Reading about beauty and great food!

Yesterday my friendly postman Jerry hand delivered my mail, which included a parcel, to the porch - a nice surprise when I opened the front door to view the brilliant green of the garden after some rain. I prefer to patronize a local independent book shop, complete with squishy old arm chairs and strong coffee, and I get their senior discount without having to buy a membership card (one of the perks of age!). I did have a credit at Amazon.com though so went ahead and ordered these three books.

The French-Inspired Home which many of you seem to have and love and I can see why. Know I will enjoy this one.

The cook book The French Market is by one of my favorite authors Joanne Harris whose amazing novels include Chocolat (we all loved that movie!), Five Quarters of the Orange and Blackberry Wine. The recipes look delicious and the photos of French scenes and fresh foods are gorgeous.

Jessica McClintock's Simply Romantic Decorating is one many of us have been anxiously awaiting, and from a quick flip through it late last night I think it's been worth the wait. Oh my, anyone with a love of romance in their decor and pale dreamy colors will want this book. Most of the photographs are of her amazing Victorian house in San Francisco - wait 'til you see the kitchen! There is a chapter named Romantic Projects ~ know that will keep us all extremely busy painting and sewing in the coming months.

These will be books I'm going to enjoy while sitting on the porch with my afternoon tea.

Celebrating April

Oh; how this Spring of love resembleth

The uncertain glory of an April day!

Which now shows all the beauty of the sun

And by and by a cloud takes all away.

......................................Two Gentlemen of Verona ~ Wm. Shakespeare

Today started out chilly and still quite windy but I was out in the garden early. Yesterday's quick stop at Wal-Mart (ugh!) for veggie burgers (yum!) took an unexpected detour through the garden section where these fresh and fabulous Confederate Jasmines and Mandevillas, along with two cute Hostas, and a really sweet little trailing Ivy, somehow ended up in my shopping cart! My DH was trying to figure out why on earth I needed a cart in the first place....just for veggie burgers, hmmm!!

So here they are on the front porch welcome mat - but by the end of this afternoon all were in their new homes. The Jasmine is blooming and smells wonderful, and one of the Mandevillas has pink buds ready to open - this one will be trained to climb the porch.

When buying my vintage treasures at SuzAnna's last week I also found these two really nice pale green iron planter baskets. Of course the plastic fern pots wouldn't fit through the top so I bought flexible fiber liners and replanted the ferns in those. They look much nicer this way.

OK, remember I asked for assistance on this purchase last week!

The very green potting table spied at SuzAnna's - sitting there as bold as brass (or perhaps more like grass!) in the middle of a huge conglomeration of garden stuff in the outdoor section of their wonderful shop. Several of you wanted it for yourselves, others thought it a good buy at $120 and said go for it -------so I did and it was delivered FREE, along with some other things I'll show another time, by Susie and Anna themselves - lovely ladies. We had a cuppa with raspberry scones - and they did the house tour to see where I'm using all the neat things I've bought from them. This afternoon I had a fun time placing odds and ends on the table - now there's not much room remaining to do any actual potting - but I want to use it more as a serving piece anyway. I had no idea that I already had such a collection of this shade of green pots and things, even that neat round candle. On the lower shelf are some of my collection of old English stone crocks. The iron urn I've filled with shells - the plants will be moved to garden beds soon and I'll get pots of annuals for color, along with herbs for the small terra cotta pots.

Will be recovering the cushions in the gold/brown French zoo toile soon. Another plan is to hang an old window from chains above the back of the table - will copy some botanical prints onto the glass panes first. I'm debating painting the porch ceiling a very pale blue - this was apparently a usual thing in days gone by - and I think the chandelier would show up better against a color. What do you think?

Thanks all of you who encouraged me in this purchase. I'm really thrilled with how this has turned out. Although the porch is small that end was not being utilized so the table is fine and still leaves room for three wicker chairs and a small round table. This window is my dining room - it's so pretty looking outside, like an extension of the room.

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.