I Need a Kick in the ...

... well, you know where.

Forget meteorological spring.  Forget astronomical spring.  Forget calendar spring.  It's clearly spring - no matter how you look at it. 

So, why can't I get in the mood?

Was it the short warm winter?  Not enough cold and bad weather to make me long for sunshine and warm breezes?  Not enough snow to make me yell, "enough"?  Too few dreary days?

Whatever it is, the sap just isn't rising in me yet.  I've wasted nearly 10 days of pretty afternoons when I could have been out in the garden.  I've wasted seven extra hours of daylight.  I'm the only mammal in Central Virginia who's still hibernating.

Finally, today there are branches of flowering almond on the table and a bowl of stock on the table - the first blooms from my new cutting garden - but still I can't get excited. 

 

Just when I need a touch of spring fever, I got nada.  I need a kick - well, you know where!

Flowers in the House

Apparently I failed miserably to publish this last Monday.  Sorry, Jane!

You know that all the excitement this week is outside - popping up everywhere from their winter's sleep.

Was thrilled, tho, to have enough to make this small arrangement - all from things growing in my actual garden!

White and pink tulips, Anemone coronaria 'Lord Lieutenant', rosemary and pink pizzaz (Loropetalum 'Pizazz' TM).  Not a lot, but all mine. 

Hope you will stop by Jane's to see who else has flowers in the house today, and to thank her for being the organizer extraordinaire!

A Day at the Museum

Am channeling Dash to share our recent visit to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and their exhibit of work by Jean Schlumberger - a French jewelry designer who was famous for his work at Tiffany &  Co. 

Elsa Schiaparelli hired him in the 1930's to design buttons for her clothing and later to costume jewelry for her design house.   After WWII he moved to New York where he designed clothing and jewelry.  In the mid-1950's he joined Tiffany & Co.


His clients were the A-list of royalty, Hollywood and politics, including the Duchess of Windsor, Greta Garbo, Gloria Vanderbilt and Jacqueline Kennedy.  His whimsical designs included birds, animals and flowers.  He worked in gold, precious stones and enamel in the style of Faberge.

A pectoral cross.

A box covered in peridots.

I'd love to keep my rings inside!

Who cares what time it is ...

when time is this beautiful?

You always use salt cellars, right?

The current exhibit at VMFA includes about 50 pieces from the collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon.  Small boxes, salt cellars, and objects, with only a few pieces of jewelry. 

I could have spent a week!

Two Days

Two days away from work. 

Two days to sleep late and read.

Two days of gourmet breakfast and wonderful meals that I didn't have to cook.

Two days of tasting wine.

Photo: Veritas Vineyard

Two days of paradise!  The Inn at Westwood Farm.

And a neat idea.  The wreath is covered in a patchwork of mosses.