Thanks Scott,
but still not there yet ...
1. I created the .bash_profile following your instructions: ....then echo $PATH returned: ..../Applications/MAMP/conf:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin ....as expected, but ....which php returned: ..../usr/bin/php
2. and running phpinfo() within TM still points: .... PhpMate r11069 running PHP 5.2.6 (cli) (/usr/bin/php)
any ideas?