There are obvious reasons for gardening. One of them is, basically, that mankind has done it for the last 4000 years, just think about the hanging gardens of Babylon, the waterlily paintings in the pyramids, herbgardens in medieval monasteries, the gardens in Versailles and the recent roofgardens in New York.
Gardening is an occupation, which gives you many a good reason to do it.
First of all you are out in the fresh air. Then you get your hands into the soil, which is a deeply satisfying feeling. Just remember playing as a child in the mud and the joy of getting more and more dirty, which then ended in the complete abandonment of mudbattles between siblings or jumping into rainwater puddles until getting totally mudded up and wet. I did it as a child and have seen it all over the world - most beautiful perhaps in India, the day the Monsoon started. I think this is a very deep down human feeling of playing and joying around. Working in the garden, using your own hands, is getting very near there. It is satisfying.
Then there is the joy of achievement: After a day of planting and weeding you see what you have done. It is a good workout as well - no need to pay huge amounts of money to be tortured in a badly smelling gym with 450 other people sweating senselessly around yourself - just work a day in the garden and I bet you feel muscles you never thought you had in your possession. If you are lucky and dressed to the game, you can get a lovely tan for free too on such a day in the garden, working.
But there are two bigger lessons to be learnt in gardening.
First, nothing is ever finished - therefore the Camus saying, that we have to imagine Sisiphos being a happy man, has some truth in it ( hello to all mothers and housewifes: you have just cleaned the kitchenfloor and the dog comes with wet feet from outside.. or the beds are freshly made and you have children jumping happily in them, with the wellies on? Sounds familiar, no? Or just finished a meal, kitchen is done and some people come in and start again to eat out of the fridge?? Well, let us pretend, that we think, good old Sisiphos was a happy man).
But back to gardening.
The second, perhaps even more important lesson is: Patience.
You only can work so and so much on a garden - and it does really not make any difference at all, if you go there every half hour to control whether and where your flowers have grown or not. A daily round in your garden is a very good exercise in anticipation and patience - apart from being a deep pleasure - but the fact is, it just does not help to grow it more quickly, if you want it to grow more quickly. Just not possible - so you are back on your basic feeling: wait and see.
This feeling is a valuable lesson for all things in life: If you want something to badly, it will not work out in this way. Applies also to children, to love, to friendships, to cooking and to buying houses.
You will say, that you do not have a garden, not even a terrasse? You fear not to have any knowledge about plants, nor a "green finger"? Well, no reason not to start in a little way your own gardening experiences. Believe me, plants are much harder to kill than you think. And there is always one species which will be ideal for you. I, for instance, kill orchids very easily. But my Basilikum loves me to bits: it grows and grows and grows. Even if you have no confidence in treating your plants well, just give it a try. You just need a bit of interest in the thing.
Buy yourself a gardenia - smelling so wonderful! - for your bathroom, some nice herbs for your kitchen sill and a good pot of azaleeas for your salon. There you have a good and almost foolproof start. And if there is a terrace, then just get some buxus and some tomatoplants; or some roses - if they are well tended, they can thrive in a pot as well. I have two boxes of white geraniums on my terrace and they need little attention (just water and pruning the old flowers off) and flower all over the summer, without me doing nothing.
No need to have much space for gardening, you can start in a small way - and it is as satisfying as anything in the world. Believe me, it makes you a better person as well.
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Sunday, 29 May 2011
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| Holland House Library Suffers Damage 1940 London England (copyright Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis - VPM) |
This is class indeed.
Saturday, 28 May 2011
Old clothes - yes AND no
I think it was Coco Chanel who said, that old clothes are like old friends - one cannot live without them. I suppose the good lady talks naturally about couture clothes, not the stuff one buys in H&M or at Zara. Old clothes are worth a good thought. In the end it is this stuff, we tend to wear most of the everydays of our lives.
Do face it: when you open your wardrobe, then most probably you have admit, that you wear all over and over again always the same old friends. Apparently there are studies, that we out of habit wear only about 20 % of the clothes we harbour and hamster in all possible places. Makes sense, as the times, where one had to change from a morning dress into a lunch ensemble, followed by an afternoondress and get changed for dinner again are long and sadly gone. Would not fit our modern times and timetables... Good golden times...
