{AGRITURISMO & GERANIUMS - PELARGONIUM}

Guess I forgot one important fact with a great photo, when I got drifted all the way back into my childhood, writing my previous post...

Okay, here it is: those pretty salmon red Pelargonium, geraniums with their great childhood scent... were given to Pieter for one of his birthdays by our dear friends Heinz & Maria. We treasure them and the geraniums are very loyal plants too; blooming inside the greenhouse already before getting out into the real world!

We have given the geraniums, after the initial year, a nice planter each and proudly put them at the entrance of our gazebo. Very inviting to have the afternoon tea there or just to read, or whatsoever one is up to. A very favorite spot for us and for our guests as well.

Now I want to reveal our dear friends to you... They are Heinz Krassnig, a native from Austria, and Maria Runggaldier, a native from Italy. Both are running here a very special type of B & B Dublin Farm Come Home To The Country . Quite different from the usual B & B as it is following the Italian agriturismo idea. Okay, let me explain that more in detail to you. At the time we lived in Italy, we did go for lunch with another Dutch gentleman Gerard Derks, who lived there for many years and was in the very same business. He knew the countryside a lot better than we as newcomers so it was surprising each and every time when he took us to a rural area, to an old farmstead or such and yet it was a restaurant. That is the aspect of agriturismo. Please read more details here at Heinz & Maria's Dublin Farm Come Home to the Country. You will be surprised for finding a touch of Tuscany in the heart of Georgia! Whenever we feel like getting homesick, longing for the great food in the northern region where we lived and worked, just 45 minutes out from Venice, at the foothills of the Dolomites, we have dinner at Ristorante da Maria and get cured! She is the best Lady Chef in the region and we have eaten at quite a number of restaurants world wide having been international consultants for so many years, so we know how to compare and how to judge. Maria makes everything from scratch and it is fresh! If anyone of you is ever traveling south into Florida or wherever you go, get off the I-95 or I-75 and veer off to I-16. We are located half way between Atlanta and Savannah so that is a very nice break if you're making a long trip. We would love for you to experience this! And... for the European readers, with their strong Euro, why not have a flight into Atlanta or even Savannah (cheaper air fare!) and visit this area? We are only six hours driving distance away from Orlando, Florida and four hours away from the mountains of North Georgia and the best of all; two hours away from the beach!

Georgia on my mind and hopefully I put it also on your mind as well! Welcome anytime and you can visit me for a tea/coffee in the gazebo ~ promise!

Related link:

GERANIUMS BRINGING BACK CHILDHOOD MEMORIES | previous post by me

{GERANIUMS BRINGING BACK CHILDHOOD MEMORIES}

Ever since my husband did take out the many planters from the greenhouse I had the idea to compose this blog for a special reason. When I stood there with the beautiful salmon red geraniums in my hands, all of a sudden by its very smell I went back to my early childhood... But first of all, let me grab a perfect vase for these darlings to show them off to you!

Okay, here they are in a Sancoussi Ivory Rose by Rosenthal vase as part of my dessert china from Replacements Ltd once bought for hosting a French Tea party. Are they not lovely? Well, I wish you too could pick up its typical geranium scent. Because of that, I did travel back in time... to The Netherlands.

Here I am, a little girl of maybe four or five years old, watching Mom cleaning our windows. The house had narrow tall windows with smaller panes inside and they were being opened from the center by pulling down a shiny brass handle so they came inwards into the room... There were indoor shutters, for closing to have privacy, and a rather wide window sill on which Mom kept her prized red geraniums. They could remain between the window and the shutters, once they got closed,  there was enough space.

At times the condensation did make the windows all wet and water had to run down into a special carved out mini-gutter which had one rounded opening in the center, that let the water out through the wall outward. At times we had to poke the hole free of some dirt or a fly that got trapped in there, using a knitting needle... We were quite inventive at that time!

Watching Mom do the window treatment was quite something! She used water with vinegar in it, a sponge (a real one from the ocean, which vendors sold door to door at that time!) and a chamois. The geraniums were taken down and were put on the table, making their scent fill the air even more so by the movements. Mom also vigorously did polish the brass handle of each window with Brasso. Yes, Brasso we were accustomed to in the Old World as well - at least this remained the same after immigrating! I still can sniff all these special scents of the vinegar in the water, the sour smell of the Brasso used on a cotton cloth and then the geraniums... oh I just LOVED them!

They will stay deeply engraved into my memory forever and that's why they live with us till today. We also have white geraniums, see picture below and later in the season I will introduce you to some very special red mini-rosebud form of geranium. Pelargonium is their botanical name.

Another proud member of the Pelargonium family though its scent is by far not the same as the above red ones. It doesn't trigger my childhood memories as such and by the way, Mom had RED ones, her favorite color as of today. Bless her heart, she is 86 years now and undergoing three times weekly her kidney dialysis in The Netherlands, for the third year now. We hope and pray that she will remain with us for some more time but only God knows!

{DAFFODIL OF ROYAL ALBERT FRIENDSHIP SERIES}

Just like to share some nice photos with you, taken with Narcissus from our garden used for the dinner I hosted for 12 people here at our home on Monday, March 29. Didn't have time to take photos from the table setting but I did get the highly fragrant Narcissus Cragford; as I knew it would be my last chance and they were not yet introduced to my readers. So after dinner, unloading my second dishwasher and putting things up, I took this shot at 2:00AM from the perfect Narcissus Tazetta. If you click on the hyperlink you will be surprised with the detailed information about these Tazetta being from ancient Greece and Egypt. So if you plan on buying some of these beauties you might want to subscribe to this blog, just as I did. They do list some sales addresses that might be useful for fall ordering flower bulbs.

Okay, let's talk about the Narcissus Cragford that I will show here in a few photos. Here I teamed them up with a cup and saucer from the Daffodil of Royal Albert Friendship series, which is listed at Replacements Ltd so if you fall for it; try your luck! The spoon is from Avon and the embroidered handkerchief kind of matches the larger plate I do have for serving cookies. I thought they do match the Cragford Narcissus just perfectly.

Here they are, more close-up and just letting you catch a glimpse of the cachet pot in which I had arranged them. That is a Wedgwood embossed Queens ware. Below you can better see the Aries heads with garlands in-between.

Very nice embossing on this Queens ware. The inside even has some decorative embossing around the edge.
Hope you enjoyed this brief update but I certainly did not want to withhold this information from you...

It is about time to let go of our Narcissus for the year 2010 ~ they will be back next year and maybe surprise us once again with an early spring...