Green Thumb Not Required

Last year I decided to give this smiling cherub a home. I think she had been sitting too long in the relentless heat of a North Carolina Summer...................she just deserved something better, especially after being discarded by some unloving, obviously non-garden person.

While sitting on the front porch late Saturday afternoon, enjoying a crisp glass of Pinot Grigio - I managed to catch this male towhee visiting my cherub. She seems much happier in the cool of the ivy and periwinkle, and she really enjoys feeding her feathered friends. Despite very high winds the past two days which whipped and churned everything in the garden, my clematis, "Dr. Ruppel" is blooming on the the bird house post - love this one. It clung on for dear life.

Time to get those terra cotta pots scoured and bleached ready for new plants - I've already seen petunias, coleus, marigolds, impatiens and more, at my local garden places. This is the time of year I need to be tied and bound to the back fence - otherwise I just hop in the car and head out - can't resist shopping for more plants.

But, come on now, we do have to indulge ourselves now and then...................after all it's Spring and we've waited patiently for months to get down in the dirt again.
I wish you happy hours in your garden, even if it's just potting up a few lovely friends to add color to your balcony or window sill. One of the prettiest gardens I've ever seen was a tiny roof garden in New York city. You don't need acreage to enjoy Nature.

Through My Garden Gate

Welcome! Please step through the arbor gate and come join me in some much needed Spring clean up! Note the trumpet vine, blooms opening but many were zapped by the three night freeze last weekend. You can just see the climbing rose starting on the left side and it will eventually climb the arbor. Cut it back each year because it grows so much. It's a rather odd pinkish red shade so luckily the orange trumpet vine has usually finished blooming by the time the roses are out - a bit of a clash of hot color there! Oh well, in a cottage garden everything Nature provides for our eyes to feast on is gorgeous. I keep fairy lights on year round - like to see them sparkling as I drive up in the dark.

Directly back from the arbor is "Jasmin Cottage" my potting shed, built about 8 years ago. I painted it sage green with purple shutters. Stencilled a "rug" of roses and grape vines, hung a chandelier and just made it a fun place to pot, paint, and putter.

I'll be adding some new fun things to the garden this coming week - I went a bit crazy at SuzAnna's Antiques yesterday - the big items should be delivered tomorrow. I took all these pics today before the storms arrive!

The back garden is quite pretty now - trees have leafed out, azaleas still blooming despite the cold snap, and perennials such as Hosta, Solomon's Seal, Lilies, are really coming along fast.

You can't see it but I have a Wisteria on the right side of this arbor. It was a tiny plant in a pot from a now deceased dear friend's garden. I planted it in the ground and have been tending it and loving it for four years - at long last it's growing and I will be training it to grow on the arbor.

The major job today was to clean the gazebo and deck of the heavy pollen - it's been really bad this Spring. DH helped - we moved out the dining furniture, hosed everything including the screens. It was so clean and shiny we decided to grill out and enjoyed dinner in the gazebo. The birds were our musical entertainment - singing constantly as they came to the feeders for their supper. Discovered a Chickadee nest in the white bird box on the back fence - several tiny speckled eggs with babies just hatching! Also a Wren's nest in a flower pot in the window box on the potting shed - no eggs in that one yet.

In case it's not obvious, I just love my Victorian style gazebo. Last Summer we built a new extended deck and added the totally screened gazebo so that I can eat outside during mosquito season - I'm so allergic to those nasty flying meanies, they make my life miserable! It's large enough for a round table and four chairs, there is a ceiling fan and light with a dimmer. Extra outlets allow for a heater and fairy lights - at Christmas we had a tree and hung big paper stars - very pretty. Now the weather is pleasant you will find me out here for morning coffee, afternoon tea, and often supper, and it's the best place for paging through those decorating and gardening mags. and reading a good book!
Hope everyone is having a good weekend - I know the weather is very bad for some of you - we are due storms tonight. Stay safe dear friends.

French Inspiration for Friday

Inspiration Friday has rolled around again - thought I'd share these soft shades in photos from a favorite French magazine. In the Spring I love to bring the garden into the house by adding some items usually found outdoors - birdhouses and found nests, pretty pots, pieces of painted architectural wood, and lots of white pitchers filled with fresh flowers. Old galvanized watering cans and troughs are perfect against white - see lots at my local antiques markets so may start a new collection.

In the same magazine were pages of amazingly beautiful transparent curtain panels. This one stopped my heart for a moment, so gorgeous puddled on the floor with the sunlight streaming through. When I exchanged the euros into dollars my heart stopped again..........the price was.........well how can I put it, "priceless"!! Instead, with my budget for the bedroom bay window project I headed to Target, and there I actually found four panels I loved - pale gold burnout velvet.......a little Bohemian, and long enough to puddle just a bit. I'm happy.

Thursday Thrifting

Today I took a ride with DH into the countryside to look for strawberries and bargains. Weather lovely and the many shades of green were spellbinding. Searched through several antiques markets and thrift shops but, as is usual, ended up at my favorite, "SuzAnna's" (run by Susie and Anna) www.suzannasantiques.com which is just a couple of miles from home.

