Helllooo there!
I have returned from a week of gallivanting to and fro.
It's warm here, mixed with pure spring sun, simmering at full force.
I find myself watching movies set in the 1600's today as I go through my collections.
Truth be told, you may have noticed I collect all manner of things.
However, I have a special wood and glass box that I put my beloved insects in.
If I see a winged creature that has lost its life, then I bring it to my box.
Of course, I can never say no to petals.
Dried or fresh.
I have an abundance and still get petal greedy.
I was thinking I should change my name to, The Greedy Gardener.
What do you think?
My vintage bee pins have an incredibly vast tale.
Too long to tell.
I'll give the short version.
I have a large bee pin identical to these with the dark jade, which I purchased 16 years ago.
One of my most favorite things.
Huge sentimental value.
I lost it one night 16 years ago, and searched for it for 4 months.
Restaurants, shops, a boyfriend's house.
Cars, streets, nooks and crannies.
Nothing.
I went to the same department store a dozen times and they always said it was not there.
So, I went to the lingerie department on a last try, and the seamstress had a cubby there.
A gal pulled out a basket and my brooch was sitting right on top.
My favorite most cherished piece for years, I was so happy to find it back then.
Until 5 years ago or so.
It disappeared in my own house.
I have taken the place apart many times in search, nothing.
Just like my coral rose pin that disappeared and then magically reappeared.
Trust me, I am not just missing it.
So, hopefully one day "they'll" return it to me 🙂
Leprechauns? Elves? You decide.
In the meantime I have scoured the earth to find the exact pin and over the last few years found these.
Identical brand and style.
Still, not "the" pin.
So maybe, possibly, hopefully one day - it'll be right back where it disappeared from.
In my glass case.
In the meantime I enjoy the stand-ins.
Have you ever lost something you adored and never found again?
In my more mature being, I just give up a little easier and accept the loss.
But refinding is always so swooningly wonderful, isn't it?
It's okay if I never find it again though.
So.
Petals and insects and keys and tiny tea sets.
All things I adore.
What's on your list?
Now petal collecting will be at its best for the year.
All of my roses are blooming madly.
All shades of pinks and corals and reds and yellows and lavenders.
Dreamy little rose days indeed.
I've been spending lots of time in the real world and painting in town too.
I have been having so much fun.
Wonderful marvelous times.
I'm enjoying my balance of country and city life.
I went to a crazy event on Friday, had champagne, listened to good music.
Painted in a city garden all weekend.
Now I'm back in the country jumping on the trampoline with ML and Miley.
Matty wasn't into it at all.
Life is full of twists and turns and I'm enjoying them all these days.
I'm still a person who likes seclusion but going places is proving to be quite enjoyable.
Thank goodness the boys all hold down the fort.
I've been making all sorts of art and sculptures.
If I can wrangle myself in I'll take pics soon and share.
I'm listening to Antony Hegarty (The Lake) and old Bat for Lashes (lonely) as I type.
I love rediscovering old faves.
How are you out there?
Is it cold, is it warm?
Is life good?
Lots of love,
Vanessa
You would think I am waiting on the edge of my seat for your next post! Not really, though, I just happen to have a couple of seconds before I have to get dinner on the table, so I thought I’d pop in and see what’s happening with you!
Books are what goes missing in my house. My most favorite books vanish into thin air and then decide to hauntingly reappear two years later lying horizontally on my book shelf. It is too bizarre! And yes, the print of The Enchanted Playroom from you never appeared again! That is also too bizarre. I think real people are behind some of it. My Mother is a hoarder and ‘borrows’ things from me, and then sneakingly puts them back!
I will get back to you! My timer is beeping on the oven clock!
XO’s
Miss Teresa
I do adore your roses and jewelry!
We had a swarm of bees in one of our outside waste barrels this afternoon. They must have smelled something they liked!
