This week’s milestone: I harvested the first snow peas from my garden. And then, I ate them. Somewhere in between, I photographed a few of them. I’m sure this photo will become a postcard shortly.
I take a lot of photos of my garden in the spring and summer, when it’s blooming and at its most beautiful. There’s also something about the quality of the natural light coming in my dining room windows that encourages me to shoot photos there. It’s so good, that even in the blazing heat of summer, I don’t put up one of the two solar screens, so the light will continue to come in. Not very green of me, I know, but being able to shoot photos without any electric lights must balance out what I’m using in extra air conditioning. That’s my logic, and I’m sticking to it.
Anyway, between the moderate spring temperatures (meaning it’s not 100 degrees yet) and the extra rain (meaning we actually had rain for once), not only is the vegetable garden starting to produce things, but all the flowering plants are exploding in color.
This is a Knockout Rose, one of the very few roses I have in my garden, because let’s face it, roses don’t really love the climate here. They require way more water than I’m willing to pay for, and are also susceptible to a nasty black fungus that makes all the leaves fall off. Knockout Roses are hardy, and are bred not to catch the fungus—but they don’t get the multiple rows of petals like other roses, and usually don’t have a scent. This one does smell pretty if you get your nose right up to it, but it doesn’t scent the room like my yellow heirloom roses do. Gardening is a series of trade-offs, and in this case, I’m willing to trade ease of care and lower water use for drop-dead gorgeous blooms and pretty scent. These bushes look pretty from the sidewalk, or when you’re driving by, which is a bonus in my neighborhood.
Most of my creative time this week has been taken up with stuff I have to do to clear the weekend. I’m headed to Houston this weekend, to meet longtime design team member Patti Monroe-Mohrenweiser, who will be there doing a show. Once again, arty friend Livia said “road trip”, so we’re going. A little vacation time, and time away from the computer, is a good thing…