Garden Roses

What are you up to this weekend? I am still enjoying the flowers from a dinner party we had on Monday night. Cutting roses from the garden and making an arrangement for the table is one of the true pleasures of life. Especially at this time of year! That is exactly what I did the other day when we were having friends over for dinner. This year has been a banner year for our roses. When there are so many blooms available it is easy to put together a beautiful arrangement. I especially like an abundance of one type, massed together in a single container. The pink roses with the blue and white china looked fresh and pretty. It felt like a little celebration of spring!

 Using these Royal Copenhagen dishes that belonged to my mother-in-law always makes me happy since they remind me of her. I love mixing them with other blue and white dishes. The chargers stay on the table between courses so the table always looks beautiful. Placemats and napkins by Heather Taylor Home completed the spring-like setting. 

The garden roses practically arranged themselves. There wasn't much to do other than trim and put them in a vase. These beauties just do their own thing. I kept the arrangement low to allow for free-flowing conversations across the table.

The early morning is my favorite time to pick flowers. I often take my coffee outside and walk in the garden to see what is going on. This time I was happy to see there were plenty of roses to make an arrangement.

Originally when we designed the garden I wanted a palette of pinks, purples and blues, but now I love the addition of strong colors such as red and orange.

These orange roses look so pretty in the dappled sunlight

But the pinks are the stars this year and make the garden look beautifully lush. They would be perfect on the dining room table.

 I hope you get a chance to pick or buy some roses this weekend and make an arrangement for your home. Surrounding yourself with flowers is a reminder of nature, an affirmation of life, and a guaranteed mood lifter. Don't forget to include some extras and give a bouquet to a friend!

Happy Spring!

A Favorite Musical -- "She Loves Me"

Laura Benanti and Zachary Levi in She Loves Me

I first saw She Loves Me about thirty years ago in a small theater in Los Angeles and fell in love. It was funny, old-fashioned, and romantic -- a little jewel box of a musical. The music was beautiful with songs that were hard to get out of your head. I bought the CD and listened to it endlessly. I later saw a bigger production at the Music Center in Los Angeles and once again was in heaven. But I have to say that the production I saw in New York City last weekend was rapturous. Joy just emanates from the stage. It's the kind of joy that reminds you of why musicals exist -- to take us away from the irritations of the modern world and transport us to a simpler time. This show is filled with nostalgia. The cast is perfection and features Jane Krakowski as Ilona, one of the employees at a parfumerie shop in 1930's Budapest. She is divine in the role. The set is exquisite, like a box of chocolates. If you are in New York anytime soon and love musicals, be sure to see this one. You won't be disappointed.

You might well ask: what is She Loves Me? It opened on Broadway in 1963 and starred Barbara Cook. That casting makes a lot of sense since the role of Amalia Balash is a dream role for any soprano and Barbara Cook must have been dazzling. Laura Benanti plays the role in the current production and she is excellent. The story is about a pair of feuding co-workers in a Budapest parfumerie who don't realize they have been writing anonymous love letters to each other as part of a Lonely Hearts Society. Endless comedy ensues from this misunderstanding. Each morning George Nowack, Amalia, Ilona Ritter and the other employees who work for Mr. Maraczek at the Parfumerie open the shop and greet their customers. As they go about their work day, their personal stories unfold (in song, of course) and we learn that Ilona is having an affair with the playboy Steven Kodaly, Amalia and George constantly bicker, Mr. Maraczek is unhappy in his marriage and is taking it out on George, and the young delivery boy Arpad wants nothing so badly as to be treated like a grown-up and hired as a salesman. The tension builds as Amalia and George continue to write love letters to each other, unknowingly, and arrange a meeting. The music is by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick and the show is considered one of the most charming love stories in Broadway history.

