Summer heat has arrived. The housing market has adjusted to new metrics but remains healthy, and the Pacific NW is at its best. These glorious months of sunshine are the reason most of us live here! I am grateful and energized by the beauty. Here’s hoping that you do whatever brings you joy in these magical months.
Read MoreOur epically rainy spring has produced a verdant jungle in the Pacific NW. A reminder of what gracious abundance feels like as our gardens bear fruit. We are so very fortunate in this region of the world. It’s always an opportunity to be our best selves and share with those that have less. Not unlike our flourishing gardens, we expand as people when we explore the boundaries of who we can be. Happy Summer!
Read MoreCool, rainy, and unexpected equals lush, green, and glorious. Not unlike life when the uncomfortable creates a beautiful breakthrough. Covid-19 has been really uncomfortable for all of us and tragic for some. My silver lining has been my neighborhood gathering every Friday night outdoors regardless of the weather for over two years and celebrating life as we now know it intimately: precious and fragile. We can find the good if we look for it.
Read MoreIn 1623 there was a rare striped tulip named Semper Augustus that captured the fancy of wealthy investors in The Netherlands. At one point a single bulb garnered the same price as a home. It was a moment of hysteria that caused an economic upheaval when it was discovered that the tulips beauty was caused by a disease as it withered and died. This story caused me to consider the concept of assigned value. Sometimes we assign value to the most sparkling thing in the room and yet the quietly beautiful item in the corner is often far more important and valuable. Let’s concentrate on what actually counts in life: kindness, the goodness in others, home and family, our health, friends, our beloved pets and the potential that each day offers us. Happy Spring!
Read MoreSpring is inches away. We made it. The perfume of blossoming trees, warm air, blue skies, and more daylight. We dream of these things at the 48th parallel north. This is the season when the heavens opened up for the early celestial navigators as they ploughed the Pacific coastline. We too can breathe the renewed air after many winter storms and think clearly once again as we continue our journeys.
Read MoreThe heart is regarded as the center of a person’s thoughts and emotions, especially love, compassion, and loyalty. With our hand over our heart we pledge allegiance to our flag, with passion in our heart we go to battle for our tribe, and with our heart in our hands we take a vow until death us do part. And most importantly, this seemingly simple holiday is a chance for all of us to express our love to those most dear to us. Happy Valentine’s Day!
Read MoreThe New Year abounds with opportunity. We make goals, we book vacations and then we jump in our respective canoes and start paddling. It’s an annual ritual that always feels like we get a “do-over”. So, when we do it again this year let’s include compassion, kindness, and lots of love for ourselves and our neighbors. It’s been a rough couple years for all of us and collective healing is in order. Spring is coming and joy awaits.
Read MoreThe magic of each uniquely formed snowflake is a reminder of how we are just perfect the way nature made us. Our foibles and eccentricities make us who we are. Let the beauty of nature be a guidepost as we assess ourselves at the end of the year. The Unification Theory in physics says we are atomically all the same just molecularly rearranged.
Read MoreThe first frost has arrived. The garden is nearly asleep. The forest is speaking quietly through its miraculous web of microbial roots as it settles for the winter. And we sentient beings, too, are looking for respite from our trials. We celebrate, we cook, we read and we quietly contemplate our futures. And we are so very grateful for our health and those we love.
Read MoreThe final bow is taking place. The earth is aflame with her finale of deciduous color. It is such a privilege to live in a region with four seasons that give us so much beauty. This juncture provides time for both completions and planning for the year ahead. And the challenge always remains to be in the present as we are pulled in two directions. As Baba Ram Dass once wrote in his seminal book, Be Here Now: “Wherever you are, be all there.”
Read MoreAnd then it rained... After a remarkably hot summer we are invited back into the warmth of our homes to reconnect with friends and family. The water reinvigorates us not unlike the botanical world. We are miraculous living beings who need nurturing, as well. A joyful time approaches with many traditions to celebrate and a show stopping deciduous finale yet to arrive. Fall in all its glory is just around the corner.
Read MoreSummer gardening is reaching a crescendo. It always reminds me of how I care for my clients: like my plants, each one is different, each one requires special care, and with the attention they deserve, all blossom beautifully. It’s a very joyful and satisfying ritual that repeats itself each season. And then, over the years, these relationships have transformed into a wonderful garden of clients and friends. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful vocation.
Read MoreSummer has arrived with an intensity we could have barely imagined. Our seemingly endless days of sunshine have afforded us the recovery from a quarantined year that we all so richly deserve. So, drink your water, water your gardens, and let’s reinvigorate ourselves and our lives. It’s an opportunity to contemplate new places and ways to live as we enter a new phase on our planet.
Read MoreThe great gift of June is the first bloom of our roses. Subtle fragrances, sublime colors, and arms full of blossoms to bring into our homes. Could there be anything more divine? And this year we can, again, share them with our friends and neighbors in celebration of all that is good about those we love.
Read MoreJust as spring is revealing herself, we too are emerging from our self-exile and basking in the sunlight to heal ourselves and renew our love of life. In the spirit of healing, I’m partnering with my wonderful women friends, neighbors, colleagues, and clients to bring hope through a giving circle. I’m looking for 100 women who can donate $100 to collectively gather and donate $10,000 to the charity of our choosing four times per year. I’d love for you to embark on this budding adventure with me.
The COVID-19 pandemic has weighed heavily on each of us, affecting the lives of people across the country and the world. Hauser's rendition of “One Day Soon” provides a much needed message of hope.
Read MoreE.E. Cummings wrote: “I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart).” We look from afar at those we love, waiting for the moment we can embrace them again. We are brave. It is lonely sometimes. Only love will carry us through.
We are in a moment of stasis. Winter allows us to reflect on the past and look forward to the future. Frozen for the briefest of moments. It’s been more than most of us can absorb. We now have the palette of our futures to consider: red for vitality and love, green for the miracle of spring, yellow for sunshine and warmth. The choices are endless. We are the masters of our destiny. Let us take up our respective brushes and begin to paint.
Read MoreWe are all feeling, perhaps more fragile and human from our most unusual year. However, unlikely gifts have emerged through our isolation. We have had Zoom reunions, long phone conversations, baked for our friends, greeted our neighbors on daily walks, rescued unloved dogs and cats, and cleaned our garages…
Read MoreThis is the season of retreating to a more interior life. Our gardens are going to sleep, our personal libraries are calling to be read and kitchen chemistry entertains. These quiet moments are always an opportunity to take stock and consider the possibilities, as we rest and look toward designing our future. The subtle transition of the earth shows us the way each year.
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