ANNA'S CURIO CABINET

Jaunty marigolds to welcome the official start of summer Credit A O'Brien On the eve of the longest day of the year, the weather is beautiful here in central Maryland: azure sky with puffy clouds, low humidity, slight breeze, hummingbirds at the feeder, iced coffee on the deck. All systems go. Here's a mini listicle celebrating maximum summer. Fave bigness: big skies, big climbs. It's been all about the elevation gain lately, climbing mountains with the pony and the bike all

A shiny Penny in the morning light, perfectly illuminating her whiskers :) Credit: A O'Brien Fave time of year: this. Now. All of it. The edge of summer. The full season laying open before us. The hope! The promise! The exhaustion by August! BRING IT ON. Dramatic, no? Credit: A O'Brien Fave locals: the wild ponies of Assateague Island. Camped on the beach a few weeks ago, lucky enough to have perfect weather. Five year weather, we call it, since we seem to only really get goo

Sunset in Terlingua, TX Credit: A O'Brien Just came back from a quick trip to west Texas to visit Big Bend National Park and it's been on my mind ever since. Fave desert views: those wide open spaces, man. My eyes thirst for that. Big Bend is in one of the four deserts in the US: the Chihuahuan Desert , which is the largest desert in North America. Big Bend in all her glory Credit A O'Brien 2. Fave plants: prickly pear . I love love love love prickly pear cactus. There are o

I grew up in the Midwest so I'm an old hat at tornado warnings and hail and thirty degree swings in temperature in a single day; you know, the general chaos that can come with early spring in the northern hemisphere. This year, March did not disappoint. We saw a few 80 degree days (hello, earliest kayaking of year) followed by snow flurries and storms. I've decided to embrace the weather chaos this year because what else are you going to do? You know what they say: if you don