Full Sails in Full Bloom

Tuesday @ 10 a.m. - Air temperature: 46-degrees.

Really.

Wednesday @ 4 p.m. -  The temperature is now 41-degrees.

Blecch.

"Mad Men" (Episode 703): Betty Draper is Smokin'!

Betty, Betty, Betty. Smoking on the school bus as she accompanied her son on a class trip to his teacher's father's farm.

And trading his mother's lunch for a bag of gum drops? Bobby, Bobby, Bobby.

"Am I a good mother?" Betty asked her husband Francis later that night at their large Victorian home in Rye, N.Y.

"Only time will tell," she said.

Trip to Bushwick

Rainbow over DeKalb Avenue

Sunset on Hart Street

Ye Olde Tire Repair Shoppe

Building Art in Brooklyn

Tiny Plot of Grass

I Think When the Forsythia Bloom It is Safe to Take Down the Christmas Balls

Corinthian Meets Victorian

#  #  #

Friendship: Treasure/Embrace/Honor

Guard/protect/cherish/nurture/honor your friendships. Here is a shot of me with our good friend Alix, who is visiting from Marseille (left) and my amazing sister, Pamela. (Princeton is beautiful this time of year!)

Our friendship with Alix goes back more than three decades, when my sister and I were in art school in Aix-en-Provence. That is a verrrry long time to establish a rich friendship.

This treasured history is intertwined with great adventure, laughter and shared sadness. (And there is something uniquely wonderful about having a friend who remembers my father.) Experiencing the joy and weathering the vicissitudes that life throws at us is what enriches relationships.

I treasure my friendships supremely/utterly.

Antiques & Tools Celebrates 24 Years in Scotts Corners

When you step into Antiques & Tools of Business & Kitchen, at 65 Westchester Avenue in Scotts Corners, Pound Ridge, N.Y., you'll be wooed by the Baroque music on WNYC Radio, or the American classics of Jonathan Schwartz on a Sunday afternoon. Take a look around and you'll find stuff you may have long gotten rid of but wished you had saved like campaign buttons for Ike, JFK, Bill and Hillary, sheet music from the '20s, bartending trinkets and shelves of other vintage antiquity from the work place to the kitchen. 

Welcome to the world of Joan Silbersher, proprietor, who has a keen eye for the kitsch. On Sunday, April 27, from noon to 3 p.m., she will celebrate her 24th anniversary in Scotts Corners with a barbecue lunch to benefit the Pound Ridge Library, along with a free raffle and five gift certificates for $30.

"I'd go crazy without this shop," said Joan from her desk that has a perfect vantage point of the four corners on Westchester Avenue. "I like to be busy and buy stuff. When I sell something, I can't wait to buy something to replace it.'"

Among the myriad of items that include unusual door knobs, strap hinges, tins, jello molds, farming and nautical tools, antique medical equipment and kooky kitchenware, the best-selling of all are the copper teapots and boilers ... "anything country and funky," Joan said. Outside the shop, you'll find lawn furniture, planters, milk cans and wagon wheels.

On Sundays (April 27 through November, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.), Joan also hosts a Farmers & Bakers Market on the front terrace. 

To read more about Joan Silbersher and the genesis of her successful entrepreneurship as a founder of Pound Ridge Tennis Club and The Country Shopper newspaper, check out her featured interview, "La Doyenne du Funk" in Pound Ridge Past: Remembrances of Our Townsfolk.

#  #  #

*  POUND RIDGE PAST  is available at

Booksy Galore in Pound Ridge; Red Fox Gallery in Bedford;

 The Reading Room, and Little Joe's Books in Katonah.

"Mad Men" (Episode 702): Sally's Eyebrows

On tonight's "Mad Men," it was hard not to be distracted by Sally's eyebrows.

They appear to be going in the direction of ...

Shoshanna in "Girls"

Caroline (Adam's sister) in "Girls"

Frida Kahlo

Isabelle et Vincent Pâtisserie in Fairfield: You'll Feel Like You're in France (Vraiment)

                       

When you walk into Isabelle et Vincent, an authentic boulangerie/pâtisserie/confiserie/chocolaterie/Viennoiserie in Fairfield, Conn., you will feel transported to France. My mother and I went for an afternoon outing and enjoyed Croissant d'Amande and cappucinos in a niche off the bakery that truly felt like we were in our good friend's dining room in Argentan, a small town in Normandy.

On this Good Friday before Easter, Vincent Koenig, a seventh-generation pastry chef and chocolatier from Alsace, and his wife Isabelle were busy baking their buttery and exquisite signature specialties. Said Vincent as he created a gâteau with fresh fraises, "I love what I do and am proud of my work. I also love when someone goes out of my bakery with a smile."

Coming Up Short on Limes + Gefilte Fish

There are 24-hours in a day. If the days are getting longer, are the nights getting shorter? Which leads us to ... how will the lime shortage impact cocktail hour come June, July and August? Will revelers celebrating the end of another summer day go mad?

