I will arise and go now

Enchanted at Innisfree Garden, a true idyll

This modernist-romantic-Chinese-Japanese garden is truly alive!

Release

Stayed indoors yesterday as the harzardous levels of AQI slowly subsided. 

By this morning, it was safe to go out, savoring the crisp air and the shapely clouds in the blue sky. 

But of course the fires in Canada haven't gone out, and it's still early in the fire season...

Perfect storm

Oh, my. Yesterday was really really bad! The article has a cool time-lapse map. Still, it was brief, and it seems to be blowing over.

Smoke gets in your eyes

Smoke from distant fires has found us again, this time from Quebec.

Somewhere in NYC we apparently breached dangerous AQI 400 today, this in a city whose record before yesterday's 174 was 167 (in 2002).

AQI maps are colorful; from within it justs looks yellowish brown.

Top dramatic image from the iPhone's Weather app at 5pm (my no longer go-to AccuWeather was unerreporting AQIs by a factor of two!); bottom from AirNow.gov at 8pm. Our nearest sensor was unaccountably disabled all afternoon. NY's not used to this!

Sooty

The sky a browning yellow, New York smelled like burning today as smoke from brush fires in Canada blew in. (Image)

Coast to coast

Home on a swanky new plane with amenities like a twirlable globe.

Showy

Beach wedding

The other reason I was in San Diego: congrats, Derek + Markie!

Sand gradients

Familiar sands getting into unfamiliar patterns on Coronado Beach.

Beach life

Always something happening on the beach...

Gleanings

Last year's wild cucumber, an unusually intricate worm shell cluster

90!

We threw a surprise party today - my mother's just turned ninety! These are some of the folks from near and far who sent pictures to fête her (assembled by my newspaper editor sister) and another sixteen came in person to share Black Forest cake, coffee, California bubbles, abundant flowers and plans to do it all again in ten years.

Extension magic

Crest Canyon

Everything's super-sized in response to the spring rains 

Unruly throngs of lanceleafed dudleyas suggest we'll outdo 2010.

Exuberant