i've never before seen so many gardening ladies ("of a certain age") as i did today - possibly i don't walk around this neighbourhood enough, or not usually at four in the afternoon. straw-hatted they were, and armed with purposeful shears and baskets - though none of them were gardening in ferragamos like katharine white. the flowers, ravishing and unruly, were spilling over the fences and ivy was cascading from the top of buildings. i like the insistent extravagance of it all, and i suddenly wondered what the courtyard at the isabella stewart gardner museum looks like right now. i think i would be a happier woman if i knew the names of flowers. perhaps next year von will give me a copy of a guide to north american flowering plants and wild flowers? she hints (but broadly) sitting back.