The End of an Era

November 21, 2016 (326/366)

In In Search of Lost Time (A la recherche du temps perdu), the first volume of his opus Swann's Way, the French writer Marcel Proust described a universe invoked by a simple cup of tea. How many little universes have been savored since Milwaukee's iconic George Watts Tea Shop opened in 1870, the year before Proust's birth? I imagine Victorian ladies in fancy hats and buttoned gloves sipping from china cups; 1950s secretaries in sweaters and pearls nibbling on sandwiches of chicken salad or olive spread during their lunch breaks; young girls enjoying a slice of Sunshine cake with their mothers and grandmothers after shopping trips downtown; hopeful brides indulging in glasses of Champagne after browsing for flatware and crystal in the beautiful shop below the tea room. My mom was one of those secretaries. I was one of those little girls and one of those brides. So it is with sadness that I read that, after 146 as a Milwaukee institution, George Watts and Sons is closing just after Christmas. I will have to savor every cup of the Watts special tea blend that I bought last summer, and, like Proust, revel in the memories that each sip invokes.

Snowy Nose

November 19, 2016 (324/366)

"The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?" - J. B. Priestley

This little girl was so excited this morning -- she loves snow!

On the surface

November 18, 2016 (323/366)

"Surfaces reveal so much. The marks painters make reveal their sense of proportion, line, and rhythm...Looking at the surfaces of nature may offer equivalent revelations. What do these shapes and patterns reveal about the world and their creator?" - John Paul Caponigro