Yin and I lunch at Sato Asian Fusion Restaurant

My sister Donna came to visit and try out my new red couch. It passed the test.

She didn't like the Kandinsky-style pillows tho. I was surprised she knew about Kandinsky, known as the dad of modern abstract art.

Possibly she has a Kandinsky style pocketbook? Gee, I just love his art. Childlike, like the portulacas I see in my garden.

My friend Yin commented on my garden when she visited me today. We met seven years ago when she ran Le Coffee Salon in Hatboro, PA. She served the most scrumptious snacks there: steamed dumplings, dipped in sauce - bubble drinks with floating geletin balls and huge straws to suck em up - hot chocolate.

I also met her artist husband Patrick Otis Cox, whose paintings grace my living room wall.

Yin had absolutely no free time then. After she closed her shop, she visited her family in China.

Now she's a fulltime student at Temple University studying international business communication. Very smart woman!

 Here's Yin calling her husband to say she finally found my house. Don't feel bad, I said, I have no sense of direction either.   

We tried out a new restaurant in the Pepperidge Farm FLOODZONE Shopping Center on York Road, which I noticed while driving by.

Sato is run by husband Rio and wife Linda from Indonesia, their first restaurant.

I gobbled up my chicken stir-fry et al.

Here's Rio and another worker. There are three people at work today.

Here's Linda, our gracious server.

And Rio, who said the pizza shop which was there was recently flooded and that's why it went outa biz. No flood insurance.

Here's Yin talking to former patrons of her coffeeshop. I remember young Brandon who's a talented gee-tar player.

Brandon, I said, keep playing the guitar no matter how old you get. I used to be a talented pianist but haven't touched a piano in over 80 years. I'm the composer of such international hits as "Hey ho the Witch is Dead, she woke up in the morning and fell on her head" and "One Rhinoceros Marching Through the Forest." 

We used to hold our Coffeeshop Gigs there. Immense fun! Proudly presenting..... The older gentleman in the photo, who drives a huge black Lincoln SUV, remembered LINDA BARRETT and her poetry.

"She was totally focused," he said. "She didn't talk to anyone but was totally focused on her poetry."

I told the two of them our writers' group now meets at the Willow Grove Giant Supermarket. I actually drove Yin over there b/c she's never seen OUR GIANT.

She and Pat, an engineer and golfer, live in Montgomeryville. Here's his environmental business.

After our meal, Yin and I went on a long and dangerous walk down South Warminster Road which lacked sidewalks. Cars came whizzing by. The fellow in the above photograf was in an auto accident and needed brain surgery.

We were very careful but fast cars were whizzing by. All they needed to do was get distracted by two women walking along South Warminster and - boom! -

The above stone house tried to become a bed n breakfast but neighbors vetoed it. Must've been a lotta Republicans.

The kids and I lived at Village Green Apartments.

Little Dan and I would go under the RR bridge - above - and listen to the train hurtle across the tracks while we were underneath. We had so many great adventures while we lived there.

We're on Mill Road in Hatboro, one of the most beautiful streets ever. Look at this unusual house with its French doors. A psychologist lives here, he once had his shingle hanging outside, but no longer. Russell something.

Here's the famous NORMAN FISHER house, designed by Louis Kahn. The house seemed empty. Fisher was a family doctor in Hatboro who commissioned the house for $50,000.  ND took a tour of it many years ago. We wrote about it in one of our Compass mags.

What happened to Fisher's wife Doris? I remember their phone number ended in 1214. Probly 672-1214.

I was shocked and saddened that the house is up for sale. Call 243 3600.

Architect Kahn designed artifacts for the house, possibly even this picnic table on the patio.

Small windows, said Yin.

Yes, I said, but you should see the back of the house. MASSIVE WINDOWS with a view of Pennypack Creek and the woods beyond.

One winter, when the crick froze over, Dan and I walked from our apartment along the frozen crick. I was astonished at the beauty of the Fisher House and its huge windows.

One time when I was interviewing the late artist Robinson Fredenthal for Art Matters he showed me some of his fave houses.

OMG, I said. It's in my neighborhood!

One more unique house made of stone on Mill Road.

Walking is certainly the best way to experience our beautiful world. Except of course if you live in Damascus, Syria. It's a shame they have to kill so many people to get Assad out of power, but the man is totally unresponsive of the will his people.

Here's a post I wrote about motoring along Mill Road.

Tracey, a pleasure talking to you earlier today. Mazel tov on your recent successes. You'll do great tomro.