Under a Blue Moon

Yippee!

The Pom Pom Maison online etailer is now open for business. Is that not the most gorgeous picture ever? That’s linen people. Lovely 100%, softer each time you wash it, linen. I wanted the title of this post to convey someone wriggling in their chair with glee but wasn’t sure how to type that. I keep seeing their beautiful bed linens in magazines but didn’t have easy access to any brick and mortar store that carries their line. So I am thrilled to death that you can now order online. We can all play now!

Just the pictures on their website make me happy. I will own this duvet. I will. While I love the white linen bedclothes the master of the house (also known as Belle the cat) would take one look at it and make every black hair on her body fly off and stick permanently to it. She’s also prone to bringing dead creatures in for us and plopping them on our bed. Thank you Belle. So I’m going for something that will disguise the muddy pawprints a little more. I also love the the combination of flax and white together.

I was actually pleasantly surprised at the prices on the site – much more affordable than I was anticipating. And here I was all set to auction off a child or two.

The only downside I can see to all this is that I’m not going to get out of bed once I have it all made up like that. Nope. I’ll be conducting all my business dans ma chambre à coucher.

Lots of fun afoot this upcoming weekend. We’re heading up to Apple Hill. My father, sister, brother-in-law and niece are coming up for the weekend. We’re going to be gathering apples and making a lovely fall dinner on Saturday. Pork roast, home made apple sauce, carrot ginger soup and other assorted autumnal fare. More to come on that subject for sure.

Is it Friday yet?

Writing

English was always my favorite and best subject in school (well except when I went to college and I seemed to really shine in cafeteria as in "oh I don’t feel like going to Intro to Dramatic Lit – let’s hang in the cafeteria instead…"). I’ve often said if I had to do it over again I would have become a linguist and really study the English language and it’s origins.

Instead my career, such as it is, took a different route. I actually sort of ended up doing what I do (corporate training) because I had a stint writing procedural documentation for the company. I realize that sounds really really boring but I actually liked it. I would take a bunch of nonsensical documents, checklists, oral dictation and jottings on napkins and turn them into viable standard operating procedures. I loved grasping the subject and documenting it in a way that was understandable by anyone. Creating training isn’t all that different. You just get to throw in pictures now and then. Probably why I’m liking this blogging business so much.

I do rely heavily on some crutches. This is one of them. Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English by Patricia T. O’Connor.

Another staple in any writer’s library is Strunk & White’s Elements of Style. I suppose everyone knows that though. I still have my much dog-earred copy that I bought in 1978 (when I was two and just learning how to write….).

But really my biggest crutch is the constant rereading and strutiny of my entries for errors. I’m sure I don’t catch them all. But thank goodness you can go back and edit – that’s all I’m saying.

For fun I am currently reading The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. Not necessarily the best book ever written but certainly entertaining and occasionally she turns a phrase that is just so pretty I have to stop and reread it. "A story so cherished it had to be dressed in casualness to disguise its significance in case the listener turned out to be unsympathetic." Can’t you just feel so clearly what the author means? Why can’t I write like that? I fear my style is, well, somewhat procedural sounding. Or dull. Sorry faithful readers. I’m trying to improve.

Anne Lamotte’s book on writing, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life has plenty of nuggets of fabulous advice but the one that sticks out the most – and I’m totally paraphrasing – is to just plonk it all out on paper (or screen, as the case may be) and then go back and edit edit edit. This advice has served me well both professionally and personally. Just get it all out and then go back and take out what you don’t need, add what you do. There. Your point is now across.

I’m going to post this now. Then update it a gazillion times as I catch my typos and errors. Feel free to point any out. I’m the sort that is grateful for that kind of thing. You know, "excuse me – you have a big green thing stuck in your teeth" only in this case it’s inappropriate use of apostrophes or spelling definitely incorrectly (my personal pet peeve). You all can watch my back.