There are clothes which are simple foolproof - we love them, they are our basics and we can throw them on without even thinking about what we do. A grey jacket, for example - good for everything, from an evening in the Opera or your bussiness dinner and also with jeans good for a stroll in the park. Those basics make the skeleton of our wardrobe. In the best case basics are really your best friends. And as it is the case with best friends, we should care about them. What is different: old friends normally are not discarded when worn out - thanks God! As Coco Chanel was talking about timeless couture pieces, this principle may apply to those clothes too. Unless you change your figure dramatically..
In the 18th century (only in England?) it was somewhat bad taste to wear sparkling new clothes - I speak of the leisure classes, of course. As clothes indeed are still an indicator of class, sorry. This habit has come down to us, fresh and sound. There are always the lovely old tweedjackets, which get better and better with age. Or the old cashmere pullover, which has some inbuilt aircondition with all the holes in it. Or the good old "Church"es, hopefully inherited from your grandfather and cherished for their inimitable colour after 40 years of cleaning with several colours of shoepaste. Or the leatherjacket, which looks the part only after two generations having worn them. Those are real friends, never to be parted with. I bet, as soon as you have found a substitute and got rid of the old thing, you never ever wear the new pullover with the same glee as you did the old one. Try it! I bet.
But then there are other old clothes: the horrible ones, mostly used out of indifference for one´s own pleasure and housed in a crammed wardrobe of equal antiquity. They are still "good",ie no holes and all the buttons intact and therefore have to be worn - despite of offending all around you, because the yellow colour of the old poloshirt really does nothing for your complexion, or the cut of the jacket was in the hight of fashion in the early 1980ies, but this revival is to be expected only in 2045. Old worn shoes fall in the same category for women. Likewise plastic trousers, hanging on your stately figure long out of shape, but comfortable. Take a hard look at your old clothes and divide good from simply old. Good exercise, for sure.
I have seen in my time some wardrobes, crammed with clothes, which were only fit for the bin - inspite of horrible high pricetags at the time of aquisition. The only remedy here is ruthless throwing out and weeding. Just imagine that good old Kate would have got married in the meringuedress of her dead mom in law?
So, just get over it and dispose what has had its time and is not worth being kept and loved and worn until the very end. Those get-rid-offs have had their time and deserve a good recycling. Best fate for them: to ressurect as something new/odd/happy for someone who really loves it. One never knows!
Do face it: when you open your wardrobe, then most probably you have admit, that you wear all over and over again always the same old friends. Apparently there are studies, that we out of habit wear only about 20 % of the clothes we harbour and hamster in all possible places. Makes sense, as the times, where one had to change from a morning dress into a lunch ensemble, followed by an afternoondress and get changed for dinner again are long and sadly gone. Would not fit our modern times and timetables... Good golden times...
There are clothes which are simple foolproof - we love them, they are our basics and we can throw them on without even thinking about what we do. A grey jacket, for example - good for everything, from an evening in the Opera or your bussiness dinner and also with jeans good for a stroll in the park. Those basics make the skeleton of our wardrobe. In the best case basics are really your best friends. And as it is the case with best friends, we should care about them. What is different: old friends normally are not discarded when worn out - thanks God! As Coco Chanel was talking about timeless couture pieces, this principle may apply to those clothes too. Unless you change your figure dramatically..
In the 18th century (only in England?) it was somewhat bad taste to wear sparkling new clothes - I speak of the leisure classes, of course. As clothes indeed are still an indicator of class, sorry. This habit has come down to us, fresh and sound. There are always the lovely old tweedjackets, which get better and better with age. Or the old cashmere pullover, which has some inbuilt aircondition with all the holes in it. Or the good old "Church"es, hopefully inherited from your grandfather and cherished for their inimitable colour after 40 years of cleaning with several colours of shoepaste. Or the leatherjacket, which looks the part only after two generations having worn them. Those are real friends, never to be parted with. I bet, as soon as you have found a substitute and got rid of the old thing, you never ever wear the new pullover with the same glee as you did the old one. Try it! I bet.
But then there are other old clothes: the horrible ones, mostly used out of indifference for one´s own pleasure and housed in a crammed wardrobe of equal antiquity. They are still "good",ie no holes and all the buttons intact and therefore have to be worn - despite of offending all around you, because the yellow colour of the old poloshirt really does nothing for your complexion, or the cut of the jacket was in the hight of fashion in the early 1980ies, but this revival is to be expected only in 2045. Old worn shoes fall in the same category for women. Likewise plastic trousers, hanging on your stately figure long out of shape, but comfortable. Take a hard look at your old clothes and divide good from simply old. Good exercise, for sure.
