The Georgetown Metropolitan

According to the ANC agenda, a new skin care shop called Aesop will be opening in the old Subway space at the corner of Potomac and M.

It’s from Australia and it seems to sell very expensive elixirs that probably have marginal benefits over CVS brand stuff. Like, for instance, here’s a half ounce bottle of “Parsley Seed Anti-Oxidant Facial Treatment” that they’ll sell to you for $60. (“Anti-Oxidant” is the modern day version of snake oil). But hey, it’s probably better for you than spending $60 at Georgetown Cupcake.

Here is the rest of the agenda for next Monday’s meeting:

Continue reading →

Photo by Marc Andre.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Huge commercial building up for sale.
• Come to Rosslyn on July 7th to learn more about the gondola study.

3200 block of M St.

This week on Now and a Long Time Ago, GM returns to the Willard R. Ross postcard collection and finds one of the Georgetown University gatehouses.

It’s unclear exactly when this postcard is from. But given the era of the other postcards in the collection, it is probably from the 1920s. The gate houses are about twice as large as the present ones and are much closer together. Continue reading →

Photo by Alan Kotok.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Wingo’s closed for health violation (but it will only be one day).
• New building at Penn and M would cause the Capital Bikeshare station to be moved, slightly.

1500 block of 33rd St.

A bit of crowdsourcing here: GM is curious to know if other gardeners around Georgetown have found the dirt here to be unusually alkaline?

GM likes to garden in his modest little backyard. One thing he particularly like to grow are hydrangea. And he especially likes to grow perfectly blue hydrangea flowers. Continue reading →

Photo by Alan Kotok.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Old photo of the pontoon bridge that connected Georgetown to what became Roosevelt Island.
• Want to buy a Book Hill storefront?

3000 block of M St.

(Ed. Note: GM wrote and scheduled this post last night before this morning’s storm. Watering is now probably optional for this week. But the underlying message is still the same: one heavy and quick rain storm isn’t enough for trees.)

It rained Tuesday night. It rained a lot. But despite the fact that the streets were flooded, we still need to water our young street trees.

Young trees need 25 gallons a week. While an inch of rain is a lot of water. That’s 2/3 of a gallon falling in every square foot. But most of it washes right down the storm drains. The ground only absorbs a fraction of that.

So this weekend, if you have a young tree outside your home, run a trickle of water from a hose for about 20 minutes. That should be enough.

A little love now will be returned to you in spades by a healthy thriving tree.