 14 years. I’ve seen women’s world cup soccer at RFK. I’ve seen a friendly match between our men’s club and one of England’s premiere-league teams. I’ve seen men’s and women’s basketball. We’ve got a roller derby team, a tennis team, and a women’s football team. I hear rumors we have an ice hockey team. Maryland has a football team that claims to be from here (note the Washington reference in #1 above). We host one of the largest open-entry marathons in the country. And if you walk around town any night of the week, you’ll see we have amateur-level sports in beach volleyball, kickball, rugby, softball, bocci, ultimate frisbee, crew, and cricket.

10. Dupont Circle. My little ‘hood has grown more … mallified … since we moved down here, but it still offers a fantastic place to live. There are public spaces, bookstores — of both the new and used varieties, a music store, a tea house, two indy coffee joints, two cupcake shops, an ice cream shop, a gelateria, two 24-hour drug stores, and, soon, a yarn shop. Yes, we lost both our movie theaters. Yes, high rents and greedy landlords have driven out a number of adorable little shops we liked. But, overall, you can’t beat the above list combined with the quiet streets that spur off from the main drag as a place to live.

I could go on. But I won’t. But you can. Share in the comments what you like about where you live.

You know those sayings: “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” Or “When it rains, it pours.” Or “Where there’s lightning, there’s often a thunderstorm.”

Oh, you haven’t heard that last one?

Around 9:30 tonight, Rudi, Julia, and I were sitting out on the Mall, having a perfectly lovely evening. A brief spattering of rain had gone through downtown just around 5, which dropped the temperature down but didn’t seem to raise the humidity or soak the ground, making it perfect for the inaugural showing of this year’s Screen on the Green.

Yes, there was the odd flickering of lightning, but mostly it seemed to be of the cloud-to-cloud variety, so it didn’t bother us at all as we enjoyed our picnic and cartoon short (Marvin the Martian!). We moved on to the main feature, Goldfinger, and had just finished our cupcakey dessert and followed James Bond to America when the drops started to patter down. Julia and about a third of the crowd had already packed up when the emcee came over the loudspeaker to announce that due to a fast-moving thunderstorm, they were very sorry, but they were going to have to cut the film short — oh, and could we please leave RIGHT NOW?!

Which we did.

Except maybe they didn’t emphasize that fast bit enough because we hardly had time to get our bikes unlocked before the rain was pouring down and the lightning was crashing around us. We and about a hundred of our neighbors dashed (dashed is a relative term when carrying a chair and lugging a 45-pound bike) up the steps of the west wing of the National Gallery of Art and hung out on their front porch while the worst of the storm passed through downtown D.C.

We waited for the rain to go into a lull and for the thunder to tell us the storm had moved out of immediate proximity before hopping on our very damp bikes and pedaling home.

Just after we left the Mall to head north, the rain (sans electricity this time) started up again. Rudi and I just pedaled through it, trying to avoid the biggest puddles and to give ourselves plenty of time to brake. And, luckily, drivers gave us a wide berth, probably because they felt sorry for us in our bedraggled state.

Okay, so it might not have made for the best movie-watching, but it’s definitely an evening we won’t soon forget. And that’s kind of cool.

But if I see smoke anytime soon, I’m pulling out the marshmallows…

Not me!

I did many things I thought I should below, but failed to follow through on a couple.

On the other hand, I slept in every morning. I read a whole novel start to finish in one sitting. I watched the Tour de France prologue. I’ve made huge progress on the colorwork sock I’m knitting (which is secret test knitting so can’t be shown for a couple more weeks). I ate most of a pint of blueberries for breakfast yesterday. I colored our sugar for the Fourth of July. I watched the best fireworks display I’ve seen since moving down here while lying next to the Lincoln Memorial. We went swimming and picked the first of our yard-long beans. I saw a baseball game with a tremendously exciting ninth inning. We watched a movie I’ve wanted to see for ages since it was out in theaters. I drank tamarind soda. We witnessed an amazing traditional Mexican ceremony at the Folklife Festival. I bought a Christmas cd. I got a dragon tattoo. We ate pizza. I played in sprinklers.

I don’t know… Seems like a pretty great way to spend a weekend, doesn’t it?

I hope yours was equally nice!

Darling,

It’s so good to see you back. You’re looking well. A little color in your cheeks that wasn’t there when you left.

Me? Yes, I admit I did get a smidge of sun last weekend.

No, we didn’t make it out to the shore. We stayed in town for the event of the season. (more…)

Please help yourself to a cocktail. I’ll be back Monday with a full recap of the weekend’s festivities.

Sorry for disappearing on y’all, but today was Rudi’s birthday, which meant that I spent a lot of time this weekend running around and shopping and cleaning.

The good news is that it paid off and Rudi, who has just toddled off to bed in his old-agedness (Now that he’s a year older than me once more, I can start teasing him again… Clearly his tiredness has nothing to do with the 150+ miles he rode this weekend nor with the hours at which he rose to do so…), seems to have had a nice weekend filled with bike riding, friends, and food. We passed a pleasant evening at Malcolm X Park, where the fountain was running, the drum circle offered an aural backdrop, and our friends helped cap off a great day with a picnic dinner.

One of the blogs I read had a post just this morning about our not taking the time to appreciate the here and now. I just want to put it out there that this evening, surrounded by our six favorite people in D.C., was definitely one of the good old days I’ll be looking back on. I could feel a sense of well-being and happiness wash over me as we lay on the blankets and played board games. It was just … right. Emily Gibbs would be pleased.

On other fronts, the Burrow is still a mess. It’s frustrating, but it feels like we’re making progress toward achieving some balance and harmony with our surroundings again. I have to keep reminding myself that since it didn’t reach this stage overnight, it’s unreasonable to expect to rectify it that quickly. This weekend’s big steps were to put together a shelf we bought back in February (sadly, it’s true; we even schlepped it awkwardly home through the aftermath of Sno(w)verkill) and to start a box of things that should head to Goodwill.

Finally, think good thoughts for my garden, please. The weekend’s hectic schedule didn’t leave time to make it down there, so I’ll be heading over after work, rain storm or not. I hope my plants can forgive the neglect.

The past two Saturdays have seen me spanning the globe, visiting six countries over four continents but still making it home in time for dinner. You’ve got to appreciate the way modern travel allows such amenities. Or, at least, D.C.’s cultural attractions.

On the 1st of May, Passport D.C. offered folks the opportunity to visit a broad swath of embassies. I got a late start and it was over 90 with high humidity, so I stuck with visiting nations close to home. That said, I still managed to make it to four countries:
(more…)

Late Saturday afternoon, Rudi and I headed down to the C&O Canal Towpath for a bike ride and to see if we could spy any baby animals. I share our success with you: (more…)

… but the May flowers showed up anyway:

Irises at Mitchell Park

Gradations of purple

A mystery flower. Anyone?

Mini daffodils

Dandelion, gone to seed

I really like this shot, and I just don’t know why exactly. Through the iris stems…

The re-sized shot that fits on the blog comfortably doesn’t really do justice to the picture. I suggest clicking through to Flickr to view them (and a few others) at full size.

A peek in the basket after the first farmers’ market of May:

• Morels
• Asparagus
• Ramps
• Rhubarb
• Mesclun mix
• Baby zucchini (The farmers are growing them vertically in bags in their unheated greenhouse to harvest earlier.)
• Celeriac
• A greenhouse tomato
• An onion
• Blueberry scones
• Milk — plain and chocolate

Yum!

Tomorrow I’ll share updates and photos from Passport D.C. and the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival.