SECOND SPRING
In May, we typically spend the month in Manhattan. It’s a round robin of visits to great art museums, dining at favorite restaurants, sampling new eateries, people watching in the parks, discovering new titles from beloved bookstores, and spending lots of time with our delightful granddaughters—without being a drag on their busy schedules.
We have always enjoyed seeing tulips in bloom in Central Park, in the Jefferson Market Garden, and along Park Avenue. This year, we reveled in early spring in North Carolina—delicate redbud trees, daffodils, yellow snapdragons, and then the azaleas bursting out. We arrived here mid-week past the peak of the tulips, but there are still enough hanging on to attract our attention: robustly red ones, rosy pink blooms, and in Central Park, dark purple tulips verging on black against a backdrop of white azalea petals.
We’ve been here about three days and haven’t yet done much except walk, dine, and enjoy our granddaughters. Our new life in North Carolina is filled with so much activity that I believe we are in recovery mode, a winddown from our recent move and all the energy that required. Soon we will get back to touring the exhibits at the MoMA, the Met, and the Whitney. In the meantime, there are even “flowers” on 5th Avenue–thank you, Van Cleef & Arpels!
FUN HISTORICAL MYSTERY
The Lace Widow by Mollie Ann Cox
Eliza Hamilton, wife and then widow of Alexander Hamilton, was a formidable woman. Strong, smart, resilient, and determined to make a difference in the world, she outlived Alexander by 50 years.
In The Lace Widow, author Cox turns Eliza, or Mrs. General Hamilton as she is politely addressed, into a detective. It is a fact that Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel. And it is true that some of Hamilton’s political enemies falsely accused him of misusing U.S. Treasury funds. After Hamilton’s untimely and unseemly death, Eliza desperately seeks to see Burr punished, but he has disappeared. She is also motivated to continue to protect Hamilton’s reputation and that of herself and her children.
When several of Hamilton’s close friends also die in suspicious circumstances, and her oldest son is fingered as a suspect, she begins her search for the culprits. In the process, secret societies and strange alliances are uncovered midst several false leads.
While the events here depicted after Hamilton’s death, including the several murders, are fiction, Cox crafts a good story and highlights the role of lace in a woman’s wardrobe and the skill and nimble hands required to make it. A fast read that believably combines fact and fiction!
I foresee a future Eliza Hamilton mystery. In the meantime, for an absorbing take on Eliza’s multi-faceted life, read My Dear Hamilton: A Novel of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie.
NORTH CAROLINA DINING
This entry is for my new cadre of local readers.
Peck & Plume (The Mayton)
The Mayton, Cary’s boutique inn a few doors from the downtown park, houses not only attractive rooms for overnight guests, but a welcoming and tasty restaurant. Peck & Plume is open for all three meals, and besides its inside dining room, boasts a lovely terrace. With fans and heaters, the terrace is comfortable most any time of year.
The Chief Penguin and I enjoyed lunch there recently. He had the sashimi tuna preparation along with a small Caesar salad. I took advantage of the soup sip (a demitasse cup of the daily soup for $2) and tucked into a Caesar salad with salmon. The salad greens were fresh and crisp, and the salmon was perfectly done.
We also sampled the specialty cocktails. I liked the sound of the lavender mule with ginger and lemon but found it overly perfumed. Service here can be a bit slow, but if you have the time, the food is worth the more leisurely pace!
Note: All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)
