Giving Thanks - November 16:: Brita for Inspiration

In the next town there's a beautiful garden store -- Brita's Old Town Gardens.

It's the store that inspires me to go beyond and seek new plantings and to love a mish mash of colors and always add this and that. (As long as they get the right sun and the right kind of soil.)

I doubt that Brita, a beautiful tall woman with joy exuding as she strolls the garden looking for just what you need, would remember our first meeting. I do. We'd moved into our first home. I knew a bit about gardening, but knew I wanted to know more. And there I was with a flower bed right in front of my living room window. All shade. I was determined to have flowers.

Brita helped find to helitropes and bleeding hearts.

I went to visit her this morning with a couple of tasks. First we had to pick a rose for a climbing wall, then, part shade flowers for beds to live with rooty birches. But the most fun was when I mentioned the Potager garden.

I have a very eclectic garden on the way there now, roses and strawberries and lavender.  But I'm ready to dive in with sweet peas and lettuces and cabbage, and, and, and. Her eyes lit up as we gathered from her stock and toured the lanes of her store grabbing the thymes, and mint and pansies and chard. She heard my love for the white rose next to the lavender, but not just for the color, for the uses and fragrances. She's the gardening friend, but really, the shopkeeper with zest and knowledge for what the garden can be.

I'm enthused about the next steps.

The best inspiration in film is Meryl Streep's potager in It's Complicated. Mine isn't quite this big and won't have the perfect rows, oh, and I don't look like Meryl Streep, nor am I married to Alec Baldwin - but you can believe the colors and joy of the mixture will be there. I love, love, love the tomatoes working up the frameworks. Tomatoes will have to wait while Sweet Peas meander up in mean time.

So, here's my Thanksgiving today: to Brita whose sea blue eyes sparkle and whose ideas breathe breeze into my project. And for the stylist who designed Ms. Streep's garden. To Alec Baldwin for standing there. And for my own Dear Husband, who keeps saying, "I'm glad your doing just what you want there, Dear."

I'm inspired and so grateful for the ones who join in.

Beauty and Paris

Well, now Paris is calling and I'm not really packed to go.

Jump on my friend Jill's tour of Europe and see these fabulous photos of the City of Lights by Pati Pakulis.

Or go see Midnight in Paris. A love letter to Paris by Woody Allen.

Selena Gomez wants you to take your daughter to see her in Monte Carlo. (It's PG for a couple of reasons. A dialogue will follow.)

The there's always my favorite, Julie and Julia.

And if you want to experience the writers life in Paris, read Janice's Blog live from her adventures at the Seine.

Bonjour!

I love a good movie.

Short and sweet two fab and one fun movie. In order?

Super 8
Midnight in Paris
Mr. Popper's Penguins

So, Super 8.
Love, love, love. I am not a middle school aged girl (or boy) but I was right in there with them, enjoying every move they chose. I'd see it again and then again. Here's a review from the reviewer I adore.

Next? Midnight in Paris.
There are definitely words to describe Woody Allen's brilliance, his faithfulness to the art, his dependable humor. But most always, I find myself just with him, enjoying where he's taking me in New York. But here we are, in Paris. And it's almost like he's cheating on New York. Then again, Paris and New York can often feel like the moveable centers of the universe, now can't they?

From the opening and establishing scenes that are like a photo journal of the beautiful city, Midnight in Paris is beautiful and fun and funny and so very thoughtful. Allen is true to the form I've loved in so many of his movies. I was moved many times and don't want to tell you one more thing except perhaps, "See it." And then of course, "I need to book a ticket for Paris immediately. My friend Janice is living there now and I'm all the more in with her in her travels. You can follow her at her blog. (Her writing is fun and inviting and wonderful.)

And finally, Poppers.
I went with my kiddos. The youngest drove the decision and it looked like it would be fun. I kept my expectations low because, well, Jim Carey can sometimes be just a tad bit over the top. I'm just sayin'. But it was quite a pleasant surprise. Penguins who communicated and didn't talk. Carey with lots of range and a very endearing turn. Cute kids and good silliness.
I'll see it again when it comes to a TV near me. It's recommendable.

Now, go see a movie! And let me know about your faves! 

Satisfaction Saturday ~ March 27

Perhaps one of the more pleasant surprises I've experienced in a while is the new movie,  HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON. I almost always love my time in a movie theatre and when a movie delivers, it has me. This movie was so satisfying. The animation is detailed and interesting and beautiful. (I want a dragon.) And the story was full.
Animated features can be great and they can be just a cartoon. This, for me, was up there with THE IRON GIANT, my hands-down favorite animated film. Watching this adolescent Viking work his way into come into his own was an enjoyable venture. I leaned into his heart and differences as I watched him struggle to own the ground between him and his father, the Viking leader.

There's much packed into the story. Lots of fun and way more dragons than I'd ever have imagined could be imagined.

I'd see it again. But in the mean time, I'm going to find out if Vikings really had Scottish accents.

Satisfaction Saturday - a movie review or two

In this week, I've had more than a little satisfaction in movies. As I continue the recovery after my fractured shoulder surgery I find myself with the perfect set up for movie viewing. I have to sit (or lie) in my bed six times a day for an hour and a half with a prescribed, rented, high tech, ice machine. Here are two really good recovery movies.

First, a completely satisfying and highly recommendable portrait of Dr. Robert Kearns, the true inventor of the intermittent wiper blade: Flash of Genius. I loved the long walk on this movie from Dr. Kearn's "ah ha!" of an idea to create the "blinking eye" wiper, to his final presentation of the facts in Federal Patent Court. I enjoy Greg Kinnear as an actor, and this might be my vision of his finest portrayal. Kinnear is only slightly endearing in this case, but so fully dedicated and willing to be this man who fought the cheating-because-they can giants of Detroit. Watching with my 13 year old son gave me the pleasure of talking with him about what we might give up when we dedicate ourselves to the service of an ideal. In Flash of Genius, Dr. Kearns may have lost some, but we all gain, when one of us is willing to go the distance for what truly ethical and right, regardless of the recovery. 

The second film took me completely by surprise. Rachel Getting Married, is the view of the wedding week with the central character, Kym (who is in recovery) and her working-oh-so-hard-to-function-in-spite-of family. I knew almost nothing about the movie, except that it's up for an academy award, Jonathan Demme directed, and Anne Hathaway stars without lipstick. It's not the easiest movie to watch. The way it's shot I felt at times like I wanted to sit further and further away, like I was getting too close to the family and the drama. But I wanted more and more. Debra Winger plays Kym and Rachel's rather removed mother in a performance I found painfully dichotomous. I hated her distant yet proximate relationship to her daughters. (Really hated) And at the same time, I wanted to see more of her and understand how she managed to live so cut off from truth. Bill Irwin, as dad, is a marvelous portrait of dad, constantly rewinding the unraveling edges.


There is this brilliant moment when Demme has Kym's character very literally drive into a Y/why (?), that provokes such understanding of her character and desperation to be clear and cleared, that it took a while for me to release the deep breath I was holding for her. 


Living through the wedding with Kym, while she struggles to hang on to her 9 months of clean, is worth every minute of difficulty you might find as you seek the redemption the whole family requires.

If you want a review of a movie for kids check this: You'll Laugh, You'll Cry. 

Check out Journey to a Simple Happy Life for a e-course giveaway. Very cool!