Massachuussettss!

About fourteen years ago this month I started third grade, my first year at a real school in the United States. We'd just moved to Fort Collins; on my first day I wore a flowered dress with a white peter-pan collar, and my teacher was Mrs. Johnston, who wore jean jumpers.

This month, this year, I'm moving to Boston, for my first year at a "real job". I start work on Monday; I don't know what I'm going to wear yet, but I do know that instead of sitting in the little chairs behind the little desks, I'll be standing at (or near) the front of another third grade classroom. This school is in an old six-floor apartment building with a big marble staircase in the center; they don't have a big playground like my own third-grade school, but their street has magnolias and they might raise baby chickens this spring.

I'll be in a hostel until my apartment opens up, so posts might be periodic until then. Next step of the plan : learn to spell the state's name.

Geraniums rouges

Red geraniums.
Absolutely indubitably 100% near the top of my flower-list.

I have been criticized by some who call them "granny flowers", but if that is the case then, my friend, all of France is a granny-nation, since these sturdy bright beauties are found everywhere!

These particular ones were given to me subversively by Christian, le chef des serres (the greenhouse boss), after I had been beheading them for (re)planting. Kept them in a glass on my desk--pure happiness for when you're feeling blue.

Lilium tigrenum

Tiger lily ! Cf Peter Pan.

detail...

Dinner at Mont Saint-Michel

Paulownia tomentosa

(Click image to read.)

Les Tunnels

The greenhouse "tunnels", to be watered daily under the eyes of Christian, l'orse.


(Click image to see more detail.)

Les dahlias blanches

Les bluets

Cornflowers.

























One of my favorite flowers. Like coreopsis tinctoria, scabiosa, and red geraniums, they seem simple and "common" at first, but if you look closely and consider, you see that they're in fact some of the most elegant and interesting plants.

Clématite

Clematis (clématite, en francais). This bloomed incredibly dark purple, hanging in curtains from a simple frame on Remy's side of the garden, surrounded by (at that time) blankets and pillars of roses. The clematis' simple form, their sleekness, and their twiggy vines and tendrils made them especially shocking and beautiful.