Quote of the Day (John Updike, on How ‘Every Day and Season Has Its Beauty and Its Uses’)

“Also like my late Unitarian father-in-law am I now in my amazed, insistent appreciation of the physical world, of this planet with its scenery and weather—that pathetic discovery which the old make that every day and season has its beauty and its uses, that even a walk to the mailbox is a precious experience, that all species of tree and weed have their signature and style and the day is a pageant of clouds.” — American man of letters John Updike (1932-2009), Self-Consciousness: Memoirs (1989)

I took this photo eight years ago yesterday, looking across the Hudson from Fort Tryon Park in New York.

Photo of the Day: Washington Heights Citadel

I’m speaking, of course, of The Cloisters, a strange and beautiful exotic flower of art, architectural and the faith that inspired it from the Old World, (trans)planted to the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. I visited there a few weeks ago. It wasn’t the first time I was there, but it never fails to delight the eye and lift the soul.

Photo of the Day: Arch of Wonders

The arch in this shot leads into a garden at The Cloisters, a branch of The Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. I visited this landmark in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Fort Tryon Park one Sunday a month ago.

Photo of the Day: City From the Treetops

I took this photo two weeks ago from behind The Cloisters, looking north from Fort Tryon Park in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York.

Photo of the Day: Pretty Peony

I snapped this shot this past Sunday while up at The Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park in New York City. In another few weeks, the garden outside this branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, devoted to the art and architecture of the Middle Ages, is going to look amazing…