Bringing Nature Home

When traveling, Jim and I like to pocket any little treasures of nature that might help us bring the outdoors in when we return home without violating some Park Service rule. Interestingly, he usually picks up big things while I seek out the small, but that's perhaps chalked up to gender differences.

This little vase of natural treasures includes rocks from South Beach - not in Florida but the San Juan Islands, WA. Yes, Jim picked up the big ones and the smaller pebbles were my souvenir. On top are pine cones we found at the top of Skyline Drive in Virginia. Next time we are in the Florida Keys, I will pick up a little sand for the bottom.

It may not be an arrangement worthy of Southern Living, but we enjoy looking at it and remembering two very beautiful spots.

Thumbing Through Nature

I’m back from Alaska and, as I hoped, after several glorious days in the great outdoors I am recommitted to finding ways to bring nature into our everyday life and entertaining.

Since returning, I’ve spent hours playing with the photos and videos we took (go to www.thismoment.com and search on my name.) I can almost smell the scent of a pine tree or the salt air when I look at photos of places we've traveled. (For more of our travel photos, see Jim's Webshots.)

So, my new trick is to strategically place a few books on nature like the book pictured here which follows the Lewis and Clark Trail. Put one or two on the living room end table or by your bedside. Not only are the covers visually pleasing, but taking a few minutes at the end of a stressful day to thumb through the pictures is very relaxing.

Naturetaining Revival

It's been two years since my husband I went to Alaska and the concept for Naturetainment was born. This week, we return to our new favorite vacation spot and I plan to use the ocassion to inject new life in this old blog.

My other inspiration is a new shipment of wine from the Wall Street Journal Wine Club. We broke open our first bottle this weekend - a 2008 Pinot Grigio from Italy. The Vina Baccana was a nice pairing for the spicy tuna Jim grilled. Easy on the palette. Not incredibly memorable, but refreshing.

Yes, urban apartment living has made naturetaining a bit of a challenge. But I look forwaad to sharing our vino and some new naturtaining ideas with friends when we return.

Open that Bottle of Wine

What better time to brush off the "Naturetainment" Website than the 10th annual Open that Bottle of Wine Night?? The concept for this celebration was started by Wall Street Journal Tasting columnists Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher.

This year we celebrated with our good friends Lyn, Gene, Joey, Danielle, Peggy and Jack. While the selections sampled were varied in quality, I have to give "two thumbs up" to Menage a Trois, a red from the Napa Valley. A blend of Zinfendel, Merlot and Cabernet, this modestly priced wine (approx $12/bottle) fit nicely between courses.

Of course, it was particularly special to finally open a 1996 Chateauuneuf du Pape that I purchased ten years ago when visiting Provence with my friend Manda. The bottle traveled all the way to Washington, DC, to Virginia, to Miami, and back to Virginia. I feared it would not be so tasty, but was very pleasantly suprised. I've got one more in our "cellar" and will look forward to the opportunity to OTBW with Manda next time she's in town.

Lessons Learned

This past weekend my friend Trish renewed her wedding vows with her husband at a beautiful backyard wedding ceremony. Let me just admit up front, I cried several times. I love weddings.

But this one was particularly fun because I also got to practice a little “naturetaining.” My assignment was to help with the flowers, which included the table arrangements, buffet decorations and the bridal bouquet.

I know my limits, so for the bouquet I went straight to a florist. We visited several before choosing Karin’s Florist in Vienna. It took sometime for me to convince them the bride had granted me full proxy for picking the style, colors, and flowers. And I left the flower choice up to their designer, providing guidance only on the style. Little did I know I should have also said something about color.

When I went to pick up the bouquet on the morning of the ceremony, the bouquet was ready – but it was all white. I’ll admit that it was stunning. But I just didn’t think an all-white look for a backyard springtime event was appropriate. So I had the designer re-do it and add some pink Gerber daises. (He was a tad bit annoyed, but the customer is always right!) I think it came out well.

In the previous blog post, I shared the idea I was experimenting with for the table decorations. I’d decided tulips were the way to go and found a great street vendor right in DC with loads of nice tulips in multiple colors. But alas, when I stopped by the vendor Friday night to purchase the nearly 70 stems I needed, they were practically sold out! I made a mad dash to two stores that evening – nothing. Fortunately, on Saturday morning the Vienna Giant had a wide selection of tulips available, and on sale! So I was clipping and stuffing tulips into floral foam right up until it was time to go. The purple were the freshest, so we went for an all-purple theme.

Using the small bud vases we picked up at the Crate and Barrel outlet, I used a combination of red and yellow ranuncules to decorate the food tables.

All in all, it was a lot of fun. And I learned two important lessons. Don’t wait until the last minute to get the flowers, and I’m more allergic to pollen than I thought.