Big Stick / Water / Crocus
Now that the winter is (maybe…probably) over, it is nice to be able to walk in the woods without snow shoes.
Olive always has a funny look on her face when she is carrying a big stick. Once she has ventured into the woods and made the difficult decision as to her preference, she is all business.
This time of the year is great for her as she gets the opportunity to spend a lot of time romping in the streams that surround our neighborhood. By August, this waterfall is usually just a trickle.
These little guys are starting to pop up through the pine needles. Nice.
2017 Smith College Bulb Show
Cristine and I always look forward to the Smith College Bulb Show. Always in mid March, it is a lovely reminder that Spring is not far off.
There are always a ton of very exotic tulips.
It ends tomorrow, so if you live in the Valley and want to see it, get moving!
Willard Patient Dress / Part 1
There are quite a few items in the Willard collection at the New York State Museum that are not part of my suitcases documentation. These “institutional” pieces were too numerous to photograph, but this embroidered dress just had to be documented. The work was done by a patient who is not identified, but I am in touch with some folks who worked at Willard who might know who created this.
This will be a photo heavy post with less text than in my usual posts, but the details in the dress are amazing and I wanted to share as many as I could.
It wasn’t just the amazing designs; the precision of the embroidery knocked us out.
There were a good number of cats on the dress.
This one seems to be hovering over a plant.
Not sure what is going oh above, but the orange is such a beautiful color.
This looks to me like a cat but what is it doing? Any thoughts?
I love how this person’s hair is rendered.
The orange flower in her hair is lovely.
These little flowers are so delicate.
The watch and ring on this figure are such a nice touch.
Thanks so much to Peg Ross for helping me set the dress up in order to photograph it. I am terrible at stuff like this, and as usual, she really made it happen. And if I remember correctly, Connie Houde from the museum was also there to assist.
I hope to post the back of the dress (I want to keep calling it a shift; is that correct?) sometime soon. I leave Atlanta later today but will head out to the Botanical Garden before my flight. Thanks for following.
Paperwhites
Just before Christmas I bought the last four paperwhite bulbs at Hadley Garden Center. As they were the last ones, they looked a bit ratty. Since we were gone most of January, Cris didn’t put them into the jar of rocks until just after we got home. The first flowers came out today. A full foot of snow outside but lovely to have these beauties in the house.
I spoke to my friend John Wilson in Stratford-upon-Avon late last week and he said the daffodils are already coming up over there. I guess we’ll have to wait at least 6 more weeks before we see any here.
Have a great weekend, everyone.
Howth
We have been spending most of our time in busy cities on this trip, so we decided to take the DART train to Howth yesterday and spend some time on the coastal path.
This is a lovely seaside fishing village, and since it was Sunday it was a bit crowded, but we really wanted to walk, so it was worth it.
As we walked through the carpark at the beginning of the path, we saw a guy in a superman costume get out of a taxi. We didn’t think much about it at the time since it was a few days before Halloween. We started our walk, and some minutes later looked down to a little island just off the coast and saw him jump off a diving platform. He is in mid-flight in this photo but it is a bit difficult to see him. Look for the red spot on the left. Wild.
It was a lovely day. Not too hot, not too cool.
Ireland is really green, and like Cornwall has a really interesting variety of plants.
I can never keep these things straight, but I think this is gorse. So lovely.
There were amazing views throughout the walk. In the foreground is an entire field of ferns that are just starting to turn brown.
At one point the coast path crossed an enormous golf course. We were instructed to stay quiet. We obliged, and we did see some golfers teeing off. It would have been a lovely day to play 18.
But by far the coolest part of the walk was when we went through the Bog of Frogs. It was boggy, but not noticeably froggy.
We walked well over 10 miles, and it was spectacular. It was great to get a pint and some fish and chips once back in Howth.
As we waited for the train to Dublin, a Carphone Warehouse advert kept scrolling through this sign at the station.
Once back in Dublin, we stopped at Mary’s Bar and Hardware for a whiskey. They really love JFK here. And the whiskey was nice.
Hello!
I am never sure why this happens, but this site is getting rather a lot of traffic today. Usually, a link gets published somewhere which mentions me for one reason or another, and I start getting emails from WordPress telling me I have new followers. So welcome everyone; happy to have you stop by from time to time. Wishing you all a great weekend.
Pink Lady’s Slipper / Red Eft
There are hundreds of pink lady’s slippers around the house. We are very lucky.
Red efts were out today as well, as it is a rainy, humid day. These guys are tiny.
Tulips
The university has planted a ton of tulips in anticipation of a flood of people visiting for commencement. Most of them are planted in regular beds, but these guys are interspersed with clumps of grass just outside of the recreation center. Nice.
Crocus
We are supposed to have snow this weekend along with very cold temperatures. I didn’t want to lose these guys to the weather before I got the chance to take some pictures. Nature!
Beach Flower
It is wonderful to come to a place in the month of January where wild plants are still flowering. In all our miles of walking the beach, this was the only blossom we have seen.
Anyone out there have any idea what plant this is?
Jon Crispin's Notebook 
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