Rainy Day Inspirations

The buckets of rain and unseasonable warmth last week has brought a growth spurt in the garden. The hellebores are nearly in full bloom. I do welcome their cheerful plump buds that open into beautifully cupped flowers. They are actually quite resilient and should fare rather well when the weather turns cold again.

I was pulling a few weeds in the backyard and noticed that more hellebores seedlings are germinating. I hope some of these make it to adult size, I can certainly use a few more plants in the backyard. The white quince is also starting to bloom. It’s taken a few years for it to get established. The last couple of years, it has finally gotten to a decent size where I can cut a tiny sprig or two off it to enjoy indoors and not feel like I’m decimating the plant.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve had a couple of impromptu excursions into the city. Our excursion last Tuesday was quite fun aside from the disappointing lunch at a restaurant that shall remain unnamed, sometimes you just end up in a place that serves bland food. We however did visit West Elm and a couple of other fun spots around the city.  January is always an interesting time to visit retail locations in the city. The displays are sometimes in mid-creation. It’s fun to see the shopkeepers at work arranging their merchandise. The “Marketplace” theme at West Elm is looking promising, with interesting seed kits and garden themed merchandise. I did pick up a couple of interesting seed packets while I was out and about this week, some Mache that I will be planting soon and tomatoes to plant when the weather officially warms up.

We also popped into Paris on Ponce, a multi-dealer antique and “decor” place with booths offering anything and everything from live plants and antiques to stuffed animals wearing tiaras. There were also several booths offering up locally crafted wares which were quite tempting.

I was quite taken with the snowdrops crafted out of paper at West Elm, I might explore making some of these sometime. I was quite close to buying some of the paper flowers but decided my money might be better spent acquiring real snowdrop plants for the garden.

After the bland lunch, we revived our taste buds at Star Provisions. The delicious coffee and cookies did not disappoint. I also picked up a loaf of fennel sultana bread at Star Provisions.

I spotted pretty looking “air plant” bromeliads offered both at West Elm and Paris on Ponce. They have become quite the trendy plant lately. I might have to give them a go again. I tried them many years ago and killed every last one. Maybe I’ll have better luck now that I am a more experienced indoor gardener.

Last Thursday, we were given the opportunity to attend a concert with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Despite the rainy and windy weather, we made it to the concert. It was exciting to be at the world premier of The Nature of Light by Michael Gandolfi, a beautiful two movement “concerto” written for clarinet and string orchestra. Laura Ardan, principle clarinetist with the ASO’s performance was quite enjoyable. The Prokofiev piano concerto no. 5, with Juho Pohjohen as the soloist had me on edge, what a high energy piece. The orchestra, with Robert Spano, finished with a wonderful performance of Nikolia Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. A truly enriching evening, made sweeter with the Mast Brothers chocolate I brought along to snack on at intermission.

While we’re on the subject of chocolate, I was excited to see a few of my favorite chocolates featured in the current issue of Country Living. When it is dreary weather outside, I catch up on my magazine reading, I enjoyed my current issue of Country Living with a little bit of Taza chocolate. I was intending to make some hot chocolate with it. I tried a nibble of it beforehand and next thing I knew I had eaten most of it. I’ll need to pick some more up to make hot chocolate with.

The Guajillo Chilli Taza is one of the most complex chilli infused chocolates I’ve had. I bet hot chocolate made from it would be quite good. I’m hoping to try some Ritual and Dick Taylor chocolate soon as well. Till then, I am perfectly happy with anything from Cacao Atlanta. I always have a grand time when I visit  Cacao Atlanta, I can’t wait to go back.