Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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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.
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Murcia Marvels
Murcia during Holy Week or Semana Santa as they say in Spain, is full of religious processions, marching bands, drummers and crowds of people including many families with children and babies in tow lining the streets. Floats depicting the passion of Christ are borne on the shoulders of sturdy believers dressed in velvet tunics. All…
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Walking a Tight Rope
Hong Kong is a crowded city and a popular tourist destination. Tourists are welcomed here but there’s one group that’s getting a cold shoulder from some of the local residents who have described them as “invading locusts.” Business owners love them because they spend, spend, spend their yuans on luxury goods to take advantage of…
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Gray Skies over Beijing
Beijing, a city of twenty million people was a haze of gray this time around. Smog, smog, smog – blanketing the city like a persistent canker. Most Chinese cities fail minimum air quality standards and it probably came as no surprise to Beijing residents that their air quality standards were met only 48 percent of…
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