Reflections On What Was And What Could Have Been

We have two teens helping out at the shop this spring/summer. One is home from her first year in college, the other has just graduated from high school.

Both are confident in manner, self respecting and motivated with wicked work ethics.

Both seem to have close relationships with their fathers.

Is there any connection?  I don't know but I suspect there might be.

My father, whose nickname was Frosty, was as alpha a male as you could wish to meet.

My mother gracefully accepted beta status, I fought him every step of the way.

In retrospect I admit to being a big PITA ( pain in the ass, more flower shop speak).

In retrospect I bet he would too. I now recognize his flaws as mine.

I wish we could do it again from a different perspective.  Less struggle, more acceptance.

But I did take away a love of gardening, a love of the absurd and the ability to throw a party.

And I also learned to give to others, both time and money when possible, be there for your friends and that when it's time to put the drink down, put it down. Just walk away.

So today I'll both miss him and honor him by doing what he taught me to do best.  Yard work.  Off to the garden.

xo Jane

The Pot(s) Is Smoking

Oblivious to  my snarky post ( thanks I needed that)  and irritating work moments the garden is doing it's June thing. And doing it beautifully.

We had a choleus love moment in May and the crazy colors and patterns have returned the favour.

We also have a big crush on the Swedish Ivy spilling out of the Mandevilla vine .

This is also known as Plectranthus, but not to us. We just call it Swedish ivy.

Oh don't let me forget to get to the heart of the matter in the June garden.

Undeterred by the gypsy moths nibbling at its leaves grows some nights dinner.

Our first cauliflower.

Can you imagine how good this is going to taste?

Work? What's that?

In The Year 2525

That was the week that was.  I wanted to implement a new way to answer the phone at work. "You have reached  Blah-Blah Florist where it's always a full moon."

This is the time of year customers decide to freshen up their old dried and or silk arrangements. As soon as we see someone teetering into the store carrying a black plastic trash bag we know we're in trouble.

One customer was in such a hurry to come in she just threw on a pair of unlined white lace shorts but apparently forgot to add any underwear.???  She had the black plastic bag in hand though.

Proms are getting a bit more complicated.  Taking a corsage order in like a mini wedding appointment with fabric swatches, pintrest pages, texting seniors and anxious mothers. Last prom today. Whew.

And somewhere in the madness there was a customer who went psycho on me insisting on me hobbling on down to a hotel in DC to redo arrangements that looked exactly like the sample.  I believe the phrase 'jacked up" was used.  More flies with honey people, more flies.

Of course "jacked up" is now in constant use at the design table.

GG had her own set of crazy at the plastic surgery clinic but that deserves a blog all its own.

I'm off to start a new work week momentito.  Hoping to hear a few more please and thank yous.

Good God I have officially become my mother.  That's jacked up!

xo Jane


Quick update: Have just returned home from work and today followed the cray cray path set last week.  We were informed by two different girls that "Prom is stressful" and one returned her boutonniere citing "change of plans". Um, okay.  Maybe gonna go catch a movie instead?

A Full Strawberry Moon

Come the dog days of summer, what I would like to remember is this: the 4th of June, 2012 was a beautiful  day.

The bedroom curtains billowed in the breeze, weeding was almost a pleasure surrounded by  the scents of lavender and rosemary as I was in the vegetable garden. The dog chased bees, the cat slept under the boxwood and there was a partial eclipse of the moon.

A day to remember

And On The 7th Day.....

Ankle wrapped, hair uncombed, iced latte in hand. I'm outta here. The garden waits.

The sun's shining, the birds chirping and my neighbor is already running her lawnmower at 8:00am.

The cat and dog are hard at work weeding and watering. 

Over planted? Don't be silly.  

 

Such an over used word in our garden.

Hope your Sunday is a beautiful and humidity free as ours.

The Feast

Not my finest pictures.  Imagine hobbling around a table, ace bandaged ankle shoved in a flip flop, followed closely by a hot, hungry horde. Trying to keep my balance while attempting to point and shoot. It was a little scary.

It was also a little hot, temperatures in the 90's and given a choice between mowing the lawn or bringing the air conditioners down from the attic, we smartly chose the lawn. Small, charming and sweltering.

All signs pointed to salads.

I was excited to try a recipe from Plenty, the grilled zucchini salad tosses with handfuls of green
and purple  basil, ( straight from the garden ;-), splashes of balsamic vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper.  I skipped the hazelnuts because of course we had a guest who was allergic to tree nuts.

Luckily not to ground nuts so he could load up on GG's favorite DanDan noodles.  Spicy with chili paste, crunchy with chopped scallions and radish these Mark Bittman noodles are the hit of every summer party.

  I cobbled together a Persian cucumber salad with  smashed garlic, scallions, salt , pepper, a handful of parsley and mint and a splash of rice wine vinegar.

  Another guest was allergic to avocado which was an integral part of a roasted beet salad tossed with mint, olive oil, fresh lime juice and flavored with salt and pepper.

No matter, I knew he wasn't a beet loving kind of guy.

There was also a heaping platter of grilled chicken but once I took off its wrapping I got the hell out of Dodge.  They may have been hot but they were hungry.

We finished the evening in he most perfect way possible. Iced coffees, strawberry, rhubarb crumble straight from the farm and the piece de resistance?

They took down my dead crepe myrtle tree!  GG in a sundress and the boys from the farm took that sucker down.  They also left 3 suckers standing so we have the beginning of a whole new tree.

It's gonna be a good summer.

     





 

And The Beat Goes On.

I know, I know, you would think I would have all the time in the world while lolling about with this sprained ankle.

But no, aside from staying home on Wednesday (actually taking a cab to work on Wednesday then being scolded and sent home with the driver by my workmates), life has carried on as usual.

Weddings, ankle up, planting urns inside and out on site ankle up, standing in one spot at work designing designing, then ankle up. No stairs though, okay only once or twice a day. Oh and then hobbling home and ankle up. Up with ice?  Heaven. Unfortunately I visit heaven too infrequently and as temperatures have risen into the 90's so has my cranky level. Though I have not yet become what we refer to as work as a BOB (big ole bitch). Well, only once and then I apologized to GG. Profusely.

So no zumba, no gardening, no walking to work, no nothing.  Except we did have our annual Memorial Day party. Apparently cleaning, cooking, fluffing house and garden are acceptable behavior with a sprained ankle.  But I laughed so much and the company was so appreciative and the food so delicious it was worth every Advil.

Next up: the food.

And the garden?  looks like it's doing fine without me.