Blog
Traveling from Here to There:
March of the Sikhs
November 2021 “Down with Air India! Down with Air India!” The crowd of forty outraged, frustrated, turbaned men chant loudly as they march up and down the otherwise empty domestic terminal concourse of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. Hundreds of wives, children, and other men cheer them on. Everyone looks weary from waiting hours for a plane to take them home to the Sikh holy city of Amritsar, in northwest India’s Punjab. Tomorrow is India’s Republic Day (think USA’s Fourth of July), with traditional parades and festivals across the country. Standing on the edge of the crowd, I chat with
The Statue of Milyo: A Bulgarian Statue Celebrates Eccentricity
“Why does he have his hand jammed into his pocket,” I ask our guide Georgi. I stare at the bronze statue of Milyo, perched on a low wall in the center of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Behind him, large, blocky, metal letters in primary colors announce “TOGETHER––Plovdiv 2019 European Capital of Culture.” Every year, the European Union selects a city that will serve this role five years in the future. Plovdiv is preparing to show off its best to visitors in two years.
Varmints Are the Unwanted Garden Perennials
January 2021 Gardeners are patient people. We can’t really hurry nature, so we learn to orchestrate the selection and placement of plants to best suit their needs for light, soil conditions, and climate tolerance. At the same time, we arrange plants to achieve our desired overall look and feel of the garden––texture, color, height, movement (grasses sway in the breeze). We attempt to have that coveted succession of bloom, with several beauties showing off at any point in the growing season. Nature demands we march to her circadian rhythm. We know who’s boss. I’m fairly adept physically and mentally to
These Showstoppers Dazzle and Sway
Ahh! Crocosmias. A stand of crocosmias in full bloom can stop cars. Bicyclists make U-turns, and pedestrians cross streets to get a closer look. Admirers drop their jaws and want to know, “What are those?” Sometimes called montbretias, crocosmias (krō-KOZ-me-uh) recently finished their dazzling display as the graceful stars of my mid-summer garden. Their elegant architecture thrills me, and I eagerly anticipate the style they bring to the plant beds each year. My garden hosts the appropriately named variety ‘Lucifer,’ brashly displaying the brightest, boldest scarlet red you can imagine. Hints of yellow and orange brush the throats of the
Traveling from Here to There:
March of the Sikhs
November 2021 “Down with Air India! Down with Air India!” The crowd of forty outraged, frustrated, turbaned men chant loudly as they march up and down the otherwise empty domestic terminal concourse of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. Hundreds of wives, children, and other men cheer them on. Everyone looks weary from waiting hours for a plane to take them home to the Sikh holy city of Amritsar, in northwest
The Statue of Milyo: A Bulgarian Statue Celebrates Eccentricity
“Why does he have his hand jammed into his pocket,” I ask our guide Georgi. I stare at the bronze statue of Milyo, perched on a low wall in the center of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Behind him, large, blocky, metal letters in primary colors announce “TOGETHER––Plovdiv 2019 European Capital of Culture.” Every year, the European Union selects a city that will serve this role five years in the future. Plovdiv is preparing to show off its best to visitors in two years.
Varmints Are the Unwanted Garden Perennials
January 2021 Gardeners are patient people. We can’t really hurry nature, so we learn to orchestrate the selection and placement of plants to best suit their needs for light, soil conditions, and climate tolerance. At the same time, we arrange plants to achieve our desired overall look and feel of the garden––texture, color, height, movement (grasses sway in the breeze). We attempt to have that coveted succession of bloom, with
These Showstoppers Dazzle and Sway
Ahh! Crocosmias. A stand of crocosmias in full bloom can stop cars. Bicyclists make U-turns, and pedestrians cross streets to get a closer look. Admirers drop their jaws and want to know, “What are those?” Sometimes called montbretias, crocosmias (krō-KOZ-me-uh) recently finished their dazzling display as the graceful stars of my mid-summer garden. Their elegant architecture thrills me, and I eagerly anticipate the style they bring to the plant beds
