Okay, so I know I have a weird perspective on things...

But every time I pass this company in Port Norfolk on my way to ride my bike along the Elizabeth River, all I can think of is little, teeny tiny guys with pointed shoes and green peaked caps hammering shoes for miniature horses.  Sort of like the Keebler elves...

DC's Capitol Hill Neighborhood

I love big cities; Boston, New York, or DC.  I like big, old cities.  Do I want to play the tourist to shop?  Absolutely not.  I want to walk, and walk, and walk some more, take pictures, and absorb the places where people really live.  Then I find an outdoor cafe and sit, watching the people walk by living their regular routines and wonder what it would be like to live there.  I admire the architecture, the old growth trees, and savor the flavor of real life in that BIG CITY.

So that's what I did on Thursday in DC.  I explored the neighborhood around Capitol Hill.

DC has many magnificent row houses in this area, much like the row houses in my beloved New York City, but more colorful.

I stopped and sat on the steps of a Catholic church to talk to a friend.  The sirens of the DC Metro Police and ambulances, the horns honking in cars, the snatches of conversation overheard, "You know, he's a great candidate, Jeb already endorsed him"...the song of DC.   It's a different song of the city than you hear in New York.

Here's that church spire from a distance:

Then there were all the postage stamp sized cottage gardens in the front of the row houses.  This is a big difference from New York

Isn't this little cafe adorable? Tres jolie!

Of to church and to ride my bike

Do not let Sunday be taken from you If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan.
Albert Schweitzer

Mrs. Bremer Goes to Washington

I had an amazing opportunity yesterday to interview Congressman Dave Reichart of Washington State.  Congressman Reichart, during his days in law enforcement, was the head of the task force which apprehended the Green River Killer, one of the most prolific serial killers ever.

His book, Chasing the Devil, recounts the harrowing 20 years he spent chasing this monster who has been documented as killing 48 women and claims to have killed 71.  I never thought that I would be sitting next to the person who apprehended a sociopath whom I'd studied at length in a profiling class in graduate school.

I will be writing up this article for Law Enforcement Today, where I am managing editor.  I'll link to the article here in the blog once published.

Dave Reichart is a Christian and a truly wonderful legislator with a conscience and deep concern about the current state of government in this country.  It comforts me to know that a righteous person is there in Washington, DC.

I was his guest at the posh Capitol Hill Club, which I have heard about over the years, never dreaming that I'd be sitting in there in the bar next to people I usually see only on television.  I was cool, don't worry.  I only jumped up and down and said "Oh my GOSH that is Congressman Peter King" and "I'm interviewing a Congressman for Pete's sake" on the inside.  Mostly I was thinking, "Don't stare.  Don't knock over your Diet Pepsi.  Don't be a goober."

I was mesmerized being so near the seat of power of the legislative branch of our government.  The hum and buzz of talk in the club, with occasional bursts of laughter or raised voices has a direct influence on all of us.  I wanted to stand up and holler, "Stop the gridlock.  Cooperate.  Follow the golden rule. We're depending on you," but of course, I couldn't.

Flowers from the Cottage Garden

Okay, so I'm driving to Washington DC to do something amazingly cool today which I will share with you after I'm all finished.  I'm afraid that I'll lose my blogging mojo if I miss a day, so I'm leaving you with this bouquet from the cottage garden.  The orange flowers are called pleurisy root, believed to be helpful for that condition if brewed in a tea.  I think pleurisy is an old-fashioned name for pneumonia.  The red rose in the back is a very old variety with the most wonderful smell. I believe these roses are original to 256 Constitution, which celebrated its 92 birthday yesterday.  How do I know? The date is inscribed in the foundation.

Daisies are just the friendliest flower, aren't they?  They are waist-high out in the cottage garden these days, along with yellow and orange lilies, gardenias, lavender, red geraniums, and pink roses.  Daisies in an old glass milk bottle are a kind of simple goodness that make me smile when I go downstairs to start the coffee.  So did the coffee,  "caramel drizzle" flavored beans sent home with me by Mom from Atlanta.

I'm hungry.  Time to make the oatmeal and top it with some fresh blueberries.  Mega yum!

Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant

Rule Britainnia!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6yLL_zEGgg

God save the Queen.

Henri's Bakery, Atlanta

I love spending time with my sister.  We are extremely different in many ways.  There is a larger than usual age gap between us of 12 years.  I am Type A, she is Type B.  I question everything; she rolls with the flow.  She is patient; I am not.  Karensa has the cool name; I have the classic one.  Kerry has an awesome sense of direction, while I delight in navigating in NY City because of the logical street grid.   However, we do have some notable similarities...a quirky and ironic sense of humor, a love of Christian music and reading, we both talk with our hands, and cry when we laugh really hard.

During some tough times for me, I have relied on my sister's help.  Her calm nature and her basic, unshakable conviction that God will take care of everything have sustained me in moments of panic and fear.  Kerry has helped with practical things and been there for emotional things.  She was born on Friday the 13th, but she dispels that whole superstition because she has been one of the greatest blessings in my life.

We were able sneak out recently when I was in Atlanta to have lunch at Henri's Bakery.

We sat in seats like these.  I had a Greek salad and Kerry had a sandwich on a croissant.

Henri's smells sublime and it looks even better.  There are no calories if you just take pictures.

Check out the cupcakes.  The frosting rose covers the entire top.  Yum!

