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PagesHomeArchitectureConstructionInterior DesignAccessible/GreenLandscapeFurnishings and AccessoriesArtLightingFloral and Garden DecorResources Monday, May 25, 2015 Scenes from a ShowcaseAs San Francisco Decorator Showcase 2015 draws to a close this long Memorial Day weekend, a brief look back at some memorable spaces...



The Entry by Katherine Webster, Inc, San Francisco

Writings of home's architect Julia Morgan on Grand Entry Staircase,
Candace Barnes Design Studio, San Francisco


The Powder Room by Julie Rootes Interiors, San Rafael

The Dining Room by Cecilie Starin Design, Inc., Tiburon

The Living Room by Phillip Silver Design, Inc., San Francisco

The Family Room off the Kitchen by Kathleen Navarra, San Francisco

The Pet Suite in the Kitchen by Kathleen Navarra, San Francisco

Master Suite by Wick Design, San Francisco

Sitting Area of Master Suite by Wick Design, San Francisco

Her Dressing Room by Heather Hilliard Design, San Francisco

Gentlemen's Bathroom by Evars + Anderson Interior Design, San Francisco

Girl's Bedroom by Weaver Design Group, San Francisco

Gift-wrapped closet by Weaver Design Group, San Francisco

Upstairs Bathroom, with Voutsa wallpaper, by Nest Design Co., Inc., Sausalito

Laundry Room by Evars + Anderson Interior Design, San Francisco

Christian Lacroix wallpaper close up in Laundry Room by Evars + Anderson Interior Design

Wine Cellar by Jane Richardson Mack and John Romaidis, Fairfax

Garden by SIOL, San Francisco











Posted by.at12:47 PM72 comments: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest Monday, April 6, 2015 Easter in The City


































Easter brunch, at the venerable - and much re-built - Cliff House.

It sits perched above the City's popular Ocean Beach where even on this day surfers, looking like black seals in the choppy surf, waited belly-side down on their boards for the perfect wave.

Seabirds hovered, landed, then took to the skies again from their perches on Seal Rock just outside the window.



While champagne flowed freely into our glasses amid the gentle strains of a harp, a tray of fresh popovers passed by our table.



We quickly claimed then, delaying our trip to the buffet table and allowing us to settle into the warm rays of the sun through the window. Slathering on butter and strawberry jam, the Cliff House's famous popovers melted in a sweet obsession.

The butterscoth pots de creme-in-eggshell are a newer sweet obsession. A deep creamy butterscotch, richer than a pudding, is topped with a dollop of whipped cream and crystallized ginger
























Could you resist?

Peter, the Cliff House's Cuban-born pastry chef, handcrafted each one of the 300 pots de creme, using a special tool to cut the shell which is then drained of the egg, washed, baked and filled with dessert. (The eggs are sent upstairs for use in omelets.)













































After lunch, a stop downstairs at the lookout to watch a pod of whales spout and play in the surf, just yards away from the surfers. The Pacific's cold water is always a delight for some.


















Then a leisurely drive through an unusually uncrowded Golden Gate Park where roses were not yet ready to make their first bloom bonanza but the rhododendrons were.


















There were Easter Sunday picnickers waiting for the sunset....























And brilliant yellow irises along the banks of a lakeside pagoda


















California may be in drought but this waterfall, that flows under a stepping-stone pathway, is a pleasant reminder of wetter winters.


















A tourist reads a plaque denoting that this set of marble columns was once the portal of the residence of the A.N. Towne before it burned in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake. A. N. Towne was the general superintendent of the Central Pacific Railroad and a California senator.


















A newer resident seems to have taken up house in the Towne Portal.























Just in time to see the "calla lily" lights in front of the De Young Museum lend boomerangs of light into the dimming sky.


Posted by.at5:06 PM57 comments: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to PinterestLabels:Beach,Desserts,Dining,Ocean,San Francisco,Special Occasions Saturday, March 7, 2015 Giveaway ResultsCongratulations Pixforyou2 and Orchid Cathy!

We loved your secrets. Thank you so much for sharing them.

And, drumroll.....you are the winners of the latest garden giveaway so you split all the prizes - yay!

Look for our email in your inbox so we can get your address.

Again, thanks for sharing!


Posted by.at9:37 AM49 comments: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest Friday, February 27, 2015 Garden GoodiesWe found some wonderful garden products at Sloat Garden Center's "vendor night" last week and asked the companies if you could try them. So, we're having a contest.

Simple rules: The contest closes at midnight on Wednesday, March 4. To enter, tell us what is your favorite uncommon gardening secret. That's it. We'll choose the winners and announce them in the next post. (If you experience any trouble logging in your answer, try switching browsers, e.g. Firefox or Safari).

