Last week was a whirlwind, a big joyful one.  I slept in five beds over eight days.  The road trip kicked off with my 40th college reunion in NH - although it almost didn't.  A week ago Friday, I awoke to a text that my flight to Boston was so badly delayed that I'd miss my connection to Hanover.  Cue the mad scramble (the crazy fun Scots clearly invaded Boston for their World Cup match because there wasn't a single seat left into Logan).   Somehow, by changing both my departure and arrival airports, I still made it on time.  Highlights included seeing the sailing team's luxurious new boathouse (imagine a world class yacht club dropped onto the shoreline of our modest Lake Mascoma), and racing in the new fleet of 420s.  It was super windy and I was one puff away from backing out - I even asked the coach, "Sending a bunch of 60+ year olds out in 14 foot boats with gusts up to 20 knots?  What could possibly go wrong?"  (I'm in the yellow life jacket in boat 12 above).   It was an absolute blast and I felt like I was 20 again (in mind, not body).  I'm not sure which took a bigger toll on my abs - hiking out to keep the boat (mostly) flat, or the three days of ginormous belly laughs.   If you have a reunion coming up - you should definitely go.

From there, I road tripped down to the Cape with my friend Tracey, then caught the ferry to Martha's Vineyard, and on Wednesday ferried over to Nantucket, pointing out to anyone who feigned listening, "Isn't it a beautiful day for a ferry ride?"   READ MORE

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While sitting at my desk in my sunroom writing, or more accurately, contemplating writing,  I spend a lot of time staring out the window at the birds.   My winged friends are good company.   They are always up to something - screeching at one another across the dogwood, tussling for position over the feeder, finding a new and amusing perch, like the top of one of my lily stakes.  And of course there's excitement in welcoming a new visitor - yesterday I had a pair of goldfinches alight on my umbrella.    Perhaps birds are nature's way of rewarding attention.  

Some notes are long.  This one isn't.   

For your amusement this Monday, here's a list of the 100 greatest bird names of all time.  Willie Wagtail, Handsome Fruiteater and Bananaquit only ranked in the 90s.  Perhaps another week I'll research how birds get named.  Wouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall in that committee meeting?  READ MORE

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Turns out I had so many bits of coral dancing in my head last week, I decided to split them into two notes instead of one.   Let's pick up where we last left off, and step lively into our parade of the prettiest shades of pink into coral into sherbet-y orange. 

Remember me nattering on about the joy of walking into a manicure appointment with my new Rose Baltique nail polish from Hermès (a splurgy gift from a dear friend)?*    Naturally, a hunt soon ensued to find a signature shade to paint my summer toes.  My vision:  the perfect coral-y pink, not too mauve, not too orange, not too neon.  Wouldn't you know that I came up blank, after multiple trips to CVS, Walgreens and even Duane Reade?  Expanding my horizons, I hit the internet, where I found this dream-manifested-into-reality shade from Chanel:  Première Dame.  Well, that wasn't quite the term I was envisioning to describe the look I was going for, so I decided I better check it out in person.  As I was in NYC two weeks ago for garden club meetings, I was determined to squeeze in a quick visit to the Chanel boutique on 57th Street.   And, as I happily trotted up to the signature black doors in my best garden club lady outfit, I was greeted by, "Do you have an appointment?"  Wait, what?    READ MORE

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