Hello,
I have always longed to live somewhere where fireflies filled the night sky like a magic spell. Many years ago when my daughter was very young, I remember chatting with her on the phone while she was visiting family in Iowa with Grammy and Poppy. The wonder in her voice when describing her first encounter with lightning bugs, was indelible. Of course, this was the same trip when actual lightning struck the house, but that’s another story. We don’t have fireflies in the Pacific Northwest so I’ll settle for glimmers. This morning I received the latest
newsletter in which Ashley describes a “glimmer” as a trigger for joy. Simple pleasures and grand gestures that make us feel safe, connected, and at peace. Here are a few personal glimmers from the past week:Apricot jam that turns mealy fruit into a tart sweet spread that tastes like sunshine.
Picking daily fistfuls of fragrant but fleeting sweet peas.
Cool backyard shade and a spontaneous visit with neighbors.
Several clenching hugs from a dear friend whom I haven’t seen in years.
Now it’s your turn. I’m so glad you’re here.
xo Lorene
Colors
July 12, 2023
Cover girl portrait. My publisher’s book designers choose my color study of a shockingly saturated magenta rose for the cover of Color In and Out of the Garden.
Magenta is a common color in the natural world, yet most people have a complicated relationship with this loud hue. Not me. Nobody puts Baby in the corner.
July 13, 2023
Still a rose.
Look at all those nuanced colors hiding behind the blossoms. These hips are from a delicate white spray rose that quickly shattered its petals. I think I prefer this stage.
July 14, 2023
Our very lives once hinged on green.
Yet in the garden, green is so ubiquitous that it is seemingly invisible, hidden in plain sight. Faced with a purely green landscape, most gardeners yearn for “a spot of color” to leaven the sameness of all that potent fertility.
Green is more than a color; it is the photosynthetic driver that powers our existence, feeding our bodies and filling our lungs with breath.
—from my book, Color In and Out of the Garden
July 15, 2023
Last year, deep in the throes of my nasturtium crush, I found a couple of “special” varieties from Eden Brothers. They were delightful — but then most nasturtiums are. I saved seeds from my best plants, but this year my tray-sown spring seedlings didn’t make it, falling victim to a spring heat wave and a gardener’s distraction—that would be me. All I could do was hope for a few self-sown plants that might come true after hosting a veritable pollination party last year.
‘Vesuvius’ is “a soft salmon with a manageable” growth habit. It was the first to appear in late spring. Unlike most people in the Pacific Northwest, I am not fond of salmon (the fish) when served on a plate—I love the glorious beasts in the water. So I’m dubbing this beauty creamsicle. Everyone likes ice cream.
But there was no sign of the prized ‘Purple Emperor’. Until now. This deep violet, regal variety is at it’s best in cooler weather when the colors are strong, the blooms tend to wash out in heat (as do I.) This past week I discovered at least three plants in my garden beds, which I will baby through the summer in anticipation of holding a royal court in late summer into fall.
And you can bet I’ll be picking mixed nasturtium posies for my heirloom vase, possibly even displacing my beloved sweet peas.
July 16, 2023
This summer I’m cultivating flavor over crops and genuinely questioning why I persist in growing food. It’s not because I’m good at it. I’ve spent more time on my blossom-less (ergo fruitless) strawberries than any other plant in the garden.
Pride is involved, right there alongside shame. I’ve written so many words about “growing your own” “guide to” and other authoritative sounding directions for a backyard harvest. But at the end of the day or season, I’m often disappointed and without: without berries, without fresh greens, and after 100+ days, left with only enough fava beans for a meal, maybe two.
I would never invest this kind of energy in cultivating a disappointing plant. My garlic isn’t bulking up to the size I was hoping for (again— a crop that’s been occupying space in this little plot since last October!!!! Why?!?). But I harvested the scapes and made a batch of pesto.
This conversation (with myself) is ongoing. But I’d sure love to know why my perfectly hale and hearty strawberries aren’t producing blossoms.
July 17, 2023
An offering from an undersea garden.
July 18, 2023
Today is a very special BLUE DOOR DAY* - the twins are 4!! Never did I ever imagine the pull on my heart for these grand-littles. Watching them and their parents (and grandparents and aunties and uncles) grow into a family is one of my greatest joys. I’ve grown as well. Today I am Nana, a role that at one time I felt was reserved only for my Nana. And Papi—well let’s just say he was born to this stage of life.
What’s a blue door day? I’m glad you asked:
“There was a time when all of the interior doors in our home were painted cornflower blue. Every significant day in the life of our household was captured in a photo in front of a blue door, from kindergarten to prom to college to the first day of a new job. These days most of the doors have been repainted, but “Blue Door Days” remain a part of the loving lexicon of our family.”
— Color In and Out of the Garden.
In the store
Send a postcard. Drop a note. Gift a hostess, camp counselor, teacher. Frame a teeny tiny (4 3/4-inch square) print. Stick to a refrigerator. Tuck into a care package… Postcards are magic.
Check out Pansies and Shells (2 each of 6 images) or Grid (10 of the same image) All sets come with or without envelopes.
Enter the code: CHILL at checkout and save 20% through the end of July.
just for fun
Celebrate your own Blue Door Day with botanical confetti consisting of dried petals. Think roses, bachelor buttons, pansies, larkspur, calendula, marigold, borage, poppies, lavender, dianthus, bee balm, cosmos, feverfew, I think you get my drift.
To download a printable pdf, follow the link below to access everything in the subscriber resource library, including instructions for crafting floral confetti.
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