Lavender...from My Garden to My Dear Friend to Elizabeth Taylor

For as long as I can remember, my best friend, Sharon has adored lavender.  When we were growing up in College Park, Georgia, her room was always a shade of lavender or purple, as we often referred to it. Looking back, I know now that it was lavender...lovely lavender.  She now lives in Destin, Florida and was  in town this evening and we had a wonderful dinner together.  We were joined by her sister Marlissa, her mother Muriel and her niece Erin, along with Erin's boyfriend Josh, who was the only man at a table full of estrogen.  I always have a wonderful time with this part of my extended family, as I have known them since I was 9 years old.  I noticed this evening as I entered Muriel's home, the same home that she has lived in since Sharon and I were little girls who became fast friends in the 4th grade, that she has decorated her kitchen in lavender.  And I am in love with the sofa and chair in her family room, as they are upholstered in a fantastic vintage-style floral in lavender, green and white.  Too die for!  Even her kitchen counters are a variation on this most beautiful color, and she manages to pull it off beautifully.

As much as I love grays, whites, pinks and blues, I do believe that lavender is equal among these most magnificent shades.  I have an extremely pale version of lavender on the walls in my home, as the main color throughout...it is so pale that it can pass for a blush.  I do love it...even my late husband liked it, but he was known to be in touch with his girly side, and thank goodness he was, because I am definitely a girl when it comes to interior design.  Anyway, speaking of lavender...I have so enjoyed my Iris garden this spring.  It is a sea of lavender right now...the same Iris that my great-grandmother handed down to my grandmother, who handed them down to me.  I treasure them every spring, but it seems that this year, the Iris have been a real standout, as I can't remember them ever being quite so beautiful.  There must be hundreds of them, standing proudly above the roses that accompany them.  I have featured some photos of them in this post, although the pictures from my phone camera do not do them justice.  I will try to post better shots at another time so check back for more.  In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this tribute to this most dashing of colors.  I especially hope that Sharon enjoys it as much as she enjoys the color lavender.

I am obsessed with this wall covering and how can you go wrong with this upholstered bed?

The ceiling, floors and wall color are such a romantic combination - I'm in love with this room

The drapes are so wonderful in this dining room, paired with the soft white and gray tones of the chairs

Grayish lavender beauty

Bold lavender - this especially reminds me of Sharon

Courtesy of House Beautiful Magazine

This room from Southern Accents Magazine is the perfect pairing of various patterns in the same shade of lavender

The Chateau-de-Villandry Lavender Garden

Lavender Garden at The Valencay Chateau

Lavender in Wisteria Perfection

Lilac Blossom

A Lavender Rose -- I had one for several years in my own garden but it proved to be a very delicate rose - I've heard that there are much hardier versions out now in this shade so I may give it another try

Ranunculus - The Most Romantic of Flowers

How  beautiful is this?

I couldn't possibly do a post about the color lavender without mentioning Elizabeth Taylor and her incredible eyes...those eyes with their double rows of eyelashes on both the tops and bottoms.  When she was a child actress, directors and cinematographers often complained that she was wearing too much eye makeup, only to learn that she had on none at all.  Her eyes were often referred to as violet, purple or lavender...I would simply call them perfect.

 

The most beautiful woman in the world with the most beautiful lavender eyes

An Iris from my own garden

My Iris Garden - Please forgive my lousy camera phone photograph - this doesn't do them justice

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Moon River - Wherever You're Going, You're Going My Way

Although I have returned to writing my blog since the death of my husband in January, and have written about the things I love such as interior design, houses, and England, among other things, I once again find myself drawn to writing about him and the people and places that mean so much to me on a personal level.  So I hope you will indulge me just a wee bit more as I again reflect on my life as it is today, without him but with amazing friends and family and lovely places that mean so much to my family and I.