I have seen in my time some wardrobes, crammed with clothes, which were only fit for the bin - inspite of horrible high pricetags at the time of aquisition. The only remedy here is ruthless throwing out and weeding. Just imagine that good old Kate would have got married in the meringuedress of her dead mom in law?
So, just get over it and dispose what has had its time and is not worth being kept and loved and worn until the very end. Those get-rid-offs have had their time and deserve a good recycling. Best fate for them: to ressurect as something new/odd/happy for someone who really loves it. One never knows!
Wednesday, 25 May 2011
Monday, 23 May 2011
Newest finds for the bathroom
Life never stands still - and I have some new findings for those bathroom shelves!
Have been - again - looking hard at facecreams recently and the fact is, that I do come back over and over again to the hydrating and lovely smelling facecream "Crème Splendide Généreuse" by Annick Goutal. Simply the name is already a treat! At least my skin loves it and if there is some sort of fidelity building up, it is to this one. The eyecream is also - for me - the best I have tried so far and not have become immediately bored with... One which I will certainly try in the future is by Lancome, "Sécret de Vie" - had a tester and loved the very thick and goodsmelling cream-paste - it sinks in immediately and skin pretends to be smooth and flawless. But the price lets your heart sink...
What makes me always curious is the stuff of "Farmacia Santa Maria Novella" in Florence.
When I was a month in Florence in 1989 I did not yet know about them, my cosmetic education starting at Clarins and ending at Clinique at that time ( courtesy to the generous supplies of enchantillons by my sister A. and thanks God, my skin was more robust when young!). If I would have known then, I would most probably have moved in with the soeurs, to learn all about their production and recipes and the lot of it. ( For sure I would not have gone so far as to become a nun for that, no, but pretty near anything else).
So, here in Brussels there is a spot - about I shall write also in due time - where you can find these little jewels! There is a body oil with Jojoba, which smells divine - of pommegrate, which I do do do love. The scent of pommegrate, "Melograno" is also wonderfully oldfashioned and powdery. I have to go back to this one... Old loves are sometimes the best. Then there is also a hydrating cream, "Idralia", which is pretty good and affordable, without any SPF and in a good and easy texture: not too thick and not too thin neither. My daughter nicks this one all the time - and it seems to do her good. Smells of some sort of vanillacurd - mmh. The handcream went with me to Turkey and was and is still a favourite - expensive, but a little goes a very long way... Next time I will try the face water of Orange Blossom - "Aqua di Fior d`Arancio" - do admit! Apparently the Rose Water is more for robust skins, whereas Orangeblossom is soft and kind for hysterical skins like mine. To be followed...
It seems that roses are on my screen right now - there is this Rose-o12, Ultra-Moisture-Serum, by REN, more an oil for the face which is doing wonders on softness and hydration for the more mature skin - I am normally far too lazy for serums and lotions, but this is nice, leaves the skin soft and well hydrated. Have to check out more of their things!
Another, newish find in the scent department is definitively "Les Parfums de Rosine" - there is a shop in Paris, waiting for a post of its own. I have recently dived into "Rosissimo", and it smells great! Not too rosy, as it is a masculine scent, nice mixture between roses, freshness and earthy undertones. Lovely drydown..
By accident I fell over a sample of Galenic Argan Oil Body Lotion - which turns out to be very easy to apply and very hydrating. Advantage is also, that you can get dressed immediately after applying, which is definitely a plus. There is also a new basic series by Vichy, "Essentiels" whose bodylotion is a bit wet at applying, but then sinks in lovely and gives a light smell of roses - better than the horrible plastic smells you get normally in the supermarket creams ( well, apart from Nivea, which is childhood memories pure).
Concering the Summer Tan, there is also a new favourite: Lierac, "Selftanning Lotion for Face and Body" - it smells really good and gives a very natural looking tan. My trick of not getting too streaky brown legs is always to moisturize first and only then layering a small amount of the selftanner on top of it, as the legs are already creamy, the melange is better and more natural. IF it is not enough, you just repeat the procedure the next day, until you look the shade of "brown" which you think is yours. Anyways, one should be cautious not to have too many different colours on the old body - tanned legs and white arms do not look the part.
