SPRING THOUGHTS

It takes a few weeks, but then it is really green - from the lacy beginnings to the full blown reality - NH glows in the springtime.  We get out, finally, to dig and rake and prepare for the warmth. I had an amazing thought out in the garden:  we are never too old to revel in the glories of our little plant patches. 

This house has been around for probably 150 years and each owner has touched the gardens.  The borders are rich with the dreams of the past, and we have added our imprint. 

We are fortunate to count the previous owner as a close friend and she has filled in many blanks - what was here when she came in 1990, what she added from the gardens of other friends, which precious dogs are buried where. There is nothing more humbling that the awareness of the life of an old house and its gardens.  We are a tiny dot on the landscape of this place. I think old house lovers are acutely tuned in to mortality.

Antiques news includes my debut at two doll shows - one in Sturbridge in April (a successful and really pleasant day) and a show in Portsmouth on June 3.  This is a real adventure with an almost-new cast of characters and a totally different flavor.  In Sturbridge there were just a few familiar faces and we all enjoyed the surprise encounters of finding each other in an unexpected place.  I even snuck in dinner at one of my favorite spots:  The Salem Cross Inn in West Brookfield, MA. The cordial staff took kind care of a traveller in the good old fashioned New England tradition.

NHADA (click this link for more information) - August 9, 10, 11, 2012, at The Center of NH Radisson.  For my web friends, I am including a sneak preview of this year's doll banner. 

You must come.  So many pleasures await you.