The Nature of America stamp series from the USPS comprises 12 distinct ecosystems. The scenes are illustrated by John D. Dawson. My all-time favorite is/was the Northeastern Deciduous Forest panel. No surprise there. Sadly, these are not really available any longer. I saw a few for sale on amazon and ebay, but that’s it. I was about to finally throw out these empty panes, until I realized how much I liked them, even without their stamps.

Last week, when it was raining and I had a small window of time on my hands before meeting a friend, I paid a visit to wrk’s new shop on Prince St. There are a lot of designers/retailers who aspire to curate the old in a compelling manner. These folks happen to do it very very well. Anyway, I mostly wandered around, with no thoughts whatsoever of spending money. I am actually trying to divest myself of things. But I saw this spool peeking out from under a shelf and, well, you know… Now that I have photographed it, who wants it?

That a baby porcupine is called a porcupette? As words go, that one is pretty great. Photo by the lovely, animal-obsessed Sharon Montrose.

I love this town! Walking in the east village yesterday, I wandered into an Indian dry goods shop called Dual Specialty Store. I’ve been in there any number of times before, but clearly never ventured much beyond the register or the wall of beer which, I must say, is impressive. On the back wall of the store are endless bags of spices. The midsection of the shop is taken up with every possible condiment and rice and grain you could ever hope to find. Turns out, “DSS” supplies a lot of Indian restaurants, not just in NYC, but all over the country. I am a longtime fan of Kalustyan’s. And Patel Brothers out in Jackson Heights should not be missed. But definitely add this place to your list of spice meccas.

I feel more than fortunate to be able to spend time in both country and city. The contrast between rural and urban gives rise to an appreciation of place that I am not sure I would possess otherwise. I was looking at my photos from the summer and was so struck by the visual world I have just left behind. My husband took that first photograph of the young buck. The deer was fearless and refused to abandon his patch of ground full of fallen apples. That last photo was taken on Grand Street in lower Manhattan. A different sort of beauty.