Simple Things

Peonies, a new mint green tray that reminds me of childhood, and a sunny yellow candle. Together they make my Saturday a cheery one. 

It's Peony Season

Peonies are a heck of a flower.

The Chinese believe peonies symbolize wealth and fortune, as well as noble status.

The Japanese poets memorialized the peony in haiku:

The Peony

Made him measure it

With his fan.

-Issa

In the stillness,

Between the arrival of guests,

The peonies.

-Buson

The stamens and pistil

Of the peony gush out

Into the sunlight.

-Taigi

Whoah there, Taigi. Don't get too excited.

I loooove these floofy, dinner-plate-sized flowers. Not only are they gorgeous, but they can withstand snow. How's that for badass? When I visited Japan in winter, I noticed gardeners would build a little hut for each peony so it wouldn't get crushed by the weight of the snow.

Every time they're in season, I go nuts stocking up. Trader Joe's in Southern California must have a great dealer, because they are packed to the heavens...

$6.99 for five stems? That's insane! At a fancy Silver Lake florist last year, I bought three stems for 24 dollars ($8 each) and all the petals fell off within 24 hours. On the contrary, my Trader Joe's peonies or the ones I pick up at the farmer's market (at about $3/stem) usually last me up to two weeks.

My guy has caught onto my peony craze and bought me some gorgeous tulips and peonies for my birthday this past week...

And for now, our home is filled with these lovely power puffs of color.

Aaaah. Now doesn't just looking at that make you happy?

Garden Perfection

Now that our outdoor living room is set up, we're spending an inordinate amount of time in the garden, morning, afternoon, and early evening. Why waste your time on Twitter and Facebook indoors when you could be wasting your time on Twitter and Facebook outside in the bright California sunshine?

Spending more time in the sunny weather yesterday led us to cool down with some maple Oreo ice cream at Scoops, followed by an impromptu trip to Rolling Greens to get some new plants to complete our outdoor living room. I've discovered after a few months of living here that our garden is not as shady as I'd originally thought (the hydrangeas I planted are suffering a slow burning death) so I decided to try out some full-sun plants, with the help of the friendly blonde lady at Rolling Greens and a certain detective who helped search for clues about which plants would survive the longest.

verrrrrrrrrry interesting evidence indeed.

Here's what we came home with:

sweet lavender

furry kangaroo paw!

forgot what this is called

succulents, my favorite low-maintenance girlfriend.

Investigating the newcomers

By the way, these gorgeous peonies below are not from Rolling Greens, but rather, Trader Joe's. It was only $5.99 for the whole bunch because they're in season and are mostly shipped down from Northern California. That's like $1 a pop for tabletop beauty that lasts over a week. You can't tell in the picture, but these are each about the size of small dinner plates.