Fort Washington Revisited

On Sunday DC Urban Exploration group met up at Fort Washington, MD. I'd been to this site before but was excited to be meeting old friends who I'd not seen for nearly a year or more. Barb and Jeff came with me. We met in the parking lot and immediately started the hugs. It was so good to see Andrew again and John, and then Emily turned up with Jason and I just knew we were going to have a great day.

 We trudged to one of the batteries and spent a while climbing over the fort and just catching up with conversation. To me it felt almost like a party kind of atmosphere because I was so happy to have so many friends together at once. 

Looking down on Barb and her friend Don from work.

 

 John, Andrew and Mark.

Warren is a relatively new member but has been to a lot of recent events and he's a fun addition to the group.

 Andrew caught me taking a sneaky photo.

After a while John and I decided to go up to the main fort and started walking hoping others would follow. We chatted about previous escapades and traffic tickets when I spotted a flash of sapphire out of the corner of my eye. 

We stopped and I was delighted to see a flock of bluebirds flitting among the branches. I snapped a few hasty photos but was more interested in relishing the moment. We were the only two people witnessing this and it was wonderful to just stand, watch and listen.
After they'd gone we continued walking and then ferried some of the others to the fort.

Being Superbowl Sunday there were few other people around so we pretty much had the full attention of the volunteer soldiers that walked around the grounds answering questions and supplying information.

Can't believe he slid the whole way down without falling off!

Jeff looking very professional here.

I loved these stairs at the back of the Visitor Center. We ambled around but soon tummies were rumbling and beer cravings were kicking in so it was off to a Thai restaurant for a superb lunch. An hour and a half later we split up, with Barb, Jeff and myself heading back to Centreville, but as soon we arrived home, it was a quick spruce up and then to the Tree to watch the game. An excellent end to the day with the Packers' victory.

Secret Thoughts

I've been invited to join a small writing group who have a subject deadline every two weeks. We can write a paragraph, a short story, an article, a poem, whatever we like on the given subject. This time we've been asked to write about Mystery. Here's mine:

What secret thoughts I wonder,
Is she thinking to herself?

Sitting with her knees tucked up,
A half smile on her lips.
A secret message in the sand,
Traced by her fingertips.
Her eyes are far and distant,
Turned towards the rumbling sea.
Could she see a ship out there?
A mast? What could it be?
Was she dancing in a ballroom,
In a gown of shimmering gold?
Or walking with a lover,
Hoping passion would unfold?
Her eyes drop to the sand again,
She smiles at what she sees,
Then looks out to the waves once more,
Her chin upon her knees.

What secret thoughts I wonder,
Is she thinking to herself?

DC Grunge

After such a lazy weekend last week I was ready to get out and about so on Saturday Jeff and I went down DC to scout around and look for 'grunge and graffiti' photos. The rain was drizzling down but not enough to stop us, we just had to shield our cameras. I think the image above was where somebody slept during the previous night. I really liked the way the girl in the mural was doing the same as me.

Across the road from the mural was a block of apartments, dreary architecture but appealing in their geometry.

We'd had quite a late start so headed to Adams Morgan to grab lunch. I spotted the artwork above, very much inspired by the British grafitti artist Banksy. So many street artists now copy his style and also his method of painting the artwork in a studio then transferring it to the street by stencil or printed cut outs. I was secretly hoping to find a Banksy artwork as I admire him tremendously but we didn't see one today.

We had lunch in a little restaurant specializing in South American food where I had a Salvadorian sausage sandwich which tasted just like it had come from Subway. Whatever. The beer was OKish too. But the decor was very cool with photos and masks covering the walls. There were also dozens of dollar bills stuffed in the masks which I'm assuming meant good luck. Fuelled, we left and continued our quest.

Just a short distance away was the abandoned McMillan Reservoir  Sand Filtration Site. It was odd because Jeff suggested it and yet I'd only been researching it a few days previously. It was frustrating as we couldn't find any way of getting in so had to take photos through the fence. I did manage to get some info from a security guard from the water treatment building across the road so I'll have to follow up with that.
From there we drove around downtown DC but still wanted more grunge shots so we ended up by the 9:30 Club, a favorite haunt of mine. 

This fabulous ruined old house stood alone in a decrepit industrial site surrounded by barbed wire, empty plastic Coca Cola crates and trash blowing around. Every crevice and opening was completely covered in creepers like tentacles, giving the impression that the vines were trying to pull the old building down underground.

Every sign and lamp post was plastered with band and local artist stickers along with graffiti swabbed on walls and trash cans. 

