Garden
If you can’t make it to Italy this summer, a trip to Ferrari-Carano Winery is a wonderful substitute. The beautiful Dry Creek Valley is home to Ferrari-Carano’s Estate winery and Villa Fiore Wine Hospitality Center. This Italianate winery has incredible sweeping views of the vineyards, elegant gardens, and sparkling fountains. Ferrari-Carano has been producing world-class wines that delight and attract visitors from all over the world.
Renowned artist Michael Schwab has created a stunning new graphic to help WildCare remind people everywhere to Respect the Nest!
May Easter bring your life color, brightness, joy and, of course, lots of chocolate eggs and bunnies!
Wherever you are this holiday season your winter garden and natural environment will offer inspiration and floral elements for your foraged winter bouquet. Foraging is fun! Connect to your natural world and celebrate the season! Learn how to forage and a make foraged winter bouquets in 5 easy steps!
Each year, it is hard to resist the temptation to pick up a few festive indoor topiary plants to enhance the magic that is Christmas. The artful forms of topiary plants and shrubs are perfect in their ornament to celebrate the holiday season. Topiaries can be charming when adorned with festive ribbons and holiday show-stoppers when draped in twinkling lights. Many garden centers and grocery stores sell these seasonal artfully pruned or trained plants, evergreens, and conifers in geometric and representational forms. However, the regal and elegant houseplant topiaries easily add a festive formality to your interior holiday decorations. These artful houseplants also provide an opportunity for indoor gardening during the winter for many who are now homebound with recent surges in the pandemic.
Traditionally, a great way to spread holiday cheer is to create a holiday home beautifully decorated inside and out. The experience begins at the front of the home. The front door and porch set the tone and theme for the rest of the house. This year many will make an extra effort to make the front of the house brighter with twinkling holiday lights displays given the unprecedented darkness of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Also, many will be forced to have small intimate gatherings at home with family members instead of large holiday parties. Interior decoration will likely be more intimately appreciated by members of your household and unfortunately not shared at your annual holiday party. Creating a festive backyard gives you a perfect new setting to host small intimate groups outdoors so you can make your holidays more merry and bright.
I am excited to share my adventures in gardening, floral design, and the beauty of the Northern California wine country with my new blog, Flowers and Grapes. My floral arrangement pictured above in a repurposed rustic urn, abundantly filled with seasonal homegrown flowers, vegetables and locally grown grapes is like a still-life reflecting my many interests in gardening, floral design, sustainability, and regional flavor. This abundant urn is also a metaphor for my hopes and dreams for continued bounty in my garden and in friendship, love, and life. Flowers and Grapes will be a platform to share my creativity, sense of whimsy, and celebrations of the seasons.
Flowers and Grapes was inspired as a blog a year ago when our daily lives went into lockdown at the start of the Covid19 pandemic. That first scary and unnerving week when all were asked to shelter in place (SIP), I took a picture of some zinnia seeds that sprouted on that fateful week. When I saw them I hoped that, by the time they bloomed in June, this nightmare would be over. My zinnias bloomed despite everything, and in them I knew that life would continue. It just was more difficult than I would have expected. This context was the catalyst to inspire my blog, and now a year later, my first indie magazine Flowers & Grapes. As we all move forward together this spring when life is begging to open up for all, look for the poetry in your garden, natural environment, and in daily life. Celebrate it with more Flowers and Grapes!