NEW YORK, Tuesday—Last weekend I took the train to Hyde Park with my friend, Miss Adelaide Enright, who is here from St. Paul, Minn.

It was a long time since I had gone up by train and, of course, when one really wants to enjoy the Hudson River the train is the only way that gives you a good view. The parkway is beautiful, but you never catch a glimpse of the river. Even Route 9W does not give you too many river views, so the train is the way to ride up the river if you want to get the full beauty of this great river—and it is truly a great river. In spots it reminds me of the Rhine, except that the Rhine seems smaller. I could not help thinking that we admire scenery all over the world and often forget that we have right at home some of the most beautiful scenery.

Once arrived, we took the dogs for a walk in the woods and enjoyed finding a profusion of violets and a few trilliums. The white trilliums I looked for seem to have disappeared again. I missed looking for them the previous weekend and perhaps they have already bloomed and faded. It would be a great disappointment to me if they have died out.

For the first time two little pink dogwood are flowering on the lawn and the white dogwood, which is an old tree outside my bedroom windows, is more beautiful than I have ever seen it. It's heavy with bloom.

I don't know whether we should be thankful for the recent rain, but I don't think I have ever seen a more luxuriant growth than I find everywhere this spring. It is certainly not because of warm weather because I think we have had cooler days than I can remember for many years.

I saw a report the other day that someone who follows the cycle of the seasons said that the coming summer would be a particularly hot one. I hope he is wrong, but if it is going to be very hot I hope at least we will have plenty of rain, as that does cool the atmosphere at least for a little while every day.

I found on my table when I returned last week a very delightful booklet written by Col. William A. Eddy and published by the American Friends of the Middle East, Inc. The booklet is titled, "F.D.R. Meets Ibn Saud."

This account is delightfully written and completely accurate. My husband came back full of interest in the whole meeting and with great admiration for King Ibn Saud. But Colonel Eddy says in one place that he was surprised to hear that my husband said he was disappointed in his interview. I think I can clear that point up.

It was not the meeting nor the personal feeling he had for the King that was a disappointment. It was something else, which I heard him speak of several times. He had hoped that from this meeting there could come an understanding with the King which would make for a pleasanter atmosphere surrounding the small, new state of Israel.

My husband felt that there was so much land in that area, and that the promise of a homeland had been made to the Jews who settled in Israel. He hoped that by peaceful means a settlement could be arranged which would not create bad feeling between peoples that had lived side by side in harmony. He was disappointed that, just as Colonel Eddy reports, King Ibn Saud made no concessions as regards Israel.