A la recherche du cookies perdu ... Guest Post

Encounters with Remarkable Biscuits

... a diverting contrivance attributable to James Alexander-Sinclair & Mark Diacono

Link below to Guest Post, 

where childhood memories stir up a love/hate relationship with haute couture cookies.

A la recherched du cookies perdu

Elegant Symmetry - Lush Greenery ... Getty Villa

An Italian Stone Pine graces an alcove near the entrance to the Getty Villa.

Architectural embellishments link the interior of the Getty Villa Museum to the exterior spaces. An inlaid marble pattern replicates a floor in the ancient Villa dei Papiri, at the Villa's Temple of Herakles.

In the Outer Peristyle garden, a bronze sculpture is placed as it would appear at the Villa dei Papiri.

Machado and  Silvetti Associates of Boston redesigned the Getty Villa site, a 12-year undertaking. Upon reopening in 2006, a contemporary take on an ancient structure emerged on the Getty campus: A 450-seat open-air classical amphitheater; approached from a new elevated walkway. T, my traveling companion, waits patiently.

In the skillfully balanced layout of the Outer Peristyle, pomegranate trees and Grecian laurels 

provide structure, abetted by sweet violets. The Outer Peristyle's formal pool ... edged in ivy topiaries. 

Gallica, damask and musk roses create background effects. 

Decorative paving enhances the garden's symmetry.

An inviting destination year-round: Admission to Getty Villa is free, however, advance timed tickets are required.

The Lion Head Fountain adorns the Herb Garden, planted with medicinal, culinary, & species with religious significance. Fruit and fragrance meld here amid plums and limes, olive and quince, peach and fig trees; the earth blanketed in ground-covering lemon balm.

The Inner Peristyle garden utilizes motifs from nature, such as Acanthus leaves.

The Inner Peristyle's intimate confines center upon a lovely reflecting pool, 

while marble basins punctuate each corner of the garden.

Women drawn to a stream are replicated in the garden's bronze sculptures.

Click on links below - Getty Villa Part I & II

Art and Culture at the Getty Villa

Trompe L'Oeil

Scented, Sensuous, Darkly Dramatic! - Chocolate Flower Farm

Whidbey Island, Washington is a gardener's paradise...

And the home base for Chocolate Flower Farm, a unique plant nursery. 

Marie and Bill specialize in dark flowers and foliage,

offering tender specimens & biennials, long-lived perennials & seeds.  

Here's a sampling! Above: 

Nicotiana 'Chocolate Smoke,' this hardy annual is a strain of N. 'Hot Chocolate,' 

developed by Chocolate Flower Farm.

Aquilegia 'Single Black' .. "the little black dress" of Columbines, elegant & simple, yet quite rare.

Photos: Chocolate Flower Farm

Berlandiera lyrata - Chocolate Daisy

Grow in Zones 4 - 10 in full sun: Considered by Marie & Bill to be the best chocolate scent of all. 

A night bloomer, the flowers offer up their cocoa scent in the morning and drop their yellow petals each day.

Dierama 'Cosmos' 

Started last year from seed. It will take 3 years for plants to reach bloom stage. Be patient!

Delphinium 'Kissed By Chocolate'

Elegant white English delphiniums boasting gentle brushes of chocolate over the inky black colorations produced on 

the majority of 'Black Shades' cultivars (now known as 'Chocolate').

Dianthus 'Sooty' -  Chocolate Sweet William

Biennial in Zones 4 - 10: Grow in full sun; an excellent selection for cut flowers.

An all-time fave in my garden!

Click on link below to read one of my San Francisco Chronicle 'Plant Pick' columns, featuring 

Chocolate Cosmos

www.chocolateflowerfarm.com