Orchid: Color of the Year

Breaking News: Pantone announced  yesterday that they have selected this luscious color for the 2014 Color of the Year. Last year the Color of the Year was Emerald (my fav) but I like the new color too. I find as I get older I like color more and more.

"While the 2013 color of the year, Pantone 17-5641 Emerald, served as a symbol of growth, renewal and prosperity, Radiant Orchid reaches across the color wheel to intrigue the eye and spark the imagination," said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute in a news release Thursday. "Radiant Orchid inspires confidence and emanates great joy, love and health. It is a captivating purple, one that draws you in with its beguiling charm." 

I love that orchid color and it made me take a look at my own orchids. I have one that is almost exactly the color above. It's not blooming now, but my white orchid is blooming its little heart out right now.

And another one is waiting in the wings, sending up that spike that will soon be covered in blooms. Orchids are the best indoor flowering plant, as they are really easy care and when they do bloom, they bloom for months. Last year one of my orchids bloomed from February through July. Yea orchid! If you love the color too,  Lowe's will be carrying the paint, and it will undoubtedly carry over into fashion, furniture, and textiles in 2014. We'll see.

The Ponds

The Ponds, by Mary Oliver

“Still, what I want in my life

is to be willing

to be dazzled –

to cast aside the weight of facts

and maybe even

to float a little

above this difficult world.

I want to believe I am looking

into the white fire of a great mystery.

I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing –

that the light is everything — that it is more than the sum

of each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do.”

Winter Garden

After what seems like days of cooking and eating and cleaning up my kitchen, it felt good on Sunday to get outside in the yard and in my garden. While everyone else in our neighborhood was putting up Christmas lights and reindeer on their roofs, we finished raking and mulching what I hope are the last of the leaves, and I emptied a few remaining pots. I did some major cleanup in the front garden, cutting back a lot of perennials that I often leave over the winter, but I was just in the mood to work so I decided to keep cutting and raking. Down with the anemones, peonies, asters, phlox. The more I do now, the less work in the spring, right?  I did leave the sedums and baptisia for now. And then there's the back yard...

The garden looks so bare and gray this morning.  Now it just needs a nice layer of pretty snow.

And just so we remember, here's what this front garden looked like in June.

Later in the afternoon, I went to Merrifield  because this weekend was their Holiday Open House and I wanted to see if they had any unusual holiday garden decorations.  They have really beautiful greens and wreaths and I picked up some greens and some poinsettias for the house. I am wanting to try an outdoor pot with greens, using branches from my yard, but I picked up a few specialty greens (winterberry, cedar lime, and some firs), so we'll see how that turns out.

Thanksgiving 2013

I totally forgot I had these photos of Thanksgiving, so here are a few shots of Turkey Day a little late. We had a great Thanksgiving dinner with the Langes and the Bensons, and with both our kids at home. Before dinner we watched some football of course, played some games, and Julia was a crafty girl, making a poster for everyone to write on what they were thankful for, and hand lettered place cards on real leaves. So great to be with our family and friends.

And whipped creme à la Aunt Evie

Thanksgiving Prep

Today is a busy day for me, lots to do in the kitchen getting ready for Thanksgiving tomorrow. I kind of like this busy day in the kitchen by myself, listening to the radio and preparing all the side dishes and sauces.  Sometimes Julia is here to help (or more usually to sit and talk to me while I cook!), but she isn't flying in to DC until tonight. Brooks will be here tomorrow, along with Bob and Carol and their boys,  and our good friends Gillian and Benny.  Lots to do today, but I'm ready. Well, maybe one more stop at the grocery store...

Many of my go-to Thanksgiving recipes are from this 1999 issue of Gourmet magazine. Believe me, I treasure this old copy of Gourmet. I miss you, Gourmet.

Winter Blooms

Well, my Christmas cactus is blooming right on schedule--during Thanksgiving week. Mine always seems to bloom early, no matter what I do, which means I will probably buy another Christmas cactus when I am in the nursery next time (because I can't resist them) and that's why I have so many Christmas cactus in my house. My new amaryllis arrived on Saturday from White Flower Farm, so I quickly unpacked it and watered it and put it in a sunny window. I'll keep you posted.

It's a busy week getting ready for Thanksgiving. I spent yesterday cleaning the house and cleaning the refrigerator, making room for the turkey and all the other food that is starting to make its way into the house. I think I've been to the grocery store every day for the past five days.

It's really really cold here right now, and we had lots of wind yesterday. My Japanese Maple was so pretty this fall, good thing I took this picture of it last week, as I think all the leaves are down now. There's not much of interest to take pictures of outside right now. We need some snow to pretty things up!

Garden Clogs

I finally broke down and bought new gardening clogs this week. I have had the same pair of green Birkenstock garden clogs for probably 15 years.  My old green clogs have cracked and the cork insoles have practically dissolved from all the years of use, and dirt and being left out in the rain.  I have tried other garden shoes but Birks are my favorite by far. They are sturdy, very comfortable, and easy to hose off.  They are pricey but I think they are worth it for all the use they get, both in and out of the garden. And they're red!

