Sunlight

Yesterday morning, I walked out into my beautiful new garden room (I converted the original screened porch into what I call my “Garden Room” this past winter) and was greeted by this beautiful still life.  I had to capture it with my camera so that I could look back on this fleeting moment of transcendent beauty.

Looking at this image now takes me right back to that moment of simple joy.

This is another view which perhaps I like even more.   Probably because there are objects that I love in it: my favorite interior design books being held up by a bronze Foo Dog, the charming silhouette of a child with a parrot, and the curve of a Queen Anne chair which was my grandmother’s.  The orchid and the African violet (both gifts from a special gardening friend) are the icing on the cake.

This is a view in the other direction: towards the chimney wall which separates the garden room from the living room.  I adore that portrait of a 19th century French girl.  She is holding masses of grapes in her apron.  I keep dithering on what to name her.  I have to come up with something that will stick because she is too lovely to remain nameless.  Antoinette is the current thought.

Anyway, I took this because of the sun on the dried hydrangeas.

A peek at the tableau on my iron console table.

This is the view though that stops my heart for a moment.  The light on the hydrangeas, the chair in the background (covered in an old Colefax & Fowler chintz named “Bowood”), and then…the verdant garden beyond.  Heaven.  My version anyway.

This room turned out even better than I had hoped it would.  I wish I could live in it.  When the garden was open in April for Historic Garden Week in Virginia, I wanted to share it with all the folks who came touring (about 1,000 of them!).  Everybody seemed to love it.

Here is somebody else who thinks it is swell, too.Can you blame her?

If you ask nicely, perhaps I will show you how my Garden Room came to be.  In the meantime, please join Gabby and me in enjoying the serene beauty of a moment in the sun.

18 Jun This entry was published on June 18, 2013 at 6:56 PM. It’s filed under garden, gardening, Glittermoon, interior design, photography and tagged African violet, antiques, beauty, colefax and fowler, dried hydrangea, garden room, interior decoration, orchid, plants, serene, still life, sunlight. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.