1 My friend, Sean Puffy Combs 'Diddy'

2 Diddy's jacket was amazing.

3 The man of the hour

4 Sean Puffy Combs's son, Justin

5 Diddy's younger son, Christian

6 Here I am being greeted by the press line.

7 The hand of each attendee was marked with a black light-sensitive stamp.

8 Ballet students from the Dance Division of The Julliard School were poised throughout the party.

9 Oh - to have a ballerina's body

10 Sarah Goldman, daughter of Amy Goldman - garden author - was my guest for the evening.

11 Holla at me!

12 I was happy to meet Rapper Nelly.

13 Designer Zac Posen, his mother, Susan, and me

14 Here I am with the Reverend Al Sharpton.

15 Comparing shoes with a guest

16 Here I am with Paul Schindler - entertainment lawyer - and his wife, Jane.

17 The plaza was decorated exquisitely - here with real ferns. The security was great.

18 The floral decorations were extraordinary!

19 Clusters of berries mixed in with the arrangements

20 Here I am with Bronson Van Wyck - event planner for this party.

21 Real apples hung from the branches.

22 Cocktails were served in this greenery-filled 'holding pen.'

23 Well-dressed bartenders - Ciroc vodka was a sponsor for the evening.

24 Another sponsor

25 Here I am with entrepreneur, Russell Simmons.

26 Candles and cattleya orchids decorated the room.

27 Here I am with Anthony Anderson - actor - who was a guest on my television show. We made beautiful stone planters together. I'm eating a delicious grape popsicle.

28 Posing with another guest who.......

29 who proudly showed me his bling.

30 Posing with a guest

31 Everyone was texting and taking pictures.

32 Body guards were everywhere.

33 Orchids mixed into the greenery

34 A body guard

35 Chocolate sticks dipped in dragée were a big hit.

36 Tim and Helen Schiffter of LeSportsac

37 Voluptuous lady guests

38 This table was reserved for Diddy.

39 The crystal chandelier is the actual one in the plaza. All the others were brought in for the party.

40 Large black orbs

41 The DJ and emcee announced guests as they arrived.

42 Getting friendly with a horse lamp

43 More ladies

44 And more ladies

45 Incredible flower arrangements

46 Another view

47 Gorgeous hydrangea

48 Great shot of Diddy entering the party

49 Another guest

50 This looks like ice sculpture, however it's glass!

51 Love this jacket

52 The ballroom was furnished with giant black velvet couches.

53 The scene

54 The ceiling

55 Posing with the body guards

56 More guests

57 A very tall guest

58 Another shot of the ceiling

59 Fashion designer RIchie Rich on the left

60 Part of the decor

61 Andre Balázs (left) - New York City hotelier - with a friend

62 Dar Coaxum "The Prince of Harlem", Designer who had an amazing bow tie - www.bellaartistry.com

63 Closeup of Dards riding boots

64 Diddy's intern from Columbia University

65 My friend, Harvey Weinstein

66 Striking a pose

67 Guests leaving (Ed Burns & Christy Turlington) - Bono is at the front of the line, but I didn't get his photo.

68 Sassy

1 At the Gala Benefit - a good photo of me and Carlos - Curator in Charge, Department of Greek and Roman Art Metropolitan Museum of Art

2 A 1996 photo taken of me and Carlos during a cruise around Greece. Carlos was a fabulous tour guide.

3 Before the festivities began - the sound check and pre-dinner preparations

4 This is in the ornate Trianon Ballroom at The New York Hilton

5 There was very lively dancing by Bomba Y Plena Extravaganza.

6 Whirling around the ballroom

7 Vibrant swirls of color

8 Frankie Negron - International Recording Artist - performed two National Anthems - The Star Spangled Banner and La Borinqueña