Dear Double V,you have been MIA for days.Thought you had fallen off the face of the Earth!!I also have a dead bug display.Luv finding unusual specimens. Just bought a beautiful Bee pin,for my Mom, for part of her Mother’s Day.My roses are also blooming madly,still fighting the black spot,tho.Just got a new lavender Angel Face.The scent is heavenly.That is a must for me,not just beautiful blooms,but,MUST smell like a rose!!Kinda like I choose my pumpkins for the stem as much as the body itself!!We are going back n forth,here in East Texas.Cool for a day or two,then warm,now we are in for severe storms.But,thank goodness,nothing like Houston has been hit with. Can’t wait to see pics of your newest ART…..Ceci
What a lovely, lovely post. We had a short spring now it seems summery. Flowers are blooming, some seeds have been planted, some are still waiting for planting. We have been planting annuals from seed instead of buying so many flats of annuals. I have so many zinnias to sow.
I’ve been busy helping my daughter with the toddlers she tends. Granddaughter #2 spent the night Friday and we had the sweetest time together. Every time I go to her house she asks if she is coming to my house 🙂
So I guess I’m just enjoying being retired, gardening, sewing and being nannie 🙂
I came back…
This reminds me of a movie I saw once, where a rich woman put a very expensive brooch on a shawl and then loaned it out to someone. The woman couldn’t imagine where she had left her brooch. When the shawl was returned, the brooch was still on the shawl. Mystery solved.I think the movie became more sinister than just finding the missing brooch.
My mother-in-law also used to crochet in her most comfortable recliner. She had a waste basket next to her chair. One day, her wedding ring went missing. She and Grandpa searched every where for it. They usually kept a plastic bag in the waste basket and would dump just the plastic bag out. So, one day, Grandpa looked deeper than the plastic bag and my mother-in-laws diamond wedding band was in the bottom of the waste basket. It took them six months to find it! But they did find it. Stranger things have happened. I do hope your bee brooch turns up!
hugs
Miss Teresa
It must be the Borrowers taking things!
I have a collection of things too. I like finding old bird nests, feathers, shells, stones, shells, arrowheads, etc.
I have lots of photos of me growing up where I’m standing with my head down, always looking. Even vacation photos with me in the water, looking! It’s always like a big treasure hunt for me!
The weather here went from snow last weekend to all sun & 70s this past weekend! It actually got to 89 today! That’s about 30 degrees above average! It will settle down starting tomorrow. It was caused by an Omega Block or something like that. It’s moving east. There is a lot more green starting to show! Now I have tulips & hyacinth with my daffodils.
That looks like a pretty big moth. I love moths! I know most people prefer butterflies but I think moths are cool. They can really blend into their surroundings!
Can’t wait to see what new art projects you have been doing!
Your roses are so gorgeous! Hardly anything is growing here, but it’s still early in spring for us. Tiny lilac buds are forming. There is hope for beautiful perfumed air soon.
Lovely post, as always..
I’ve been finding old, long lost things for weeks now as I go through each room in the house, every closet and drawer and shelf, preparing for a move to smaller place. My husband passed away last month, so the furkids and I will be finding smaller, more suitable quarters, and I’ll throw all my energy into making a new home for us.
Must add, your roses are just gorgeous, and one of the first things I plan to do with the new house is to plant lots of climbing roses, perhaps as part of a memorial garden.
Your posts are always so uplifting. Thank you for that.
