Catnip

Thomas' catnip bush on the patio is in full flower and he especially likes to graze on the buds.  The bush is over knee high now.  He's been seen strolling into the plant, chewing a while and sleeping right there.

Catnip is easy to grow and once established, reseeds readily.

Memorial Day

So many have paid so much for our freedom.

Beauty All Around Us

A wee moth spent the night on the patio window.

Escaping The Heat

With a run of days with temps in the high 90s and smoke filled skies from wildfires, Thomas has been by early and often for refuge from both.

Game Changer

Another abrupt ending to a Scrabble game, as Thomas, the cat who visits, indulges his curiosity by leaping onto the board and adjusting the tiles to his satisfaction.

Mother's Day

What's Blooming In Spring

In the front yard, cyclamen,

a California poppy in a sea of calendulas,

a daisy,

purslane and calendula.

More Beach

A curlew stepping through sparkle, heading into the wind.

Wildflowers on the bluff.

Seagulls checking kelp mounds for something to eat.

A look back over my shoulder and away for home.

Yesterday On The Beach

The wind kicked up all day and had the ocean churning.

This seashell left a faint trail where the waves pushed it ashore.

A rock with a pink petticoat.

 Reef with mussels.

This Morning

It's windy at first light, with perhaps a spot of rain in the offing.

One Last Day And Away

Quiet town in Putnam County.

Touched down briefly in Chicago and then home.

Down By The Riverside

 The Hudson River.

Gothic architecture.

Nothing too insignificant for artistic detail.

More trees in bloom.

One of many, many abandoned buildings.

Walking In Westchester County

 Old trees.

Old statuary.

 Canadian geese.

 Pink blossoms along the sidewalk.

More forsythia.

What Was Bought

The boxes just arrived from my buying trip back East.  Many hours were spent in a dark warehouse, combing through dusty boxes of 1940s and 1950s German and Czech stock.  It was something of a treasure hunt, never knowing what the next stack might contain.

Here's some of what just arrived - vintage hand made silk flowers, manufactured for the millinery trade over 60 years ago.
  

Around The Hotel

Looking west to the Hudson River.

Looking east.

Down the stairs to my room.

Peeking though boughs of holly.

Biddle House at sunset.