If all this sounds familiar that's because She Loves Me is the third adaptation of the play Parfumerie by the Hungarian playwright Miklos Laszlo. There was a 1940 James Stewart-Margaret Sullivan movie The Shop Around the Corner and later a 1949 Judy Garland-Van Johnson musical version In the Good Old Summertime. It surfaced again in 1998 as the Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan film You've Got Mail. Add some enchanting music, gorgeous costumes, an exquisite old world setting, and humor that will remind you of the old Hollywood screwball comedies and you will get an idea of what this is all about.

If you don't get a chance to see the Broadway musical, buy the music. It has so much charm it will knock your socks off. And you will never think of "vanilla ice cream" the same way again. It is one of the most delightful songs. Watch as Laura Benanti hits that high note!

I would love to know: have you seen She Loves Me and are you a fan?

April Showers, May Flowers

A rainy weekend in Los Angeles is always a good thing since we desperately need the rain. In fact, we get a little giddy about it here in L.A. It rained off and on all day on Friday and Saturday. Which made me very happy as I was in the mood for a cozy weekend at home. There were so many things I wanted to catch up on. Here are a few activities that made the rain far from a nuisance, but instead a lovely accompaniment...

Watching some good television--

 "Outlander" is back. Did you watch it? Season Two began on Saturday night. If you are already a fan, then you know (not giving away spoilers here) from last season that Jamie and Claire are in in France this time. The costumes are gorgeous and of course those two are not so hard on the eyes. This is escapist television at its best.

Catching up on my reading--

I am completely under the spell of these books. The story of two women in a working class neighborhood of Naples whose lifelong friendship endures despite incredible odds has kept me enthralled through two books now. This one deals with the marriage of Lila and the continuing education of Elena and her quest to move beyond the neighborhood she finds so stifling. 

Running outside in between rain showers to take photos of the garden--

I love how it looks on a rainy day. The irises in the fountain are starting to flower!

 The David Austin roses in the front garden are looking so good right now

 These graceful and frilly ones remind me of ballet tutus. It felt good to get back into photography; it  makes you look at the world differently. My goal is to bring my camera with me now wherever I go, not just my iPhone!

Planning our trip to London--

This was a great weekend to pull out my books and notes on London and decide what we want to do this time. I am thrilled to know that Kenneth Branagh's stage production of Romeo and Juliet will be playing at the Garrick Theatre and Swan Lake in the Round at the Royal Albert Hall.  I hope to see them both! There is always something new to do in London...

Learning about this artist--

The New York Review of Books has a great article on the French artist Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun and I want to learn all I can about her before seeing this exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

Doing a little research and mulling over a fascinating lecture by Hermione Lee from last week--

I went to a fabulous event last Thursday in Pasadena. It was a lecture by renowned English biographer Dame Hermione Lee. My friends and I got a chance to meet her and say how much we enjoyed her biography of Edith Wharton. She was lovely. She has also written biographies of Virginia Woolf, Penelope Fitzgerald, and Willa Cather. Her topic that evening was "Gardens of the Mind: Writers, Gardens and Biography." Did you know that American writers such as Edith Wharton and Willa Cather featured only European-inspired gardens in their books? This was all the rage at the time. She talked about the "cross-cultural garden moment at the turn of the twentieth-century." I dipped into her Edith Wharton biography this weekend in preparation for my book club's discussion of The House of Mirth later this week. What a treasure trove that book is!

And after the rain--

 Joseph's Coat rose climbing on our porch

The sun is shining today and there is no better way to start the week than in the garden. It was a cozy and productive weekend. The rain was great and so beneficial for our gardens. The peak of the season is right around the corner. Don't forget to get your tickets for the Robinson Gardens Tour on May 14. It's going to be fabulous this year!

April showers really do bring May flowers!

Hello, April!

"...before she had been five minutes within its walls...she quitted it again, stealing away through the winding shrubberies, now just beginning to be in beauty, to gain a distant eminence."

-- Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility

It's hard to believe that April is here. Wasn't it just Christmas? Well, spring has truly arrived and it's always an exciting time for gardeners. Inspired by the new month, I made myself a cup of tea and pulled out some of my favorite garden books. I perused In the Garden with Jane Austen by Kim Wilson, a lovely book I bought last time I was in England. This book is about two of my favorite things: gardens and Jane Austen. Both are purveyors of so much pleasure. I should have known that someone would write a book about the two of them. I am happy to say that this book is an utter delight -- beautiful and informative. Here are some of the interesting facts I learned about the connections between Jane Austen and gardens:

Not surprisingly, Jane Austen was a garden lover. But she was also a hands-on gardener. No matter where she was living, she took an avid interest in flower gardening and kitchen gardening alike. 

The Austens grew their own food whenever they could and had flower gardens in most of their homes. In Jane's letters to her sister Cassandra she writes about her ideas for the planting of fruit, flowers, and trees. At Chawton cottage they planted peas, potatoes, gooseberries, currants and strawberries. Their favorite flowers were pinks, sweet Williams, hollyhocks, and columbines. Suitably old-fashioned!

During her life, Jane visited many of the grand gardens of England, including her brother's two estates at Chawton and Godmersham and the manor houses of friends and family. Scholars have speculated that she probably saw the gardens at the great estate of Chatsworth; it was probably the inspiration for Pemberley, Darcy's magnificent estate in Pride and Prejudice.

Gardens play a big role in her novels. Every house that is mentioned includes a garden and many of Jane Austen's characters find themselves there. Gardens are places for walking, talking and scheming. They are places of peace and spiritual refreshment. And they are settings for romance, marriage proposals and weddings. 

The Austen women had moved from house to house after Jane's father died in 1805, but Chawton Cottage finally provided them with a place to call home. Although the Austen family lived modestly, Jane's brother Edward became a rich man when he was adopted by the Knights, a wealthy, distantly related family who were childless and needed a male heir. He took their name, becoming Edward Austen Knight. He was generous to his mother and sisters, offering them a choice of two houses he had inherited through the Knight inheritance. They chose Chawton Cottage. Doesn't this all sound familiar? It reminds me of Emma and Sense and Sensibility. Jane was writing what she knew. 

The Jane Austen House Museum is a beautifully restored interpretation of what Chawton Cottage was like when Jane Austen lived there. It is open to the public. The gardens contain examples of a working kitchen garden, espaliered fruit trees, a shrubbery, a herb garden, a rose garden, and numerous flower borders. All as it would have looked during Jane's lifetime. Inside the cottage there are family pictures, china, and furniture, including the little round table on which she wrote her novels.

After reading about Chawton Cottage, I became curious about its restoration and wondered when it happened and who was responsible. I got some answers from another garden book I love: The Writer's Garden by Jackie Bennett. Naturally there is a chapter on Jane Austen. Here is what I learned about the restoration. It is a fascinating story--

In 1940 two sisters, Dorothy and Beatrix Darnell, established the Jane Austen Society in order to rescue Chawton Cottage. However they did not receive all the money necessary for the restoration. A savior appeared in the form of Mr. T. Edward Carpenter. He bought Chawton Cottage and set up the Jane Austen Memorial Trust, opening the cottage as a museum in 1949. But in 1987 it was in a serious state of neglect. That was when an American entrepreneur and philanthropist, Sandy Lerner, stepped in and came to the rescue. An Austen fan and collector of early women's writing, she bought the lease on the house and set about restoring the house and gardens. She is responsible for its current condition. She also donated her own collection of rare books which, together with the Knight family books, created a library of 11,000 rare volumes. This became the Chawton House Library. The saga of saving the house and the people responsible could be the topic of another book! I would love to know more...   

Isn't it inspiring to learn about the angels who sweep in and save important historic homes and gardens, allowing the rest of us to enjoy them. Their generosity and devotion enable us to learn about the domestic lives of some of our most beloved authors.

If you enjoy garden books, you will love In the Garden with Jane Austen and The Writer's Garden. Both of them are lovely places to escape on a spring day. They will remind you of how important gardens were in so many writers' lives.

Wishing you a lovely first week of April!