This is another picture of a butterfly from Brookside gardens.  Similar to this post

It’s a new year at MDP.  Sorry again for the sporadic posts.   We’re still here though.    In 2012 MDP has a new resolution not to purchase any new camera equiptment until MDP has eaked every last ounce of photograpic power out of what it has.   Or until I lose a sufficient amount of weight to reward myself with a frivelous camera accessory.   So today’s picture comes from the last frivelous camera accesory (a new lens with very shallow depth of field), that MDP will have for a long time.

Another super wide shot of the trail.

I frequently post pictures from Rock Creek Trail.  So finding a new way to look at the trail started to become important to me a few months ago.  I stuck a lens that was made for small sensor digital cameras onto my film camera and got a few of the cool looking, super wide shots.

Here’s a sunset shot of the building where yesterday’s post came from.  These pics also have a secondary purpose of welcoming some MDP friends to their new home in the building on top of which these shots were taken.

Here’s another one.  MDP had some friends in town when this sculpture was being erected and they witnessed this thing being hauled down the street but could not figure out what it should be.   Then they came across it a few days later after it had been placed here and it all made sense.  Well… it made more sense.

Sorry for the poor quality of this picture.  These sculptures came from a park in the middle of a new apartment community in Silver Spring.   For some reason developers seem to be all about placing new sculpture in front of their properties.  We’ll explore this phenomenon for a few posts.

Yesterday’s panorama reminded me of this wide shot of Sugarloaf mountain.  Though the perspective of this shot makes it difficult, if you’ve seen it before you can recognize instantly that Frederick and Montgomery counties’  big mountain has a distinctive notch in it that makes it recognizable from the surrounding areas.

We are posting a special shot today from last year’s Chompy, the Discovery Channel shark that takes over their headquarters building during shark week.   They have announced that chompy won’t be coming out this year.   So that new zoom lens I bought is now totally worthless.

To finish off our week in Kensington we have a picture of the Noyes Library.  This one room library, which is the oldest in the DC area,  is dedicated to programs and materials for young children.    It is thanks to a local foundation of donors that the library was able to survive a round of budget cuts.  It would appear as though this is another piece of material proof of the strong community bond that people in Kensington have.

Here is the full Kensington War memorial area, which you’ve possibly seen if you are ever driving through town northbound on Connecticut Ave.    With this shot you can see the eagle in it’s context.

This eagle sits in the town of Kensington.  I had noticed it while driving up Connecticut ave one day, and like so many other things, I filed it in my mind as something to go back and to investigate.  Fortunately, and unlike so many other things, I remembered to go back and see it this weekend.

This eagle sits in in the town’s memorial park, but it was dedicated to the artist’s niece who died in a car accident.  You can see the carving and a bit more of the sculpture’s story on youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UoQPeeYEcM

Today’s pictures come to us from Silver Spring.  Driving through a back road last month I noticed a plaque on a stone near a large tree.  I was traveling too fast to stop at the time, but I knew I’d be able to return soon enough to get a picture.  As it turned out Sunday was the perfect day to investigate further.  It turns out that the plaque signifies this tree as a Bicentennial Tree.   In 1975, just before the Nation’s bicentennial, The bicentennial tree program was a statewide initiative to identify trees that were likely alive at the time of the signing of the declaration of independence.

Each county was responsible for submitting it’s own trees and some counties ended up submitting more than others.   It was a short lived program and was not related to the current big tree programs designed to discover and measure the largest trees.   Many of the bicentennial trees are gone now so to see one is pretty neat.

This tree happens to be a Black Gum and, believe it or not, despite the fact that it is old enough to have been alive in 1776, there are at least two other Black Gums in Montgomery county that are considered to be larger.

Here’s a link to the writeup where I discovered the past of the bicentennial tree program.

Yesterday I set out on a mission to photograph three different things, which I found and I will share here this week.  It was a laid back day. So this morning I’m continuing that laid back feeling.

While my mission yesterday took a little bit of time, it didn’t satisfy my desire to be outside.  In a move to combine sitting around outside and photography I decided I would hang out at a train station and see what came by.   Within 20 minutes I had some action.

Today we’ll visit the Greenbelt war memorial.

You probably knew that MDP has a bit of curiosity towards trains.  In the process of checking up on a daily train blog I came across this article about an obscure railroad in West Virginia.   Then… in the middle of the article I realized that I had a picture from one of the engines of that railroad as that engine currently sits in front of the Gaithersburg train station.   I featured it’s inner workings  in this post.

Here’s your Friday cliffhanger post about trains.  I actually have a story to tell about this particular engine so that will come on Monday.

Another shot from Sligo Creek

Took this shot at sunset at Sligo Creek golf course in Silver Spring.   As the course was losing money, the planning commission was considering shutting down the 9 hole course.  I believe a shut down is still possible but for now, it’s still operating.

