Christmas at Meadowlark Gardens

Benny, Gillian, Walt, Mary, Mark

On Saturday night we went to see the new "Winter Walk of Lights" show at Meadowlark Gardens--my favorite garden to visit in Northern Virginia, which you probably know if you read this blog. This is the first year they have done this holiday show and it was pretty amazing. There is over a half mile of lighted trees, nature displays, lakeside lights,  and music. There was even hot cocoa and marshmallows for kids to toast over a fire.

It was really fun to see my favorite garden transformed into a winter wonderland and I loved how they followed the themes of the actual gardens--lighted flowers in the perennial beds, lighted butterflies in  the butterfly garden, little pink flower lights on the cherry trees, lighted mushrooms in the mushroom grove. There were even these cool lights that made it look like it was snowing. It was a perfect night, cold but not freezing, and we all enjoyed walking around the gardens and seeing the displays, and then  dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant. We decided this might be an annual excursion.

There were a lot of families walking around the park that night, viewing the lights, and I don't think I was the only one watching the little children, so joyful in this holiday setting, and thinking about those other little children in Connecticut. I'm sure every parent there was clutching their children's hands a little tighter this weekend.  Heartbreaking.

Perennial Gardens

Butterfly Garden

Dragonflies

Strawberry Fields

Friday Fleurs: Berries Are the Stars

Christmas Trees

These little tabletop trees are looking pretty good to me right about now. Aren't they cute? Our Christmas tree has been a multi-day event. First driving to the nursery and picking out a tree. Then getting it into the stand, putting the lights on only to find the first strand didn't work (yes, I had tried them first and they worked). Then I had to go buy another strand of lights and remove all the lights already up and re-do. Last night we finally put on most of the thousands of ornaments that we have. I have always been a totally fresh tree kind of person, but I am starting to see the appeal of artificial trees. I don't think I'll ever go that far, but maybe one of these cute little trees someday...but probably not.

More Baths Less Talking

"Several months later, and I have finally read one of the three (books), even though I wanted to read all three of them immediately. What happened in between? Other books, is what happened. Other books, other moods, other obigations, other appetites, other reading journeys."

I confess I picked up this book because of the title, but I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. A book about books is right up my alley. This is a collection of the articles Hornby (author of About A Boy, High Fidelity, and more) wrote for the literary magazine The Believer from May 2010 to November/December 2011 in a column called "Stuff I've Been Reading." Hornby starts off each chapter (month) with two lists: the  books he bought that month and the books he read that month. Not surprisingly, they don't match up very often and many never turn up in the Books Read list, something all us booklovers can relate to.  Several books I have read are on his lists and it was fun to hear his thoughts on those--Just Kids, by Patti Smith, Brooklyn, by Colm Toibin, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot, Out Stealing Horses, by Per Petterson, A Visit From the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan, and some fiction by Muriel Spark. And he writes about plenty of books that are on my radar but that I haven't read yet, and a lot that I probably never will. But it's great fun to read about all of them because he writes with such enthusiasm about books, bringing in personal anecdotes about his  life and his family with a lot of humor thrown in, so it's like having a conversation with another reader.  His reading interests are vast and varied--fiction, non-fiction, biography, children's, poetry, contemporary, young adult,  classic. I can see why his column in The Believer is so popular, though it is currently on hiatus until 2013.  If you like to read about books and reading, I think you'll enjoy this. (Biff, you'll like it.) And how can you not like it with a title like that? The title, by the way, comes from one of the books, Mating in Captivity, in which a couple who don't speak the same language have a happy marriage because they communicate in other ways (like taking baths together).

Christmas Pretties

Look how pretty it is can be to shop at Christmas time. Apart from being a nice (and convenient) place to shop, Reston Town Center always has beautiful Christmas decorations, the ice skating rink is fun to watch, and I love to stop by this flower shop and see what they have outside. It was especially pretty with Christmas flowers and greens the other day and they must be used to me taking pictures outside their shop.

Just look at these bunches of cut amaryllis...uh-mazing.

Pretty bunches of hydrangeas...

And all around the streets and the stores were these planters, with this red holly and the chartreusey false cypress.  I have seen these hollies a lot this year, some of the nurseries are showcasing it--it's called Winterberry. I don't remember it in years past, but it's a deciduous holly that loses its leaves and just the berries remain in the winter. Adrian Higgins even wrote an article about it recently in The Post, about a variety called 'Sparkleberry' (isn't that a great name?) which is a cross between our native winterberry and the japanese version.  Most grow pretty tall, to about 6 feet, but these in the planters must be a dwarf variety. Whatever, I think they would be an amazing addition to the winter garden, in front of some other evergreens, or as a specimen,  and I may just have to get a Sparkleberry for my own winter garden.