Thinking Amaryllis

Today I am going to finally make my decision and order an amaryllis bulb from the White Flower Farm catalogue. Every year I get their catalogue and look through it and never buy anything. Sometimes I will pick up a bulb at the garden center, or I get one as a gift, but today I am going to choose one that I really want. I was encouraged to do this by a friend at work, who buys one every year from White Flower Farm. Now she has a collection of about 15 amaryllis that usually bloom at the same time. Wouldn't that be spectacular? These first pictures are my Apple Blossom amaryllis that I have had for a few years, and its blooms last January. It is still in the basement right now, hibernating for another week or so when I will bring it out, top it off with some fresh soil, place it in a sunny window, and wait for some signs of life. In the meantime...I am ordering a new one!

WFF groups their amaryllis bulbs by color. I had made a note in my garden journal to look for 'Green Dragon', but they don't seem to carry that one, pictured below. Of course I love that greeny-white color. Oh well.

'Green Dragon'

If I can't find 'Green Dragon,' I find myself being pulled to this simple white one with crimson edges, 'Picotee.' But alas, they are sold out. Darn.

'Picotee'

On to another fav, the bi-colors. I like pretty much all of these, they're so dramatic.

'Amorice'

'Dancing Queen'

'Tres Chic'

And the winner is-- 'Tres Chic." It's that apple green center that got me.  Now I just have to get online and get it ordered before it sells out. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Van Gogh at the Phillips

Beautiful Japanese Maple and Beautiful Building in Washington, DC

Walt and I went downtown yesterday afternoon to see a special exhibit at the Phillips Collection, 'Van Gogh's Repetitions.' On display were about 30 works of Van Gogh,  borrowed from museums around the world (many from the Musee d'Orsay in Paris)  and that show how he often painted different versions of the same subject. It was interesting to see the changes he made with successive paintings, adding a book here, an umbrella on a table, flowers in the background. The Phillips is a nice museum, just the right size for an hour or so of viewing. I was especially happy to see one of my favorites on display, a painting of his bedroom in Arles, titled simply 'The Bedroom.'  I wasn't allowed to take any pictures of the paintings, of course, so I have included a few from the internet. There were three or more versions of each painting on view.

'The Bedroom'

The exhibit was a joint project between the Phillips Collection and the Cleveland Museum of Art, and it will go to Cleveland after it closes in DC in January 2014.

'The Road Menders'

'La Berceuse'

A Long and Gracious Fall

A Long and Gracious Fall, by David Budbill

A long and gracious fall this year.
The leaves are down. Gardens: emptied,
manured, tilled, smooth, and waiting.
Mower and tiller serviced and put away.

Smoker put away, as is the summer table.
Prayer flags, windsocks and their poles: down.
Twenty-foot homemade badminton poles,
peace flag at the top of one, store-bought net--
all down and put away for another year. No more
outdoor summer chores.

Fall planting--peonies and tiger lilies--done.
Summer flower stalks removed, beds mulched,
a blanket for the cold. Fall pruning done.

Woodshed roof hammered down and sealed again.
Cellar closed. Drive staked and flagged so the
snowplow knows where to go.

What else is there to do? Finally, for once we are ready
for the snow. Ready now to come inside. Time now for

words and music, poems, and shakuhachi. Time now
to light some incense, sit and stare at candlelight.

Sycamore Row

Just finished this latest book by John Grisham, and I enjoyed it. I haven't been a fan of many of his later books, but I guess I was in the mood for a good legal thriller. This one takes up with Jake Brigance, the lawyer we met in Grisham's first book, A Time to Kill, and in the same town of Clanton, Mississippi. The story takes place three years after the case that made Jake famous, but the controversial verdict has left him struggling and broke. This story begins when Seth Hubbard,  a wealthy and reclusive business man dying of lung cancer, hangs himself from a sycamore tree in Clanton, Mississippi.  He leaves a handwritten will leaving most of his fortune to his black housekeeper, Lettie,  and nothing to his two children. Before his death he mailed a letter to Jake, asking him to represent his wishes and to make sure that the will is honored. So begins the battle, in and out of the courtroom, as Jake and his colorful cast of legal characters try to unravel the mystery of Seth Hubbard. It's a good story, good characters, with lots of twists and turns in the story. You kind of know where it's going, but it's enjoyable getting there.

Fall Clean Up Continues

Yesterday was Veteran's Day, so both Walt and I were off work. I worked outside most of the afternoon, a chilly but sunny day,  continuing to clean up the gardens and also brought in all the birdhouses and garden ornaments. I also decided to bring in all my succulents, which I store in the garage over the winter. A few are looking pretty ratty after a couple of years, so I dumped a few.

 This was a big leaf raking weekend in our neighborhood, it seemed everyone was out raking leaves on Sunday. We mulch our leaves with our lawn mower,  but most of our neighbors rake them into the street for the town to pick up. I had to laugh watching one of my neighbors rake all his leaves into a huge pile by the curb. As soon as he was finished and went into his house, two little boys who live down the street came by with a wheelbarrow. They started taking load after load of his leaves down to their own yard and dumped the leaves in their front yard.  I wonder what their father had to say about that! Of course this morning it looks like no one raked at all as there are leaves everywhere.

Friday Fleurs: Fall

Yesterday was gray and rainy for most of the day, but in the late afternoon the sun came out and the light was beautiful. I walked around my yard with camera in hand, catching the light in the leaves, all those gorgeous colors,  and the beautiful blue sky. Have I said how much I love fall?