The table

[Marie]

The terrace, these days.

Here, waiting to be transported to Alice Austen House, the intimate museum, gallery and home on Staten Island of photographer Alice Austen (1866 - 1952), where I am now no longer volunteering but working (hey - I was working when I was volunteering) are a clutch of tall thimbleweed (Anemone virginiana - whose delicate white flowers on tall stems evolve into touchable green seedheads), and Penstemon digitalis 'Husker Red'.

The plants are from the Gowanus Lowlands Nursery, and are part of my long-term project to introduce more native and native-ish plants to Alice's garden and park facing The Narrows, that skinny and very busy bit of water leading to and from the Upper Bay of New York Habor and whose shipping traffic passes almost within reach of anyone standing on the shore.

The drink is a gin and tonic tinted with a fermented strawberry-bee balm syrup made in spring. The glass a gift from my sister-in-law Brigitte, to remember our holiday together in Maine, many months ago.

There you have it. Summary on a table.