Tucson. November, 2014

Picture looking up and seeing this. Do you think you'd ever become so used to it that you'd take it for granted? Living in New England as I do, it's hard to imagine ever becoming blasé about something so remarkably and shockingly beautiful.

Watertown, MA. Memorial Day, 2013

Hello, Sailor! I love Memorial Day parades. Always have. My town's parade route passes a mere block from my house and that's where you'll find me today at noon. And while the Blue Belles twirlers are always my favorites, I do have a special place in my heart for the Navy. If you know what I mean. (Update: Mother Nature had other plans this year and our parade was cancelled due to rain. Still, I have my memories.)

Hollywood. November, 2005

Never miss a chance for a jumping picture. My friend Mike and I were on a business trip to Los Angeles, checking out the placement of the billboards we'd created for some new headphones from Bose. 1-2-3-jump! (Tear your eyes away from me for a moment and look at those four words on the side of the building below the billboard. What do you suppose they mean? Speak. Consider. Care. Stand.)

Watertown, MA. January, 2016

My friend Jeff served a salad last winter that belied the season and tasted remarkably green. His secret: fresh parsley. So, because I am an "all or nothing" type, I planted 12 parsley plants in the garden last weekend, hoping to have an abundant supply all summer. Here is a healthy bunch of that secret ingredient secured (the day after Jeff's salad) at one of the many Armenian produce markets mercifully located a mere two blocks from my house. (I was scolded for not having bought flat-leaf parsley, a mistake I did not repeat when I purchased the plants for the garden. Sue me.)

Essex, MA. December, 2015

I have heard through the grapevine (aka her sister) that my friend Mary cannot stop thinking of fried seafood once she read a posting here two weeks ago of our "fisherman's combo platter." So here, for Mary, is an exterior of Woodman's, the fabled seafood shack, that we visit off-season to avoid the huge crowds that overwhelm the place starting Memorial Day weekend. See you in December, Mary.

Watertown, MA. May, 2016

Oh, when lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd.... My friend Matt, the grandson of architect/icon Richard Neutra, is allergic to lilacs. Imagine! And so how can I not think of him every year at this time? Because lilacs (especially this dwarf variety -- twice the blooms, half the gangly height) are so beautiful, so fragrant and reliable. I walk out my kitchen door and -- pow! -- this. I no longer have to sneak around after dark, as in my New Jersey childhood, clippers in hand, thieving.

Watertown, MA. May, 2016

When a town crew removed a huge (but dying) Norway Maple from in front of my house, the front yard went from shade to full sun. So last fall, I planted 168 bulbs (daffodils and miniature hyacinth.) Once their early spring blooms began to fade, I started to accumulate perennials. Here is my favorite, Sweet William, one of four such plants that now punctuate the vinca/myrtle groundcover. I think of them as the drag queens of the garden.