Fond of these photos...

Christmas 2007. I read "Beautiful Madness" by James Dodson in mid-October. In order to illustrate the human dramas that will unfold at the famous Philadelphia Flower show, he tracks down several of the participants. One of them was forcing hundreds of bulbs under artificial light (of course--what else) in his basement. Like a pot grower. Exact conditions of light and heat and water. Oh my gosh. It was humbling to purchase this breath-taking amaryllis and have it bloom and bloom and bloom. I say humbling, because I have no sense of who grew it or where. And I am confident that it represented an impressive quantity of expertise and genetic ingenuity. I merely came along and reaped the benefits--watching this regal being unfold.

Fall 2007. Taken last November (which seems like a million years ago). I know it's not technically a great photo, but the colors are lovely and it reminds me of Gloria's garden--all the times we sat and drank big glasses of iced water, laughing and sweaty.

Gloria took this photo in her garden June 15, 2006. What a face. He or she was arguably the biggest thing she grew that year... unless that was the summer of the amazing rainfall that spawned her six foot tall forest of pigweed.

June 9, 2006. We were cooking and all of a sudden I turned around and she was arranging produce on the counter. Mr. Potato Head got nothin' on Gloria Manzanares.