Latest newest love are Powders - body powders that is. I have read somewhere, that the fine people used to put powder in the shoes before wearing them and I have taken to this habit too - it is highly recommended - feet feel not squeezed into the shoes, do not sweat and look nice after a long day running around. Try it! Babypowder or some delicious powder in your favourite fragrance - Chanel is doing this, Penhaligons, Aqua di Parma and some more.
And as we are at the feet: Chanel Nailpolish "Dragon" nr. 475 should be definitively on your shopping list next time you are out for a treat! Perfect wonderful deep, but brilliant red for those toes!!!
Summer, we are ready!
Have been - again - looking hard at facecreams recently and the fact is, that I do come back over and over again to the hydrating and lovely smelling facecream "Crème Splendide Généreuse" by Annick Goutal. Simply the name is already a treat! At least my skin loves it and if there is some sort of fidelity building up, it is to this one. The eyecream is also - for me - the best I have tried so far and not have become immediately bored with... One which I will certainly try in the future is by Lancome, "Sécret de Vie" - had a tester and loved the very thick and goodsmelling cream-paste - it sinks in immediately and skin pretends to be smooth and flawless. But the price lets your heart sink...
What makes me always curious is the stuff of "Farmacia Santa Maria Novella" in Florence.
When I was a month in Florence in 1989 I did not yet know about them, my cosmetic education starting at Clarins and ending at Clinique at that time ( courtesy to the generous supplies of enchantillons by my sister A. and thanks God, my skin was more robust when young!). If I would have known then, I would most probably have moved in with the soeurs, to learn all about their production and recipes and the lot of it. ( For sure I would not have gone so far as to become a nun for that, no, but pretty near anything else).
So, here in Brussels there is a spot - about I shall write also in due time - where you can find these little jewels! There is a body oil with Jojoba, which smells divine - of pommegrate, which I do do do love. The scent of pommegrate, "Melograno" is also wonderfully oldfashioned and powdery. I have to go back to this one... Old loves are sometimes the best. Then there is also a hydrating cream, "Idralia", which is pretty good and affordable, without any SPF and in a good and easy texture: not too thick and not too thin neither. My daughter nicks this one all the time - and it seems to do her good. Smells of some sort of vanillacurd - mmh. The handcream went with me to Turkey and was and is still a favourite - expensive, but a little goes a very long way... Next time I will try the face water of Orange Blossom - "Aqua di Fior d`Arancio" - do admit! Apparently the Rose Water is more for robust skins, whereas Orangeblossom is soft and kind for hysterical skins like mine. To be followed...
It seems that roses are on my screen right now - there is this Rose-o12, Ultra-Moisture-Serum, by REN, more an oil for the face which is doing wonders on softness and hydration for the more mature skin - I am normally far too lazy for serums and lotions, but this is nice, leaves the skin soft and well hydrated. Have to check out more of their things!
Another, newish find in the scent department is definitively "Les Parfums de Rosine" - there is a shop in Paris, waiting for a post of its own. I have recently dived into "Rosissimo", and it smells great! Not too rosy, as it is a masculine scent, nice mixture between roses, freshness and earthy undertones. Lovely drydown..
By accident I fell over a sample of Galenic Argan Oil Body Lotion - which turns out to be very easy to apply and very hydrating. Advantage is also, that you can get dressed immediately after applying, which is definitely a plus. There is also a new basic series by Vichy, "Essentiels" whose bodylotion is a bit wet at applying, but then sinks in lovely and gives a light smell of roses - better than the horrible plastic smells you get normally in the supermarket creams ( well, apart from Nivea, which is childhood memories pure).
Concering the Summer Tan, there is also a new favourite: Lierac, "Selftanning Lotion for Face and Body" - it smells really good and gives a very natural looking tan. My trick of not getting too streaky brown legs is always to moisturize first and only then layering a small amount of the selftanner on top of it, as the legs are already creamy, the melange is better and more natural. IF it is not enough, you just repeat the procedure the next day, until you look the shade of "brown" which you think is yours. Anyways, one should be cautious not to have too many different colours on the old body - tanned legs and white arms do not look the part.
Latest newest love are Powders - body powders that is. I have read somewhere, that the fine people used to put powder in the shoes before wearing them and I have taken to this habit too - it is highly recommended - feet feel not squeezed into the shoes, do not sweat and look nice after a long day running around. Try it! Babypowder or some delicious powder in your favourite fragrance - Chanel is doing this, Penhaligons, Aqua di Parma and some more.