9 A dinner entree - New York strip steak, spinach and wild mushrooms, gruyere potato au gratin

10 Laura Posada - wife of baseball legend, Jorge Posada - Co-Founder & President of Jorge Posada Foundation

11 Here I am with Jesus Omar Rivera - aka El Boricuazo - historian and author - 2009 Spokesperson

12 With my good friend Kathy Sloane

13 An adoring fan who wanted her picture taken with me

14 A friend of Frankie Negron, who performed that evening

15 Here I am with Carlos Picon and Benefit Committee members - Lourdes Torres, Suleika Cabrera Driane, and Teresa A. Santiago

16 Choco Orta - salsa diva and awards presenter

17 The Master of Ceremonies - Jorge Ramos - Anchorman, NBC/Telemundo

18 Teresa A. Santiago - Chairperson

19 Presenter - The Honorable Sallie Manzanet-Daniels - Associate Justice of the Appellate Division First Department

1 Here I am with my good friend, Phillis Warden - Acorn Award Reception Co-Chair.

2 At the door, there was a sign-in table with information regarding The Native Plant Center.

3 The entrance into the party was decorated nicely with some of Phillis's potted plants.

4 Little Foxy Warden - forever hopeful for a morsel to drop

5 One of the beautiful and cozy rooms in Nine Gables

6 Pianist Marilyn Brandt provided lovely music for the evening.

7 The silent auction table - wonderful offerings

8 I donated VIP tickets to my show, autographed cookbooks, and a cupcake kit.

9 Assorted pizzas - all delicious!

10 An offer of a burrito stuffed with sweet potatoes - really good!

11 Quesadilla

12 Colorful vegetarian spring rolls

13 NPC Steering Committee and Benefit Committee members - Cynthia Brennan and Denise Santomero

14 I enjoy visiting the kitchen - it reminds me of my own catering days.

15 Warming a quesadilla

16 Here I am with this years Acorn Award Recipient, Gregory Long - President and CEO of the New York Botanical Garden.

17 Ron Gushue - architect of Nine Gables, me, and my friend Laura Blau - another Co-Chair of the Acorn Award Reception

18 Michael Citro (Laura Blau's husband) and me

19 A view from above

20 Peter McQuillan, Adam Rose - Board member of NYBG, me, Darrin Duling - Director of Native Plant Center, and Stephen Cirona

21 My neighbor, Tink Callahan and me

22 Grace Marie Dell' Angelo, Phillis, Dr. Robert Dell' Angelo, and me

23 Laura, Todd Forrest - VP of Horticulture at NYBG, and his wife Alison

24 Lena Crandall and Robert DelTorto - NPC Steering Committee member

25 Leslie Henshaw - NPC Steering Committee member, Laurie Sturz, and Ingrid Connolly

26 Cindy Mooney and Susan Cohen

27 Allison and Laura

28 Here I am leaving, trying to persuade Rascal Warden to go back inside.

1 After the book signing, we headed for downtown Philadelphia in search of a lunch spot.

2 The restaurant, Pod, seemed like the perfect choice to enjoy a relaxed lunch. It was in close proximity to the Wharton School so we would not be rushed.

3 The interior of Pod was nothing less than futuristic, created by Stephen Starr, Philadelphia's leading trendsetting restaurateur. This is one of several small eating pods for more intimate dining.

4 The interior is sleek and white and has bold, bright colorful lighting,

5 This bar features a translucent amber resin bar top, lit from beneath with white neon.

6 This area is the red lounge - a sofa-like foam sculpture.

7 This is the busy sushi prep area.

8 This oval-shaped sushi bar has a conveyor belt that delivers the freshly prepared sushi. Above the sushi bar, a large, screen shows non-stop video clips.

9 One sushi roll on its way!

10 These bright panels are actually a sliding door.

11 The pods looked like a fun place to eat, so that is where we dined.

12 The interior lighting can be changed according to the diners' mood - we were happy with this pale green - Mary, Susan, Ellen, Dee, Will, and me.

