The bamboo sculpture (meant to hint at the skyline of the nearby Rocky Mountains?) from another angle. Photo by my daughter, Cornelia, who is marrying in three weeks.

Denver Botanic Gardens is a lively place in a lively city. My daughter had a picnic there recently and sent a photo of a roaming sculpture made of timber bamboo split into splints and curved like torrents and eddies. It reminded me a lot of a bamboo workshop I visited in Kyoto years ago. The bamboo master, Mr. Nagawa, made timber... ...see more

My sister-in-law, Annie, lives in Virginia Beach, where the soil is sandy and the seashore climate must resemble parts of Morocco and Mexico, judging by the giant agaves that grow on Annie's street. The plants bloomed recently. Here are some photos. The corks save passers-by from spearing themselves on the leaf tips.