http://juliemangin.com writing my way to awareness Sat, 10 Jul 2010 14:35:50 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en As a teenager, I took up smoking small cigars.  It was a rebellion against the cheerleaders who rode the bus with me to Catholic high school.  I figured if they wouldn't stop stinking up the back of the bus with their cigarette smoke, I would stink it up worse. I ... http://juliemangin.com/red-licorice-and-cigars/ [caption id="attachment_173" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Catholic University School of Library Science, graduating class of 1949"][/caption] A few nights ago, I spent part of the evening sitting on the love seat with a book in my lap, a magnifying glass in one hand, and a black-and-white photograph in another.  The photograph, taken in ... http://juliemangin.com/nun-find/ [caption id="attachment_136" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Eastern Market's South Hall"][/caption] Yesterday was the nicest day we have had in four weeks.  It's hard to believe that it's only been that long since we were buried under about two feet of snow, and about to get more.  There are still remnants of the largest ... http://juliemangin.com/eastern-market/ [caption id="attachment_125" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Julie and the Monkey"][/caption] For my second anniversary, my husband Bob surprised me with an oil painting...a portrait of myself. This painting is based on two photographs.  Mainly, it is based on a photo taken of me, by Bob in May 2005 at an old-time music party near ... http://juliemangin.com/julie-and-the-monkey/ [caption id="attachment_116" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Window display at Kay Wigs"][/caption] The window display at Kay Wigs is narrow, but crammed full of mannequin heads wearing wigs.  And not always the kind of wigs you’d expect.  These are wigs in colors do not appear naturally on any human head: pink, lime green, navy ... http://juliemangin.com/inside_kay_wigs/ Raising a monarch butterfly from an egg to a butterfly is an amazing process to observe.  It only takes a month to see all the stages: egg, larvae (caterpillar), chrysalis, and butterfly.  Here's the full story of the experience Bob and I shared.  Some of it has been reported elsewhere, ... http://juliemangin.com/from-egg-to-monarch-in-30-days/ Now there are two, originally uploaded by tackyjulie. The county mowed a field of milkweed a couple of weeks ago, just down the street from my house.  I worried that it might mean I wouldn't see as many monarch butterflies this summer.  Milkweed is the only plant that monarch caterpillars can feed ... http://juliemangin.com/monarch-watch/ Trillium, originally uploaded by tackyjulie. On Saturday, Bob and I got up early to go see the trilliums at the Thompson Wildlife Management Area, near Markham, Virginia. It is the largest concentration of them in the state. The phenomenon is known as "Trillions of trilliums," and that is not ... http://juliemangin.com/trillions-of-trilliums/ Hundreds of stones upon the ground formed a spiral path.  I found it at the Goldwell Open Air Museum in Rhyolite, Nevada.  Although it was in the midst of modern sculptures in a desert setting, it had no title or artist associated with it.  But I knew what it was; ... http://juliemangin.com/zen-spiral/ All that’s left of the Garden of Almanalogy and Astrometry is a two and a half foot concrete post with tiny mosaic tiles that trace the numbers 7, 13, 28 91.  In its day, the Garden, located in Northwest Washington, D.C.,  featured concrete sculptures and wooden placards demonstrating the concepts ... http://juliemangin.com/lost-washingtoniana-the-garden-of-almanalogy-and-astrometry/