<3 Carolee
Well perhaps not as good as yours my dear… lol But MY Lovee is making us pancakes as i type this after we had a glorious morning of sleeping in… He’s been doing some boat fishing lately , which he hasn’t done in years, catching some fish he never heard of before.. Pike with TEETH! Work on the house has slowed down, but still moving forward which is good.. We had some wonderful rain the other night about 5am.. We needed it badly here in my NW corner of Arkansas… The deer that grace my yard nearly every evening are very heavily pregnant and i would think the fawns should make an appearance any time now.. So yes… life is good my dear V! Hugs! deb
What a lovely blog entry! All of your photos are so dreamy…especially those delicious pink roses! They look like frosting 🙂 It is funny that you mention lost things because just the other day, I was telling my husband about a treasure that I lost a number of years ago. Honestly, I don’t even know when exactly. On my 10th Birthday, my three best friends in the whole world made me a very special gift. I love Halloween, have always loved Halloween. And so, they made me a diorama of a graveyard. They had drawn little monsters and cut them out and placed them all over the graveyard. They took a tissue box sized box and covered it with paper and colored it in to look like a haunted house. Inside the box, they put a nickel. To this day, it is my favorite gift that I ever received. I carried that box with me for years after I left home. Moved it from apartment to apartment (I moved a lot when I was younger). Somewhere along the way, it got lost. I imagine a boyfriend through it out along the way, thinking it was trash. If nothing else, I wish I had kept the little grim reaper. That was my favorite little monster.
Your insects are always divine – I remember coveting some spiders of yours too 😉 all dressed up for witchy time. Those bees are (come on, you know I have to) BEE-You-Tee-Full. 🙂 Isn’t it funny how sometimes you amass collections that were completely unintended and then you realize you have a collection? I have more dragonflies — the real ones, sadly, that didn’t make it– that I find on my walks – and dragonfly prints and pins and earrings and one pretty turquoise-y opal-ish necklace-that one would think I was consciously amassing a collection in case there’s ever a dragonfly Armageddon. ;p I’ve always been drawn to owls, too (have a magical day sweetie pie!)but they aren’t insects, so I digress. Anyhoo, back to your photos. Truly this vignette speaks to me. It conjures up beauty and science and whispering wings and poetry and tea and all of the good things. Lovely lovely, thank you for sharing!
I can’t think of any of the many things I’ve lost along the way. What does stick out are the things I *give away* because I store them or dust them or clean them or polish them forever and then think “I’ll never use them or need them” or whatever – and get rid of them. And of course (like magic!) the most perfect thing I could have used/done with whatever it is, from coffee cans to toilet paper rolls -don’t get me started on ribbons and fabric) pops up immediately after I let go of them. And then I say DRAT! and then I laugh, ’cause Universe is trickster that way sometimes. 🙂
Today (and yesterday and the day before that) in North Florida has been just amazing. Blue blue skies, very warm, but breezes here and there and the trees are bursting with green leaves in every shade imaginable. I tore out of work yesterday afternoon like a kid who is about to start summer vacation and started shedding clothes at home whilst getting dogs out in the yard — we danced and played and dug and cleaned (one of the doggy furbies appears to find Frisbees tasty, and leaves pieces all over the yard, not to mention any names, KALI, ahem) and scoped out places for a gypsy garden 🙂 til the sun started going down and mosquitoes wound up – do you have mosquitoes in Arizona?
I’m SO ridiculously curious bordering on stalkery to find out what you’re up to in the city! A “izarre event”???? Champagne? (Pronounced “Sham pahn yay” by Christopher Walken in his Saturday Night Live “The Continental” bit — it’s old but for some reason I find it hilarious)–anyhoo I want all the DEETS, girlfriend! <3
xoxxoviii Roostah
Carolee, I’m so sorry to hear about your husband. I met you at the Ghoultide Gathering. We talked about how we both followed Vanessa’s blog. I wish you the best with your move & hope you still keep creating your wonderful art! Art can be good therapy. I planted a rose bush in honor of my mother when she passed. Maybe I’ll see you at the next Ghoultide Gathering. Sending cyber hugs to you!
