DC in DC

Sir Dayvd rests his pins at the capitol.

After Sir Bowie's fine Lincoln Blog, rather than just add one of my usual wry comments... i thought i'd fire over a companion piece of a Brit's Eye view of Lincoln DC.

When i was over recently, I took the chance to see the real place of Lincoln's death, taking it off my Bucket list after a lifetime of being told about the infamous deed in books.

I was pleased therefore to find that Washington DC had stepped up to the plate and furnished the city with printed History's at the various key spots of the action. I photographed a couple at the time and so add them into the general mix here.

Ford Theatre itself was closed, but sat in the sunlight, unaware of its infamy, looking almost as it did on the day. the photo on the printed history board nearby, was taken on the morning after the shooting. At the rear of the building, an alley runs parallel to the street that the theater is on, and out onto a main street in what is now Chinatown. At the point it joins the street a block away, a printed history details John Wilkes Booth's limping flight along the alley to where a horse was being held waiting, for his getaway. I was fascinated to read that, far from being unknown JWB was famous throughout the land as the premier actor of his day... So the assassination, was the equivalent of say Tom Cruise shooting Barack Obama. It was the main reason he could gain access to backstage so easily, to shoot Lincoln. Other sites in the city show houses and lodgings, hardly changed, where the handful of conspirators met, and it was an altogether enlightening look into the past.

On walking down to the cool shade of the Lincoln memorial at the far end of the Washington Mall, i was delighted to see how the great man continues to inspire peoples from around the world, as a whole school of Chinese Children posed in front of the statue. I couldn't resist taking a memento photo of them myself. Finally, i thought i'd take the chance to clear up a mystery here, regarding a comment i made the other day about wanting to know every type of bird i see.... While we were walking round the quietness of the Capitol Building grounds, I heard the most beautiful birdsong, that seemed to be coming from quite a distance away, but when we looked closely, to our surprise, it was but a few feet away in a tree, whistling gently to itself. I raised my camera slowly, so's not to set it to flight, but it seemed to want to pose for us...which it did long after we moved on. So my question to my Bird Brained friends in Audubon Park :)) is... can you name the type of bird for me? Much Obliged. :) Sir Dayvd ( the fine feathered friend ) of Oxfordshire