Posted in farm, photography, summer on July 14, 2014| 4 Comments »
I just couldn’t resist photographing these fresh picked onions…a rustic wooden box provides the perfect backdrop for these aubergine jewels…
art for the eyes and body
photography by danielle boudrot for a thoughtful eye
Onions from Lexington Community Farm, Lexington Massachusetts
Posted in garden, my home, photography, summer, tagged basil, bees, butterfly bush, flowers, gardens, landscape, roses on September 20, 2013| 12 Comments »
The garden was buzzing with activity today! Bees in all their glory savoring the sweet nectar of our butterfly bush, roses and basil…the large bees are such a pleasure to watch and listen to…they adore the butterfly bush…as many as three bees can be spotted on just one bloom…I must have experienced the music of hundreds as they flew from blossom to blossom…pure delight…the smaller bees prefer the basil…imagine how their honey would taste? African basil honey! Must be amazing!
The fall solstice is only a few days away but today’s afternoon sun still felt like summer…warm and satisfying…flowers still fragrant and lush…how magnificent and fleeting summer is…may you soak in the last of its warmth and beauty…wishing you a very happy weekend!
top photo ~ a glorious bee on our butterfly bush
morning glory
the approach
visit from a friend
 lovely white roses
thai basil
a small bee enjoying the african basil…I wish you could smell this with me…it’s simply divine!
I just love the curvaceous shadows it casts on our stone wall…
Gary’s pepper plant…aubergine at its best!
photography by danielle boudrot for a thoughtful eye
Posted in color, photography, summer, tagged blue, nature, summer, water on July 19, 2013| Leave a Comment »
With temperatures expected to reach 100 degrees today, I’m cooling off with these aquatic inspired blues…may this refreshing summer hue help quench your thirst and calm your senses…wishing you a wonderful weekend! Stay cool!
photos from National Geographic, Lonny Magazine and the The Gifts of Life via tumblr
Posted in paintings, summer, tagged art, oil paintings, painters, paintings, summer, the ocean, the sea on July 17, 2013| 5 Comments »
“Long before we saw the sea, its spray was on our lips, and showered salt rain upon us.” ~ Charles Dickens
The Beach at Trouville at Low Tide ~ Gustave Courbet, 1865
Seascape ~ John Singer Sargent, 1875
Note in Blue and Opal ~ James McNeill Whistler, 1884
Sailing boats ~ Mikalojus Ciurlionis, 1906
The Beach at Trouville at Low Tide ~ Gustave Courbet, 1865
The Coast of Bellangenay ~ Paul Gauguin
The Coast of Brittany, Fishing Boats ~ Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1878
A Fishing Boat at Sea ~ Vincent van Gogh, 1888
Shoreham Bay near Brighton ~ John Constable, 1824
The Porte d’Amont, Etretat ~ Eugene Delacroix, 1849
Seascape near Fecamp ~ Claude Monet, 1881
Great Sea ~ Maxime Maufra
Bathing Posts ~ James McNeill Whistler, 1893
Symphony in Grey and Green: The Ocean ~ James McNeill Whistler, 1866-1872
The sea at the Mouth of the Ebro ~ M.C. Escher, 1922
Low Tide at Grandcamp ~ Georges Seurat, 1885
Violet and Silver – The Deep Sea ~ James McNeill Whistler, 1893
Standing off Deauville ~ Eugene Boudin, 1886
Coastal landscape ~ Paul Gauguin, 1886
The Gulf of Marseille seen from L’Estaque ~ Paul Cezanne, 1885
The Wave ~ Gustave Courbet, 1871
Cliffs of Etretat ~ Gustave Loiseau, 1902
The Sea ~ Eflm Volkov
Posted in christian chaize, photography, summer, tagged beach, ocean, photography, photography book on July 10, 2013| 2 Comments »
Summer vacation offers us a chance to return to the familiar…whether it’s a favorite cottage by the lake or a quaint B&B by the ocean, that moment of arrival is an unparalleled experience filled with all the sights, sounds and scents of our ideal…for me, it is quite possibly the most exhilarating sensation I’ve ever known! So when I learned about this new book Time and Tide, I just had to share its beauty with you…over the course of eight years, photographer Christian Chaize shot from the same vantage point at Praia Piquinia, a small beach in southern Portugal…the ever-changing light and playful patterns of sunbathers on the sand become our familiar…
Time and Tide Photographs of Praia Piquinia by Christian Chaize ~ Chronicle Books
Photographs from Christian Chaize
Posted in holiday, summer, tagged beach, fourth of july, ice cream, ocean, summer, summer traditions, vintage photography on July 4, 2013| 1 Comment »
wishing you and yours a very happy fourth of july!