~My finds today were~

• This wooden sage green COTTAGE sign which I will hang on the front porch near the door.


• Four new quilted, scalloped edge placemats in the perfect neutral putty color with gorgeous black roses design - these will get softer and shabbier with washing, and look great with my white china with the black writing.


• The pretty oval silverplated dish - I will not polish as I love the tarnished color.


• And..........a really sweet cruet (salt, pepper, oil and vinegar) with tarnished silver caps and holder and glass stoppers. It appears to be quite old but still has a seal attached saying Made in England so perhaps has not been used.

(If you visit pink-bee at Fairiebees http://fariebees.blogspot.com/ you will see she recently found a similar cruet which she refinished).

Red Barn Antiques........of course!
Just love this high backed iron bench - with a thick squishy cushion it would make a statement in the garden.
This kiwi green potting table caught my eye and I may go back tomorrow and check it again! A woman built it utilizing wood components including pickets from a fence, old mullioned windows for the lower sides, a window valance for the upper shelf etc. The lovely handles are painted iron and the entire piece seems sturdy. The price of $120 seems OK for such a large, useful table - somehow I see it on my front porch as a place to serve Summer drinks or afternoon tea and cake, decorated with jugs of flowers and my collection of wood birdhouses. What do you think......should I splurge?

Hidden Surprises in the Musee d'Orsay

The wonderful Musee d'Orsay has the Impressionist paintings to really wow you, however, there are hidden sections within this amazing museum displaying Art Deco furniture, architectural models and renderings, and statuary. Here are some photographs I took after stumbling through some back corridors and staircases into these wondrous places.

Although I'm a "cottage girl" at heart and have very little that could be classified as modern or contemporary in my home, the Michael Thonet original bentwood furniture was beautiful, and the display, though stark and linear, was perfect and enabled one to see the clearly defined shapes and shades of the polished wood.
Do take a seat!

Be sure to visit this wonderful place when you go to France.

Paris Shopping

No trip to Paris would be complete without some shopping, especially for the girls! Window shopping was in order along the Champs-Elysees where famous French fashion designers' shops are plentiful..........and very expensive. The window displays were fabulous but many of the clothes would look somewhat out of place around our Southern town! Jasmin enjoyed posing by the windows but for serious (affordable!) shopping we headed to department and drug stores.

After the long hikes to the historic buildings, the beautiful parks, and so many museums, the well earned rest at a sidewalk cafe is the place to see and be seen in Paris. It's comparable to watching theatre for the price of a cafe au lait as the people pass by, fashionably attired, their dogs at their heels. Oh yes, word of caution here - sidewalks are like mine fields - dogs seem to reign and nobody cleans up after them! Here we stopped at the famous Cafe de la Paix, the interior is gorgeous and it's where my husband took me to dinner on my first visit to Paris in the sixties! That evening, sitting in the elegant circular booth next to us, was designer Coco Chanel herself - I was impressed!

Jasmin picks out her Paris shirt. Sandy does Paris too! This favorite dog has been on all our trips and is probably the most travelled stuffed canine around................but wait, surprise! Sandy's tummy unzips (she's actually an English pajama case) and inside is Tiny cat - the most travelled kitty too. Next country coming up guys - off to Canada soon! But, how long before Jasmin decides they are too childish, and so well worn from an over-abundance of love and hugs, that they must be left at home? My heart will break when they are exchanged for an i-Pod!.....................and so, it's Au Revoir Paris......time to head South. The city was wonderful and to see it again through the eyes of a child was special.At the Gare de Lyon we chose baguettes and fruit for the five hundred mile journey on the fast, comfortable, TGV bullet train..............Southwest France here we come. During the trip Jasmin worked on her art journal - so many memories to record. See you in the vineyards!

Around Paris - June 2006

Up early - so much to see - hopped on board a Bateau Mouche and were on our way along the River Seine to explore beautiful Paris.

Morning at the Musee du Louvre
Paris is beautiful no matter which season you visit. The summer was extremely hot again last year even in early June. The light changed from early morning crystalline grey as people entered the wondrous Musee du Louvre, to mellow gold in the wavering heat of the late afternoon. It was so special to show my granddaughter, Jasmin, who was nine at the time of this trip, this historic, hectic, elegant European city. In just three days we whisked her everywhere possible. It would take months to explore all of Paris so we picked places she was most interested in. Besides famous landmarks she chose to see the Impressionist art she loved - the waterlily paintings of Monet in the Musee de L'Orangerie - two oval rooms where you stand in awe as the lily ponds surround you - and Van Gogh, Degas, Renoir in the Musee d'Orsay. In the Louvre, so vast you would need weeks to tour the entire place, she also had to see Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and Winged Victory. Note, no pic of Mona Lisa - no photography permitted there!

Self portrait of Vincent Van Gogh - more of him later when we visited his home in Arles.



View towards Montmartre through the huge glass clock of the Musee d'Orsay.

Montmartre crowned by the beautiful white Basilica of Sacre-Coeur


Our adventures will be continued.................