Category: Uncategorized

Wedding Down Under

From the very moment I saw the wedding invitation, I knew it would be an extraordinary event. Lovingly hand-drawn and then scanned, the card featured all the places the bride had visited with the man she would marry on March 28, 2015. Their adventures had taken them to France, Spain, New Zealand, Italy and the…

April 9, 2015
Got any Zygos? [or The Fragrance of Orchids]

I have always thought that orchids had no fragrance whatsoever, until recently. This past weekend, starved for color we decided to visit the yearly orchid show at Michigan State University. We found many like-minded people there and ran into several friends ‘oohing’ and ‘ahhing’ over these colorful beauties. Coming from Singapore, a country that is…

March 6, 2015
Exit

We all have a creative area in the brain that speaks to us when we are moved or troubled or just full of great ideas waiting to be expressed. My creative time often happens very early in the morning when I’m half asleep. My thoughts tumble out in sentences almost, meant for a written page.…

February 1, 2015
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

Color, fabulous blooms, coastal trails, and fine artwork makes this 250 acre garden in Boothbay, Maine an outstanding place to wander about.

July 23, 2014
Monhegan Island

It’s just ten miles off the coast of mid Maine, a jewel in the Atlantic, reachable only by boat. And when you get there, there are no paved roads and cars and very spotty telecommunications. The 65 or so brave souls who live year-round here depend on bulletin boards to find out what’s happening in…

July 23, 2014
A Trillium and Tulip Tribute

I always feel my mother is watching over me even though she died over 28 years ago. It’s a very comforting thought. On this Mother’s Day, I know my daughters will show me their love and gratitude in the way of flowers, presents or a donation to a charity I like. When I was growing…

May 11, 2014
London Camellias

In the small and lovely compact garden at the back of the Putney home of our friends Richard and Anne Baillie, grows a Camellia bush with the most vivid fuschia-red flowers that I have ever seen. I don’t know much about Camellias, but was so drawn to their color and symmetry and to the glossy…

April 22, 2014
War and Peace in Münster

There is a certain irony that one encounters on Prinzipalmarkt or the main street in Münster. At one end of the cobblestone road in this north-west German city looms St Lamberts – a Gothic church dating back to the late 14th century. Three iron cages hang on the church tower. In the mid-16th century, the…

April 19, 2014
Cartegena Climb

The Spanish seaport and naval city of Cartegena is home to some stunning ancient Roman ruins. The Roman Amphitheater and Cathedral ruins we saw there were so dramatic and striking I couldn’t stop taking photographs. That’s why I’m featuring them in a separate blog. Cartegena was founded around 227 BC and flourished during the Roman…

April 19, 2014