The Gifts of Life via tumblr
punk kimono via tumblr
photography by Nina Leen via much love, anna
Russell Lee, July 1940 via Library of Congress
doe eyed dear via tumblr
The Gifts of Life via tumblr
Russell Lee via history in photos
The Gifts of Life via tumblr
Posted in arne maynard, garden, summer, tagged english gardens, flowers, gardens, landscape design on June 28, 2013| 2 Comments »
Harmonious gardens…thoughtful layers of formality and naivety blend ever so gracefully together…for me, there is a seductive yet quiet freedom to each and every one of these timeless masterpieces…I hope you enjoy this lovely selection of gardens designed by the one and only Arne Maynard
Happy weekend!
A manor house in Oxfordshire
A mill house by the river Cherwell
A 17th century farmhouse in Devon
Bowling Green in Derbyshire
A country house in Norfolk
all photography from Arne Maynard
Posted in arne maynard, garden, summer, tagged english gardens, landscape design, master gardener on June 26, 2013| 2 Comments »
I recently discovered master gardener Arne Maynard in The New York Times Style Magazine, Culture Summer 2013…the minute I finished the article, I knew I wanted to learn more about this soulful and talented spirit…fortunately, for all of us, his website is brimming with a gorgeous portfolio, insightful narrative and a number of atmospheric films featuring his home Allt-y-bela in South Wales and The 2012 Laurent-Perrier Bicentenary Garden installation…for me, the films offered the intimate experience I was craving…filmmaker James Aiken created a feast for the senses pairing Allt-y-bela’s visual beauty with Arne’s heartfelt words of wisdom…dawn at Allt-y-bela is something I will never forget…click here to view these exceptional short films
“For me it’s really important to celebrate the morning…even before the sun has risen, dawn at Allt-y-bela is the most magical experience…and to experience the whole garden starting to wake up, especially when the sun starts to rise, it doesn’t hit the house terribly early, but it starts to hit the woodlands beyond the house, and it’s amazing light, and slowly the light rises, and then the garden is completely bathed in this very, very soft low light…there’s something really nice, that connection you make with the garden at this time of day.” ~ Arne Maynard
Allt-y-bela ~ Welsh for “high wooded hillside of the wolf”
“Allt-y-bela is a medieval renaissance tower house cradled in a valley between grazed and wooded hillsides. It could not be a more dramatically different setting to my previous garden which was in the flat fenland of Lincolnshire. Here I wanted to use a restricted palette of favourite elements: fruit trees and vegetables, topiary and wild flowers, roses and bulbs, but had to evolve a very different way of planting them to suit the garden here. I found my beloved symmetrical formality was at odds with the house and landscape and so I have been prompted to develop exciting new ways of designing. My topiary here are like characters at a party, congregating around the house, and bold new sculpted banks at the back of the house are amassed with jewel like bulbs in long grass. Roses will tumble out of trees and the vegetables are tended in raised oak beds that sit in a simple, almost naive, oak and hazel enclosure.” ~ Arne Maynard
Above and below ~ photography from Arne Maynard’s portfolio…click here to visit his awe-inspring website
Below ~ photography by Tom Mannion for The NY Times Style Magazine…click here, to read the NY Times article
“I know that I have achieved a ‘sense of place’ when the garden begins to ‘sing’: to speak to the landscape around it.” ~ Arne Maynard from the NY Times
Posted in paintings, summer, tagged art, artists, flowers, nature, paintings on June 21, 2013| 4 Comments »
Nude gathering Flowers ~ Pablo Picasso, 1958
Gaspe Pink Sky ~ Milton Avery, 1940
Tulips and Statuettes ~ Edouard Vuillard, 1919
Peonies ~ William Merritt Chase, 1897
Dutch Tulips ~ Karen Tusinski
The Park on the Caillebotte Property at Yerres ~ Gustave Caillebotte, 1875
A Vase of Roses ~ Vincent van Gogh, 1890
The Flower Picker ~ John William Waterhouse, 1895
Too Blue ~ Karen Tusinski
Roses under the Trees ~ Gustav Klimt, 1905
Woman in a Blue Apron and Straw Hat, Picking a Spray of Flowers ~ Henri Martin, 1919
Flowers in front of a Window ~ Henri Matisse, 1922
Posted in elle decor, garden, house beautiful, lonny, outdoor rooms, summer, veranda, tagged landscape, landscape design, outdoor entertaining on June 18, 2013| 3 Comments »
Longer days and warmer nights invite us to spend more time outdoors…breakfast in the garden, dinner on the veranda, cocktails under the stars, or perhaps a midnight dip in the pool…may these tranquil and beautiful outdoor rooms sweep you off your feet (and into a comfy hammock or chaise lounge!)
photos from Elle Decor, Veranda, House Beautiful, Lonny and The Gifts of Life
danielle boudrot
danielleboudrot
a thoughtful eye 