13 In Japan, it is customary to use chopstick rests. We decided to create our own. This is my knot design.

14 Will's was shaped like a ramp.

15 Eliad, our photographer for the day, came up with this design, which he named the 'dragon tongue.'

16 Mary wanted to keep the wrapping logo in tact.

17 Food is served family style - we had lettuce wraps with delicious tofu and chicken filling.

18 Yummy chicken potstickers

19 Lots of sushi - California roll, eel, spicy tuna, and yellowtail

20 Bowls of spicy condiments

21 After lunch, I visited the ladies' room.

22 The lit up symbol for not occupied

23 Pink for taken

24 And then, a quick touch up before leaving for the Wharton School.

25 At Wharton, I was greeted by Erin Armendinger and Keith Niedermeier, Ph.D.

26 The podium all set up for my lecture, while students poured in

27 This gentleman's name is Chad and he was so upset that he had lost his camera, so I will try to email him this photo.

28 The presentation begins

29 I love speaking to a young and ambitious crowd.

30 Here I am, once again, in action.

31 As I was speaking, many students were taking notes on their laptops. Things are so much easier than when I was a student attending lectures.

32 When I finished speaking, there were many excellent questions asked.

33 Leaving the downtown area of Philadelphia for the airport, the landscape becomes very industrial.

34 Many industrial plants along the way

35 The afternoon light on the tarmac was incredibly gorgeous.

36 Finally aboard the plane, but no slowing down - we used our remaining time together to review my schedule for upcoming events.

37 The setting sun marks the end of daylight, but not the end of my work day.

1 My mother, Big Martha, on her 93rd birthday

2 The art of bonsai is all about longevity and I decided to make it the symbol of the Center for Living.

3 Here is our logo.

4 At last years gala the center pieces were all bonsai trees donated by Shanti Bithi nursery in Stamford, Connecticut.

5 Here I am giving last years address.

6 There was a very good turnout - here I am with Chevy Chase!

1 This is my film crew setting up for the shoot.

2 Mary Curran - my hair and makeup artist and Clair Magruder - my wardrobe stylist visiting with Sharkey

3 Delicious prosciutto, arugula, and fresh ricotta open-faced sandwiches at Salvatore Ricotta Bklyn www.salvatorebklyn.com

4 Betsy and Rachel, the founders of Salvatore Ricotta - they named their business after a man called Salvatore, whose ricotta they fell in love with in Italy. That's Gary behind the lens.

5 Scrumptious cannoli from Salvatore Ricotta

6 Bob and Joe McClure of McClure's Pickles www.mcclurespickles.com have carried down their great-grandmother Lala's classic pickle recipe. They make their pickles in Brooklyn and Detroit. We loved the spicy dill pickles!

7 Here I am with John Cutti, his wife Sarah, and their adorable son Eli.

8 Francesca was captivated by the people strolling on the Brooklyn Bridge walkway overhead.

9 Francesca's point of view of the bridge above

10 Raw, fair trade Ecuadorian cacoa from FINE & RAW Chocolate www.fineandraw.com - Decadent!

11 FINE & RAW's chocolatier Daniel Sklaar

12 Pickled green beans, okra, peppers, and more at Rick Field's Rick's Picks rickspicksnyc.com pickle stand. Rick has been living and pickling in Brooklyn for over 20 years.

13 Rick Field of Rick's Picks

14 Gary standing in front of Pizza Moto www.pizzamotobklyn.com - a portable wood oven pizza parlor

15 Pizza dough ready to go into the wood burning oven

16 The pizza assembly line at Pizza Moto

17 The incredible Margherita pizza we savored from Pizza Moto. It's made with a sourdough starter procured from local apples.

18 Here I am with Dave, the founder of Pizza Moto, and his co-worker. Dave, a former architecture student, is also a chef at Brooklyn's Lunetta.

19 Susan Povich of the Red Hook Lobster Pound redhooklobsterpound.com. She and her husband, Ralph Gorham, founded their Maine Lobster business last May.

