The Dupont Circle Farmers Market is the local Mecca for Washingtonians who take their foods seriously. The market is open Sunday mornings and is set up on 20th Street between P and Q Streets

The produce is organic and is locally grown. It’s fresh. And it tastes different

The peaches are sweet and juicy. You can eat the tomatoes without worrying about getting botulism. And for the first time ever, I met some fresh currants! They’re orange.

There are exotic mushrooms and cute little carrots.

There are few farmers selling meat from animals who actually grew up in a real honest-to-gosh barnyard and pastures where they munched organic grass. They lead happy, healthy lives with no nasty hormones or chemicals.

If you want to grow an herb garden, you can get some beautiful specimens that got off to a healthy start.

And the flowers around this place are just totally awesome!

And I couldn't resist buying a loaf of rosemary sourdough bread!

I was even amazed at this wool, from happy sheep - although it was a little hared to really appreciate it in the 100 degree heat!

When I get home and take a nice, cold shower, I'll use some of these pure, home made soaps to wash off the sweat!

Now that I’ve learned that some of Whole Food’s organic veggies actually come from China, buying my produce at local farmer’s markets seems like a pretty good idea. So I started off checking out Georgetown’s Rose Park Market, which is open every Wednesday between 4 and 7.

The idea was to pick up some, oh I dunno, healthy stuff. Zuchinni, cucumbers, cherries, raspberries, peaches, maybe some herbs to plant in my “garden” once I pull out all the weeds.

But wait! What is this? Who is this!

I am drawn to this table where I meet KarenKay Roberts. And Oh! My! God! These were cakes. Not ordinary cakes. They were totally amazing.

Karen was disappointed in this day’s Country Coconut Pecan Pound Cake – it looked like a giant sticky bun with coconut added. But the Strawberry Blackberry Lemon Cream Cheese Pound Cake had enough fruit to be a fruit serving on Weight Watchers.

Well, that’s a stretch.

I left without the zucchini. But I did leave with a piece of KarenKay’s cake. And this is in spite of the fact that I am leaving in two weeks for Cape Cod, where I will be expected to show up on the beach in an, er, bathing suit.

So, if you have any plans to break a diet, KarenKay’s cake is worth every single calorie and every minute I will spend on the treadmill to burn it off.

The market is in the section of Rose Park that is at 26th and O Streets.

And here are some more photos on the Rose Park Market

Yum!

I’m on my way home from a very fun long weekend in New York. I stayed with my friend, Monica, in what I would consider to be my dream condo.

Monica just moved to Manhattan from Washington to work for the Corcoran Group. And she’s living on 65th Street and Second Avenue on the 34th floor. Her apartment is facing south and west, and through a wall of floor-to ceiling windows, you can see from the Central Park West skyline to the East River to downtown. The view is a total WOW, from the balcony and from every room in the place!

But it’s making her crazy.

It’s really, really sunny there – something I always thought was a good thing. So does she, except when she wants to sleep later than 6:00 am when the sun comes up.

Then, there is a solar heating system built in. This might be a great thing in February, but this was the 4th of July weekend. It’s not super hot - in fact, it’s been raining most of the weekend. But for most of the summer, Monica has been sweltering, even with the air conditioning running full blast.

All over Manhattan, and throughout Washington, too, there are bunches of gorgeous new condos that are fabulous in many ways, including south-facing walls of glass. When I fantasize about down-sizing and moving back to New York, these are the condos of my dreams.

So, after this weekend, should I rethink my housing fantacies?

You'd better believe it!

Every time I got to get something out of my car's trunk, there is a little reminder. It is on my license plates - I have tags issued by the District of Columgia. They say:

"Taxation Without Representation"

On this day when we celebrate our break from England - and it was, um, taxation without representation that was the major issue - I noticed my this little reminder more than usual Enough to merit a blog post!

So, for those of you around the country who may be reading this, please remember your friends in the colony of Washington, DC who cannot write their senator or congressman when they are pissed about something. We don't have one!

But we do get fantastic fireworks, although this year I'll be watching the fireworks in New York's Central Park!

I am a total political junkie. Maybe it's just that it's my city's major industry, or maybe it's having a very political last name. But I am hooked. I'm as hooked on politics as I am on Active Rain.

So everyone asks me if I'm stoked about the upcoming administration change. Whoever wins in November, there will be some property turnovers. But not as many as a lot of people think.

Some friends of mine who came here to work for the Bush Administration are in the process of listing a beautiful home overlooking the Potomac River and Georgetown University. And there will be more nice homes coming on the market. Republicans tend to have really nice houses.

But what will the new administration bring to town?

When a governor is elected to the White House, he usually brings people from his native state to Washington. If they are coming to DC from California or New York, they are not shocked by the house prices here. But if they come from someplace like Arkansas, we need a large supply of smelling salts in our glove compartments.

But McCain, Obama and Clinton are all senators who are pretty established in the DC scene. They are more likely to tap talent that is already here in town.

There are all of the professional under-secretaries of whatever, and when their party is our of power, the go to work for local law firms and trade associations. And they already live in the Washington area when it's their turn at the White House once again.

And there wil be changes is the Senate and House of Representatives, and many of the newbies will be buying houses here. Then I have to remember the article in one of the local papers a few years ago about congressmen sleeping in their offices or sharing basement apartments on Capitol Hill with a couple of colleagues. If they are not independently wealthy, they could have a tough time living on a congressional salary while maintaining a home back in their districts.

But there is no doubt about it. Washington, DC has to be just about the funnest place in the world to be a real estate professional!

Yes, Washington is famous for it’s cherry blossoms that bloom like crazy in late March or early April. There is even a festival with a princess and everything. So what happens when the blossoms fade and blow off the cherry trees?

