I happen to like that photo a lot. It reminds me of a time when our porch was fully grown, in August of last year. We had some trouble with some of our neighbors next door and in our North of Howard neighborhood and the worse the trouble got, the more often we drove to the nursery. And of course if you are a plant lover, a trip to the nursery guarantees a purchase, whether you actually need plants or not. Plant lovers know what I'm talking about.

But for me, a trip to the secret nursery where I go, ( sorry, not just yet ), also guarantees a drive with the windows down, a reason to escape the neighborhood and the anticipation of walking into the many inter- connected greenhouses and catching that first glimpse of what seems like acres of vibrant colors. I would grab a cart and of course it would be filled before I reached the second aisle.

There is a also the casual sharing of tips and information among the other like minded people who are there to fill up their carts. I like plant people. They are helpful, good natured and happily obsessed. Many of us use planting as an escape, an inexpensive therapy. In fact, we therapied so much last year, that we created a plant wall on all three sides of our porch. We couldn't be seen and we could barely see out. We didn't intend to do this but we found ourselves needing to.

In our little part of town, there is constant activity and noise. Unfortunately, very little of it is the variety we wanted to freely let into our conciousness. So we built a plant room to keep some semblance of our privacy and sanity. It's wasn't easy living North of Howard last year and if what I've seen, read about and experienced personally is any scientific indication, it will not be any easier this year.

North of Howard is a neighborhood in the midst of a substantial makeover and this is not the one hour, feel good, tear in your eye, and turn the channel and on to the next dumb show variety. NOH is the ultimate, in your face reality show and the juxtposition of images in this evolving neighborhood, is more than a little disquieting.

There are signs of change almost everwhere North of Howard.


















































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