A package...

Yesterday a package arrived in the mail. A weighty, crumpled box was handed to me, with a "Look out! It's heavy!" I, of course, quickly cut the straps and slit the layers of tape to find out what awaited me inside. Oh!!! It was the perfect thing for this week-end, since the weather forecast is calling for up to a foot of snow.




In my box was a whole stack of garden magazines! What more could you ask for on a cold, snowy winter day? Beautiful, beautiful pictures of brilliant, sunny, perfect gardens, inspiring me for my own garden, reminding me that, yes, one day, there will be green leaves and blooming flowers again.




All I have to do now is sit by the fire, sipping hot chocolate and slowly page through these gorgeous magazines. What? Oh, that’s right. Along with that stunning front porch that I don’t have, I also don’t have a fireplace. (What was I thinking when we bought this house???) Well, even though I don’t have a fireplace, and I don’t actually drink hot chocolate, I do have the lovely magazines that I will thoroughly enjoy.




In one of the magazines (I peeked already), I found this tidbit of information: “Women who were given flowers as part of a 2005 study by researchers at Rutgers University reported elevated moods for up to three days after receiving the bouquets. Those given fruit or candles reported no such change.” (Martha Stewart Living, March 2009, page 29)




So, thank you to that dear, special, wonderful person who sent me a bouquet of garden magazines in the middle of winter. You are a fine friend and a sweet sister.


Have a beautiful day!

Garden & Gun...

It was the first day of winter and I was desperate. I needed a garden magazine. O.K., so I am exaggerating here. I was in the local grocery store and I just wanted to look at a garden magazine, so I meandered over to the magazine section to see what they had. This is a small magazine section but there were the usual: health, fashion, cooking, men’s. But no garden magazines. Not really a surprise, given that it was indeed winter now. Oh, wait. There was one with “garden” in the title. Garden & Gun. How’s that for a name. Sounds like what would happen if my brother-in-law and I got together on a project.


Well, I ended up buying the magazine. Not for personal gratification, you understand. Simply in the interest of research. (Ha!) And after seeing the cover from the previous issue with a Sarracenia on it, I wish that was the copy I had found. I think that must be one of the Murphy’s Law variants; that in any given magazine, the information you want is in the previous issue. Or something like that.



Although I am not from the South and don’t have roots here, I really appreciated what the publisher, Rebecca Wesson Darwin, wrote about the magazine in her column: “In the twenty-first-century American South, there is a breed of modern men and women whose mind-set is at once old-world and new. They thrive on immersing themselves in the places and events that have always been a part of their lives. With respect for tradition, they seek innovation – the latest ideas, places, and people who are making things happen in the new South. Stewards of the land, they love the outdoors and long to conserve all the natural beauty the environment and the climate afford them. They seek a magazine that is contemporary yet classic, confident, sophisticated—a new kind of Southern magazine.”



This particular issue included articles on bird lodges and hunting dogs and fishing in the Bahamas and showtime in Austin, TX. None of those things are really my cup of tea, but I thoroughly enjoyed the garden articles.


Especially the one about Chip Calloway. What a wonderful story! He started at age 7 selling rosebuds from 12 plants he saved up to buy and now designs upscale pleasure gardens and historic landscapes. I loved the account about him restoring, under great time restraint, a garden destroyed by Hurricane Hugo so that it would be ready for Prince Charles of England and King Constantine of Greece to come stay in the house!

Have a beautiful day!