                                                        It's a topsy-turvy world ... especially without limes

In other breaking news, the after-effects of the polar vortex continue to haunt us. Read about it in these two riveting articles in the Arkansas Times:  "Velveeta Cheese: Polar Vortex a Factor?" and the New York Times: "Gefilte Fish Is Scarce This Passover. Taste Buds Are Ambivalent."

Fashion, Frozen Charlotte & the Weather

                                                                               Frozen Charlotte Dolls

      Don’t dress by the calendar. Dress by the weather.  (Ever heard the cautionary tale about Frozen Charlotte, the woman who froze to death while riding to a New Year’s Eve ball in 1840?) 

      Bad wardrobe choices may haunt you forever. In this case, centuries.

Cat on a Hot Red Leash

First Open Window Day

This is the very first day that we are opening a window to the beautiful outdoors.

Springtime in Wilton!  (Even though the daffodils aren't up yet and the trees are still dormant.) Glorious springtime!!

And bud? You can come out now. All is safe. Polar Vortex is 86.

Same window two months ago, after a blizzard

"Madame" Alexander Doll

Whoa ... what a boa!  There's nuthin' stuffy about this doll.

Walking the Cat on a Leash

Since we live near a busy road, where motorists floor it through the countryside, we decided we'd rather have our rescue-cat than a flat feline pancake. So we have opted for a Cat Leash.

Day #1: A casual promenade on the patio.  (Spring peepers in the background. Wait ... I think I heard something rustle in the preserve.  Bobcats have been back there lately.)

I know, I know ... the whole essence of Truman's lioness has now been de-mystified. But at least we've reined in the situation. In a boss red/cranberry bungee leash. Sharrrrp.

HUFFINGTON POST: "When a Couple Goes (Selectively) Hard of Hearing"

(Per inquiry, no!!  This isn't me! Love it.)

Say WHAT????!?!?  "When a Couple Goes (Selectively) Hard of Hearing" is about couples, marriage, listening ... or not.

For full story, click here.

Thanks so much for leaving comments at the end of the blog. Yep, all you have to do is sign up for a HuffPost account. 

What??

I SAID ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS SIGN UP FOR A HUFFPOST ACCOUNT and you can leave comments.

Oh.

__________________________________________
Update 4/9/14: My HuffPost Blog has been picked up by news services in Britain and Bangladesh. Obviously, couples experiencing (selective) hard of hearing is a universal situation.

My Favorite Word of the Weekend

Nap-dent.

Do you suffer from this?

My darling son is home for the weekend. I thought I'd take a little siesta while he was in the den catching up with his father.

Thirty-minutes later, I woke up and rejoined them in the den.

"Mom, what's wrong with your face?"

Nap-dent.

Flubber, Silly Putty ... and Mercury?

Springtime brings out the best in figuring out what to do with those long-awaited added hours of light. Like playing Chinese Jump Rope until the sun goes down. Slinging a Slinkee down the front steps. Chewing on Silly Putty. Making hilarious sounds of flatulation with a Whoopee Cushion on unsuspecting sitters.

I have to admit ... I LOVE this stuff. (And I'm an absolute fiend for Cat's Cradle. I dare you to beat me.)

Thought you'd enjoy this past post.  Click here for more on the joy of Flubber, Whee-Los, B'Loonies and hula hoops. It's that wonderful time of year to pull out all the tricks.

P.S.:  And remember the handheld game of rolling mercury around in the palm of your hand? It was like dancing in clouds of DNT when the "Mosquito Man" came.

Click here for sheer mercury madness. (Would you everrr do this now that we know that playing with mercury is detrimental to your health?  You might as well eat sushi 8-days a week to spread out the impact.)

What's your favorite spring fling?

Feathers + Ink

Three Chicks & a Quill, a writing group in Wilton ... launched!

Many thanks to fellow writers Carey Field and Lynn Stack.

BIZARRE REVERSAL OF THE POLAR VORTEX

In what appears to be a stunning reversal of the Polar Vortex, we awoke this morning to an 82-degree day that immediatley impacted the growth rate of flora in the northeast region.

Particularly amazed after a long winter that brought 21-degree nights just last week, one Wilton resident said, "It's absolutely nuclear what is happening. Not only is the pussy willow tree in bloom, but joining it are the peony bushes ... and those usually bloom in early-June."

Said another resident, "I started my tomato plants from seed in egg crates on the kitchen counter. Overnight, they have burst into full-grown tomatoes.  I'm even making sauce later today!"

And still another resident boasted about her over-night basil explosion. "I usually harvest my basil plants at the end of August. It's completely bizarre that they are ripe for picking as we speak. Guess who's making pesto later?" she jested.

While we all enjoy this unusual and sudden change in weather, it is a peculiar twist of fate that just as we are moth-balling our cashmere sweaters and giving a long-awaited adios to winter boots, scarves and mittens, today we are drenched in sweat from the high heat and and extreme humidity on this April 1.

The State of Connecticut has issued a thunderstorm warning and caution to turn off your air conditioners if you are out of the house for more than an hour.  Be sure your pets have water and most importantly, stay cool.