Mark your calendars because you must check back by Saturday March 7 to see if your name is listed as a winner so we can send you your prize. If not, your prize will be awarded to a new winner.

Ready? Set? Go! And, good luck!






What we love about American-made Smart Pots? They're portable and reusable. They warm the soil quickly in the spring and cool the roots when it's hot. They air prune roots for a more efficient root system and prevent roots from "circling" and, instead, force them to set lateral roots. Just unfold the bags, fill them with soil, drop in your plants, and water. So easy!

There are two sizes in the giveaway:

One Big Bag Bed, Jr. that offers 7 square feet of of "raised bed" gardening for vegetables, flowers, herbs and fruits.

and

One Smart Pot (the 20 gallon size) for growing melons, pumpkins, winter squash and sweet potatoes.





What we love about Tappin' Roots: It's vegan and not tested on animals. Three cheers for that!
It's handcrafted on an organic Sonoma County farm and relies on willow tree extract, sea kelp and a non-animal derived calcium. These ingredients are used to build strong root systems and stems, lush foliage and dense flowering. It can be used as an all-in-one fertlizer on any plant, any size and at any lifestage and also great for cuttings and transplanting.

There is one bottle in the giveaway.







What we love about Maxsea: Besides featuring their five-member "Canine Crew" on their website's staff page? Definitely, its long history of pleasing fussy gardeners including garden club members who swear by it.

There are three fertilizer containers (All-purpose, Bloom and Acid Plant) in each set and there are two sets in the giveaway.

Now, let's dish the dirt on garden secrets. We'll start!

With fragrant plants, try to plant "near the nose", so to speak.

A lush standard, or tree, such as a gardenia or rose at your front entrance greets guests before you even open the door. We adore Fragrant Cloud, Mr. Lincoln, Jude the Obscure, and Souvenir Claudius de Nouyel. For gardenias, try "August". It's very reliable and fragrant.

The best orange tree for fragrance? Hands down, "Bouquets des Fleurs"

We plant low-growing prolific honeysuckle in large drifts around seating areas and pathways, and always include marigolds, mint, lavender and rosemary in potagers. That way, when we accidentally brush up against them while tending the beds, we are awash in their sweet scent.

We can't even tell you how many secrets we just gave away! Your turn....



Posted by.at4:04 PM56 comments: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest Friday, April 25, 2014 Begin the Begonia Buzz and Contest AlertLongfield Gardens in New Jersey is the one of the country's top bulb importers and retailers, including 18 varieties of the Begonia tuber including these below.

Begonia Non-Stop Apricot

Begonia Double Roseform Yellow
Begonia Double Picotee Yellow
Begonia Hanging Golden Balcony
Begonia Double Roseform Scarlet


To encourage gardeners to get a jumpstart on spring planting, Longfield Gardens has assembled a gorgeous cloche kit for $30. It's perfect for Mother's Day or as a gift for your favorite boss, banker or friend.



Everything you need is included: peat pot and soil, heavy glass cloche and rustic ceramic base, and one tuber (from your choice of 18 begonia varieties).


If you lightly water the tuber for five or six weeks, you should see the beginnings of the begonia emerge from the soil. It's then ready for transplanting outside once all chance of frost is gone.

To order: visit Longfield-Gardens.com or 1-855-LF-Gardens. New customers receive 20 percent off their order with the posted promo code and free shipping with orders over $50.

CONTEST:
And now one of you gets to try this beautiful kit free.

Here's how you enter. Click on the word "Comment" below and tell us what other tuber or bulb, beside a begonia, (click here) you would want to force under the cloche next season and why.

Longfield Gardens will choose its favorite response and send the lucky winner a begonia kit with a tuber of its choice.

Not so fine print:
If you're having trouble commenting, try switching browsers, from Firefox to Safari, for example.

Please check back here to see if you are the winner in order to receive your prize.

Good luck!Posted by.at3:12 PM117 comments: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to PinterestLabels:Contests,Garden Friday, March 28, 2014 To Bee or not to Bee

Mike Turner, who owns Marin Coastal Bee Co., knows bees. Heharvests and sells their honey, he removes their nests, relocates their swarms,and helps set up and or manage hives of them for his customers. You can even order his local honey here.

Mike will discuss the life and habits of the honeybee at the 38th annual Marin chapter of the California Native Plant Society at 11 a.m. on April 12 at Green Point Nursery in Novato where native wildflowers, perennials, shrubs, grasses and seeds will be on sale. Other talks will focus on butterfly gardening and top native plants for the Marin garden.