Edit update count: 1 2 3

Gamble Gardens

Gazebo in the perennial garden

For the first half of every week I am in Palo Alto, CA and today I took advantage of that fact and that it was a gorgeous day and took a late lunch at the Gamble Gardens.

First a little history lesson, my dears….

Elizabeth F. Gamble was born in 1880 and moved to Palo Alto in 1901 with her parents when her older brother was attending Stanford University. She lived in the house her entire life and gave the estate and its 2 1/2 acres of gardens to the city of Palo Alto with the stipulation that she and her brother be allowed to live there for the rest of their lives. Her brother passed away in 1972 and Elizabeth in 1981.

The main house

In 1985 the city approved plans to lease the estate to the Elizabeth F. Gamble Foundation, a non-profit group that restored the gardens to their original plans. Elizabeth was quite an accomplished gardner and took great pride and joy in sharing her garden during her life. The gardens are open, free to the public, year round. You can also visit inside the house during the week from 9:00am-12:00pm

I think my poking around on my lunch break was just the sort of thing she had in mind when she gave her home to the city. The gardens are starting to wane a bit but are still lovely and still quite in bloom.

Looking towards the working beds

Visiting in the Springtime is especially lovely because the Wisteria is in bloom and it smells heavenly.

Even not in bloom the Wisteria garden is lovely. How many times can I work the word ‘lovely’ into this post?

Wisteria garden

Okay – no more lecture. Just more pictures.

Ampelopsis Brevipedunculata in the gazebo

This was a really interesting vine covering half of the gazebo. The berries are the most beautiful combination of turquoise and magenta. I’ve never seen anything like it. Go ahead, click on the picture to enlarge it. I’ll wait here. Aren’t they pretty? Is that turquoise or robin’s egg blue do you suppose?

Buxus sepmpervirens rabbitus

Cherry Allee and Grotto

Look! Fall color in California!

Waverly Street, Palo Alto

I grew up in Palo Alto and this shot is very typical of the pretty, tree-lined streets.

I had a very dear friend that was paralyzed in his early 20’s in diving accident. He loved the gardens and found it to be very accessible to him in his motorized wheel chair. He passed away in his early 40’s and his memorial was held in gardens. Another fitting use, I’m sure Elizabeth would think.

Yes it is quite lovely.

Laundry

I have a confession – I love to do laundry. It’s one of the few household chores that I actually look forward to. Unlike bed making, for example. There is something very satisfying about taking a load of laundry out of the dryer, folding it and putting it away. Part of it, I’m sure, is how aromatic it is. The smell of laundry drying has to be one of those scents that is a permanent memory. You can be walking down the street and get a whiff of someone who must be using the same laundry detergent your mother did and it takes you right back to your childhood.

I also like ironing linens – table runners, napkins, handkerchiefs, lacy pillow cases. I found this lovely lavender linen spray that I’ve long since used but I like the bottle so much I buy another brand and transfer the contents into this bottle.

Ironing was never my mother’s favorite chore. Our ironing board was set up in the garage and next to it was a huge trunk that was full of my father’s laundered, crumpled dress shirts. I think my mother kept buying him new ones so she wouldn’t have face that trunk full of ironing.

Ironing is one of those things that I do right handed. Growing up left handed there are several things that I just never learned to do with my proper hand – mainly because I learned by watching and because of how the ironing board was set up. I was forever burning my poor useless left hand because it didn’t know what do to with itself and my right hand was a little out of control. It never occurred to me that I could just stand on the other side of the ironing board.

Here’s a great book on general housekeeping tips. I refer to it all the time. Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson.

She covers just about every housekeeping topic imaginable and freely admits to being somewhat obsessive about house cleaning. Her topics are thoroughly researched and written in a very engaging, entertaining way. Her index is very easy to use so you can find an entry easily and quickly ~ like if you have just managed to spill melted red candle wax onto your pale carpet and need to get it up in a hurry before a certain someone gets home and has a heart attack. Or perhaps there has been bloodshed on your parent’s very expensive Persian rug and rather than moving all the furniture out of the living room, moving the carpet in the opposite direction so said bloodstain will now be under the couch and not detected until one’s parents move five years later you could actually clean it. Not like that would ever happen in real life or anything…but if it did this book could have saved a lot of explaining.

