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| More permanent flowers were added to augment the tulips and daffodils. Ana said she wants to plant bulbs here in the fall. |
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| I bought this little stone rabbit like 20 years ago. I saw it in a garden center and thought it was statuary on scale with the rest of my garden. Over the years the weather has worn off much of the detail, but I still like this little guy. |
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| This just looked cheery to me. |
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| As did this. Yellow flowers seem particularly cheerful to me for some reason. |
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| This is the bleeding heart on top, and I believe the bottom is called New Guinea impatiens. |
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| I wouldn't have taken the time to plant fully-bloomed daffodils and tulips -- I want things that LAST but this looked really pretty for a day or two. And I guess they'll come back up next year. |
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| Marigolds and geraniums on the steps. |
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| I don't know what these are on the steps on the other side. It is a flower as both have buds. |
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| This is a little corner built-in brick planter. The bush and the ivy are old, and Mama cleaned up the ivy and made a space for these little plants -- not coleus, but pink and green leaves. |
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| These are those giant (New Guinea?) impatiens. |
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| How the steps look now. |
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| This is one view from my garden. That wall is about 12 feet high. I was once at a party, on the terrace of that apartment building and it was very weird to look down into my garden. No nude sunbathing for me. |
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| And finally, the ugliest part of my garden -- the prison camp look of concertina wire. But even this has a role... when I was first getting my home owner's insurance over the phone, I could hear the ca-ching of my premium going up when I mentioned the outdoor space. Then I mentioned the prison camp look and the concertina wire and he took back his ca-ching. What's funny is that an apartment building put that up to protect itself against me and other people who have gardens. Those shreds are plastic grocery bags which have taken years, literally, to be this shredded. |
These images taken on Ellicott Street on this beautiful DC
morning...if it is of any comfort, most evenings and mornings for the past week have been chilly enough to wear a jacket outdoors and snuggle under an extra blanket.
The bench, like you, has been waiting for spring.
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| Mary's team during the race. Whoops -- I realize that the headline doesn't go with this photo. I've made it sound as if Mary is paddling her way home which could take a long time. Actually she's on the car train headed North. |
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| Wrong order, but dessert first. This is Mary's chocolate peanut butter pie on the train heading home. |
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| And this is her vegetarian lasagna. She's on the car train headed North and will be home by noon on Monday. |
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| Fifth Avenue and 84th Street -- am not sure what these flowering trees are, but they are pretty. |
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| Driving through Central Park. These are beautiful "hanging" forsythia bushes. |
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| Right in front of the restaurant where Barbara and I ate. Daffodils and leaves on the tree. |
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| Apartment buildings sprucing up for spring. |
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| Park Avenue -- note the red tulips. |
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| All these years later, I miss the Woolworth's on 86th and Third -- now a Banana Republic. |
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| This is Second Avenue in front of the closing Food Emporium. It's a mess. |
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| This building is in the street, literally, on Second Avenue. |
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| Back home again, and the leaves are coming out. |
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Mary is sharing a suite with either three other or four other women. She says, "There's another room up the spiral staircase on the left." |
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| The view from our suite - unfortunately for the picture, it's s screened in
balcony. This place is huge - after I checked in I was sent to VIP services to
get a map and directions to our building... Pat adds: EEK. Shades of Opryland where everyone walks around with a map. The thing I don't want to hear when I check into a hotel is, "You're in the Milennium Towers... just walk through that arch, past the atrium. past the first set of elevators...." 
This is in the other bedroom
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| Mary captions all these photos: This is so efficient. The auto train station is right off 95 and very well marked. You enter here, as if you're dropping your car off for service. People are very helpful, reminding you to take what you'll want on the train. They put a magnetic plate with your car number on it on the side of your car and direct you into the open, airy station. I checked in and the guy marked my ticket to be upgraded to a nicer sleeper if available, and reserved a space for me for dinner. I picked 7:00 rather than 5 or 9. Took a walk around - there's a play area outside - and now I'll just wait to board. I'm early nut it lowers my stress. They stop boarding at 3. |
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| The play area. Don't know if you can see thus very well. It's very sunny outside. |
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| Very efficient. They load the bottom cars then move the ramp up and load the top. I'm going to find out how many cars and how many passengers they carry. They have a new offering - for $50 you can ensure your car is one of the first 20 offloaded. |
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Inside the station. It's a beautiful day.
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Since you love food pix {Pat adds: "guilty as charged"}, here is my wine and cheese sampler. Lots of people
in the dining car but I'm not much for mingling. We're off! The train is moving. I probably won't send many more pictures
because the auto train doesn't have WiFi yet. We just stopped by a school bus parking lot. We aren't actually supposed to
leave until 4 so I'm not sure what we're doing.
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| Here's the dent and the brown streak is just dirt. I have no idea how this happened. Of course I have insurance. In the "report" I simply stated that it's small, it may have been there the whole time and that no incident occurred. So we'll see what happens. |
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| I called a client from the gate area and he was taking off from Orlando. I left him a voice mail and said that my flight was on time, good bye, etc. Two seconds after I hung up, they announced the flight was late and the women sitting next to me blamed me for jinxing it as they heard me say the flight was on time. I said I would take full responsibility for jinxing it. |
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| And so I sat in Gate E69 at Tampa. Here's the view from my seat. |
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| While the flight was delayed a second time. We finally boarded about 90 minutes late, but then it took another 30 minutes to take off. The weather in NY screwed up the whole system I think. |
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| All was not bad, however, since I did automatically get a Crown Victoria cab home from LGA and here he is leaving me... |
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| ...after having carried my suitcase to the top step. Home again! |
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| By now it was about 7:30, I was starving so I called Gracie's -- here are the sides -- mashed potatoes and carrots (and some soup that came with it) which is the perfect accompaniment for.... |
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| Meat Loaf! with mushrooms and gravy. Yum. |
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| ...And some really fresh challah breead. So this dinner was a great way to celebrate being home. |
