A Day on the Potomac

I was "monitoring" today, which means watching other people work and hoping my learned presence deters them from damaging nearby archaeological sites. The work I was watching today went in fits and starts, so I had a fair amount of downtime. Which I used to explore.

In the morning I walked down a little stream to the Potomac River; after a very wet winter and heavy rains on Saturday, the stream was roaring along.

The Potomac was high

which blocked the trail loop I was hoping to walk.

But the river wasn't actually flooding, as you can see from the old flood gauge, still dry.

There were blubells down by the river.

Walking in the morning I saw no wildflowers in the woods, but as the afternoon warmed they opened up all around me.

When work died down again in the afternoon I walked off in a different direction, toward the ruins of the Leiter Estate. This was the country house of people whose Washington house has its own wikipedia page. Above is a plan of the estate in 1918.

One of the paths that cris-crossed their grounds happened to lead from where I was working up toward the house.

Garage.

House ruin, with the river in the background.

Some other ruin.

View up the old driveway.

Yes, I was really there.