{INTRODUCING GUNNAR LLOYD; DAPHNA & RAYMOND'S LOVE-CHILD}

What a surprise to receive today an email with the message that Gunnar Lloyd is born in The Netherlands, with accompanying movie of him (click above pink link). It is such a perfect baby on this futuristic movie and no wonder as he's already born on April 7! Never have seen anything like this, quite a space-age movie; what an art work done by his Daddy Raymond who is after all a software architect. Gunnar of course is a Swedish name, we know that they went to Sweden for a vacation and they must have fallen in love with that country and even more with themselves... then or at a later moment. At least a very special name for such a deep and true love.

Now the rest of the story... a very special one to share with my readers. On June 5 of 2006 we got a phone call from our friend/Judge Helen Harper. She said to me: "Guess what I did this afternoon?" I had no idea... So she told me that she'd married a Dutch couple who were staying at the romantic Page House B & B in town after having been to Savannah. Helen said, oh I realized too late that you were Dutch too. That's alright I said, now they felt at least more at ease without any countrymen around.

Of course I did call, to congratulate them in Dutch and invited them over for next day, to have dessert with us. They were quite surprised for finding two Dutch born Americans here in town! For their wedding day dinner they did go to the best Lady Chef in the region, to Ristorante da Maria. Quite fittingly for the occasion!  Spending the night after dinner at Dublin Farm, Come Home to the Country, so they would not have to do any more traveling to find a romantic place to sleep.

I did bake a very special dessert for them: Phyllo dough shells with Strawberry-Rose-Whipped-Cream... and pastry hearts on the side. Got my Royal Albert Princess Anne china out and quite fittingly; the Bridal Rose by Alvin silverware, all from Replacements Ltd.

Made special flower arrangements from fresh, highly fragrant gardenias in a Cream Color on Cream Color by Wedgwood footed compote white Lathyrus odoratus (fragrant sweet pea) and white gladiolus flowers. 

Alvin Bridal Rose silver spoons

Romantic home baked hearts from Wonton Wraps with Strawberry & Rose Petal whipped cream

 We were ready now to welcome the newly weds  Daphna and Raymond into our home!

We did enjoy it as much as they did. It was very special and for me it was just labor of love to make the dessert with edible, red rose petals from our own garden, with strawberries and whipped cream. So romantic with only a few drops of rose water added. 

Like on the movie where Daphna and Raymond welcome Gunnar Lloyd into the world, so did we welcome Daphna van Zoeren and Raymond Roelands into our home and one can see that things started out very rosy but more important is it did last. 

We wish you lots more years in good health and happiness together as a young family.

If you ever find the time to visit Dublin again, to see Judge Helen who married you and to see the Page House again and our home; more than WELCOME!

P.S. One interesting point that Raymond made that afternoon when we moved out into the gazebo for a bite and a glass of wine. "My Mom has the very same Gero Zilmeta 528 Menuet flatware as you have!"

He must have felt right at home...

{RARE ANTIQUE ROSE: JEANNE D'ARC (1818 FRANCE)}

Just want to share with you our very first roses of this year. One of the garden photos taken on April 10 did show you the first rare antique rose on the fence; called Jeanne d'Arc (1818 France).

•  On the 17th of April, Pieter came inside from the garden, holding out a red rose for me... 
• Always such a tender, romantic moment! I did put it in a silver vase, with silver rosebud, and made a photo to capture the moment.

•  Here she is, just perfectly shaped and dark red. 
• Next to the rose is a first snipping of our Victorian hybrid Pelargonium Red Rosebud just opening with another pink Pelargonium to fill the tiny silver roses vase.
• Will write about them and their sources later.
•  Underneath is a rose silicon trivet that I found in The Netherlands on the web. Got two of those and they are very special.  

• Three days later I was lucky enough to fill an antique Baccarat crystal perfume bottle with three red roses!

• Are they not perfectly shaped red roses? They certainly made my day. 
• By the way, my sister-in-law Elly Van den Munckhof once did crochet this beautiful doily for me! 
• The pineapple pattern is symbol for hospitality. 
• I still treasure it and here it shows off the roses very elegantly.

•  This photo shows the Baccarat perfume bottle better. 
• Well, we did have some very heavy rains with thunderstorms and that is visible on the rose-petals but nevertheless, they are still beauties!
• Now a few days later on the 21st the Jeanne d'Arc surprised us with numerous buds and fully opened roses.

• Yes, Jeanne d'Arc you are a beautiful antique French rose from 1818, that is quite an age! 
• We were fortunate to find these in 2001 at Pickering Nurseries, in Canada. 
• For rare antique roses they are a great source! Just check them out.

{MY VERY FIRST BLOG AWARD}

Oh my... how to start?

First of all many thanks to Johanna Gehrlein from Silber+Rosen who was so kind to present me with this surprise! Thanks a lot, it means even more so, coming from you as author of the great book Rosen-Bestecke or for the German readers das Buch auf deutsch wo sie mich ja auch noch verlinkt hat. SO LIEB! SO SWEET!
But now I too should manage my listing of ten reasons for being happy...

01)  Happy because I still have parents that are alive, just talked to Mom in The Netherlands via phone this afternoon.
02)  Happy for having found TRUE LOVE in my life.
03)  Happy for the health that God granted both of us.
04)  Happy with our personal Paradise we have created in the 20 years of intense gardening.
05)  Happy for being able to communicate in so many languages with people from all over the world!
06)  Happy for seeing our adopted daughter Liz and foster daughter Anita both doing well.
07)  Happy with the health of our felines.
08)  Happy with the beautiful spring season and the perfect weather right now before the heat starts.
09)  Happy with the huge grant of Rotary International that we managed for the poor leprosy patients in Indonesia.
10)  Happy with all the loyal readers of my blog who inspire me to share more!

Now I am delighted to pass it on to four of my favorite readers:
1) Das Büh und die Lillypookze from Schlaflos in NRW for her sweet comments and great writing about her highly skilled creations of cuddle toys. The sweetest creations I've ever seen!
2) Michela from Italy who does the splendid blog of Mami G. Maison that is truly a joy to follow! Of course for me it is special since I lived and worked in Italy and for curing my home-sickness at times... when I'm blue.
3) Nicola from September Cottage certainly is deserving of an award! She is so sweet and bi-lingual in the contact between her and me. She lives in the UK and is from Hamburg, Germany. For the English readers, again this is no language barrier as she has a translation button on her page and even with some of its shortcomings, don't miss all the above mentioned blogs!
And now... this is the highlight as it certainly is last but not LEAST:
4) Johanna Gehrlein from Silber+Rosen! Silber-und-Rosen-Shop

Hope these fine young ladies are all very happy recipients of this well earned award. Congratulations and wishing all of you many more years of serious, quality blogging! Let's stay in touch as we all continue our sociable journey through cyberspace where there are no virtual boundaries.