Julia and Sandy have been doing this. I love that my 11 year old still loves to play in leaves, swing on ropes, climb trees, and generally be a kid. If she were sneaking lipstick and begging for mall trips, I'd still love and enjoy her, but um, maybe not quite as much as I do now.
And I finally found out what is smelling up my back yard so much that it distracts me when I walk outside! It's the holly trees. Did you know that hollies bloom? Did you know that their blossoms smell heady and rich like gardenia? I think perhaps these are the male trees, and maybe only of a particular variety. But we have hollies with blooms and hollies with berries. And I'm assuming the females bear the fruit. Interesting also -- I've never noticed this aroma before, so I suppose this is a good year for holly blooms, at least in our yard.
The other night, Anna, Julia and I watched a girly movie together called "The Ballet Shoes." SO wonderful, sweet, imaginative, and emotional. It's a Netflix play-it-now. I'd recommend it, and it was squeaky clean, ladies. It stars Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), and is about 3 orphaned girls and how they grow up. Don't worry, it's not Dickensian, with starving beggar children in the gutter. It has that illusive magical feel that some children's movies succeed in producing.
We cleaned yesterday, as I said. We cleaned the school table first. It lasted this way for, uh, maybe 30 minutes. If that.
I bought what I thought were windmill cookies, but they're not that flavorful. I love those, dipped in tea.
Last night I dreamed of blogging. I dreamed I was visiting our old home town, Edwards (although it looked nothing like itself -- you know how dreams are), and was showing friends around. There were huge hills (??), and lots of old houses turned into shops and restaurants. And then I whipped out my camera, so I could take pictures of the visit. (haha - like I ever remember my camera on trips) So, blogging has now made it into the realm of dreams. Must be serious!
6 comments:
Your photo reminds me of the osmanthus we were sort of discussing here http://artfulaspirations.blogspot.com/2010/10/tea-olive-beauty.html
In fact, at first I thought your photo was of an osmanthus.
There are many varieties of osmanthus, too, but not as many as holly (ilex), which I knew virtually nothing about until just now when I read about it on Wikipedia, all because of your picture!
I really wondered about that holly when I examined it, b/c the leaves are not very sharp, like a holly. Some of them are more than others. The bark, etc.,is very hollyish. And I'd forgotten it is called ilex. Those were the trees mentioned so often in Kinta Beever's book, "A Tuscan Childhood."
Thanks also for the link to artful aspirations. I enjoyed looking at her blog -- sounds like a place I'll enjoy visiting often.
GJ -- I read a bit, and went out and examined my 2 trees, and I do think they are osmanthus. Fascinating. Now I wonder whether they are able to pollinate my female holly trees, or is there some other source of all these berries this year.
Mary Katherine,
I believe your bush is a Tea Olive(Fragrant Osmanthus) and they do smell wonderful. I smelled them when I left your house the other morning as I cut through the bushes to go into my yard.Would love to get a cutting off of them to add to my yard!
Allison
LOL those windmill cookies are DUTCH!!! They are called "speculaas" here and used to be made with a wooden mold (in the olden days ofcourse) They are a real winter cookie due to the spices used. Cute to see then in the USA as well. Enjoy
Hugs from Marian/dutchy/pink princess
Allison -- please do feel free to take a cutting!
Marian -- I've always called them "windmill" cookies, b/c that's always their shape :) But this particular package does have the name, but it's spelled "spekulatius." And they look right, but the taste is too bland. I'm used to them being pretty spicy. I bought them at Aldi; do you have that store there? I think maybe it's a German store, not sure.
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