Bonnieux: Abandoned Hotels

There are two very beautiful and grand hotels in Bonnieux that appear to have been closed and then abandoned.

One is on the main road across from the wall in the photographs in the previous post.

peering inside the window from the courtyard

bas relief bust in the courtyard

There’s another old empty hotel on the steep walk up to the 12th century church at the top of town.

Hotel Deville’s (de Ville’s?) overgrown garden

Mossy Garden Fence

My good friend KRB came to visit this week and marveled at the simple design and beautiful moss on my garden fence.  I’d never thought twice about it, but having a fresh pair of eyes around brought my attention to the worthiness of my everyday.

I. and I realized we love the fence so much, we want to replace the other two sides of the garden (that have a different, less mossy, less charmingly simple design of fence) with it.  Many thanks to our fresh set of eyes.

Things that Soothe: Apartment Therapy (I know)

Honestly, I’ve never really gotten into Apartment Therapy.  Like many sites that I want to LOVE, it’s just a little too Real Simple-y for me sometimes.  But I decided to check out the SF site today and it’s soothing the hell out of me.  Especially these posts:

• Urban Indigo-a seriously soothing Oakland boutique in the Grand Lake neighborhood
• Black Flowers-who doesn’t love them?  Apparently “gotard”
• Garden Inspired Interiors-not great examples all of them, but that lead image is enough to make it one of my faves:

Here is an arrangement featuring my favorite “black” flower: chocolate cosmos (and two of my other favorite flowers muscari and hellebore).

Discovered at Southern Accents, arrangement by Greg Campbell of Memphis

Warmest Day of 2009 in Rockridge so far!

Strong midday sun upper left, dappled sun and wisteria blossoms on the deck, a new terra cotta pot and seeds

Seeds: (clockwise from upper left) Black Watchman Old Fashioned Hollyhocks, Love in a Mist Mulberry Rose Nigella, Heirloom Pepperbox Poppy, Scented Nicotiana Jasmine Alata, and Parisian Pink French Larkspur

And a song for all of you:

Oh Happy Day sung by the Oh Happy Day Spirituals from their album the Oh Happy Day Spirituals!

Another Reason I Love Sunset Magazine

I really must get around to writing that post dedicated to my love of Sunset Magazine.  Tonight might not be the night.  But I can never resist the urge to impulsively share exciting information so here it goes.

First, Sunset Magazine has not one, but several excellent blogs available through their website.  The one I’m inspired by is the uber-locavore challenge, the “One block diet” and blog.  Sunset editors and contributors have dedicated themselves to eating what is grown and available within one block of Sunset’s property.  

The Sunset test garden

When reading the “about” section, I found that a former Saveur editor, Margo True, is currently behind Sunset’s excellent food writing!  Naturally.  My first internship ever was at Saveur magazine in the summer of 1999–while the magazine still had its original sense of elegance and culinary veritas intact under the leadership of Dorothy Kalins, Christopher Hirsheimer, and Colman Andrews–and True herself of course.  These days Saveur seems to be suffering along with the economy, crisis of print journalism, and weight (or lack thereof) of their glossy pages.  But Sunset with its niche market seems to be thriving.  Here’s to Sunset!  Here’s to the West!

No Green Guilt and No Traveling and Scavenging for “Local” Food

This looks potentially soothing:

Your own private mini-field of crops!

Feast Bay Farming

Imagine looking out of your window looking at a thriving food forest, an environmentally friendly landscape. This what Feast Bay Farming is committed to offer the residents of Alameda county.

I already have a small patch of my own, but managing and optimizing a home kitchen garden is no simple task.  I’ve worked at it, and consulted such sources as the beautifully illustrated and highly-specific Self-Sufficient Gardener by John Seymour, but to do it well takes more man hours than my full time graduate school/work schedule allows.  As it stands now, my little raised bed has gone to seed.  

If I get lucky (and a spare hour or two one of these weeks) I’m hoping to consult with FBF to turn my little plot into the local feast of Michael Pollan’s dreams.  My dream crop: escarole. 

Related:

• Tricycle Gardens in Richmond, Virginia
• Oberle Botanical in Fort Collins, Colorado
• Forsyth Gardens in Philadelphia
• Homegrown in Los Angeles

New Bulb on the Windowsill

I took several photographs of A Great Sight in Rockridge to capture the soothing front garden, the gravel, stone spheres, and variety of emergent bulbs.  But when I got home, I found that some of the pictures from my digital camera were corrupted.  I was left without a photograph of the one bulb I really wanted to capture: Muscari, also commonly known as Grape Hyacinth.  The sturdy yet precious little ones in the garden depicted in A Great Sight in Rockridge are one of my favorite things about my walks to College Avenue.  

Although the photographs didn’t turn out, I’m not left without a souvenir from today’s Muscari sighting.  When I arrived at Trader Joe’s I was thrilled to find some in a little twin-tin, already forced, blooming and ready to go.  

Without further ado, I introduce you to the new bulb on the windowsill, Muscari:

And the sweet, sweet scent is fantastic

A Great Sight in Rockridge

Daffodils emerging from a gravelled garden with decorative stone spheres in the late afternoon sun.