Christmas Brunch

Mel, Mary, Liz, Gillian, Ellen, Norene, Sue

Every Christmas my book group meets in December for a holiday brunch in Leesburg. We don't discuss a book, we just drink mimosas and eat a lot of eggs and bacon and lots of other good things (it's a buffet). We have been going to the same place for the past five or six years, and we've even had the same waitress, who remembers us from year to year, takes our picture, and comments on our holiday attire. We are in our 13th year of reading books together and we actually manage to focus on the books most of the time. And in case you are interested, here are the books we've read in 2012:

The Dovekeepers, by Alice Hoffman
Moon Tiger, by Penelope Lively
Nightwoods, by Charles Frazier
Little Bee, by Chris Cleave
The Sense of An Ending, by Julian Barnes
Swamplandia, b y Karen Russell
Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn

Friday Fleurs

It's raining this morning, but the past few days have been beautiful, cool and sunny. Yesterday I went looking for some color in the garden, and it's amazing what you can find when you look close enough--even in December.

"Toast"

I thought about this poem as I made my cinnamon toast this chilly morning.


Toast, by Susan Deborah King

It's worth getting up for.
Just at dawn, on a dead-of-winter walk,
I could smell it wafting from homes
all around the lake as they
emerged from the dark like loaves
from an oven, steaming.
Is there an aroma more divine
than that of bread warming, bread
browning, crisping for the spread
of butter and marmalade, the sprinkling
of sugared cinnamon? Whatever
terrors the night might harbor,
how bad can it get, if hot slices
stack our morning plate, the white
ones patterned with cobalt blue?
It's what in the current vernacular
we'll all eventually be: a pleasant
redolence rising and haloing
a roughed up, frozen expanse--
for such days, we make
not-too-burnt offering of thanks;
we raise our glasses of juice.

Bare Trees

Japanese Maple

It looks like the leaves are finally off the trees, except for the oaks of course, which hold on to their leaves for most of the winter. I love seeing the bare bones of my trees, all those gnarls and folds, all that strength. It's the best time, too, to really take a look at the trees and their shape and see what needs to be trimmed. I usually look at them all winter and then call my tree guy in February. I had a lot of pruning done last February, though, so they should be in pretty good shape.

Kousa Dogwood

It's been incredibly warm here the past few days, in the 70s yesterday, but it is supposed to cool down tonight and then get increasingly cooler. Thank goodness. I am so ready for some winter weather--even snow!!

Zelkova

River Birch

 One suprising spot of color in my yard this week is this brilliant yellow privet hedge. I don't remember noticing it in past years, but it's really amazing this year.

Privet Hedge

Broken Harbor

This is the third novel I've read by Tana French, and I am hooked. I guess you would call her books psychological thrillers/police procedurals, with the Dublin murder squad trying to solve and understand a murder. In this book, the crime is the assault of a young couple and their two children in their house, with the husband and children dead and the wife in critical condition with multiple stab wounds.  Their house, in a town called Brianstown but once known as Broken Harbor, is in an upscale housing development built during a housing boom in Ireland but which is  now mostly unfinished and abandoned. When the police enter the house, they find numerous holes smashed in the walls and ceilings, covered with chicken wire, and video monitors everywhere. The suspect in the case just doesn't seem to fit, despite compelling evidence and a confession.  The detective running the show is Mick Kennedy, who was a minor character in Faithful Place, but here he is in charge of the investigation, along with his rookie partner, Richie. Together they piece together the lives of the victims, interview friends and family and neighbors, and struggle to understand what happened in that house. This is a complicated and slow paced story with many complex issues of financial failure, murder, love, and mental illness. Lurking behind the story is Mick's own family history at Broken Harbor, which is alluded to but not revealed until the end. The author's strength is definitely her development and insight into her characters.

I have read The Likeness and Faithful Place by Tana French, and while I think I liked Faithful Place 
the most,  this one is close.  If you like a detailed and complex police action novel, you might like this one.

Winterlikes

Starting to get in the Christmas groove this weekend...

On Sunday morning Gillian and I drove out towards Leesburg to hit Bluemount Nursery on Route 7  and look at wreaths and trees and Christmas greeneries. We filled her little VW bug right up with poinsettias and greens and baby Christmas trees. I am such a sucker for poinsettias, I could just buy them by the dozens. Get ready to see lots of poinsettias here in the next month. I love them massed together, I like them lined up on a bench, I like them mixed in with houseplants, I like one by itself on my bedside table. Of course it's always a dilemma which colors to get. I usually go with the pinky varieties, but this year I got a red spotted one called Jingle Bells that I couldn't resist, and some smaller white ones too. And a pink one...

Loved these mossy covered bags and baskets--no, E and P, did not get them for my cookie exchange containers, but wouldn't they be cool?

Garden on December 1