Oh the bee brooch! I must find something like it! How crazy to find it at the lingerie store. Rose pin…hmmmm….you know how in Raggedy Ann and Andy all of the dolls and stuffed toys come to life when the humans are sleeping or not around? Your amazing clay sculptures must be the thieves! Ha! When you rerire for the day, one or all, come to life and rummage through your possessions and hide them! That’s what I think! 😉 xoxoxo Jen
Thank you, Laura – I do remember chatting with you. I’m just now getting back to creating. I love the idea of a memorial garden for those who’ve passed, and I’m so sorry about your Mother. Sending hugs back. 🖤
Hello Dear Vanessa, I just lose things everyday now at 63.The other day I lost My purse in the Toys R Us parking lot.I bought so many toys that I suppose I left My purse in the basket.I am still waiting and hoping it just appears out of nowhere even though I reported and replaced all cards, phone ect…It now is My sweet pretty little things I miss….6 or so lipsticks, the pretty pouch I kept them in,a pair of vintage earrings I had just worn, things like that.I do love and miss My garden of pretty roses.Yes, I like tiny finds esp. out in nature. Be good little girl-Hugs Denise
oh yes lost somethings that never found… But once I lost this turquoise necklace with a zuni sunface, which had a very special meaning. I had been in Ethan Allen, and that was the last place I remembered having it. I called them several times to see if they found it. I had given up on it completely. Several months later someone from the store called to say the store cat had found it! xoxo Su
Ooooo, I love bee swarms!! I know, how do things disappear as such? It’s just utterly bizarre bizarre. Oh your naughty mum!! hahaha! xoxo
I looove dead bugs, as long as I didn’t kill them 🙂 I looove pumpkin stems too. I did fall off the earth, I’m just having too much fun. I need some structure in my life, haha!! 😉 <3 <3
Miss Renee, gardening, sewing and being a Nannie sounds the bees knees! What a wonderful little life to be enjoying. I’m glad you are doing so well. Can’t wait to hear your zinnias tales <3 <3
Laura, Hiiiiii! <3
Well, as we both know we are kindred kindred! Yes it's a huge old moth. I just about died when I saw it on the ground. I felt so lucky to get to put it in my insect box. I wonder what your weather is doing now? It's funny how interesting the weather has become to me in my gardening life. Sending lots of goodness your way! xoxo
William, I cant’ wait for spring to hit your land! I bet it’s a better spring and summer than mine after all your snow and rain and such. Fill me in as the flowers turn up 🙂
Oh Dear Carolee,
I am soooo sooo sorry for your loss of your husband. Making a new home for you and the furkids will be such a great thing to do. I can’t wait to hear more tales about this. Oh yes do plant climbing roses. I am smitten with my 40 year old and 2 year old climbing America rose bushes. They can climb but they also stand alone very well as rose bushes. They just get very tall. My 2 year old one is doing incredible. Growing so fast and full of roses. Sending lots of love your way, xoxo, Vanessa
Oh fawwwwns! Swoon, how wonderful!!! Will you post pics? I sure hope so. We have lots of baby birds and rabbits here right now. But no fawns, awwwe. Love it! Send over some pancakes won’tcha? xoxo
Oh nooooo, Robyn what a sweet little gift that was! Isn’t it funny how even though we don’t want to look at the lost item 24/7, just knowing it’s there is comforting. But then when it’s lost it feels like something more serious is missing? At least that’s how I feel. Awe, grim reaper <3 <3
Roooostah!! Detes mcgetes! I’ll email all my salacious stories. Just kidding. Or maybe not, or maybe yes. But maybe not 😉 Oh Christopher Walken, I love him. But then I love anyone who is a little unusuallll. As Cindy Lauper would say. xoxox
Jen, yesss!! I always think that as well. I wonder, who’s coming to life after ours or when I’m not around. Those rascals! I wish one of them would give back my pin soon, hahaha! xoxo
Oh Miss Denise, your purse, oh my! Was it ever recovered? Oh yes yes, I must behave myself mustn’t I? 😉 You are so much fun! I hope your bag reappears! Hugs, Vanessa
Thank you so much. Lots of changes happening….
I will have to look for the America variety. I have some “Old Lincoln” roses here that I dearly love (so fragrant), but haven’t been able to find that variety locally (may need to order). 🖤
Yes, my naughty mum, indeed! She is a character! I have to let is pass at times, as I have so much stuff as it is…but GOOD stuff to be sure!