Gloaming Designs

Jardin d'Yvonne

 

When I was a kid, I was always barefoot. I'm still always barefoot. And the thing I miss perhaps the most living in the city, is being able to run out my front door with nothing on my feet into green. I love that feeling of interior and exterior spaces just being a fluid continuation of each other. The freedom of that feeling. The life pulse through the growing world.

So when we visit Yvonne, R.'s mother, I'm usually out the door with nothing on my feet and still in my nightgown within minutes of getting up. It's a magnetic pull. Into the garden I go.

I look for the cat sisters, Ginger and Isaac who love to weave down the garden pathway with you. They follow the master gardener herself everywhere she goes in that haven.

I look for the plants that are reaching higher than the day before. The vegetables that have grown fuller and more intensely colored. The flowers that have unfurled with the sun that morning.

 

Ginger hunts butterflies and I look for ladybugs. I love staring at a seemingly known little patch and finding it full of a story you hadn't noticed before: little bugs on their morning mission, vines curling their grasp up into a tree...

But perhaps the very bast part of all, is feeling a touch hungry and wandering through the garden tasting this and that or fairly stuffing ourselves silly with ripe berries and fruits.

It's a magical place, a garden, le jardin d'Yvonne.

 

Cravings: Roasted Muscat Grapes with Thyme for Friends

(Did you catch that terrible pun?)

Sometimes a craving hits. An oh-my-i-must-taste-this-now! that sends me off on a quest to satisfy it. And that's exactly how, in pulling a neglected bag of sweet muscat grapes from the back of the fridge, roasted grapes with thyme landed on my table.

Muscat grapes are sweet and perfumed. They taste exactly of the wine that they produce but their color is deep and rich. When coated in olive oil, a pinch of salt, and sprigs of fresh thyme, they produce a bright raspberry-colored syrup that is heaven even just by itself. And the whole served on toasts smeared with fresh goat cheese and more olive oil is the essence of the season.

Luckily, I had some dear people to share it with. A friend from Boston was in town to visit Paris for a week with a sweet friend of hers. They set aside a day for exploring Paris together so I met them for lunch before heading off on adventures.

We feasted at a restaurant and wine shop along the Canal St. Martin but we were so busy talking about everything and anything that only the refreshing sea bream ceviche with grapefruit was documented. I even forgot to note the establishment's name!

When we couldn't manage to take another bite, the girls took me to their most amazing find in Paris: The Museum of Hunting and Nature.

Started by a couple who collected items on the theme, the museum is not at all what you would expect. Every corner has a detail (including the hidden little mouse in a baseboard) and the guards love telling you all about them. The museum is really a celebration and exploration of our relationship to nature as both hunter and hunted, in myth and in tradition, in science and in art.

There's really no other way to describe it and perhaps I shouldn't even try: the girls decided not to tell me anything about the experience before bringing me there and it made the discovery even more magical. Go with an open mind.

Full of inspiration and hungry from wandering, we all came back to the apartment and shared a wonderful meal that started with those juicy roasted grapes and chevre.

Could there by a better way to pass a Friday?

 

seeing tomato red

'tis the season.

that i start hoarding tomatoes.

we like to eat as seasonally as possible so the window for enjoying tomatoes is just a couple months around here. this, i'm sure, is hard for my tomato-loving husband (a. husband! that still sounds funny/great! & b. seriously, they are his favorite 'food') but if we're being honest, those mealy, pink, tomato-shaped rocks available in the winter aren't really tomatoes anyway, are they?

and that's why right about now, when they just so happen to be cheapest as well, i start buying several pounds each weekend and getting them ready for winter. we'd love to can them (we did when we lived in Maine) but in this Parisian apartment, there's just no where to keep them short of stashing them under our end tables - no thanks.

so i take these little beauties (these are a delicious variety called Campari) and place them whole on a baking sheet, drizzle them with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast them at 450°F. when they're done, i take them out of the oven and when cool, just pop the whole tray in the freezer until they're frozen solid and can be easily transferred to a plastic bag.

they are wonderful throughout the winter and, since they are frozen individually, it's easy to pull out two for a pizza or ten for chilli without the worry of having to use everything before it goes by, unlike when you open a jar of canned tomatoes.

so, guess what i'll be buying at the marché this sunday!

have a beautiful weekend.

xo,

a.

sweet weekend

friday!

i'm having a really hard time not to buy every piece of fruit i see in the market these days. maybe it's the impending cooler days when our fruit choices will dwindle but, whatever it is, i forecast more folders of pretty fruit pictures this weekend.

hope your weekend is sweet!

xo,

a.

summer of love

i've been missing. with no warning.

again.

and i'm sorry.

there are been lots of reasons for me being missing here not the least of which is that we married!

(actually, it's the biggest reason.)

we had two beautiful ceremonies (one in the U.S. for the American family and one in France for the French family) that were largely D.I.Y. and i gotta tell ya: i have a while new respect for wedding bloggers who blog while planning their weddings. where do they find the time?!

but after that and hosting my family here in Paris for a few weeks, we are settling into the beginning of fall, the beginning of married life, and, hopefully, the beginning of a new adventure for me. i've been yearning itching aching going stir crazy to move in a new artistic direction that i am so passionate about. you'll have to bear with me, though, because it's going to take just a bit of time for me to get all my little ducklings in a row.

so, i'll be back soon with more about our summer of love (and maybe some photos too!), bits and pieces on {newlywed!} life in Paris, and more on that new direction just as soon as i can!

in the mean time, are you excited to make any changes or take any leaps this fall?

i'd love to hear what's got you excited!

xo,

a.

{photo taken by us last month in the gardens of Chenonceau}