Designer

………………….Once again the beautiful climbing roses are in bloom!……When I moved into this house in 1992 the roses were already here, and already mature!….so they are quite old, but every year they grow and bloom like clockwork!….When I took these photos there were so MANY BEES!!! working, working, working….flying from blossom to blossom gathering the pollen…..I LOVE BEES! If you don’t bother them….they don’t bother you….they have a job that must be done, and they are EXTREMELY FOCUSED!…..unlike YELLOW JACKETS that will dive bomb at you for no reason….them I hate!…..but not the beautiful hard working bees…….The Black Eyed Susan are starting to grow in the flower beds beneath the roses, and they should be beautiful and last into the fall……..That’s if the bunnies don’t eat them all!……………….AIN’T SUMMER GRAND!

………………I have watched this tree grow from a little sapling…..not three inches high! This year it is growing by leaps and bounds. At the beginning of spring, when the leaves were first starting to show, the height of the tree was well below the fence! Now it’s about four to five inches above the fence!….The “trunk” is still thin and fragile, but as it grows it will thicken and become stronger… I recently pruned off the bottom branches so it will continue to grow taller……Eventually, it will be tall enough where there won’t be any branches below the top of the fence. My little baby loves it here, and I’m like a proud papa!

……………….At the beginning of the season I wasn’t sure this was going to be a good year for Hydrangeas…..There just didn’t seem to be many flower buds developing?…..but oh have they surprised me….Usually every other year they do wonderfully…One year they are full with flowers, and the next year not so many blooms…but now it’s two years in a row with beautiful colorful flowers….I planted the ones around the flag pole last year. They replaced the hybrid rose bushes that never seemed to do well….so out they went to be replaced by seven hydrangea bushes, and they are doing GREAT with lots and lots of BLUE flowers…..I will start to cut the flowers from the MANY bushes I have on my property, and bring them into the house…..Then I will dry them and have them all year round!…..SUMMER has arrived!!!

……………..There is NOTHING cooler to wear than pure LINEN……I know many don’t like linen because it does wrinkle, but many who love wearing linen don’t mind them…..it comes with the territory…they embrace the wrinkles….I wear and own a lot of linen, and don’t care if it wrinkles….IT’S LINEN…..There are linens that are blended with other fibers such as cotton or rayon, and they have the tendency to wrinkle less….but wrinkle they all will….I don’t care it just doesn’t bother me…..it’s cool to wear, and that’s really what matters…On the left the model is wearing a “tweed linen blazer” with white linen trousers, and a striped woven linen shirt……..On the right, the model is wearing another striped linen shirt, but this time it has GOLD LUREX STRIPES woven in. The buttons on the shirt were clear acrylic with a tiny gold shank made for me by my jewelry licensee. I wanted the buttons to disappear so nothing would distract from the shirt fabric….details!…… She’s wearing it with a zip front cotton skirt, and a gold belt made for the collection by my jewelry licensee….The SQUARE clip on gold earrings match the belt………DETAILS!………….ALL for my Resort AK 1991 Collection.

…………………..Last night I had the most delicious dinner….all made by moi!…..That may sound strange, but in todays world there are so many delicious pre-made things you can buy that sometimes it’s just easier to pick something up to eat…..but….not this. I made each dish with my own two “little” hands…….I am becoming a whiz at CRABCAKES with a little tartar sauce [that I bought]….The tri colori pasta salad and the cucumber salad were my side dishes….For desert I had a beautiful PEACH, and to drink… Black Cherry seltzer…I’m in the city today so tonight’s dinner has to be quick and easy……a GORGONZOLA BURGER and  THREE BEAN SALAD…..Now…..if it would only STOP RAINING!!! I hate to drive into NYC in the rain. What is normally a 45 minute to a one hour drive can take two hours and more……so please stop raining!