Austenland by Shannon Hale - A very sweet story about unlucky-in-love Jane, who inherits a three week trip to Pembroke Park, a British estate where women live out their Austeninian fantasies, dressing and interacting as if they were living in a Jane Austen novel. Chick Lit for Austen lovers, but you don't have to have read Jane Austen to enjoy this one. The voice is modern. The intense Mr. Darcy has never been my ideal, but it turns out that brooding insolence is something that many women find attractive. Why? I don't get it. I like the idea of someone quiet and smart, but intense and brooding? No way. Give me a guy with a great smile any day. It takes way too much effort to coax a smile out of Mr. Darcy. Although he does have a great house!
On Sunday afternoon my son had to comlete his first assignment for photography class, which was to shoot a role of black and white film. I couldn't resist getting outside to the garden with my digital camera to see what was what. If nothing else, I could give him some feedback as to how the pictures would look when developed. My efforts were mostly unappreciated, but I had a great little time.
Here's Peter, taking a picture of a small stone on the fence:
This is our Fountain. I love the cracks and moss, but would love it even more as a Koi pond. Maybe someday. I've nursed this geranium plant through 3 or 4 winters. It cascades nicely, don't you think?
Garden chair. My grandmother had two of these chairs under the tree in her backyard in Detroit when I was a little girl. I think they were red, but they might have been green. They would be pushed against the tree every night so that the seats wouldn't get dirty or wet. These chairs, the Lilies of the Valley and the Phlox are my favorite things in the garden.
There are no Plox yet, but the Lilies of the Valley are just about to burst. They used to be on the side of my grandmother's house. When we moved into our first house, (that somehow had the look of my grandmother's house - go figure) there they were on the side of the garage. We have them here too. Every May they revisit us and just a whiff of their lovely scent brings back so many memories. 
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