Allium Time

It's time to plant your allium bulbs.  They look like a plant from another planet and are so sculpturally beautiful. They return each spring to greet you and the butterflies love them.  What's not to love?

Hot Magazine

In case you wondered, there is a magazine getting a lot of press lately.  I went in search of it at Barnes and Noble.  At first glance, I thought this is a guy's magazine.  Remind you, this is my first issue, so I really didn't know what to expect.  Bars, drinks and more bars - not exactly my cup of tea.  Turkey hunting; I'd rather see hunting with a camera.  Then, I came across an article about Rachel Aswell's growing empire and a spread about her new place in Round Top, Texas and a feature about decorating some old cabins. Hmmmm.... Another article that caught my eye was an article about Morgan Freeman. 

There was an article about Houston, a place I'm interested in because I lived there for eleven years before moving to the farm.  Also, an article about a famous landscape architect, Charles Stick. 

So, why all the buzz?  I'll have to get another copy of GARDEN & GUN to find out.

Edith Wharton's 150th Anniversary

Edith Wharton was a famous and gifted American writer and the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Some of her most famous writings were THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, ETHAN FROME and THE HOUSE OF MIRTH. Edith loved art, science, architecture, design and gardens. She traveled extensively and lived in many different countries. She was really a character. I would have loved to have known her. Her concise observations of human nature were things she wrote about...and the pursuit of happiness. From time to time, I think about this piece she wrote. It haunts me.

"I have sometimes thought that a woman's nature is like a great house full of rooms. There is the hall, through which everyone passes in going in and out; the drawing room, where one receives formal visits; the sitting room, where members of the family come and go as they list. But beyond that, far beyond, are other rooms, the handles to whose doors perhaps are never turned: no one knows the way to them; no one knows whither they lead; and in the innermost room, the holy of holies, the soul sits alone and waits for a footstep that never comes."


Previously posted in 2010

President's Day

In honor of the holiday, George the Washington's favorite cherry pie.  The easiest to make, the rustic tart, versus the lattice pies.  The grand kids were happy for their little ones.  I think I'll make one Monday.  Hear that Sis?  Type in cherry pie for the recipe.

New Chic Countertop

The new tin foil counter top is tres chic.  Matches all the new silver furniture and wall decorating I am seeing in magazines - a fad I think will be over before it started.  Nevertheless, I am trying it out - on my kitty cats.  Five now call my home their home and come and go through the doggie door tracking in little dirty paw prints and enough hair to stuff a couch.  I heard this would work to discourage them from getting on the kitchen counters as I am at wits end.  Short of shaving them bald, I'm giving it a try.  So far, I don't see one hair on the kitchen counter.  How do they even know it's there or that they don't like it?  They can't see up there from the floor.  Even so, the bad little kitties haven't set foot upon it.  Perhaps my cats are genius cats or super cats, or are in fact, reading my mind! Please give me some helpful hints before I shave them bald or sew them up into pillow cases, cut out holes for arms and legs and fashion little cat suits for them.  With spring coming, Teddy, Midge, Mean Mom, Boo and Buzzy are already starting to shed.  I read that Martha Stewart puts clean towels on her furniture daily to combat pet hair, but never read what she does to keep them off her kitchen counters.  PS ~ her cats have hair about three times as long as mine!

Unmentionables In Paris

This shop was the first one to sell brassieres in Paris.  Don't remember the date it opened, but the shop is so small, only about 3 or 4 customers could fit inside.   I spent about two seconds in there as I don't buy seductive underwear anymore and thank the lord I was way past wearing those thong things.

It's crisp white cotton granny panties from here on out! 

Baby Meyer Lemons

Already have a new crop of Meyer lemons growing.  Some have asked how I can grow such a large crop of lemons; this is just one little tip of a branch on one tree; multiply this by nearly 20 trees, voila.  This tree is covered in flowers and baby lemons.  Needless to say, I will have a large lemon crop next year too.  Now, if I can just use up last years juice and the year before...

Tulips In Paris

Passed by these green and white parrot tulips in a window in St. Germain des Pres one night - the most beautiful tulips I have ever seen.  The wild jonquils are blooming along the roadside around here.  My tulips are above the ground.  Spring will be here before we know it.