20 A classic Maine lobster roll on the left and a Connecticut roll on the right - served on a buttered roll

21 Rafael and Reina Soler, of Red Hook Foods, cook up some of their delicious tamales and pupusas - a traditional food of the Pipil/Mayan people of Cuzcatlan in modern day El Salvador

22 The hot pupusas at Red Hook Food Vendors

23 Cesar Fuentes of Red Hook Food Vendors told us all about pupusas.

24 Delicious tamales and pickled cabbage to go

25 Sophie and I shared a rice and bean pupusa - delish!

26 Yummy hot dogs at Asia Dog

27 Steve Porto and Melanie Campbell of Asia Dog. Both are half-Asian and decided to merge their Asian and American heritages. Their dogs all have Asian inspired toppings.

28 David Carrell and Joel Horowitz of People's Pop. They make splendid all-organic popsicles and ices.

29 Joel shaving the ice block

30 Crafts by Lotta Jansdotter jansdotter.com

31 Former MSLO craft department editor - Laura Normandin's crafts. Her new line is called Wren Handmade. lauranormandin.com

32 Fois bois plates, made by Marcie McGoldrick, AVP editorial director Holiday & Crafts MSLO (http://www.marciemcgoldrick.com/) The stationery is made by moontree letterpress

33 Laura Normandin with her handmade craft line

34 Blue Marble ice cream cart under the Brooklyn Bridge www.bluemarbleicecream.com

35 Maple, vanilla chocolate chip, chocolate, and green tea ice cream from Blue Marble. Yum!!

36 The Blue Marble ice cream vendors - Alexis and Jennie. Blue Marble, which has two store fronts in Brooklyn, makes organic ice cream from locally sourced ingredients.

37 The very majestic Brooklyn Bridge

38 Driving away from the flea market on the Brooklyn Bridge

39 Another view of the grand bridge

1 Rainbow carrots - a colorful array of yellow white, and orange

2 Amazing artichokes

3 Three kinds of beets - golden, red, and a candy striped beet called Chioggia

4 Beautiful full heads of cabbage and large stalks of broccoli

5 This is the largest broccoli we had ever seen - grown in my own garden in Maine - it was delicious and fed eight of us!

6 Tom Joseph prepared the dinner with me - he is one of the chefs in our TV test kitchen. He is a student at New York University working on his MA of Food Studies - his thesis is on Vietnamese Foodways/Pho (a traditional Vietnamese beef noodle soup).

7 Tom making faces!

8 Tom made a lemon tart with meringue - the curd was from the juice of my own Bedford lemons.

9 The table for this Saturday night supper was set in the kitchen because we were serving messy lobsters in the shell.

10 We roasted freshly harvested Mt. Desert potatoes - they were wrapped in parchment lined foil and baked until tender in the oven.

11 This is before they were roasted.

12 I am about to smash the potato on the table - this breaks up the flesh into a snowy fluffy mound - so delicious.

13 I love my potato with butter and sour cream and chives.

14 The lobsetrs were from Downeast Lobster Pound - soft shells called shedders - the meat is tender. The 1 1/4-pounders take 15 minutes to cook in boiling water.

15 Sauteed Swiss chard, potato, and broccoli - simple, fresh, nutritious

16 Here is Tom, really enjoying the fruits of his labors. The egg cups held the clarified butter for dipping the lobster meat.

17 And the piece de resistance - lemon curd tart.

18 Another view - Yumm - I could eat the whole tart.

1 Byron Martin, Shaun, and Laurelynn Martin

2 Byron was very helpful in the greenhouse explaining to Shaun how to get rid of various plant pests.

3 For example, this palmate begonia has mealy bug and spraying it with insect growth regulator will stop the pest's reproduction.

4 Byron looked for other problems throughout the greenhouse.

5 This blue streptocarpus flower attracts a type of harmful flying insect. Thankfully, these flowers are clean.

6 In fact, Byron was quite impressed with how well all the plants are doing.

7 Shaun was so happy listening to Byron's wealth of information.

8 Laurelynn admiring jasmine flowers

9 She likes to float the flowers in a pitcher of water in the refrigerator overnight to infuse the water with their wonderful flavor.

