Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia in Bloom. Trees are budding, flowers are awakening from underground slumber, sunshine beckons those outdoors to sit and revel in the beauty of Spring. A picnic lunch from The Cheese Shop provides mile high sandwiches, loaded with quality ingredients, on freshly baked breads for dining al fresco. Well done, Colonial Williamsburg!
Dining Outside the Home: Little Italy Mercato Farmers’ Market San Diego, California! Three city blocks were filled with artisans and tent vendors. California growers sold bushels of farm fresh produce while gourmet chefs filled platters of specialty foods offer tempting samples for patrons walking by. Wide selections of fresh cut flowers and seasonal arrangements brightened up street corners. From European linens and handmade soaps to sushi-filled sea urchins and artisan breads, the weekly Little Italy Mercato Farmers’ Market is well worth the walk.
“You should make something.
You should bring something
into the world
that wasn’t in the world before.
It doesn’t matter what it is.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a table
or a film
or gardening-
everyone should create.
You should do something,
then sit back and say,
‘I did that.'”
~ Ricky Gervais
“The quiet rhythmic monotone
of the wall of logs
fills one with the rustic peace
of a secluded nook
in the woods.”
~ Gustav Stickley
“Nothing is more beautiful
than the loveliness
of the woods
before sunrise.”
~ George Washington Carver
“She cast her fragrance and her radiance over me.
I ought never to have run away from her…
I ought to have guessed all the affection
that lay behind her poor little stratagems.
Flowers are so inconsistent!
But I was too young to know how to love her…”
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,
The Little Prince
“Even without seeing the crickets,
grasshoppers, cicadas, and katydids,
we hear them shrilling in this season
and trust that they’re the tiny
living gargoyles entomologists claim.”
~ Diane Ackerman
“Everyone wants instant everything,and they want instant success,
but I always think you should
treat things in the Arts
like a garden,
and let them grow.”
~ Penelope Keith
“Even in the smallest and humblest garden, a sturdy hydrangea at once proclaims the place
as the abode of a real gardener rather than
a mere purchaser of plants
to cover the landscape.”
~ Washington Park Arboretum Bulletin, 2006
