Plant Shopping in Lancaster County

Eileen at Homestead

This past weekend was our annual plant shopping weekend in Lancaster County. Every year we go up  to Pennsylvania at the beginning of May and stay at Landis Farm for a few days and hit all our favorite Amish nurseries and greenhouses, and a couple of local garden centers. We find beautiful plants in Pennsylvania, good prices, and lots of ideas.  Some of our favs are Homestead, Newswangers, Spooky Nook, Leacock,  Wengers, and Henry's.  We visit nurseries, load up cars, get milkshakes and ice cream sodas at Udder Choice,  eat chicken barbecue,  and relax at night at Landis Farm. It was great to see our friends Evelyn and Earl (owners of the farm), who welcomed another granddaughter,  born while we were there.

Eileen and Judy with lettuce, at Spooky Nook

Hanging baskets at Homestead

Henry's

Always cool displays at Henry's

Old trough planting at Henry's

Loved this rusty old mailbox planted with hens and chicks

Landis Farm

Prudy, Judy, Eileen at Landis Farm

Fun Times in North Carolina

I drove down to Pinehurst, NC last week to meet two of my dear friends from high school, Kathy and Mika, for a few days of fun.  We don't see each other very much, because we live in Cleveland, Boston, and Virginia, but we stay in touch. We last got together about five years ago for a whirlwind weekend in New York City, and had such a good time, I can't believe it's taken us this long to get together again.  We were delayed a day because Mika couldn't get out of snowy Boston, and poor Kathy had a broken foot, but that didn't stop us from having a great time. Lots of talking and laughing and drinking wine, good meals, a wine tasting with chocolates at a local wine shop, and visits to lots of the local potteries.  Who knew there were so many potters in that part of North Carolina?

Mika and Kath

Kathy

After a few days with the girlfriends, I drove about two hours west to Charlotte, to see Julia and Hampton for the weekend.  It was a gorgeous weekend, sunny and warm (70 degrees!), and so we spent most of Saturday walking around town and around their neighborhood. They live right next to a great park, and it was so nice to see so many people out and about. We even walked to dinner and Uber-ed home (my first Uber ride!). And I was so excited to see one of these Free Little Libraries in the neighborhood. People can build one of these little boxes and put it in their yards, and then anyone can borrow and leave books inside. Such a great idea. I drove home on Sunday, and back to winter.

Christmas at Longwood Gardens

Last week Eileen, Prudy, and I took a short road trip to see the Christmas displays at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA. We stopped first at Terrain, a very fancy garden shop and restaurant in Glen Mill, PA, to get some inspiration. They had beautiful displays of Christmas greens and trees,  wreaths, arrangements, and tons of potted bulbs. That arrangement of white amaryllis in the copper tub (above) was absolutely gorgeous. After shopping around a bit, we had lunch in their garden cafe and then were on our way to Longwood to see the conservatory and the sparkly lights in the gardens.

We loved these orange chairs at Terrain

Christmas trees at Terrain

Terrain

Pots at Terrain

Pots, vases, watering cans at Terrain

Potted hellebores at Terrain

Conservatory at Longwood

Prudy and Eileen at Longwood

Winterberry at Longwood

Conservatory at Longwood

Outdoor lights at Longwood

Outdoor fountain show at Longwood

Wedding Weekend in DC

We went to a beautiful wedding this weekend in Washington, DC. Julia's best friend and college roommate was married on Saturday and it was one of the most beautiful and thoughtful weddings I have ever been to. Every detail was perfect, and they even got the weather perfect as well. They have a wonderful family and the love was everywhere.  We were so happy to be included in their happy day and it was fun to see Julia and Melissa,  still such good friends all these years later.  Lots of memories this night.

The reception was held at the top of the Hay Adams Hotel, right by the White House, and the views had everyone in awe.  This was the view from the dining room and the dance floor. The dining room was incredible, with two really long tables the length of the room, set all in white and crystal, with beautiful white flowers and tall candles,  so sparkly and magical, and the Washington skyline all lit up behind us. It was beyond gorgeous. There was even a moon.

The maid of honor looked beautiful!

Detail of the back of the dress, so pretty.

Happy faces! As you can imagine, everyone was taking pictures with this view. What a night.

Reading Hemingway

Patty at Mont Saint-Michel, France

I love this poem because every time I read it I think about my friend Patty, and when we were in graduate school in Paris back in the day.  We were so young and liked to think of ourselves as intellectuals,  and we would walk around Paris looking for Hemingway's cafes, and talking to each other in Hemingway's simple. spare. style. We thought we could be writers too. We liked to drink that cold, dry wine. So cold, so dry.  We thought we were so smart, so cool.

Reading Hemingway, by James Cummins

Reading Hemingway makes me so hungry,
for jambon, cheeses, and a dry white wine.
Cold, of course, very cold. And very dry.

Reading Hemingway makes some folks angry:
the hip drinking, the bitter pantomime.
But reading Hemingway makes me hungry

for the good life, the sun, the fish, the sky:
blue air, white water, dinner on the line . . .
Had it down cold, he did. And dry. Real dry.

But Papa had it all, the brio, the Brie:
clear-eyed, tight-lipped, advancing on a stein . . .
Reading Hemingway makes me so hungry,

I’d knock down Monsieur Stevens, too, if I
drank too much retsina before we dined.
(Too old, that man, and way too cold. And dry

enough to rub one’s famished nerves awry,
kept talking past the kitchen’s closing time!)
Reading Hemingway makes me so hungry . . .
And cold, of course. So cold. And very dry.

Plant Shopping in Lancaster County

Home at Landis Farm

This weekend was our annual plant buying trip to Lancaster County, where Eileen, Prudy,  Judy and I meet at the farm and spend Thursday, Friday, and Saturday driving all over Lancaster County. We go to Amish farms and greenhouses, and a few garden centers,  where we pick out our plants for our pots and summer gardens. We have been buying our plants in PA for  years now, so many of the places remember us and greet us with "here come the ladies from Virginia"!  We buy a lot of plants, so we think they are always pretty happy to see us. Prudy's daughter Abby also joined us on Thursday to buy her plants, so a second generation is now joining in the fun.  I write often about our trips to Lancaster County,  which we take at least twice a year, usually in the fall and in the spring. We love it up there, and feel like the cottage at Landis Farm where we have been staying for 25 years is like our second home.  We know our way around pretty well, and know just which are the best places, where to look for cheap and cheerful (flea market) furniture, and where to get the best ice cream sodas. Important stuff.

We always eat well in PA. We went to Ciros, an Italian restaurant, on Thursday night. Friday we had sandwiches and salads from Weavers (where we get our bacon), and on Saturday night we made tacos and margaritas for Cinco de Mayo. Pancakes and sausages for breakfast on Sunday morning, and then we were off.  Another great trip to Lancaster County.

Kreider's Greenhouse

 Each greenhouse is our favorite for something--best geraniums, best hanging baskets, cheapest fillers,  best herbs, best perennials. We also found a new greenhouse on Saturday morning, which was really spectacular. I'm saving those pictures for tomorrow.

Kreider's

Eileen and Prudy checking out the plants at Homestead

Those are all our plants, and just our first stop!

Wenger's geraniums

Wenger's Greenhouses

Spooky Nook Greenhouses

Spooky Nook Greenhouses

Beautiful Lancaster County

Packed up and ready to plant