staying at a house built in 1684 in plymouth’s historic center. it’s filled with antiques and its verdant backyard leans gently into the brook that powers the jenney grist mill. long walk downtown and dinner at su casa for some baja cuisine.
took the old king’s highway (which used to be a native american trail) from barnstable to sandwich (at 381 years, the oldest town in cape cod). walked around its historic district all the way to dexter grist mill (1637) which can still grind corn. the town is full of flowers.
cape cod salt water taffy, sunset at parker river beach in yarmouth, and then dinner at the waterfront restaurant (lighthouse inn).
swan pond boardwalk (a bog or wetland that has accumulated peat, a deposit of dead plant material/mosses), downtown hyannis, and sunset on seaview beach.
stunning views from the bass hole boardwalk, yarmouth port, massachusetts. the vivid greens and their mischievous interplay with sand and water remind me of iceland. a gorgeous sunny day too.
very early morning in yarmouth, massachusetts. walked along two beaches: seaview beach and parker river beach. both just a few minutes walk from where we are staying. the atlantic ocean is beautiful.
with my brother’s and sister’s families in new jersey, for my brother’s birthday. a lovely get together mashallah. love u all!
breakfast with lovely friends before heading back to long island – until next time rochester <3
beautiful wedding reception at casa larga vineyards with these beautiful friends <3
the last few days have been heavy – confronting life’s fragile, ephemeral nature can be unsettling. but rochester makes my heart sing. too many people i love here <3
visiting family in holly springs, north carolina
a quick trip to the village of abiquiu to see santo tomás el apóstol church, and then off to abiquiu lake. reptile fossils dating back 200 million years have been found here. i kept looking, but no luck:) the water is a gorgeous blue-green color and the entire area is layered with colorful rock formations – dark reds, oranges, pinks and browns. my phone couldn’t do justice to the landscape. needed a wide-angle lens. too much beauty to behold.
not far from dar al islam is plaza blanca: ‘Made famous by local artist Georgia O’Keeffe who made a series of paintings called “The White Place,” these landscapes are located in a valley of the Rio Chama hills, near the village of Abiquiu. This area of New Mexico is now on the grounds of the Dar Al Islam education center and mosque. Although private land the center welcomes visitors. Plaza Blanca is part of the Abiquiu Formation, which consists of re-deposited volcanic ash and other sedimentary rocks that are about 20 million years old.’ — a resplendent temple as sacred as any place of worship, right next to a mosque.
today we walked to the french pastry shop and creperie to pick up some tarte aux fruits and eclairs and had breakfast outdoors, in the santa fe plaza. then off to abiquiu. first stop: dar al islam. it’s ‘a Muslim village begun in 1977 by American and European converts who wanted to live amid the Native American pueblos in northern New Mexico. The village, which was constructed in Abiquiu, New Mexico, boasts an adobe mosque as its centerpiece. Completed in 1981 and situated on 1,600 acres, the mosque and adjoining madrassah include vaulted ceilings, domes, archways, gardens, courtyards, and a library. The Dar al Islam community of several dedicated families consists of educators, artists, poets, and writers who want to “build bridges between Muslims and the wider North American community by communicating the deep spirituality and beauty of the Islamic tradition by living it.”’
i’ve never understood the difference between folk art and ‘art.’ after all, expressions of cultural heritage, folklore and tradition also come into play in the creation of ‘high art’ (it’s not suspended in some kind of vacuum). the distinctions between artifact, craft, ornament and art are so many borders and hierarchies that we shouldn’t respect. at the museum of international folk art, i saw such beautiful objects from all across the world. their permanent collection is impressively lavish. they also had a special exhibit called ‘sewing stories of displacement’ – it tells stories of ‘forced migrations, new transitions, and memories’ through embroidery and weaving. the people looked familiar in one of them. i read ‘railway station’ written in urdu across the top. it’s about displacement – ‘the forced migration of kahuta residents (in pakistan) after the area became a site for the national atomic bomb project in 1976,’ something i had never heard of before. the power of art.
