#Montgomery County

[reasonsforhope]

"Around the capital beltway or Washington’s famous Rock Creek Park, you may see a group of people ripping up vines along the treeline beside the roads.

If you have then you’ve glimpsed superheroes who traded in their capes for gardening gloves and their time for the satisfaction of terminating an invasive species and saving a native tree.

Washington D.C’s “Weed Warriors” are a group of volunteers going back to 1999 that work for free to keep hundreds of species of invasive shrubs, vines, and climbers from taking over native ecosystems.

Among the 600 or so non-native invasive plant species found in and around our nation’s capital, some like Polygonum perfoliatum, also known as “mile-a-minute” vine, can be devastating. Suffocating trees by overgrowing the leaves in their canopy branches, mile-a-minute can kill thousands of trees every year.

Since 1999, Weed Warrior volunteers have logged over 135,000 hours of time weed whacking in Montgomery County alone. Anyone can become a Weed Warrior; the group works in units for two-hour spaces removing weeds or planting native species in their place.

These invasive species management events are led by specially-trained volunteer Weed Warrior Supervisors and/or staff from the Montgomery Parks Dept. Warriors can get certified to de-weed in their spare time, or lead events on their own. They can even have their own unique patch of ground in the D.C.-Metro area to control.

Why would anyone want to trade their free time or laboring hours away for free doing something our tax dollars are supposed to do for us? The answer is simple: it’s addicting.

“If I have any good mental health, it’s due to Weed Warrioring,” said 74-year-old area resident Barbara Francisco. “You have a sense of accomplishment.” ...

The Weed Warriors website states that non-native, invasive plant species (NNIs) can alter the complex webs of plant-animal associations that have evolved over thousands of years to such a degree that plants and animals once familiar to us are eliminated...

Anyone who feels this is something they want to contribute their time to can go to the Montgomery County Parks website here and look at the upcoming Weed Warrior events—the next one is October 21st."

-via Good News Network, October 12, 2023

[middleland]

U-Haul Building, Main Street, Midtown, Dayton, OH by Warren LeMay

Via Flickr:

Built in 1928, this Mayan Revival-style building was originally constructed as an automobile dealership. The building features a buff brick exterior with terra cotta reliefs featuring Mesoamerican motifs based on Incan, Mayan, and Aztec art and architecture, including Jaguars, sculptural reliefs, decorative geometric patterns, columns with Mayan Revival capitals, steel-frame windows, and a cornice with brackets. The building presently serves as part of a U-Haul storage facility and dealership.     

[oldlinetrad]

Dogwood - April 2024

[chaoticdesertdweller]

[coquettishbaguette]

Geese returning North. Upper MoCo, MD.

The cycle begins again. But do they? Begin? I’m not sure that they do. This cycle here is part of a whole that includes the cycle before and that cycle that came before that. But where’s the division? I’m sitting here wondering how I can escape the cycles that surround me. If I can find the separation, like opening one of those ultrathin produce bags, if I could just find the place to pull it apart I’d be done.

I’d be free.

But I continue to fumble with the edge, not even sure that I have the side that opens. I tried the other side but it seemed sealed. My head is bent low over my hands looking for evidence of separation. My fingers rub slowly together with the plastic between. But nothing happens.

The cycle begins again.

[federer7]

August 4, 1935. Montgomery County, Maryland. "Bathing girls at Glen Echo amusement park."

Photo by Theodor Horydczak

View full size.

[emptyheadgamer]

Ok so I've been getting this on tumblr non stop lately

and it's just weird to me because I don't even live in Maryland period never mind Montgomery County specifically.

Also if I'm being honest this seems like a paper straws type thing. Some politician turned to a room full of lobbyists and said "Dont worry, we're gonna shift the blame onto leaf blowers so none of your corporations have to change their behaviour and can continue to doom the planet.

[wingedjewels]

Hummingbird Female. by Bob Rumer. Via Flickr: My Garden. Pa. Many thanks to all who take the time to view, comment and favoring my images. Enjoy the day.

[paulpingminho]

[crowpunkcognitivedecline]

i am genuinely fucking livid. i'm very glad he's safe and okay now, but i'm absolutely furious.

that man is rashawn williams, who is nonverbal and has down syndrome, as the heading says. he is high support and needs to be supervised/accompanied around the clock.

do you know how long he was missing?

six. days.

and all six days, he was in a back room at the glenmont metro station.

for context, i live in montgomery county, where this happened. i ride that metro, literally the same line he was lost on, almost daily. and the reason that my living here matters is that i can give a firsthand account and say moco and the metro don't fucking care about us.

they don't care about disabled people. actually, they'd probably really like us to vanish more if it wasn't their job to find us.

accessibility-wise, the glenmont station is particularly easy to get lost in if you experience any kind of confusion [the symptom], which i know because i've gotten lost when i have a migraine and taken twice as long as usual to find the exit.

the metro is very hard to ride in a wheelchair without help because the gap between the chair and the train is wide enough that front wheels will fall in.

sometimes the disabled turnstiles or the elevators just break and it's just like. oh well sucks to be you.

but in the case of finding rashawn, the montgomery county police (usually such loyal, gentle, compassionate souls) absolutely didn't give a shit. the MCPD didn't search particularly hard or keep in contact with appropriate agencies. metro employees worked with more urgency than them, telling rashawn's father of sightings and combing through security footage looking for him. (clearly, though, they fucking missed a spot--frankly i don't really know how they did because they knew which line he was on, about what time he got off, and the station he probably got off at, and he's pretty hard to miss given that he is immediately identifiable as a man with down syndrome, and it isn't like you constantly see that on the metro.)

he was in a room in the METRO STATION that he was last seen at for six days with no food or water.

like. yeah fuck this actually. and this bit isn't new, but fuck the MCPD.

(also we all know cops didn't care as much because he was disabled and Black, like. come on.)

[nando161mando]

This needs to join the Leif Erikson statue at the bottom of the river

[carbombrenee]

Montgomery Old Cemetery, Montgomery, TX December 2022

[middleland]

OH Dayton - Wall Of Doors by Ken

[oldlinetrad]

Brookside Gardens - April 2024

[coquettishbaguette]

Belwood Farm, MoCo, MD 2023...uh 24. Shot with the dx camera, 2x extender and 70-200mm for a LOONG shot over fields.

Back felt good enough to go out and shoot finally! Must have walked a good 2 miles. Feels like I'll be back to near 100% by spring.