Peacocks for No Apparent Reason

As I was leaving my sister's neighborhood in an Atlanta suburb recently, a peacock crossed the street and start walking across lawns.  I don't get it.  Why did the peacock cross the road?  To get to the other side and be on Annie's blog,

Bowman's Part 2

So back to Bowman's on Saturday, as if all the flowers were not enough

And the statues

Bowman's has a dear little vintage green lunch wagon with vines painted on the side.  They use it as a kitchen to produce the best turkey Reuben sandwich I ever had (it was a panini)  The red potato salad came in a close second to my mother's...and that's saying a lot.  You can eat inside, with the beautiful decor and cut flowers, but I had to be out in the secret garden under a red umbrella.  I adore those vintage metal chairs.

I listened to the birds and marveled at the beauty, not 24 hours after a tornado had touched down in the nearby town of Hampton.

Secret Garden, Magical Saturday

Sometimes my best moments occur when I veer off my plan of the day and just go with the flow.  Saturday was such a day.  I went on a bike ride and ended up at Bowman's Garden Center in Olde Towne. 

Rich Bowman has created a Secret Garden where there was once a nasty 7-11.  Plants and garden items abound.

Even the smallest residents of Bowman's are magical

Like the bees and the buttlerflies...

Statues for the garden grace seclued corners...

Gorgeous salmon colored flowers

Wonderful shades of purple

As if all this beauty wasn't enough, Bowman's has another secret...

Memories Light the Corners of My Mind

I have such a strong sense of history and a love of all things vintage, back-in-the day, Little House on the Prairie-esque or Waltonian (as in John Boy).  A recent drive was suffused with all those things and some old-timey Virginia, as well.  The pics just screamed out "edit me in sepia!" so I did.  These are pics from late May of Surry and Suffolk, Virginia.  It is so interesting that the brave and adventurous settlers of the New World looked back to the old to name their cities: Hampton, Surry, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk...all named after their homes back in England.

I loved the textures of the back of this building in Suffolk.

I think the physician's office is still in business, but this should be in Mayberry.

This is the old train station in Suffolk, VA which has been lovingly restored and serves as a museum.  Some of the most wonderful old buildings around are railroad stations.  The station in Richmond, VA is magnificent.  The station in DC, where I will be next Thursday is completely AMAZING, so much so that I am leaving Portsmouth earlier than I need to so I can shop the Farmer's Market there and have lunch at the station.  Finally, there's the Queen of all stations, Grand Central, built by Commodore Vanderbilt and saved from demolition by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Peanut farming and production figured heavily in the history of this region, along with other types of agriculture and the military.  The Obici family has a strong presence here (including Obici Hospital, which they founded).  The Obicis owned Planter's Peanuts and Mr. Peanut was their idea.

The drug store is sadly closed, so Dr. Turnstall can no longer call in a prescription here on a rotary dial phone.

Oh, if I could do anything I wanted, money no object, I would buy this sad, neglected old building which probably once housed a small general store.  I'd paint it white again with pink trim.  I'd hang pink geraniums from the porch roof and set an old church pew out front.

I'd go to upstate New York,  find Debra's old blue bicycle, put more geraniums in the basket, and set it in front of the side door we never use.

Every day when I came in to open "Tia Annie's" (what my sister's girls call me), I'd take our old outbuilding wooden ladder and lean it against the wall next to the window on the left.  All my carefully collected linens, crisp and starched, would go on those rungs; tea towels, and embroidered pillow cases, table runners with flowers lovingly stitched, and an old quilt or two.

The store windows would be filled with vintage displays, like the old Victrola case I found left for the trash on one side and a stand-alone kitchen cabinet I rescued in the same way...filled with Fire King batter bowls sitting on doilies, and a wonderful old dictionary from 1930 sitting open to the word spectacular next to an old oil lamp.  Can't you just see it?  Well, maybe not, but I can.

Money being no object, I'd fix the grocery up, too, and could probably live happily above the store, just like Stanley Roman, my grandmother's butcher, did on Burnside Avenue, in East Hartford, CT.  Beausang's Grocery, after my grandmother's last name.  Really French last name, totally Irish background...no one knows why.

I wish my train to Washington would travel over the old-timey trestle, but I think that it is abandoned now.

This wonderful old building still serves the city of Surry.  Every time I see it, I think of my grandmother.  My grandfather (if you look up curmudgeon in the dictionary, it says, "See J. Robert Galvin, Sr.") was an attorney and often had court papers to file.  My grandmother took care of that.  At East Hartford's Town Hall, there was a clerk who was always curt to her, bordering on obnoxious.  My grandmother, Helen, was about the kindest person on earth, so this bewildered her.  Obviously, this woman was just very unhappy and as with many frustrated people, shed that abroad to others.

Typical of my Helen, she strove to win over that woman, to kill her with kindness, as it were.  She'd quote the scripture from Romans 12:20,  "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”

I never understood that until I was an adult.  The glowing coals phrase is symbolic of a sanctification process.  In other words, Helen was helping the cantankerous city employee become a better person.  Just like her. I probably would have filed a complaint.

Queen Anne's lace is one of life's free pleasures which I never tire of.  Did you know that is is a member of the carrot family?  And now, having posted a bunch of pics and happily remembered my Helen, I will say, as Sparky used to announce on the public address system in MASH, "that is all."