Text and photos by Deb Lee, Michele Maniscalco; photo from Lee family album
*last of five parts, so far, with responses from friends and family to my request for photos and text related to edible plants in the life or remembrance of Minna Lee (1917-2005) prompted by her birthday on August 23.
Photos and texts by Ellen Kramer, Barbara Nachmias-Kedesdy, Barbara Hubschman, Sandy Millikin, Ethan Gould
On a rainy evening in Harvard Square, May 2019, I responded to a sudden assignment in a smartphone camera class by taking photos inside Brattle Square Florist. As one of countless devoted customers for more than forty years, I had secretly dreamed of somehow documenting the special qualities of its long tall corridor packed floorContinue reading “Brattle Square Florist, from Recent Past toward Promising Future”
After chipping away at ice layers on the city sidewalk in early February, I told Nancy Arons how I craved images from summer gardens outside her house in Pelham, MA. She soon responded with truly gratifying photos, including dates, plant names, and intriguing notes. Almost all her photos here are from late July, between 2015 and 2021, except for an irresistible October scene.
Earlier in January, when I asked friends for photos of indoor plants, Sandra Millikin sent three from her home in England. All were roses in vases, each bouquet distinct and inviting. Her titles and evocative captions added context. The words and images suggested significant stories behind the roses’ arrivals and arrangements.
Selecting from seventy or so photos of plants inside my home from recent years, I tried to pare down to seven for this post. So I grasped for goals to guide me. The pandemic here and now in January of 2022 has made me go for photos that show the living space where few people are free to visit.
Sharing November post from a favorite blog “Still Learning to See” : This time of year the Vermont hillsides are mostly bare of leaves. I find the leaves that are left, perhaps because they are the few remaining, to be… The bones of trees
“For ( Ekua) Holmes, the sunflowers represent a radiance that “sustains us even when things are not how we want them to go.”
From the start of Pleasures of Plants, my intention was to share plant photos by friends and family, not only by me. For a few months I was trying to get comfortable with new features in the format I had selected. I hesitated to involve anyone else during that phase. Though still learning the basics of this blog, I’ve begun asking people to send photos of plants they value. I’m very grateful for their responses,* support, and patience as I try to present those photos in a worthy way.
On neighborhood walks this spring and summer I began to notice tended gardens in the narrow strips of earth between sidewalk and street. For instance, I felt the sense of shelter from traffic as I climbed the slope of Upland Road lined with clusters of flowers or grasses around saplings or established trees.
Pleasures of Plants 