By Emily Dickinson
The butterfly obtains
But little sympathy
Though favorably mentioned
In Entomology --
Because he travels freely
And wears a proper coat
The circumspect are certain
That he is dissolute --
Had he the homely scutcheon
Of modest Industry
T'were fitter certifying
For Immortality --
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Daniel wanted to go to Taste of Wheaton, where the robotics team from his school was demonstrating their robot the way they did in Silver Spring a couple of weeks ago, so rather than simply dropping him off or sending him on the Metro, we went with him and ate lunch there. It's been a lot of years since we went to a "Taste Of..." festival, and although this one is much smaller than Taste of Chicago, for instance, without nationally known musicians (we saw They Might Be Giants in Chicago), there were also no mobs or long lines, and we ate very well -- I had lemongrass tofu, veggie lo mein, sesame balls with lotus seed paste, and two half-size Starbucks frappuccinos for $1-2 each. There were musicians on two stages; we saw the local salsa group Sin Miedo and hip-hop performer Christylez Bacon. Then we walked around a bit in Barbarian Comics, the Jewish Book Store, and Showcase Aquarium, where the owner let us feed the koi.
Since Daniel wanted to stay with the robot till the end of the fair, we took Adam over to Wheaton Regional Park, where Brookside Gardens was having its annual butterfly show, Flights of Fancy, in which hundreds of butterflies fly free in the conservatory among flowers and fruit selected specifically because they attract butterflies. It was lovely inside and outside as well, where we walked partway around the lake and saw tiny frogs, big turtles, fish, snails, goslings, and some of the hundreds of flowers planted in Brookside's outdoor herb and flower beds in the spring. Paul had volunteered to make a belated Mother's Day meal for me and my mom, so my parents came over for dinner, which was fabulous -- spinach, tomato and feta pie, salad and fruit, blueberry cobbler. Then we watched The Tudors, where I am very happy to have Joely Richardson as Catherine Parr even if the "history" continues to be largely fiction.
Sin Miedo performed at Taste of Wheaton while people danced in front of the stage.
Daniel stayed close to the robot, though he apparently managed to get Chinese food and a funnel cake for lunch...
...while we went to several of the tents with information about local candidates and businesses, heard some live music, and visited Showcase Aquarium where we met koi who begged for food even more pathetically than our cats.
There were a few amusement park rides and moon bounces at the festival for younger kids than ours.
Adam took lots of photos of the butterflies at Flights of Fancy.
In the outer gardens, we saw this miniature frog...
...these turtles sunning themselves (I believe one is a red-eared slider and the other is a red-bellied turtle)...
...and -- yay! -- more goslings and adult Canada geese!
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