Holiday Wrap-Up

There's really no competing with these folks. The front yard has a donation box for I forget which charitable organization, and raising money is ostensibly the point of the display, whose lavish excess is rivaled but unsurpassed by five or six other homes on the same block. I like to swing past it once every year; it's nearby but off any beaten path for me. And you know what? I think it's best that way.

Feliz Navidog

Well, La-Di-Da!

You know it's a s-l-o-ow news day when I get quoted in The New York Times! Nothing to get excited about; it's just another story about how libraries get all bent out of shape when people don't return the stuff they borrow. Weird! You'd think people were stealing municipal property or something.

A Random Book From The Stacks

This one is Cosmopolis, by Paul Bourget. Part of a series of books "crowned" by the French Academy, but apparently the library only owns the one. The light-brown bits are actually gilt, but my photograph doesn't capture the shine. A 1905 edition.

...Aaaand, We're Back.

Welcome (back.) Hope the new template is pleasing. Was gonna wait until the new year, but then again, why?
Too late for Christmas (and I don't even know if they're for sale) are these adorable "father-daughter dancing shoes" I came across.

Fall Planting

Dee's nursery had their annual shrub sale today, where I picked up a painted fern, a (white) Bridal Veil astilbe, and these two butterfly bushes, a small, dark "Adonis Blue" and this yummy golden yellow variety called "Honeycomb." (I would have gotten a few more things, but the bushes were so large I couldn't see where I was going anymore.)

Oh, Sure....

...the first one's always pretty...