St. Patrick’s Day

What a difference a year makes! Last year I was greeted with this.

I was literally snowed in my home and the entire Washington, DC metropolitan area literally closed down because we got a whopping seven inches of snow.

This year it’s different.

That’s right, it’s a crocus that’s currently blooming in my front yard.

Last year the only outdoor activity I did was where I dressed my Volks Dollfie Dream doll in an appropriate outfit for the occasion, stepped outside my front door, and took a few brief snapshots in the snow.

And here is the same doll in the same wig, shoes, and outfit just one year later.

By the way, I made that St. Patrick’s Day outfit she wears in the photographs. For more information about how I made it, see my blog post on Irish Lass that I wrote five years ago.

Today is just a warm, gorgeous day outside with temperatures reaching the high 60’s. Here’s a photo of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center that I took just a few hours ago.

I managed to cook up the usual Guinness Beef Stew with Guinness Bread and a side order of carrots glazed in honey. I had to do the prep work the night before because I’m currently taking a class that meets Tuesday nights (I’ll write more on that later) and St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Tuesday this year. I did the advance preparation so I would have something Irish to eat on the actual day itself.

I don’t really mind going to a class on St. Patrick’s Day because this time last year I couldn’t get out of my house even if I wanted to. All around it’s a great day today! 🙂

Winter Scenes

The weather has gone crazy recently with the snow and the Arctic chill that has plunged temperatures in the Washington, DC area to new lows. The only good thing about this weather has been the gorgeous nature photography opportunities. Here are a couple of photos of the wooded area near my home.

And here’s a photo of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center.

Finally, here’s a photo of a sunset over snow-covered ground that I took yesterday.

Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, January 11, 2015

A portion of the massive Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC) butts right up against my neighborhood. Driving or biking through that facility, you would think that you’re in a very rural area with the bucolic hills and the grazing farm animals. I last wrote about this place during the 2013 Federal Government Shutdown where the signs leading to one of the back entrances to BARC announced that this facility was closed because of the shutdown.

When there isn’t any drama on Capitol Hill between Congress and the President, BARC is a very photogenic place. Here’s a picture of the facility as seen from one of the playgrounds in my neighborhood that I took on January 11. You can still see some of the snow from the snowstorm that came through the area on January 6 (a.k.a. Little Christmas, Feast of the Epiphany, Three Kings Day).

Scenes From the Federal Government Shutdown

The Beltsville Agriculture Research Center (BARC), located in Beltsville, Maryland, is a unit of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that is known as the largest agriculture research complex in the world. It resembles a massive farm that is a rural oasis surrounded by suburban development. It has long been popular among the locals for its bucolic scenes. Driving through BARC is literally like taking a drive along country roads complete with one-lane bridges and the occasional traffic jam caused by a slow-moving tractor or a herd of cows crossing the street.

BARC is so massive that a portion of the property actually abuts several neighborhoods in other towns. One such town is a neighborhood in Greenbelt. During the week one can drive on Research Road and through the back gate directly into BARC. On the weekends the larger gate is closed off to cars but pedestrians can still enter through a smaller gate and do some walking or biking through the scenic grounds.

However, ever since the Federal Government was shutdown two weeks ago, one could find this sign on the Greenbelt side of Research Road.

If one continued on Research Road, one would come across the closed gates leading to the BARC. Usually the gate is closed on weekends and holidays but, thanks to the Tea Party faction of the Republican Party, the gate had remained closed on weekdays as well.

Curiously the pedestrian gate remained open throughout the shutdown.

This scene is among the hundreds that have been replicated throughout the United States as federally funded museums and national parks were closed down. This Wikipedia page has a litany of how devastating the shutdown was on the entire U.S.

What was even worse was that those Tea Party people in Congress came close to succeeding in getting the U.S. to default on all its loans, which would’ve made the month-long shutdown seem like a beach party by comparions. Had the U.S. defaulted on its loans, the economy of the U.S. would’ve not only gone into a depression but it would’ve dragged down the economies of several other nations with it.

I took the above photos yesterday for posterity. My timing was impecable because last night both the Senate and the House of Representatives came to a budget and President Obama signed it. Today was the first day that all federal emmployees had to report to work in 16 days.

The good news was that the crisis was averted. The bad news is that both the budget funding and the raising of the debt ceiling are designed to be short-term and this whole issue will come up for another massive debate (along with possibly another shutdown) in January. That’s right, we are going to revisit this again just three months later. Shit! 😦