Finally!
After planning and planning,
waylaid by constant snowstorms,
we celebrated our Valentine's day luncheon.
This year my friends Laura (from 52Flea),
Paula, Kathleen, Carole Maynard (Maynard Greenhouse),
and a new friend,
sweet, petite Tovah Martin joined
me for this special occasion.
We missed our dear friend Debbie, who had other plans.
Oh, did we have fun!
Tovah visited for the first time, and I am looking
forward to seeing each other in the future.
If the name rings a bell, we'll get to that later....
The table looked pretty in it's finery.
Tulips always make me happy,
a sign of things to come.
The table settings were simple...
the colors subdued.....
I do not have much talent when it comes to making things
from paper, and my writing is not very pretty.
(My friend Debbie writes like calligraphy)
Wish I could!
But I found this little birdie project on Country Living's
website with instructions.
I just added things to make them more personal.
My contribution were homemade cookies.
The gals always arrive laden with gifts, as you will see.
Lunch consisted of Cream of Asparagus Soup with
sautéed shitake mushrooms,
Baked Salmon with Brown sugar and mustard crust,
red potatoes with creme fraiche and chives,
and Ina Garden's Corn and Avocado Salad.
Desert was an apple cake and a fruity chocolate Torte.
Unfortunately I did not get to take pictures,
but I saw the girls photographing.
Maybe they will have pictures on their blogs.
When my friends come, they come bearing gifts.
There is no way of stopping them.
They are the most giving friends,
and I don't mean only gifts.
They are there for each other and for me
whatever is going on.
Their love and caring, our sharing is to me
the biggest gift anyone could give!!!!!
I love them all with my whole heart.
And this is what Valentine's Day is all about.
The beautiful basket above was made by my friend
Carole Maynard.
I am in absolute awe.
There are more than 40 pieces of paper interlocking
to make this creation.
How does she do this?!
I love it!
Some of us had not exchanged Christmas gifts yet either.
So there was quite a flurry of activity.
Many beautiful and thoughtful gifts were exchanged.
Laura knows how much I love rabbits.
Yes, this pretty pillow cover from Pottery Barn will
soon find a special place in our home.
Ah, signs of spring.....
and Paula followed suit by giving me this
pretty Rabbit's Foot Fern,
gussied up in a beautiful container.
Kathleen made sure our tootsies stayed warm
with Valentine's socks packaged in a pretty heart box.
Oh, and if this was not enough joy,
Tovah gave me one of her absolutely beautiful books.
Tovah is an author of more than a dozen inspiring books
on gardening. She writes for many magazines, teaches,
and many of you will remember her as a garden editor
for Victoria magazine.
When I went to bed last night, I took the book with me.
I started to read and could not stop. It is not just giving you pictures of house plants and important information,
oh no, there is a story with every plant.
The are loved, and they have personalities.
I chuckled at the story of the asparagus fern.
This is definitely not just a plant book!
And there is Einstein, her cat.
Being a cat lover, I would love to see a whole book
on Einstein and his life with this lovely, creative woman.
I feel truly blessed to have her join us and making a new friend.
And with the winter woes, we all needed
a happy occasion.
Some of my friends made it up the driveway,
others had to walk.
This winter has not been kind to us here in the
Northeast.
Snow was flying fast and furious.
Wait for the same scene coming up.
The snow is over two feet deep with
many higher snow drifts.
Here it is now up to the railing.
There is furniture under all this white stuff....
hard to believe.
We are trying to get it off the roof.
This load scares me to death. So many roofs are
collapsing. We have a leak on the chimney cap membrane.
Something to be fixed after this mess.
The bitter cold cracked it, and the crows
are helping themselves by pecking at the rubber.
What next !!!!
On the front deck there are big window boxes
under the snow.
You can guess where they are?
My deer is frozen into the snow and ice.
The real ones have a hard time walking through the snow
and finding food.
And this weird crater is our version of mount Vesuvius.
Actually this is a tree stump way under there.
Interesting!
Remember where the snow was in the picture before.
This was after the storm, oh, and we will get
another 4 to 6 inches tomorrow.
So, with this in mind, I will be heading for my bed early
with Tovah's book and dreams of plants and spring.
All my plants are at hubbies office for the winter.
Our home gets too dry and warm.
He takes good care of them, but I
cannot wait to get reacquainted.
I think by now most of the country is yearning for spring.
Happy dreams!
God bless,
Evi