On St. Patrick's Day weekend, my daughter Sarah and I went to Savannah, Georgia to visit with our dear friends, Ike and Beth New, along with their children and extended family.  We have always loved being at the New home, as these are wonderful, kind people who have been a big part of our lives over the years.  The News live in Pin Point, Georgia which is located on Moon River.  Pin Point is basically Savannah...just goes by another name. It is where U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas grew up and most of the Pin Point residents are his relatives.  Pin Point was settled by freed slaves after the Civil War.  It is a small community, with a main road that winds through a sleepy neighborhood shadowed by live oaks dripping with Spanish moss.  Upon entering the New residence, you proceed down a long winding drive to a wonderful coastal style home, a mixture of old Savannah and the Mediterranean.  Painted a beautiful soft yellow with black awnings on the front windows, it is a welcoming home, surrounded by ivy, boxwood, palm trees and live oaks.  After entering through two oversize French doors, you step into the living room, where white slipcovered sofas and chairs await you.  And look through the windows.  There you will find Moon River lazily drifting by.  Their son Cristian always has one boat or another tied to the dock in the back and Ike can usually be found downing a cold one with a book in his hand at the gazebo.  The pool is just steps away from the back porch and is usually warm and inviting.  Beth is a devout Catholic and has a beautiful collection of religious art and Catholic books, which are displayed throughout the home.  While it was very warm on this March weekend, spring is just now truly showing its beautiful colors so many of Beth's flowers and trees were not in full force (just mentioning that because she will fuss at me for posting photos that don't do the home justice).  Beth loves to cook and cook she does.  We had a wonderful Lebanese dish called Mishi, the recipe of which has been handed down through the generations to Beth and her sister, Ann, whose mother Rose is Lebanese.  It was quite wonderful, but labor intensive.  Four women in the kitchen for hours!  But so worth every minute of it, especially for Sarah and I, since we were not allowed to lift a finger to do anything.  That Saturday, Sarah, Ike, Beth, Cristian and I went out on Cristian's boat to a beautiful spot behind their house.  Beth read a moving tribute to Tony.  She drew from a eulogy she had heard a priest give to the family of a lost loved one killed during 9/11.  The tribute spoke of having a little bit of heaven here on earth, which is left behind for us by our loved one's spirit.  It was so lovely and so fitting.  Ike and Beth spread Tony's ashes for us, as Sarah and I were unable to do it.  Beth then tossed a bouquet of flowers into the river as his body drifted away from us and into the ripples of the river water.  The sun was starting to set, the wind was blowing a bit and it was one of the saddest, yet most beautiful, moments of our lives.  It was difficult, but we knew that what we were doing was for a husband and father who deserved for those words to be read, at a place that he so dearly loved, with people he so dearly loved.  Afterwards, it was as if we had found at least a little bit of closure, knowing that our sweet man was permanently in such a magical place.  It seems only fitting that there was a perigee moon that evening.  We didn't plan it that way...just divine intervention.  We must have heard "Moon River" four or five times that weekend, in various forms, none of which hold a candle to Andy Williams' original version, which makes me weep every time I hear it.  I know that Tony was with us.  We all felt it.  The weekend was filled with tears and laughter.  One cannot visit with the New women and not laugh.  They are quintessentially Southern --  loud, funny, eccentric and beautiful, and we love them for it.  They made a difficult time special, a sad moment touching, and kept our bellies full while showering us with their love and compassion.  Sarah and I miss Tony terribly, every single day, every hour, every minute.  But we continue to feel so blessed, so loved and so lucky to have these people in our lives and to be able to sit in Beth's kitchen, to look out at the river, with the marsh grass reflecting the sun, changing colors before our very eyes.  What a special weekend with special people and what a wonderful moment it was when we honored such a special man.  Our cup runneth over.

The Entrance to the New home, Pin Point, Savannah, Georgia

V

View from the dock at the New residence

The pool overlooking Moon River

Sherry, me, Sarah, Beth and Ann at Ruth Chris in downtown Savannah

Tony and Sarah - several years ago at St. Patrick's Day in downtown Savannah
It would be their last St. Patrick's Day together in Savannah - we always got a big laugh about
how windy it was that day, as evidenced by Sarah's hair in this photograph. 

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