japanese sweet peas on valentine's day

two-toned purple sweet peas

we didn't do proper valentine's day arrangements this year with us going to paris and all.  love, it seems, came first for us this year....  however, for a few individuals, we pre-arranged some early delivery of sweet peas, simple but exquisite.  and their perfume, nothing short of heavenly.

watermelon sweet peas (left) and blush sweet peas (right)

  

planning for spring

bouquet of hyacinths, hellebores, tulips and anemones

bouquet of hyacinths, hellebores, tulips and anemones

i cut this arrangement too short, not sure what i was thinking.  i spend a lot of time sitting on the floor putting my arrangements together; space in my studio apartment is somewhat tight.  and i need to head to the fabric store to get yards of backdrop -- i love my grey walls, but monotony can get uninspiring.

i'm thinking about my gardens this spring -- what survived the winter, what to plant, etc.  i planted a lots of bleeding hearts, astilbe and scabiosas last year and i need to prune back my clematis plants and roses.  and i need to amend the soil in our garden beds and think about what annuals to plant.  i may skip the sweet peas this year until i can be around more often to care for them.  there'll be a lot of dahlias next year, i know that for sure.  maybe i'll try planting some icelandic poppies and put in some more peonies.  

bouquet of hyacinths, hellebores, tulips and anemones

bouquet of hyacinths, hellebores, tulips and anemones

fading quince

my parents and sister got 32" of snow yesterday.  we in lower manhattan seemed to get only 6" judging from what accumulated on the rooftops of the surrounding buildings.  i hope everyone fared ok during the storm.

some leftover quince from last week.  they're fading a bit, but still pretty enough to balance out the winter gloom.  i spent most of the morning throwing away dead flowers and wiping up pollen that seemed to have fallen on every possible surface.  i suppose cleaning is slightly better than venturing outside.  the sun is completely out but it's deceptively cold -- high of 30 but currently 26.  fresh air would be nice, but i'm staying where it's warm.

pete and i are going to paris the latter end of next week.  we'll post pictures on photos.

superbowl sunday

all right, party people.  the day of reckoning has come for the ravens and the 49-ers and for beyonce to pull off a perfect half-time show.  as an aside, i'm still pretty heart-broken about the pats, but i love football nonetheless.  this is my tribute to the Super Bowl.

the baltimore ravens

white anemones, lavender and purple sweet peas, scabiosas, daffodils, spirea and fritillaria

white anemones, lavender and purple sweet peas, scabiosas, daffodils, spirea and fritillaria

the san francisco 49-ers

coral and watermelon icelandic poppies, hot pink campanella roses, ranunculus and daffodils
with jasmine vine and spirea

coral and watermelon icelandic poppies, hot pink campanella roses, ranunculus and daffodils
with jasmine vine and spirea

flutter

icelandic poppies, ranunculus, sweet peas, white tweedia, narcissus, white lilac, thlaspi and bush ivy

my apartment is a mess.  pete tells me i'm a hoarder.  i tell him i'm just messy.  bring in buckets of flowers and my apartment rapidly becomes a full-on disaster zone.  truth be told, there's just too much stuff in here and i can't find the time nor energy to throw stuff out.  between finishing up my japan pictures and obsessing over the fluttery petals of poppies, ranunculus and sweet peas, there's really no time to do anything....

the flowers featured here are winter's best.  and they make the freezing cold trip to the flower market worth enduring.

icelandic poppies, ranunculus, sweet peas, narcissus, white tweedia, white lilac and thlaspi

icelandic poppies, ranunculus, sweet peas, narcissus, white tweedia, white lilac and thlaspi

icelandic poppies, ranunculus, sweet peas, narcissus, white tweedia, white lilac and thlaspi

icelandic poppies, ranunculus, sweet peas, narcissus, white tweedia, white lilac and thlaspi

left: icelandic poppies, ranunculus, sweet peas, narcissus and thlaspi
right: sweet peas, narcissus, white tweedia and thlaspi  

sweet peas, narcissus, white tweedia, white lilac and thlaspi  

kasuga-taisha -- an amazing place

one of my favorites:  kasuga-taisha and the primeval forest.

the great buddha hall

pete and i went to a lot of cool places in japan.  todai-ji was one of the coolest.