VINEYARD IN WHITE

This recent snowstorm was outstanding in beauty and quiet stillness. Even the barn cats slept in. Everything was moving more slowly today, including us.

WINTER EVERGREEN

The temps will drop below 20 degrees tonight. Tomorrow morning I will hear the winter sparrows chirping safely in the yellow bamboo.

BIRTHDAY REMEMBRANCE

Today was my Mother's Birthday, she never liked having a January Birthday, she said the month was too dark, cold and dreary. She was a child of the flower-filled, golden afternoons and she always looked so beautiful in pastel blue, she was anything but the somber winter days. She admired Whitman, Auden, Alcott, Renoir, Wagner, her family, antique furniture, peach ice cream, lilacs, animals, historical dress and children. Every day in January is beautiful to me, from the diamonds in the snow to the wind's cold blast on a stormy night. It is my mother's month, and I recall our January days together more vividly than the rest, it is the month when I remember our winter talks, baking, crafts, sewing, shoveling and laughter. Especially today, I can sense her, with me, on her January Birthday.

CELEBRATE NEW ORLEANS!

THE ESSENCE OF TIME

Here it is, The Pier Hotel in Gorleston, UK. This is where I hope to be in September, working on the final chapter of my long research on Charles John Brooke. The Hotel is only a few short blocks from where he lived as a young boarder, and worked in the public houses as a telegraph messenger.
I will also get to meet the wonderful friends that I have corresponded with, have tea, look at all of their photos and walk and visit the same spots that CJB frequented.

A PERFECT ARRANGEMENT

A great display of ornamental kale from a row house on 2nd St. in Philadelphia. I only wish I had containers like these, but the color is everything!

MEMORIAL HALL, PHILADELPHIA CENTENNIAL 1876

The Wilson Brothers, great Philadelphia Architects and Engineers from the turn of the century, keep popping up in my genealogical research re: Charles John Brooke. Joseph Wilson's career was changed forever when he was chosen to oversee the design and construction of the main exhibition building and Memorial Hall for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. When Charles John Brooke arrived in Philadelphia in 1887 from Great Yarmouth, England, his first position as a fledgling architect was with the Wilson Brothers and many of his first important commissions were through this firm. Last Sunday, we decided to visit the Please Touch Museum with my grandson, Chris and his cousins. The Museum is now housed in its permanent quarters, the original, restored Memorial Hall in Fairmont Park, Philadelphia. It is an outstanding building, it was constructed as the first Beaux Arts Museum in the USA, its exterior has been perfectly reconstructed, including original paint color, sculptures, domed ceiling, and 1905 Carousel. It is grand and beautiful, a treasured piece of Americana, and I felt like the ancestors were watching.

FILLING THE BASKET

We are all getting involved with our donations for the Safe Horizons Event in NYC. My daughter, Alice is embroidering ladies' socks, Marie is making jewelry keychains and I am filling the sachet envelopes with fresh lavender. My 7 year old grandson would love to be part of the project, so tonight I am going to put him in charge of hand-stamping the keychain tags, everyone wants to be a part of this winter event, too cold to go out, so it's a great time to work inside.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!

It is a new decade, a new winter beach beginning, new salt pools beginning magic on the Jersey Shore.

THE MERCHANT'S EXCHANGE, PHILADELPHIA, PA

Designed in 1835 by William Strickland who also designed the Independence Hall Steeple. Ornate interior, mosaic flooring, marble columns, domed ceiling, handpainted Italian frescoes throughout. Also used as a post office, fell into disrepair in the 1900's, currently being restored.

36th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

Yesterday, Fred and I celebrated our 36th Wedding Anniversary at The City Tavern in Philadelphia in a quiet upstairs room. Fred had the bratwurst, mashed potatoes and fried onions and I had a delicious meat pie with red cabbage and zucchini, traditional colonial fare. We had drinks in pewter mugs and gazed out at the cobblestone walks which lead to the round, colonnaded Exchange Building, which is still being restored in Old City. We were back where we started in Philadelphia in the late sixties where Fred would drop me off at college in order to avoid the long 4 hour bus commute from Asbury Park, NJ. And what a trip it has been, these pages of days, beautiful, heartbreaking, anxious, loving, creative, exhausting, perfect moments of time and experience. Never fearful because we always knew that we had each other to depend on and lift up. Back where we started, before the bamboo, chickens, barn restoration, children, freelance, soccer, grandchildren, plumbing,
additions, coal heat, gas heat, no heat, and on and on. Thirty six years and we vowed that we would do it again in the next life. But for now, in the present, we are like the Exchange Building, still being restored to grandeur, like us, still a work in progress.

FAERIES

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Being snowed in for Christmas has not happened for a long time! I only left the house to feed the chickens yesterday!

SUPERIOR GRILL RELAXING AND THE NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART

The Superior Grill in New Orleans is a warm and cozy place for smothered enchiladas and Happy Hour.
The New Orleans Museum of Art had a Disney Exhibit with original storyboard pencil sketches from Snow White and Cinderella, plus original sketchbook drawings from the THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG, which takes place in NOLA.

BACK HOME FROM NEW ORLEANS

Spent a wonderful time visiting Annie, Marie and Ben in the Magical Crescent City. Spent alot of time with the college friends on Plum Street and eating at new found places like the Cheesecake Bistro and the Camellia Grill. In spite of some torrential downpours and overland travel through Tulane soccer fields to ship 9 suitcases to NJ, we had creative time including visiting the NOMA, and a great Christmas office party at O'Brien's in the French Quarter. But most of all I got to relax, hug, laugh and enjoy the rest of my dear family.