bloomin' beautiful

As soon as I took this gorgeous Calla Lily from my husband the other day-I immediately thought of Katherine Hepburn. If you're a movie fan like me you may know what I'm talking about. Famous line from a Kate movie-"the calla lilies are in bloom....sigh" There I go dating myself again.

O.K. Nuff about that. Anyway, aren't they lovely? There are three good sized groups of lilies that can easily be divided and made into 3 separate plants. Yipee! Also-today I noticed that the lily of the valley is out all over the front bank of our house. It's all the way around the other side of the house and very easily forgotten until it's too late. I could just go around there and sit in a pile of lily of the valley for the entire day-happily-breathing in the perfume. There really is nothing on earth that is as magnificent as the natural scent of flowers. After years of working in the industry-I can't think of a single flower scent that matches mother nature for clean, crisp, heavenly smell. When I was much younger we would sometimes go over to the Vanderbilt Mansion across the harbor and walk through the house. I enjoyed it but I was all about getting to the sun room and very elegant porch. It was a colonnade of lovely Spanish tiles on the floor and there in the center was a gardenia bush. It was very old and, they said, was installed there by one of the Mrs. of the family. Even then, 45 years ago, it was 50 years old so I imagine it may not be there now. All of the years since that day I am still reminded of the gardenia bush when I see a picture or am lucky enough to come upon an actual gardenia. No bottled gardenia perfume could ever capture that fragrance. I should probably go over there and check it out sometime.

I don't have much in the way of quilty stuff to show. Still working on finishing Dani's Mom's table runner. Needs binding but I think maybe that will have to wait till next week.

Today I took on the horrible task of going to find some work-out clothes as I only have one pair of pants I'm washing to death. Several suggestions from fellow Curves ladies. Turns out Sears, which I normally hate, has some decent and fairly low priced stuff for the gym(that's all they have) Can I just mention how much I hate cropped pants and Capri's. I really hate them. They look adorable on other people but on my 5' 3" chub-they really look stupid and feel stupid. No choice though so here I am wearing clothes I hate because the only other option was heavier weight winter stuff or plastic-feeling pants that need to be taken up about 5 inches. Can't there be a happy medium for the height challenged. As it is the cropped pants come to my ankle-not my most flattering part but at least not my, aptly named, calves.

Well, I'll leave you now for some prep work for dinner. Nothing exciting tonight. Homemade cole slaw, Kosher hot dogs, grilled baby potatoes, and fresh strawberries. In an act of self-preservation, I'm passing on the baked beans.

Spring in the 'hood

I had a wonderful weekend. My family, as usual, was great to be with and it was quiet and peaceful and somewhat delicious. We had ribs, sweet potato fries, home made cole slaw and corn bread from the new place around the corner. Folks down south would faint at what they charged for a rack of baby backs but we tried to ignore that(BIL Bob bought us the anniversary dinner we didn't get in Feb) and wow was it great. A pretty perfect day to remind me of how fortunate I am. Thanks guys!

I'm giving you a peak at the color of spring around here. As Roger said yesterday, "you wait all year for this color" It's a green that only appears for a brief time. Vivid and intense and in many shades from lime to deep forest. Very alive. Not that the garden is not beautiful the rest of the summer-it's just that spectacular spring green that inspires such bliss. The picture of the harbor is an interesting one because in a wekk or two there will be so many boats that you can nearly walk from boat deck to boat deck around the harbor. This is a brief blissful moment.

A while ago I came home from the grocery store and one of the 2 million trips (sigh) that I have to make there during the week, and this sweet cardinal was back again. Yesterday he practically sat for Roger while allowing photographs of his lovely self to be snapped. Today I was unpacking the stuff from my car and he landed not two feet from me in the gravel. I moved-he stayed-I moved some more...he stayed and re-positioned himself several times, as if to say "I'm ready for my close-up Mr. DeMille" He's still hanging around out there munching seed and looking wonderful against the grey and blue stone. I sort of wonder who he really is. Maybe a relative come home to visit? Is that you Pop? He won't say.

Well, despite the beauty of this day and it is stunningly pretty-I have the requisite crap to accomplish. Laundry, dinner prep. Crap waits for no one!

I promised my honey that I would re-create the meal that Lydia made on her show yesterday. It's a salad that includes roasted Vidalia onions dried black Greek olives, red bliss potatoes and green beans. Finished off with bibb lettuce and oil and vinegar dressing.I may throw in some cheese shavings and roasted peppers- so it's off to the grill. She made a scalopini with wild mushrooms with it but I think we will just have the salad and some good bread, fresh mozzarella and sopressata. Who's up for dinner???

Here are the accompanying shots of winter-Goodbye to all that!