Washington DC | Enjoying A Glorious Cherry Blossom Festival

Washington’s 2009 97th Cherry Blossom Festival is winding down this weekend. And it has been celebrated by creatures large and small.

Let’s start with a small picture of Washington D.C.’s cherry blossom experience. National Geographic shares an “early bird gets the opening preview glimpse” of cherry blossom beauty.

Via National Geographic: A prothonotary warbler adds a splash of gold to a tableau of cherry blossoms along the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. The famed cherry trees were given to the U.S. capital city by Japan in 1912. More than 3,000 trees—and 12 different varieties—made the oversea journey from Yokohama to the District of Columbia.

I’ve put the Cherry Blossom Festival photos in Dolce Vita, not nature, because I believe that cherry blossoms have a subtle, but deeply sensual connection for women. They are an exquisite gift to our senses, an abundant rebirth of natural beauty.

2009 DC Cherry Blossom photos from raraujo at FlickrMore than a million visitors will enjoy viewing the 3700 cherry trees together, making it a large celebration and ritual of spring in Washington’s Tidal Basin. A visitor to Washington D.C. this past week enjoyed the parade last Saturday, followed by the first-ever Sushi Masters competition on the East Coast.

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Tartelette . . . Totally Scrumptious, Even When Innocent

Someone wrote to me recently “when I discover the right woman, I will know it immediately.” (Yes, yes. I am a contender for the right woman.”

NYT: Le Tour du ChocolatThis is how I feel about finding the right blog or website. For the last hours, I’ve scoured the Internet, inspired by today’s NYT article Le Tour du Chocolat. Initially I was lost in chocolat land, but somehow I ended up on Macarons or macaroons, whatever your pleasure.

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The NieNie Dialogues: New Connections in a Digital World

Updated on Wed, October 7, 2009 by Anne

Note from Anne 12-18-09.  The Internet continues to bring Stephanie Nielson into my life. Whenever she’s on Oprah or other TV show, she’s rockets to the top of my ratings. Well done, Stephanie.

In this original post, followed by an update from last Jan. 2009 and an Oprah moment last Sept, I write about total strangers who become part of our lives. This is my psychological relationship with Stephanie Nielson. Merry Christmas, Stephanie.

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Tragedy in Phoenix

My good fortune of life on the Internet isn’t shared by the followers of Stephanie Nielson’s blog, the NieNieDialogues. Tragedy as struck a group of bloggers and a wonderful woman at the center of a fiery airplane crash.

According to the NY Times:

“The site, a diary of home life that she started in 2005 for close friends and family, had attracted a small but ardent following, thanks to its upbeat dispatches about marriage, home décor, entertaining and the art of raising four children ages 6 and younger. To her admirers, she was Supermom.”

Tragically, Stephanie Nielson suffered catastrophic burn  injuries in a private plane crash, and people around the world feel her loss. They have gathered in a cyber handholding circle, to support her healing and recovery.

Mixed Signals

It is true that much of our daily human contact is in decline. The beauty of the Carversville General Store is that people stop in and share a bit of themselves each day.

This intimate, human hello is vanishing from our lives.  In Europe, people continue to greet each other in the elevators, but NYC is in its own world most mornings. Headphones on, fingers on digital communication devices, we don’t acknowledge each other at all.

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