We exchanged a few words with the doorman of the 9:30 Club. I adore this place and have been many times. The music, acoustics of the building, the food and the beer are all great. I've spent many hours standing outside the front doors to ensure that I would be first in line. I've exchanged smiles with Tom from Keane and lit a cigarette for Justin from The Darkness. This venue just simply rocks. Jeff and I walked along the road towards Stuart and discovered a Wall of Gum. Never having been far down the line while waiting for entry to the 9:30, I'd not noticed this before. Though gross, it was rather endearing that this tradition has been allowed to continue and not been cleaned up. I suppose with no residents in the immediate vicinity, who is there to care?

A couple more photos and we were about done. The rain had almost stopped but the air was still grey and heavy, dragging the temperature down as the afternoon slowly plodded to meet the evening. It was time to head home, warm up and get ready for Sunday.

Light Painting in Georgetown

Last night I drove down to Georgetown to meet up with some explorer friends in Georgetown where we were going to try out some light painting. As expected it was freezing cold but there was no wind and this time I was better prepared with gloves and a few handwarmers.

The owner from this establishment came over and spoke with me concerned that I was writing an article on his restaurant or reporting him for having his Christmas lights on still. I soon put him at ease and told him I loved his tree.

We took a few photos of the canal, waterless for the winter, and then walked down on the tow path to set up under the bridge where it was sheltered and we had somewhere to play without attracting strange looks.

 I pulled out my lights and started shooting, messing around with the different colors. A couple of the others jumped down into the canal bed and were waving flashlights around, painting the air.

 D.C.! We love D.C.!

These are both self portraits that I took with a kids flashlight, one that flashed colors intermittently.

 I took these with my gel flashlight, a light that has different colored lenses over the bulb.

 Three of the guys played around with their lights.

I took these three trying to get a ghost effect with the long exposures and got some OK shots. We packed up around 22:00 and I drove home feeling the evening had been a great success. It was certainly inspirational and I now have every intention of making some creative images over the weekend. Watch this space!

And the Snow still Lingers

We still have plenty of snow here on the ground in Virginia but the roads are now clear and although I love the snow, I'm ready to be able to get outdoors now without trumping through wet white stuff or sticky brown stuff. There is so much mud around from the melt off that hikes are pretty much impossible. So I had decided this weekend would be a relatively inactive one. I'd discovered through a friend that we still have a Blockbusters in Centreville so I zipped over there to see what deals were on hand. I was ecstatic to get 4 great movies for $20:
1)  Pirate Radio - absolutely superb movie I saw on the big screen with 3 hunks starring, Rhys Ifans, Bill Nighy and Philip Seymour Hoffman, in that order ( hunk rating that is not order of appearance). The movie is about Radio Caroline, a pirate rock and roll station that broadcast illegally from a ship off the English coast, starting in the 60's. Brilliant soundtrack.

2)  Angels and Demons - movie of Dan Brown's book referring to the Illuminati. Been wanting to see this for yonks. The film was good but not as tense as the book.

3)  The Soloist - another movie I've been wanting to see for ages. Wonderful story but the film dragged, but it has inspired me to get the book.

4)  Taking Woodstock - saw this one on the big screen too. Fantastic movie with an awesome soundtrack and the most realist acid trip I've seen done on the screen. This is the only one I didn't watch over the weekend.

Although I spent a lot of Saturday watching DVDs, I had to get some fresh air so I patched up Stuart. He got a boo boo from a little accident we had when the snow came down.

Then off to the bookstore and the Mall but on the way, I stopped to grab a few shots of the sun setting on Manassas Battlefields.

On Sunday after a long lie in with Kota, I grabbed the camera again to go to a local park to shoot some photos of the snow before it disappears for good. Not sure if we'll get more this winter but I didn't want to regret not grabbing the moment.

I was not surprised to find that I was the only one there. Plenty of traffic whizzing past on the roads here and plenty of cars in the Mall parking lots but nobody wanting to enjoy the solitude of this wintery paradise with cardinals and kestrels greeting me as I trudged under the trees.

The snow was melting fast with droplets of water sparking like crystals on the branches. It was great to plod through the woods but I had to be careful of not losing my way. I'm very familiar with this park yet with the paths hidden, the landscape wasn't familiar and the trees looked different bowed down with their heavy loads.

I saw a lot of 'snowbows', what I call a tree bent into a snow laden arch and made it my duty to knock off the snow on the ones I passed so the trees wouldn't break.

Not a living creature stirred at the lake, no ducks nor gooses and barely a bird.

I got back to the car after covering a couple of miles hoping I'd got enough photos to ensure a few good ones. It had been quite difficult to keep the camera out of the way of the constant dripping.

On the way home I saw this old jalopy. It's quite surprising how many old abandoned tractors there are in this area that are now delegated to becoming rustic garden ornaments. So with snow photos obtained it was back home for another session on the sofa watching a movie and sipping a glass of local whiskey. What a lazy weekend.