And as we are at the feet: Chanel Nailpolish "Dragon" nr. 475 should be definitively on your shopping list next time you are out for a treat! Perfect wonderful deep, but brilliant red for those toes!!!
Summer, we are ready!
Sunday, 22 May 2011
Saturday, 21 May 2011
Are there any Flowers in the house?
There are some indispensable elements in a comfortable home. One of them is the generous display and happy cohabitation with flowers.
As a matter of fact, flowers have an extrem chic factor - and they are easy to display, no need to be a great artist in putting a bunch of flowers of the same kind in vase. Mixed bouquets are perhaps a little bit trickier, but very quickly to be mastered: the 3 colour rule applies here too: green and two colours, different flowers of the same colour family giving an easy impression of glamour. Most glamourous and foolproof ( that´s why they do it) are monochrom bouquets. Really, no secret behind.
Long gone are the days, where every selfconscious lady had her garden and there-in a spot only for flowers to be cut and displayed in the house. We poor citydwellers depend on supermarkets ( not always the worst option if you have developped an eye for possibilities!) or the pleasure of our week: the common market.
Of course, if you happen to live in the country side, there are numerous other possibilities of doing your flower shopping: in the woods for branches, near the roads for Marguerites, Lupines in the sandy woods... But in town: No. No shopping in the public parcs please!
I personally love the flowers, which are in season. They give the year a certain rhythm - especially in rainy Brussels, where the sky has a tendency to wear a certain grey.
In January my first flowers are primroses, snowdrops, going over to wellscented hyacinths. I never buy tulips before Carneval. Soon then in April and May there is lilac and false jasmin: the glory begins. Later in the early summer days the lovely lovely peonies are in bloom ( for a long while now my favourite flowers!!!) and to be bought in the market in huge bunches. They look best on their own, I think - and any beautiful Nymphenburg Vase you should have inherited makes your day filled with lush peonies.
Sommerroses are in abbundance from june and then in august. I love the old varieties best, they have a dense bud and smell beautiful. There are delicate colours to be found from peach to palest white. Beware of the generous display of red roses - the poor dears are so worn out, that it could happen that they do not help to glamour in the house.... The sunflower makes things more earnest and give a hint of autumn. Chrysantemus, for a long time completedly out of fashion are coming back now and I am too happy for this - they look so great in a great mass. In winter the orchidees have their prime time, especially if not left to be alone whilting away, but grouped together, best in one big container with some moss for hiding the roots - they too like company!
One of life´s greatest innocent pleasures: going to the big markets and buying the flowers of the moment in the dozen. Not expensive, too. Right now: PEONIES, roses, and all.
Long gone are the days, where every selfconscious lady had her garden and there-in a spot only for flowers to be cut and displayed in the house. We poor citydwellers depend on supermarkets ( not always the worst option if you have developped an eye for possibilities!) or the pleasure of our week: the common market.
Of course, if you happen to live in the country side, there are numerous other possibilities of doing your flower shopping: in the woods for branches, near the roads for Marguerites, Lupines in the sandy woods... But in town: No. No shopping in the public parcs please!
I personally love the flowers, which are in season. They give the year a certain rhythm - especially in rainy Brussels, where the sky has a tendency to wear a certain grey.
In January my first flowers are primroses, snowdrops, going over to wellscented hyacinths. I never buy tulips before Carneval. Soon then in April and May there is lilac and false jasmin: the glory begins. Later in the early summer days the lovely lovely peonies are in bloom ( for a long while now my favourite flowers!!!) and to be bought in the market in huge bunches. They look best on their own, I think - and any beautiful Nymphenburg Vase you should have inherited makes your day filled with lush peonies.
Sommerroses are in abbundance from june and then in august. I love the old varieties best, they have a dense bud and smell beautiful. There are delicate colours to be found from peach to palest white. Beware of the generous display of red roses - the poor dears are so worn out, that it could happen that they do not help to glamour in the house.... The sunflower makes things more earnest and give a hint of autumn. Chrysantemus, for a long time completedly out of fashion are coming back now and I am too happy for this - they look so great in a great mass. In winter the orchidees have their prime time, especially if not left to be alone whilting away, but grouped together, best in one big container with some moss for hiding the roots - they too like company!
One of life´s greatest innocent pleasures: going to the big markets and buying the flowers of the moment in the dozen. Not expensive, too. Right now: PEONIES, roses, and all.
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