You can win one of four plants, grown by the Society's volunteer by entering the contest below.


Image: Deborah Turner
Here, Mike Turner shares his favorite fun facts from The BeekeepersHandbook by Diana Sammataro and Alphonse Avitabile.

The Life (and death) of a Busy Bee
In its lifetime, a honeybee produces about 1/12th of a teaspoon,or about five drops, of honey.
It takes 15 adult bees to make one teaspoon, not tablespoon, ofhoney.
It takes about two million flower visits to collect enough nectarto make 1 pound of honey.

Image: Bob and Mieko Watkins
A colony can collect 40 to 125 pounds of pollen in a year and eatabout 40 to 65 pounds in the same amount of time.
If bees eat eight pounds of honey, they can make one pound ofbeeswax.
Bees fly from 9 to 15 miles per hour. If bees fly two miles from their hive, they can cover about 8,000acres of forage area. This adorable bumblebee, below, isn't known for its honey-making skills, but it's a great pollinator for the garden and needs food, too.

Image: Bob and Mieko Watkins
If a bee is gorged with 30 mg. of honey, it can cover 34 mileswithout running out of fuel, so that's about 1 mg. of honey per mile. If it is swarming, it carries 36 mg. Swarms, like the one below in a Mill Valley, CA tree, occur between March and June when hives are bursting with bees and the queen takes off with half of her hive to find a new home.

Image: Mike Turner
At the peak of summer, a hive can have as many as 50,000 adultbees and 35,000 incubating young bees. In a colony of 50,000 bees, 500 die each day. Colonies can live in beehives built by the bees or by beehive makers like Mike Turner.




An adult worker bee lives 15 to 38 days during the summer. During the winter, it can live 140 daysor more.
Queens, on the other hand can live three to five years. (The queen, below, is the largest one with a harmless dye on her to make her easily recognized by the beekeeper.)
Image: Doug Fairclough
She mates - in flight - with as many as 10 to 15 drones, whose solepurpose is mating, and then lay 1,000 eggs per dayup to 200,000 per year.
All worker bees are female and perform most of the hive duties,including cleaning cells, feeding the babies and the queen, packing pollen,building honey comb, ventilating and cooling and guarding the hive, waking upor clearing out dead bees, and waking up taking out the trash (dead bees).
It would take 10 stings of bee venom per100 pounds of body weight to kill an average person.So, a 200 pound man could be killed by 1000 stings.
On the other hand, it just takes a few bites of the blossoms of the native California Buckeye to kill a bee. They will avoid themunless there is nothing else to eat.Then, theyll take the pollen back to the hive, eat it later, and die.


Image: Bay Nature.org
So, Mike Turner's best tip for helping bees is to plant flowers that bloom latein summer when other sources have dried up.


image: Bob and Mieko Watkins
Now for the Contest! Here are the rules: Please enter the name of one plant for hungry bees that blooms late in summer and isnt mentioned in thisweeks Fine Living column. We'd love to hear why you like it. The prize for the first four correct winning entries is a bee-friendly plant, courtesy of the Marin chapter of the California Native Plant Society.

That's it...good luck!
Tiny print: The contest is open to any Marin resident. You must leave your first name and the first initial of your last name with your answer, for verification purposes, and you must check back on April 4 to see if you have won and to send your address. Please mark your calendar. Prizes will be hand-delivered in Marin that week.
If you have trouble registering your comment, try switching browsers to Safari and see if that helps. To keep it fair and transparent, only comments posted here are eligible. Posted by.at6:00 AM68 comments: Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to PinterestLabels:Bee,Contests,Garden,honey,native,plants Older PostsHomeSubscribe to:Posts (Atom)
Pj Bremier

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Lemons, roses, jasmine and bulbs in the garden.
Tropical shrubs poolside.
Small outdoor surprises - a planted urn, an unusual plant, a watering dish for birds and frogs - glimpsed through foliage.
Sparkling clean windows and mirrors.
Doors thrown wide open for fresh air and neighborhood sounds.
Freshly-laundered linens.
Fragrant flowers - freesias, lilacs, hyacinths and lilies - on a desk.
Grandmother's antique dressing table.

A touch of zebra, a suggestion of equestrian.
Crystal lamps, silver frames and objects in classic, geometrical shapes: a ball, an egg, a cube, or a triangle.
A French provenance. A Louis-style chair, book, pen or image.
Organza bags filled with gardenia aroma beads, tied with ribbon, and hung from door knobs.

One room in a pale shade of yellow.
Contrasting piping outlining a sofa, chair or pillow.
A hint of music.

A pop of persimmon.

And the family, friends, heroes and pets who decorate our life.

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