I spent several hours outside this evening watching the D.C.’s Pride Parade. Let me share some of it with you:

Let’s have a parade!

The military being allowed to march the parade still makes me so happy:

There were young participants (this is the larger DCPS group; there were also individual elementary schools, as well as school bands, dance groups, and clubs):

And there were old participants (these are all retirees on this bus):

There were even canine participants:

There were great signs (I missed snapping the one that read, “I’m the trans teacher I never had,” and didn’t get a great shot of the one that said, “Jesus had two dads and he turned out fine!”):

There were tutus and tiaras, leather and lace, and feathers and flowers (I did not snap photos of bare skin, but there was a certain amount of that, too):

The great thing about our parade is how many people want to be in it. I watched for more than two hours and there was probably still an hour’s worth of floats and marchers lined up waiting for their cue to begin when I had to head home. In addition to groups that you might expect to see — support groups, clubs, and nonprofits specifically aimed at the target crowd — you also get local and national businesses, embassies, politicians (both elected officials and those seeking votes), churches, and community groups.

It’s a very welcoming event. And this year, maybe a touch defiant, too.

There were rainbows as far as the eye could see.

And candy, beads, and confetti:

(In case you were wondering, the street sweepers are the final participants in the parade.)

This weekend, I visited the House of Sweden, the Swedish and Icelandic embassies, which is down on the Potomac River in Georgetown. Their embassy has long been on my to-see list, so I’m glad I made it down there. As with the other Scandinavian embassies, its design takes its environment into account, and I could see how it would be an amazing place to work. I picked up a free Swedish cookbook, took part in a silent disco party (The color your headphone is glowing shows which of the three channels you’re listening to, so folks can still dance together. Also, Swedish house music is quite enjoyable), and ogled the rooftop views (click through and zoom in to actually see those) and the indoor/outdoor water feature on the ground level.

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The House of Sweden, the über-cool Scandinavian embassy, is located near where the C&O Canal and the Potomac River meet in Georgetown. From their roof, I could see a family of ducks, but the towpath doesn’t extend that far so I couldn’t get close enough to the ducklings to get pictures. So I borrowed a bikeshare and rode a bit along the towpath, hoping to see some further along. Because they’re doing construction to the canal and canal boats, they’ve let the bed go wild between some of the locks. (That green space in the shot below is the canal.) Too marshy to see ducklings (but, one hopes, just marshy enough to allow for good nesting), but I did see quite a few red-winged blackbirds, a turtle, and a pair of cardinals. And quite a few lovely buttercups.

I’ll take my own bike out for a spin later in the week and go further north along the canal to where there’s water again. I hope to have photos of baby animals soon!

Last Saturday was the Around the World Embassy Tour of many non-EU nations (their open houses are this coming Saturday). This is one of my favorite D.C. events every spring and convenient, since I live in the same neighborhood where many of the embassies are located. As I mentioned, I had a plan to hit five of the embassies I haven’t visited in the past, and I managed to squeeze in all five before the event concluded.

These are out of order from how I visited them, but likely in order of how many photos I’m going to show you. (more…)

This weekend was the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival, and today I drove myself north to have some fun.

I arrived earlier than I have in years, just after 2, which gave me slightly under 3 hours to soak up the whole festival. Even with that, I still didn’t have enough time to see the last section of vendors, so I’m thinking next year I should aim for an hour earlier.

The first thing I did was head inside the animal barns. While some are quieter than others, generally these are busy, loud places. Farmers are shearing sheep. Sheep are bleating. Announcers are calling for animals and their handlers to get into place for judging.

They want to make sure everyone looks their best:

There were adult sheep:

And there were lambs:

I was able to catch the final sheepdog demonstration of the day. The shepherd who runs it has brought a new partner on and the two women had six dogs to help with the task, ranging in age from one year old to 14. Each of them felt that they should be the dog to keep those sheep in check and were quick to judge their compatriots’ work.

Then, it was off to look at yarn. There was a lot of yarn. I didn’t take pictures of most them. I also didn’t take photos of the plant vendors, where I bought tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, potatoes, and basil.

Finally, as I promised, I didn’t go looking for yarn, but my plan was to remain open to a skein or two speaking to me. Well, here’s the one that shot straight to my heart:

This is Coquette Sock Yarn from Bumblebee Acres Fiber Farm. It’s a Corriedale/nylon blend. And the obvious reason this yarn was able to call out to me? The colorway is Soot Sprites 💜 Rainbows.

It’s like they knew me, don’t you think?

From Rudi’s and my bike ride down to see the cherry blossoms by the Tidal Basin and Potomac River a couple weekends ago. They were past peak, which means that there are more leaves than blossoms, so it wasn’t that ethereal pink cloud look you get during the best period. And as we were down along the river, the drizzle kicked in and the cold crept down, so we’re enjoying ourselves less and less as the ride went on, but were determined to get the most out of it that we could, since we were already going to be wet and chilled regardless.

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