Fostering a new renaissance through creativity, authenticity, spirituality, and art
Polly Castor 
I grew up with a Red Bud tree in my front yard. It was a gift to my mother acknowledging 25 years of volunteering as an outstanding Girl Scout Leader. Tied to this thoughtful gift were 25 real silver dollars. I have liked Red Bud trees ever since. They look particularly lush after a rain … Read more
This page represents May 3, 2009 through May 14, 2009. I have done a box-a-day in this journal EVERYDAY now for over a year!
Today’s box includes flowers my youngest daughter pressed in the microwave, including amazingly enough, a lilac!
I gave my husband these fancy double tulips for Father’s Day last year. We had never had them before. It has been really fun to have their color explosion in our yard. (A few pictures are of other people’s as well.) They have been one of the fascinations of this spring for me. I love … Read more
Having been in Maryland recently, I finally had what was reported as the area’s “best crab cake,” but I have discovered they have nothing on mine. I can’t really take credit for how good mine are since I use Martha Stewart’s recipe. (see here). The only thing I do different is I separate the batter … Read more
Our peach tree is blooming… imagine peaches where these flowers are! Check out the ladybug in the last picture… they were loving the tree.
Happy Mother’s Day!
Children are the best gift. I’m honored just to “have” them; they are the best thing I ever “did!” We have a tradition of buying our yearly annuals at a nice local nursery, Hollandia Nursery, as a festive Mother’s Day outing. We have done this for eighteen years at the same place. I always enjoy…
I loved this book and give it five stars. I heard a retrospective on NPR of their best interviews with writers, and that is where I first heard of May Sarton. I liked what she said in the interview, so I looked her up. She is the author of 48 books of poetry, fiction and … Read more
What could be better than tulips in the sun, or tulips after the rain? I love them. Nothing is quite as red in the garden as a red tulip can be. These photos were taken in our garden as well as the gardens of friends and neighbors. Our friend Rosalie had thousands! I hope you … Read more
I’ve never tried anything like this before, and it took a long time to do in little bits over many months. Sometimes the clay hardened before…
This tree was a house warming gift from my parents seventeen years ago. Each year when it blooms it is like a fairyland. My oldest daughter, looking out of her bedroom window, sees nothing but pink. Some years it lasts longer than it did this year, but it is always a delight. Enjoy the photos!
Enjoy these photos of spring at New Pond Farm in Redding, CT just before the leaves burst. I love the vividness of the new, wet greens, against rich, fertile earth, the rushing of water, the old weeping cherry, the Canadian geese on their way north, the skunk cabbage, the sound of frogs, the practically fluorescent … Read more
This page represents April 21, 2009 through May 2, 2009. The tulips, peach tree blossom and weeping cherry are all from my husband’s garden. See below for some close up photos. Enjoy!
My husband’s Aunt Clara fed us this delicious coffee cake when we were in Texas for Easter. She got the recipe from the Amarillo Junior League Cookbook.
Garbage Removal I’m up praying at four in the morning. Misty, moist, cool air refreshes, wafting in on tendrils from the open window. The only sound I hear is the massive bang and clunk of a garbage truck with hulking mechanical biceps in grinding metal arms, picking up those hugely heavy commercial containers, dumping out … Read more
I don’t often merely pass on email I get, but this came from my friend Linda and I found it very apt, particularly since my son thinks he wants to live in Sweden. (Mind you I’m no economist and I’m not attempting to discredit “progressive taxation”…) See the email forward below in blue… and my … Read more
Don’t you love magnolias? My aunt had a wonderful one we used to climb; year round they make good climbing trees but to climb them in bloom is to love them forever. Every year I photograph them. The fragrance is so subtle and delicious. The profile of each bloom is unique and slightly melancholy. And … Read more
