Back from my brief hiatus in the sweltering heat of the Florida summer. Yikes! I never fared very well in that heat as a kid and still don't. Always hated having to expose my less than cheerleader perfect thighs in school and with no recourse since no one covers their legs in the Florida heat. A few decades later and I don't really care so much about showing older and even less appealing legs. One's vanity wanes with time.
What actually brought me down there this time of year was my father's 82nd Birthday and Father's Day. I may not have been born with a silver spoon but I certainly was born with an amazing father. Can't ask for much more. The first day I went with him to his farm and tended the young bulls he has recently acquired. Eating machines they are!!!
Spent the naxt day thrift shopping with my mom and sister. Florida has the best thrift shops! Brought back all sorts of interesting vessels!
This is the time of year when the trees are filled with flame colored flowers down there! My favorite tree is the Flamboyant or Royal Poinciana and it was everywhere as showy as a ornery cock. Speaking of which, my father was given 6 chicks which my Mother became completely smitten with, tending them like a mother hen. Only one will grow to crow at dawn, the others will hopefully supply my folks with eggs year round.
Wandering around I recognized sweet little weed blossoms that I remember picking as a child. Back at their house I gravitated through the topical fruit laden trees past the poisonous Angel's Trumpet tree and the fragrant gardenia bushes towards a wild foresty area and again found this vine that also took me back to childhood. It has pods with bright red hard berries, some of them with little black eyes. I still feel guilty for what I did next. I ran inside grabbed my florist knife and proceeded to prune the gardenia bush and cut down a very long section of the flourishing wild vine with berries. It was the perfect material for making a wreath with and nearly made itself. The plant is called the Rosary Pea or properly
Abrus Precatorious. It's seeds are very poisonous if ingested and in some cultures are strung into necklaces to ward off the evil eye.
Didn't realize it at the time, may have been channeling my Cuban heritage creating some type of
Santeria Relic.
These photos were taken at the wedding we decorated at The Chelsea Mansion. I'm holding off on bringing out the guts of the flower story until they have been published elsewhere first. The lavish centerpieces, a nod to Maria van Oosterwick and the Dutch Golden Age, in my opinion, were the visual equivalent of eating a trio of sorbets made of the freshest and ripest tropical fruits finished off with a fine Madiera. There were three styles of centerpieces surrounded by satellite floral curiosities in antique vessels, venetian glass jewel boxes and mini urns. Every treatment was an expression of delicacy and whimsy and sometimes simply utter abandon. The room was dripping with candlelight and gorgeous garlands which wrapped around columns and exploded in giant sprays of Mock Orange, Spirea and Lace Cap Hydrangea. Needless to say.... the over all effect delighted me and made me a proud momma.
Jasmine Flower Girl Crown
Tonight I saw The Tree of Life at the Sunshine Cinemas across the way from the Liz Christy Community Garden. The film is a sprawling existential masterpiece on the meaning of life. It's sparse and expertly crafted script, astoundingly exquisite cinematography, beautifully melancholic sound score and genius editing left me so overwrought with emotion that it's difficult to digest at once. All I can say is that it wraps the big question mark of our existence in a simple and symphonic story of family, love, birth, life an death.
Bunny in the garden
Rose brambles on Driggs Ave
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