This lovely street scene is pretty typical on a weekend in Kensington.  The town just north of Chevy Chase and Silver Spring is home to a number of different antique shops and boutique stores.  The photo is scanned from a film print so it’s a little noisy and grainy but I think it fits in with Kensington’s old time feel.

Ok, here’s the last Azalea picture, probably coinciding with the disappearance of Azaleas in general

Another shot from Brighton, this time with more of the reservoir visible.

This is a picture from the Brighton Azalea gardens, which are located right next to the Triadelphia Reservoir.  I had passed by here and even taken photos here many times before. However, I’ve never made it in the right time for the azaleas.   Even this year I am at the tail end of the season, which you can tell by the green starting to show through some of the plant.

The Brighton gardens take over 5 acres of land and contain 20,000 azaleas.  It was quite a site to behold.

This week we’ll finally get to so somewhere that I’ve never been able to see on account of timing.

This is a supporting structure from the bridge featured here. The bridge, which carries the capital crescent trail (actually at that point called the georgetown branch trail) runs over rock creek.  Since this was just a little bit down from the rest of this week’s rock creek shots, it seemed like a good cap to the week.

These statues are located along the rock creek park trail. I’ve always wondered where they came from. They are clearly in someone’s backyard and they are clearly older than the home by which they stand.   My curiousity really stems from the fact that they seem like they could match the statuary from the seminary, not one mile away.  I’m assuming the similarity is just a coincidence and no one would steal something and then hide it in plain sight in their yard one mile away.  However, every time I go past here I still wonder if it could be the case.

The potential snow and the realized rain are presenting serious risks to MDP’s ability to capture any more cherry tree pictures.   I’d imagine that if we actually do get the snow we are supposed to get tomorrow that it may be something pretty cool to see.

It was odd to be taking this picture which yells, “It’s Spring,” as the thermometer in my car read 34 degrees.  Odd as it may be MDP is on the lookout for more signs of spring.

A while ago, in fact a long time ago, we toured Rockville and ended with this picture of a statue outside the old courthouse.

The other day I noticed that the base of the statue was quite ornate.  It made me wonder if the year 1891 played some sort of significant part in the town’s history. Upon doing some research, I discovered that the year 1891 appears on this base because, not surprisingly, that was the year the courthouse was built.  It was the third courthouse built on this site.

Since that day, as is the trend with many municipal buildings,  they’ve decided to add buildings rather than tear down old ones and replace them with larger courts.  It seems to be a trend across many towns that somewhere beginning  in the mid 1800′s buildings were built for more permanent use.

Here’s a statue from the National Park Seminary that has survived in remarkable condition given the shape of the building next to it, as featured last week.

Today’s picture has nothing to do with the holidays.  It’s a shot from the National Park Seminary, an old MDP favorite location.  Most of the Seminary has been refurbished and turned into nice new homes, townhomes, and apartments.   The Villa, which sits on the far back side of the campus has become more dilapidated.

As a side note, I’ve engaged in another bet with Pittsburgh Daily Photo over the outcome of this coming Sunday’s football game between the Ravens and the Steelers.  The losing photo site will have to cover a location with ties to both places.

If you guessed that yesterday’s picture was the Linden Oak, then congratulations.   I have a soft spot for what may be our state’s oldest remaining White Oak tree.    It’s hard to not to be impressed with something that was alive 25 years before George Washington was.  Even this picture is deceptive.  It’s nearly impossible to fit the tree in a standard frame and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without using a super wide lens.  (10mm)

The tree is just fascinating becasue a passer-by on 355 wouldn’t realize how huge it is simply becasue it’s about 20 or so feet below the road grade.   It’s becasue of this, that I feel like someone in the know whenever I pass by and that makes me feel good.

You may be able to guess what tree this is.

I had a long day of driving yesterday, so today’s MDP is from the archives.  It’s another shot fro Meadowbrook stables but I like it as the first post of November given the barren tree limbs in the background, which will soon be fairly commonplace.

This gas station in Silver Spring,  is known as the bible quote station for the quotes that the frequently put on the signs facing the road.   Apparently it is also known for its headwear.

When you read the fine print you realize that gas doesn’t count towards your $10 purchase, so you need to buy $10 worth of stuff in their shop to qualify for the bandana.  I failed to meet the minimum.

I found this giant sign next to these dumpsters in Silver Spring.  Perhaps someone was mad after Saturday’s loss to West Virginia and thought that this 12 foot tall Testudo no longer deserved a place in their home.

Today’s photo comes from KMC, who sends us this picture of geese grazing (if geese graze) in a Bethesda office campus.

If you guessed it was the World Building in Silver Spring, you were correct.  The unique building only has windows on one side (which faces north, not to the South where a window would show the Washington monument and the Capitol Building.)  It has this one giant wall because they believed there would be another building next to it that would block it’s view.  Obviously that didn’t happen.  So in place of another building or a wall of windows we get an unbeatable branding opportunity.

