Forbidden Garden

An inviting path and a cozy pavillion behind a locked gate.. reminds me of those children's stories involving forbidden gardens - maybe there's secret passageway somewhere and a fairy hiding in the bushes.

Churchtower

This is the tower of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith. This is a pretty church, whether in daylight or at night. As you can tell, I fiddled with the colors of the picture so that the church and the lit windows are visible. Oh.. and before you get impressed by my knowledge of local church names, I cheated and looked it up on the internet!

Urban Gardening

I love how the owner of this house has combined various plants to make the steps more beautiful and welcoming.

Vroom!

My bigger cat looked so hopeful in this box, that I had to take a photo of him. He seems to be waiting for the box to fly off and take him to.. People Food Land, if I had to guess. That would be his version of heaven!

Rowhouse front

Houses of this type are very common in my neighborhood, though not all of the rowhouses have such a lovely array of flowers in front. If you think the house looks narrow, (it really is just the door and two windows), you're right- though they come even narrower. The reason is, that when these houses were built, taxes were paid according to how wide your house was.

Trash Can??

Nope, a mailbox! Many of my visitors from overseas think our mailboxes look exactly like trash cans, and have even thought this IS a trash can! What do you think?

Summer's Bounty

We have been getting a weekly share from a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm. That means that you pay the farm ahead of time for the entire season, and every week you get lovely fresh organic veggies, fruit and herbs to play around in the kitchen with. This was this week's share. There's another broken myth for you - food in America is not only McBurger and Fries! :)

Pick me.. pick me.. pick me..

Houses are bought and sold relatively frequently in our neighborhood, and the real estate signs are getting more and more elaborate every year. I've been walking past this house regularly, and the sign seems to be getting bigger every day!

Baltimore skyline

from my roof! :-) Most of the houses in my neighborhood have rooftop decks (coming up in another post!). This is the view from our house. The tallest one on this picture is the Legg Mason Building. Sorry about the weather, I'll post another one when the weather gods are playing nice!

Black Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia)

looking worse for the wear, now that summer is about to end.
This is the Maryland state flower. I think our state politicians must be rather bored, since they have also come up with a state crustacean (blue crab), a state fossil and many other state symbols (21 in all) - check the following link, if you're curious to see what they came up with. Maryland State Symbols

Groundhog party

The Baltimore Zoo has a large groundhog exhibit, which is great fun - they are always busy doing something!

Count none but sunny hours...

This sundial is from H. L. Mencken's backyard.
Mencken was a famous journalist/writer who lived in Baltimore.
His house is on Union Square, in the western part of town.
Unfortunately it is not in good shape these days and is closed to the public.
I was lucky enough to get to peek into the backyard - and here's one of the photos I took.