This week, I’m staying with my recent blog themes of flowers, plants, backyards and gardens, but I’m taking a step beyond neatly manicured flower beds, and venturing into the weed. That’s correct: weed, singular — as in marijuana, cannabis, ganja, pot. That’s because it seems that inch by inch, step by step, New York, the state that has been my home for decades, is moving towards legalizing recreational marijuana. Continue reading “Into The Weed”
Author: joanna
Gardens Of The Rich — & Richer
Hot on the heels of my blog showing the colors which are exploding in my back yard, I received my tickets for the much-anticipated 2018 House and Garden Tour organized by the Westhampton Garden Club.
That’s Westhampton, as in the Hamptons, Long Island. And, the gardens (and pools, below) belong to my much richer neighbors. Please let me know which garden you’d like to relax in. I will NOT be able to arrange a visit to your favorite anytime soon, but I’ll know if your taste is anything like mine. Continue reading “Gardens Of The Rich — & Richer”
Born Trump: A Book That Explains A Lot
I just can’t help myself. I’m a sucker for any newspaper or magazine article, or column, or book that attempts to explain why the Trump Family is the way it is. In other words, why Trump and his “spawn” — the older ones anyway — are so cringeworthy (to put it kindly,) or so despicably detestable, if you just want to tell it how it is.
Born Trump (subtitle, Inside America’s First Family) goes a long way towards providing an answer for why most of us feel like taking a shower after watching them on TV news, or reading their Tweets. The book by Vanity Fair senior reporter, Emily Jane Fox is not just a breezy, gossipy read. Sure, it entertains, but it also informs as to why this new First Family is “uniquely suited for the second decade of the 21st century and its fame-obsessed, money-hungry, voracious 24-hour cycle of a culture.” Continue reading “Born Trump: A Book That Explains A Lot”
Finally Summer’s Here
If you think I am posting the photos below because it’s too hot to write an entire blog, or because I’m deep into my edits and revisions, and coming into the home stretch with Book 3, you’d be partly right on both counts. But it’s also because I want to share the explosion of color that’s suddenly on display everywhere I look outside my windows. Summer was a long time coming this year, but it’s finally arrived. And how! Continue reading “Finally Summer’s Here”
Happy Birthday, America The (Not Always) Beautiful
There’s a phrase that’s stuck in my mind ever since the day I had the enormous (and effortless) good fortune to become an American citizen. Seventeen years ago, the judge who swore in a couple of hundred of us as new citizens told us to pursue our dreams, and to get involved in our communities. Then, she said: “America is not a perfect country. But it is a great land.”
Summer of Love
These days, it’s all too easy to bewail what makes America less than a perfect country. Given the emotional, verbal and physical abuse inflicted by those currently in power on innocents and so many other decent people and institutions, it’s been tempting to look for a way out (yes, those cottages for sale in the English countryside sure look inviting!) But sometimes — especially on anniversaries like July 4th, or for example, August 31 (my anniversary of citizenship)– I feel I should remind myself of what made me fall in love with this great land in the first place. Continue reading “Happy Birthday, America The (Not Always) Beautiful”