Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Finery and Flowers

I woke up at 6:30 this morning and it felt fantastic! The first thing I realized was that I felt really great. The second was that Gabe didn't wake me up in the night. I really love getting up early and when your baby still wakes up in the night it's hard to push yourself out of bed at 6, but we're working on getting him to sleep through the night consistently and hopefully it happens soon.
Matt and I did get out to the garden center last night and picked up a few more bedding plants. I got some pretty pink nicotiana, some red and white impatiens, some orange african daisies and Matt picked out a Red Heart Iresine (pretty red foliage). Those are all going into my front flower bed with the euphorbia and verbena that I picked up yesterday. So, the majority of the flowers in that front bed are going to be red/pink, orange and yellow. The only exceptions will be the goutweed I have in there already, the euphorbia I got which have little diamond white flowers and some little black flowers I planted which I can't for the life of me remember what they are :) In the backyard I have a bunch of mixed colors of celosia and coleus, then my delphiniums, bells of ireland and some lilies. We also have a couple wild flowers that pop up randomly back there and last year I planted some hostas, a solomon's seal and a toad lily... we'll have to see if any of those come back. So far it doesn't look too promising. In my small front flower bed I mentioned how those perennials have come back in. One is a candy-stripe cushion phlox and the other is a euphorbia wood spurge. I'll probably put my little white euphorbia in that flower bed next year.
Last night I told Matt that we needed to have people over for dinner this week since I really want to make a few dishes but either the size or the grandeur of them merit company. As far as the size aspect goes, I really want to make up that mango coleslaw, mostly because I have all the ingredients for it already. Not liking mango myself I'm not really sure why I want to make it so bad, but I do. I also want to make a fresh fruit phyllo tart with a pastry cream and gelatin glaze. They're super easy to make except for the pastry cream. I figure, if I'm putting in that much work to make an honest to goodness pastry cream, I'd better have more than just family eating it. Ah yes, and then we have the duck. Duck is not simply a family meal. Duck is a treat. A thing to be cherished and treated with a certain amount of ceremony and presentation. When Matt and I first got married he complained about doing dishes alot because I put everything into serving dishes instead of just putting the pots and pans on the table. I've since kicked that habit for the most part unless company is over (in which case dishes are a minor concern as opposed to presentation) but whenever I prepare this duck it will be plated, it will be pretty and it will, most definitely, have useless, beautiful garnishes.
In case you can't tell by my blog posts, I have a definite respect for finery. I also have a respect for regality and class, but on the off chance I sound too pompous by explaining that further, let's just say I'd have done well in the Victorian era. Back to the finery though. Now, I was raised to appreciate things like dirt and puddles and farms and working with your hands. And I definitely grasped the appreciation for getting dirty. But I've always harboured a desire to dress up and act proper every once in a while. I'm disappointed that the classiest restaurants in town don't have a dress code and that people feel that if they can eat there then their kids can eat there too. I really believe that there should be restaurants where little kids are not allowed because hey, even if your kid is really well behaved it still affects the atmosphere having strollers and chocolate milk in there. Growing up I was always a tomboy and in high school I was "affectionately" referred to as a "Suzy-Homemaker-Hick" by a couple friends but there's a time and a place for all of that. Even if you look at my house my rooms are divided by the finery vs. comfort battle. My living room on the main floor has my french provincial furniture, my huge mirror with a gilded frame, our china and fine art... the living room in the basement has Matt's model motorcycle collection, our hockey cards, the comfy chairs and the TV. There's a time to get dirty and I really do believe there's a time to clean up, sit up straight, drink tea and talk pretty.
Anyway. Today I'm planting the rest of my bedding plants and then I am reading and writing. My brother is starting a new business and so I'm going to write up a business plan for him and do what I do to get him set up. Hopefully it won't take too long to get all of that done. Then I need to catch up on some of my reading of Calvin's Institutes since I didn't get alot of that in last week. If that all doesn't take too long I also need to practice my music for my high school choir alumni concert. 4 pieces, 1 is very chromatic, 1 I've actually heard before and the other two, well, they're in flats. I learned music primarily by playing worship guitar so you play in the key of E, G or maybe A. I'm a sharp friendly sort of girl. I think in sharps. I write in sharps. Flats throw me off. I know, I know, how big of a deal can it be that it's in 3 flats rather than 3 sharps, but to me when I sight read music I make stupid mistakes in flats. That's why I need to practice in advance instead of just going in and reading it.
For now though, I'll just start by getting those flowers in. It's calling for rain this afternoon so I'd best do it now!

Mrs. Vander Leek ;)

1 comment:

  1. I completely agree about there being a time to dress up. It seems that there are so few occasions where people fancy things up. I have resorted to specifying a dress code when I invite people over if I want them to wear anything better than jeans.

    I'm really excited to hear how your duck turns out.

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