Mask Fashion

It’s getting to be quite popular lately. I’m embarrassed to say that my grubby blue one is not nearly keeping up with the fashionistas around here, like this lady.

“The Way Life Should Be”

FINALLY we’ll have a chance to escape Boston’s lockdown and travel north to god’s country (Rockport, Maine) to visit family and friends. It will be a short visit but to say we’re looking forward to it is a VAST understatement.

Tapped Out

“Have you ever had the feeling that there wasn’t a soul left on the planet that remembered your name or face or the sound of your laugh?”

 From “House of Coates” A book by Brad Zellar

Lobbying For More Sick Children

Since we live near the Massachusetts State House, we often hear noisy demonstrations in favor or against one thing or another. Today there was a group of anti-vaccination people lobbying for their god given right to allow their children to get sick from and pass on diseases like polio, anthrax, chicken pox, measles and presumably pretty soon, Covid-19.

Patience Needed

Here in the U.S., patience seems to be in pretty short supply these days. We’ve got a president who wants COVID-19 to disappear quickly so he announces that he wants less testing in order to get the country to think things are getting better more quickly than they are. We’ve got governors opening their states up too soon. Finally, unaccountably, some of us have stopped wearing masks because we’re convinced we’ve worn them long enough and any longer impinges on our political freedom.

Patience, where art thou?

Boston’s Chinatown

I don’t normally photograph in Boston’s Chinatown mainly because it’s a fair hike from where we live. Today however, my wife suggested we go there and wow was the walk fun! The neighborhood’s combination of grit and beauty was a street photographer’s banquet. The heat and humidity were pretty oppressive and I’m glad we finished early.

Gardening In Covid-19 Time

The fun fact about this photograph is that it was not taken in some rural or suburban location. I took it in the second block of Newbury Street, Boston’s premium “gold coast” shopping area. Think of it as a yankee’s Rodeo Drive.

For an instant you can forget Covid-19 and feel the warm soil getting under your fingernails reminding you that you’re still a sentient being living on a miraculous blue planet.

The “Peace” Rose

It is a Hybrid Tea Rose and many millions of plants have been sold since it burst onto the world stage in 1945. It was developed by the French rose breeder, Francis Meilland, between 1935 and 1939 who, when he saw that war with Germany was inevitable, sent cuttings to friends in Italy, Turkey, Germany and the USA. History tells that it was on the very last flight before the German invasion of France. In the USA, the rose breeders Conrad Pyle Co., successfully grew it and thereby kept it safe.

However, because the various recipients of these precious cuttings could not communicate with each other for the duration of the war, it was given several different names. France called it ‘Madame A. Meilland’ after Meilland’s mother. Italy called it ‘Goia’ (Joy). Germany named it ‘Glory Dei’ (glory to God) and the USA called it ‘Peace’.