Lifestyle

Weekend ramblings…

April 24th, 2012 12 Comments

Last weekend feels very far away today… Over the weekend, I split my time between working in the yard and working in the office… The yard work felt more productive and satisfying than my time spent in the office. The yard was mowed and I spent quite a bit of time working in the flower beds, getting them organized for the year.

Flowering Dogwood

And I planted our little memorial Tomato Patch, in honor of our passed away tomato eating dogs – Rocco, Coco and Chipper. Some of you may remember my posting about Chipper’s love for tomatoes and how much we enjoyed his last months last fall as he would wander through the tomato vines, grazing as he went…

One fringe benefit of my rooting about in the flower beds and edges of the yard is I find all sorts of orphan plants, shrubs and trees. Seedlings from our mature plants. Sally is always terrified that I will scurry about and plant the little things in places that will mess up the Master Plan for the yard. For me, it’s actually more about the excitement of the find. Let’s see what I found.

orphan boxwood

A small boxwood under the yews…

 

orphan kousa dogwood

A young Kousa Dogwood growing in the old dog run…

 

boxwood?

Another boxwood? I’m not sure. I’ll let it grow and see what it turns in to…

 

A variegated lilly of the valley (bottom center) I rescued form beneath the spreading branches of a shrub in the front yard, along with another small flowering plant from my Mom’s garden back in upstate New York. (She’ll know exactly what it is.)

On Sunday, I moved the last of the European Ginger from one end of the yard to the other… Sounds productive, doesn’t it? By the time I get that done, it was beginning to drizzle. It felt so good, I stayed out and put in the tomato garden.

I added several eggplants, too. Mmmmm. Please excuse the mess. I haven’t gotten to edging things.

By days end, I really could have taken a good long soak in one of these tubs made by Bath in Wood Maine…


Or maybe this one?

Cote Sud,February/March 2012, photo, Bernard Touillon; designer, Francois Champsaur

Everyone have a great week!

Cheers,

 

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Moss Gardens

March 25th, 2012 18 Comments

Yesterday morning I spent some time poking around under the trees and in the flower beds, looking for more signs of spring. I began noticing the moss growing between the rocks of our front walk…

…and in the shady nooks and crannies of the flower beds. You see, along with a water feature, in the back of my mind, I’ve always been a yearning for a moss garden somewhere in our yard.

I began looking at these large pieces of granite, left over from when we did our addition a number of years ago…

 

Then I got to thinking about the dog run behind the house. It’s relatively shady and now that both Chipper and Coco are gone, we could reclaim the run and turn it into a moss garden. I know it would take some time to mature, but wouldn’t it be a relaxing place to sit in the morning or at the end of the day?

Just look at these images!

I’m feeling inspired!  Are you?

Cheers,

Cocktails, Downton Abbey and Linens

January 15th, 2012 15 Comments

Thoughts from Sally: During last week’s Downton Abbey segment I was taken by Lady Mary Crawley’s comment to Sir Richard before dinner, “You see that having a cocktail before dinner has not reached the countryside yet.” It made me wonder when the cocktail was invented. Do you know?

Here’s Mathew with Lavinia, not Mary :(

I’ll bet if cocktails HAD made it to the countryside at Downton they would have been served with cloth napkins.

I was rumaging around in my linen drawer the other day and found my cocktail napkins. Real, made-out-of-cloth-ones. These have been saved from obscurity by virtue of having been passed down to me, from my mother and my aunt. My mother taught me what these were when we were downsizing my aunt’s house. I might have been confused by their size, as to their purpose.  They are actually a little bit bigger than a coaster. So I asked my mother, “What are these for?” Thus my education.

One of my favorites is this little natural linen with fringed edges. They are about 5″ x 7″, including the fringe. It’s fun to get them out for small parties, because these days most people are used to paper napkins.

linen cocktail napkin

I think it is fun and festive to serve cocktails on a footed tray. Here are my favorite cocktail napkins on my favorite footed silver tray.

Love this Rococo style silver foot:

Another Fun set of cocktail napkins are from the 1950′s, the era when cocktail parties were so popular and chic. Look at the embroidery on these – each one with a different cocktail and its name!

They are made out of simple linen, like a handkerchief linen, and are each about 5″ x 8″ long. Notice the little hand rolled and stitched hem. So cute. Here they are on a tray, ready to serve our guests.

And last, but not least, another of my favorite color: yellow. These little napkins are big enough to put in your lap, if you are carrying an hors d’oeuvre plate, but folded they are only 6″ x 6″ including fringe. Aren’t they cute? I love them for their fringe and their engaging color!

Here they are with champagne flutes, ready to entertain with style.

Now, your task: take a look in YOUR linen drawer and see what you come up with! One of my readers was inspired by my last linen blog post to get out her linens and use them again! Way to go!

Until next time,