Next come the azaleas! This week, they are all over town. They are red, shocking pink, white and lavender.

On some houses, they are neatly manicured hedges,

and on others they are sort of wild.

They grow pretty slowly, so when you see a huge flowering display, you know that someone has lovingly nurtured the bush over many years.

Even the simplest brick center hall colonials (Washington’s cliché houses) look amazing when they put on their lipstick and become absolutely flirtworthy! These photos were taken over the last few days in Cleveland Park, Tenleytown and Chevy Chase.

So if you are visiting Washington and missed out on the cherry trees, it’s worth a drive or a stroll through some of the residential neighborhoods un upper Northwest DC. This week the early bloomers are giving way to the middle bloomers, then come the late bloomers – sort of like me! So the display will last through most of the month of May.

It's at 3460 Ordway Street NW. Ordway is a street in Cleveland Park named after a guy named Edward Ord, who was a Major General in the Civil War and served under General Grant.

Rosedale Cottage is one of those houses that is just a shameless flirt! You walk in the door, and your heart skips a few beats! If Rosedale was a woman, I guess she'd be a cougar, because she's of a "certain age", old but nobody is quite sure how old. She's had a lot of work done, however, and she can totally hold her own with the new construction down the street!

Here are some photos taken by Peirs Lamb, who is my office's Art Director. And he's a gifted photographer - and the reason I wound up moving to EVers and Company. He puts together amazing marketing materials for our listings, including this one.

The property is being offered for $1,999,000. It will be open on Saturday and Sunday between 1 and 4 in the afternoon.

Ordway is between Connecticut and Wisconsin Avenues

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I just listed an absolutely amazing house! It’s “Rosedale Cottage”, and I feel totally honored to have been selected to market this place.

It's built on property whose ownership dates back to 1793.

George Washington’s aide-de-camp, General Uriah Forest, built his home on what he called the Rosedale estate, a farm of about 1000 acres. His large farmhouse was the first dwelling in one of Washington's chicest neighborhoods, now known as Cleveland Park. While the date of the cottage’s construction is not established, it was probably built around the turn of the century (though we're not certain which one), and served as a guest house for Rosedale visitors. While I don’t plan to include this information on the fact sheet, the home was constructed on the site of the farm’s pig barn.

My sellers, a couple who are both Washington journalists, have some wonderful old (actually very old) photos that I’ll post tomorrow. They very carefully renovated the house with great respect for its history. The kept the original oak floors, and most of the doors are really old and have their original hardware. And it has wonderful views of the National Cathedral from the livingroom and master bedroom.

Yesterday, I went with Piers Lamb, our office art director for a photo shoot. I took a this picture on my little point and shoot. Tomorrow, I'll post the pro's photos from his shoot!

Here in Washington, lot of people (encouraged by their agents) put their homes on the market during the month of April. And there's a reason.

Here in our nation's capital, almost every tree and puts out beautiful blossoms during the month of April. There are the famous cherry trees down by the tidal basin, and there are trees in almost everyone's front yard. In April, Washington is, I think, at it's best.

It's the time of the year when you don't mind walking the dog because you see amazing combinations of dogwoods, redbuds, cherry trees and azalea bushes. I especially love the azaleas when they are not groomed to within an inch of their lives!

This week, my little redbud tree is in full bloom, as is my neighbor's cherry tree. And some of the ground cover is starting to flower.

It's no wonder this is not only the best time of the year for tourists to visit Washington! It's also the best time of the year for sellers to have their homes look totally fabulous to buyers - and the weather is even perfect!

Yesterday, I was checking out stuff in my neighborhood on our MLS. And Oh! My! God! There was a house that I’d missed! A stone Tudor, circa 1925, listed by Eddie Dugas, one of my absolutely favorite colleagues. And the price was in the five hundreds – the price of a hovel in this neighborhood. And this was not a hovel. Was it?

OK, there was a catch. The MLS information said it was funky in the extreme. But that’s fine. I know someone who thinks that funky is good! That would be master renovator, Henry Canby. He waves his magic toolkit over the house and it becomes totally amazing.

So the showing instructions said the lister had to be there for showings. I called Eddie to see if we could get in this evening at seven. He said sure. And he trusted me to show the place without him. But there were some things we had to watch out for.

There was a bedroom and bath on the first floor, but we couldn’t walk in because the floors were “spongy”.

We shouldn’t walk into the back two bedrooms on the second floor because the floors were, yes, “spongy”.

Be careful of the raccoons that had moved in.

Bring a good flashlight because the electricity is off.

Oh, and be really really careful about going down to the basement. It’s um, intense down there.

And a branch from a big tree fell on the roof, about four years ago, and there was a wee, well a huge, bit of water penetration.

“And Pat,” Eddie warned, “don’t wear your Ferregamo’s to this one!” Fine, so it’ll be army boots!

Henry came by in his contractormobile to pick me up and we headed for Argyle Terrace a few blocks away.

It was raining pretty hard, but I’m not that sweet. I won’t melt. And we pulled up and I opened the lock box then the front door.

Duh duh duh DUH! Duh duh duh DUH!

It’s the Adamms Family house!

There were not any small animals – the mice and raccoons had probably succumbed to lead poisoning from the layers of old paint that were dripping like stalagmites from the ceiling. But the floors were spongy, as promised. And I told Henry that if he wanted to see the basement, he would have to do it without me. He did. As promised, it was intense.

This house had been amazing – stone construction on a gigantic lot in a fabulous neighborhood. And as we stood out back looking at the huge wooded lot, we saw a red fox with a big bushy tail skulk across the property.

This house is what we call a grand dame in need of a face lift – sort of like me! And Henry is the world’s best house plastic surgeon. He could make this place totally amazing.

But Cousin Itt would have to move out first!