10 Shaun has been rooting these succulents.

11 Byron and Laurlynn drove from Northeastern Connecticut bearing gifts.

12 This is a T.R. Hovey dwarf papaya.

13 Byron counted seventeen papayas on this tree!

14 The leaves are amazingly patterned.

15 Shaun was thrilled with this box of tropical specimens.

16 Laurelynn brought a copy of their book, Container Plants. They've been busy working on a new book about tropical fruits in containers.

17 Byron loved how I planted these Kenneth Lynch urns.

18 He explained that the flowers of this purple pepper attract beneficial insects into the garden.

19 He also admired the yard-long beans growing on this support.

20 Hello, grasshopper on a rhubarb leaf!

21 Laurelynn was impressed with these elderberries and recalled her mother-in-law, Joy Logee Martin's wonderful tea.

22 A cup of Joy - elder flower (she called it elder blo), lemon verbena, minty green tea (a blend of green tea, black tea and mint) - steep loose tea mixture - serve at 4:00 pm with clover honey

23 Shaun and Byron sharing a laugh in the equipment barn.

24 They stopped to admire the paddock fencing and the stable beyond.

25 Then Byron and Laurelynn met up with me - I had been busy with a photo shoot elsewhere on the farm.

26 I asked the photographer to join us in the greenhouse and take some photos of this extraordinary begonia.

27 This is begonia paulenisi - spiderweb begonia - which had never blossomed before.

28 A closeup of the unusual flower.

1 Michel Mane, me, two of the lavender producers - Mr Cervera and Mr Paul, and Jean Pigozzi

2 This ancient distillery to extract the oil from the lavender is no longer functioning. It is a very good example of the kind of machinery needed to do this task.

3 I was pretending to be the distiller.

4 These giant steel vats are used for heating the lavender blossoms.

5 This is an old plow once used behind horses in the lavender fields.

6 Michel with a handful of real French lavender

7 More rows of this incredible plant

8 We took off by helicopter to go to La Bastide de Moustiers, Alain Ducasse's restaurant in the nearby village of Moustiers-Sainte-Marie.

9 We flew over more acres of groomed wheat, sunflower, and lavender.

10 The restaurant was all we had hoped for - rustic, beautiful, and delicious.

11 the pottery unique

12 We sat under an arbor and drank delicious wine, tasted incredible olive oil, and ate heavenly food.

13 There were beautiful handmade pottery plates.

14 Baby lamb from a neighboring farm was served along with braised farm vegetables, harvested from the restaurant's garden.

15 The lamb cut like butter.

16 This plum tart was served with lavender-infused ice cream.

17 There were wonderful homemade pastries.

18 Classic, yet the best of the best

19 We were showered with great things - meringues, cannelés, apricot pâte de fruit, and the cookie of the region made with lavender and honey.

20 I just wished we could stay longer than one day in this paradise.

21 The cheese service was exquisite.

22 The home baked breads were unusually good.

23 The gardens were full of fragrant rosemary, lavender, thyme, and scrumptious figs.

24 The helipad was conveniently in walking distance of the restaurant.

25 I was sad to leave but so happy to have seen this place.

26 And the ride back to Antibes was quite spectacular.

27 Again, the amazing lake

28 And the limestone mountains

29 Breathtaking drop-off cliffs

30 Beautiful cloud formations

31 Such vistas

32 It's hard to believe this is not heaven.

33 More rivers, cliffs, valleys, and canyons

34 Farms appeared at lower altitudes.

35 And suddenly dense clouds and lots of fog - a storm perhaps?? I hope not!

36 The visibility dropped drastically in a few moments.

37 But, we emerged from the clouds and soon saw the Mediterranean Sea and all the villas below.

38 And back home safely at the end of a wonderfully interesting day.