This weekend I visited the United States Botanic Garden (USBG) where I stumbled upon an unusual exhibit. Appropriately titled, Exposed: The Secret Life of Roots, it featured a gigantic double-sided wall on which hung dozens of dried grasses. The surprising element wasn’t the plants, though. Rather, it was the enormous carrot-shaped roots that extended below them in long, wheat-colored coils. Continue reading
Jones Point in Alexandria, Virginia, site of the first boundary marker
If you’re traveling to Washington, D.C., it’s good to know that the oldest federal monuments are not located on the National Mall, but rather at one-mile increments along a 10-mile square beginning at Jones Point, Virginia. Laid in 1791 and 1792, they are simple in form, but of great historical significance. They are the 36 surviving boundary markers of the original District of Columbia and the oldest federally placed monuments in the United States.
