Aspen

I went to Aspen Colorado for a few days, to do a site visit. All my Aussie ski friends have raved about this mountain town; the thick, white powder, the long ski runs, the apres-ski life, the beautiful Rocky mountains. I was excited to be going,  even if it was in spring and not winter.

Sitting at 10,000 feet, the town itself for me was hit and miss, like alot of American towns. It lacked the charm of a European ski village or even an Aussie one which offers the snow gums. But it is actually much more than a resort town. The city was founded in the late 1800s during the Colorado silver mining boom. It was named Aspen after the Aspen trees that cover the area (think silver birch to look at). Today, it is not only a celebrity hotbed in winter, but has a year-round population of over 6000 and offers a host of cultural activities including literary, dance and music festivals and is home to the famous Aspen Institute.

The beauty really begins when you get out of the town. It is breathtaking. The mountains are majestic and the air was crisp and clear and beautiful to inhale. People travel here from all over the world to hunt, hike and fly fish in summer. Even though spring had not broken everywhere in the valley, the sense of space and size and beauty  hit you every time you go around another wind on the road.

Lilac Time

It's lilac time in New York! I love this time of year as it heralds spring in full bloom, but it is so short. Bursts of purple appear all over the city - like above at my lovely Northern Spy Food Co. where the anesthetist and I have a yummy breakfast on the way out to the boat - and all over Central Park.

Lilac has different connotations for me. Before coming here, whenever I thought about lilac I thought of the color of old ladies' hair after a bad dye job, and the name alone conjured up moth balls and mustiness. I think it's because I never remember the flower being readily available in Sydney or Melbourne - although my lovely friend from my peartree house may tell me otherwise on that one!

But here, come spring, before the blue hydrangeas of summer appear, it's all about lilac and cherry blossom. The Union Square farmers market positively bulges with lilac. One florist specializes in lilac and he unloads from his enormous truck wonderful shades of purple, as eager shoppers wait restlessly. Imagine what his fields must look like! Heaven, So now, I love this flower and this color. I even have beautiful lilac-colored linen sheets form Libeco Lagae.

My new found love for this flower also led me to a very famous poem by Walt Whitman. He wrote it as an elegy on the death of Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated during the lilac season:

When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd,

And the great star early droop'd in the western sky in the night,

I mourn'd, and yet shall mourn with ever returning spring.....

The poem continues for another 16 verses so I will let you explore it on your own. In the meantime, don't forget to look out for this beautiful flower when it's springtime in your part of the world.

images: (1-3) mine, (4) libeco, (5-6) 29 blackstreet

Spring in the 'Burbs

The weather was so glorious on the weekend, the Anesthetist and I decided to do some bike riding. we drove out to Larchmont, a pretty town full of French people on the Long Island Sound. It's only 45 minutes from Manhattan, but feels hours away. It's real suburbia with large houses, sprawling gardens, quiet streets, sea views and open parks. The architecture is very mixed. There's 'Psycho' houses but with colored paint, Americana with large flags, Tudor and the rest, all built around the 20's and 30's.

After the bike ride, we decided on a walk in a nearby marshlands conservancy and here I saw my first real, live, wild turkey. Like straight off the bottle of bourbon! It was huge! And quite beautiful.

Spring in the Village

I hope you all had a lovely Easter/ Passover weekend. The Anesthetist went to Texas to celebrate passover with his 86 year old father and grumpy academic sister who lives in LA. So I spent a heavenly Spring weekend in "my" West Village. The weather was glorious, the bulbs are out and all the locals flocked to the parks to eat chocolate eggs and bask in the sun. 

Mellow Yellow

 I went to Palm Springs for the weekend after the LA conference. My first time there and I really loved it! The desert is phenomenal (photos to come in a later post) and I stayed at the Viceroy which was truly rock star-like fabulous.  This is where I renewed my love for all things yellow.

Kelly Wearstler has made "citron" her signature color for the hotel. It works so well when used as a "splash" of color. It completely lifts a room instead of just using white all the time.

This spring in fashion, it is all about pastels. And yellow dominated across all categories. No doubt we will see yellow in all its guises on the streets. 

Carolina Herrera Spring '12

Derek Lam Spring '12

Oscar de la Renta, Spring '12

Burberry, Spring '12

Jimmy Choo Spring '12

Givenchy Obsedia Yellow Clutch

So whilst its cold and drab in wintry New York, I have compiled a few things yellow that make me feel happy - and bring a little color back into my day. 

Wallpaper from Scalamandre

Mark Rothko

Marimekko fabric

Porthault bedlinen

Le Creuset

images: (1) apartment therapy, (2, 5, 13) mine, (3-4) Viceroy,  (6-9) style.com, (10,11) bergdorf goodman (12) mind of a christian girl, (14) gilly's place, (15) habitually chic, (16) great modern pictures, (17) luxist, (18) sue fisher, (19) this next, (20) stock news on net, (21) drive, (22)camille's style, (23) decor pad