I said before that I’d offer you a reminder that this Sunday marks the start of shark week.  Chompy is ready!

It’s a building that people are trying to preserve, not because of its link to solvent based cleaning but because of the architecture and specifically because of the tile roof.  To truly see the tiles is difficult from the ground.  Luckily I knew a way to view it from above.

One thing that noticed from above is that the graffiti artists have taken most of the free space on the roof, but they haven’t done anything to the tiles.

As for the future of the building, according to the county website it will be turned into condos.

After taking last week’s picture of Norman Lane’s statue, I went to a building in Silver Spring where a few friends live.  They were nice enough to bring me to their roof to take some shots.   We were a little surprised to see that Byrd Stadium on the UMD campus was so clearly visible on the horizon.

As a side note, some MDP visitors may recognize the apartments in be background as the former residence of  an MDP photographer.

The picture above comes from contributing photographer, Royela, who was walking through Silver Spring at night and thought the statue of Norman Lane would make a good MDP post. I think she’s right.

Norman Lane was  homeless man who, in a strange twist, became beloved by his neighbors.   He was so well regarded, and so frequently found downtown, that locals affectionately began to refer to him as the Mayor of Silver Spring.   Today, this statue sits near an alley that has been named mayor lane, in his honor.   I can do little justice to the man’s story as I know nothing that I haven’t read or heard from others.

For that reason, I made a trip to photograph the statue in the daytime and to try to give you a better understanding of Norman by showing you the plaque below his statue.

As you can see, the years since 1991 haven’t treated that plaque very well.

I can offer another picture of the statue that I took in the daylight, and a few links to some other sources of information.

This article has a section about the artist behind the bust and tells a bit of the story of Norman giving flowers to local ladies.  http://silverspringhistory.homestead.com/ArtistsEye.html

The downtown silver spring organization has a summary of the statue as well  http://www.silverspringdowntown.com/go/the-mayor

Today’s post comes to us again from contributing photographer Matt, who captured the new Civic Center in Silver Spring.   The building contains a large public space as well as county offices. In front of the building there is a decent sized open area, including the space in the foreground of this picture.

I was a little skeptical when I heard about this place being built because I just didn’t see how the public would get to use the civic center.  It turns out that there is a large open space in the first floor of the place, which presumably is where events for the public and other such things will occur.

In my mind this place has some big shoes to fill as this land had been previously covered with nothing more than astroturf.   That might sound as if I am trying to be sarcastic, but I’m not.  The “turf” had become a place for people to hang out, toss a ball or frisbee, or just sit down for a while.  The community took to the turf in a way that nobody could have expected.  Though it was always meant to be a temporary solution, the turf set the standard for the community’s adoption of this space.

Most of the people I know who have been to the civic center agree that this is a pleasant and interesting area.  There is an overarching fear among some that all of this concrete will become a make-shift skateboard park.  I do not share that fear as I do not believe that this is still 1986.   Skateboards or not, the question is if there will be a large contingent of youths who permanently hang out there and harass passers-by or if the space will be a place for the whole community as the turf had been.

When I first started MDP, I thought  this guy was one of the things that I could reliably feature on the site. However, as soon as MDP came into being, the shark disappeared.

If you aren’t sure where this is, it’s the headquarters for the Discovery Channel in Silver Spring.  When they take out the inflatable shark and make him look like he’s swimming through the building, it can mean only one thing: Shark Week is near.  One of the Silver Spring community blogs that I follow has named him “Chompy” and I have to follow suit because I think it is a great name.

I’ll post more pictures when shark week is closer, as it thing this should be satisfactory for now.

Of course, if you are the guy whose window now looks at the back of an inflatable shark, you would probably find this completely unsatisfactory.

I was admiring the view of Silver Spring from the balcony of a friend’s apartment the other day and regretted not having my camera.   So thanks to contributing photographer Trish, who was able to take a picture from that vantage point and send it along.

This Poolesville building has seen many purposes.  It started it’s live just over a century ago as the home of Poolesville National Bank.   The bank didn’t survive long.  After being absorbed by another bank and another, the building was eventually vacated.   It was vacant for a while until it was donated to the town.   It’s unclear from my research exactly when these things happened, but it was apparently also a store and a church.  What’s clear is that the building eventually became the town hall. While some people call it the old bank building, it’s generally referred to as the old town hall.  “Old” town hall because leaks and other structural issues, along with a lack of space and a lack of access for the disabled, led the town to move to a new space across town. This left the building vacant again and there were any number of possible ends for the space.  Fortunately, thanks to a very involved community, the town didn’t allow the building to be destroyed.  It was re-purposed into a museum.

A calm day on the Potomac from last winter just north of Mather Gorge.  Sorry for the old picture but I just got back from a long weekend trip.

The MDP faithful can probably name the historic waterway over which this broken bridge crosses.

Next to the Gaithersburg MARC station, which has been converted into a coffee house, is the former freight station, which has been converted into a museum.