Category: Happy

early this morning outside the north bedroom window.

I know I’ve snapped a picture of this little tree and uploaded an image before, and yes, even prior to that at least a couple more times, but it’s the only tree we have, and since I’m not sure it’s going to come back this spring I wanted to give it one more chance to shine.
Pretty little Shadblow.

Until this afternoon I was under the impression that you had to be dead before being addressed as a saint – unless you’re an American president of course.
Whatever. But this is indeed a RARE treat.

(perpetual garden found in front of an old house on Berry St. in Williamsburg today)

Until this afternoon around 3:30 I still had no image for a New Year’s post. Then I spotted Allie helping the harried (actually, sometimes pretty intense, witness the cell phones), last-minute shoppers waiting in the checkout line at the Whole Foods market down the block.
She’s very beautiful, and the funny Louise Brooks hat/wig makes her very much a part of the frivolity of the holiday. Still, although I’m probably transferring too much here, especially since she was working and I was shopping on this New Year’s Eve, her reluctant smile seems to register a sadness about certain appalling events of 2004 as much as a hope for a far happier 2005.
By midnight tonight may we all be thinking only the good thoughts.
Happy New Year to all!

My mother grew up in a large German Catholic family on a prosperous dairy farm in Wisconsin. Tradition was important, so important that even into her children’s generation the excitement of St. Nicholas Eve, December 5th, managed to give Christmas Eve some pretty good competition.
Having later lived in a very elegant style for a short time in Los Angeles during the late 20’s, and being familiar with the history of the plant’s marketing, she always told us that she didn’t think Poinsettias should have anything to do with Christmas. While growing up I absolutely loved the holiday, but our house always remained Poinsettia-free, just as it stood impervious to the much-advertised charms of shiny aluminum or pastel plastic trees during the peak of their popularity.
Today I’ve shed absolutely any attachment to December 24th (or 25th), but my mother’s attitude toward Christmas has preserved this beautiful weed for my enjoyment. I’ve abandoned the religion as well as the holiday, but I still love occasion and I’m crazy about flowers. The bright red version is still a little too much identified with the celebration of a virgin birth or a visit from Santa Claus, but I really love every other color of the blooms most people think of as the Christmas plant.
This one sits on our dining room table tonight.