It’s a great housewarming present along with some nice linen water.

Le bain

I love seeing posts about other people’s homes. So in the spirit of sharing you get ~ my bathroom. I’m actually very pleased with this bathroom. It is an homage to my very favorite bathroom ever – the one in my room at the Sacher Hotel in Vienna. That was some bathroom. All pale grey marble and nickel. Thirsty white towels and pretty glass shelves. I took half a roll of film in that bathroom, standing precariously on top of the toilet to get the perfect shot.

One thing I noticed about European bathrooms is that they almost always have a towel warmer. Why haven’t Americans embraced this idea? Most were made from the hot water pipe that feeds the shower. Very clever, don’t you think? They would have a snakey bit of the exposed pipe that you would hang your towel on and as you were showering your towels was warming up.

This bathroom was the impetus for us to do a major remodel on our house. The original bathroom was wallpapered to within an inch of it’s life and had just a shower curtain over a shallow tub. Initially we were just going to put in a $300 shower door. Then we thought we might consider getting a deeper tub. Next thing you know we’ve hired a general contractor and we’ve gutted all the bathrooms in the house, replaced all the flooring in the entire house, replaced all the interior doors, added moldings and trims, retextured the ceilings and walls and painted every paintable surface. A little more than our $300 budget. We were victim to that "well as long as were going to do THAT why don’t we also do THIS" mindset.

It did turn out nicely I think. If you ever are a guest at our house then this will be your bathroom.

New and noteworthy

When my entry for the day doesn’t have a theme I never know what type of picture I should post. I love pictures in blogs. It’s why I like magazines so much. I’m very much a visual person. I have a hard time picturing something in my mind. I need it spelled out for me.

Today you get total randomness:

Three of my sisters and me waiting to board an airplane in Buenos Aires? I think Buenos Aires. Guess which one I am? Yep. The tormented one. My sister Mary looks to be the tomentor but I actually think she is trying to comfort me. My bet is on Kate who has kind of a sly smile going on. Nicole looks like she would rather be a bobillion miles away from us. As this is a black and white photo you can’t tell that my mother has dressed the three younger (and more easily persuaded) ones in matching plaid skirts and red jackets. I think my mother had this notion that traveling children need to wear red jackets. I think the real reason for my dismay is the goofy criss crossing of my skirt’s suspenders. I remember hating that. It just seemed so babyish that I couldn’t wear them like my older sisters.

Or maybe it’s the bangs.

Anyway – this is so not the point of this entry. Let’s move on.

Every blog listed to the right is wonderful and noteworthy and visited by me daily. I’m rather new to this whole blogging business but I get immense enjoyment out of reading my list of favorites here. If you are on my list and reading this ~ Thank you. And if you aren’t on the list it’s probably because I don’t know you have one – leave a comment with your link so I can check you out.

I did want to point out a couple of new additions to the list.

The Girl Who Ate Everything ~ I love how photorific her blog is. Makes me want more and more pictures in my own (of course it would help if I could take decent pictures). Her blog also makes me want to eat baguettes with creamy camembert cheese. It also makes me wish I was 20 and living in Paris.

Posy ~ She’s very crafty and her decorating style is the Cath Kidston, Rachel Ashwell type of style that I strive for but always end up looking like I’m trying too hard. She makes it look so effortless and just the way things evolved (which is actually probably exactly how it works at her house). It would also appear that she has MY garden. Well the one in my head anyway.

Bailiwick ~ Another clever, crafty sort. I love her photography – especially this picture – why don’t my pictures look like that? I love the pictures of the materials she uses in her projects. And if you check out her 9/29 post you can see a montage of some of her finished items. Gorgeous.

Thank you all for the inspiration and the eye candy.

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