The Garden of Eden... Almost

I live in the house that Ralph built (or masterfully designed).

Who's Ralph? Just one of the nicest former homeowners you could every hope to meet. This post is in recognition of his extraordinary generosity. In addition to electronics, furniture, and wine, these are some of the amazing things he left for me when I bought this place...

Gift #1: Jasmine and more jasmine. It's in full bloom right now and absolutely heavenly. You can actually smell it a block away. I wish I could provide smell-o-vision through this site... or bottle it up and send it to everyone.


Jasmine

Gift #2: Rosemary. It's actually out of control and taking over the yard (see previous picture for scale comparison to Tobey... assuming you know how big Tobey is). I think I could qualify for government farm subsidies. I really should do something with it. Does anyone actually cook? I'd be more than happy to send you some.


Rosemary

Gift #3: The biggest pot of orchids you have ever seen. I didn't even know what it would looked like or what kind of orchids they were when he casually mentioned that he was thinking about leaving the plant for me (it was just a huge pot of long green leaves at the time). I saw the cut blooms at the River Oaks Orchid Shop a year later and found out that they're cymbidium orchids - some of the hardest to grow... and this pot magically blooms every year in the deplorable conditions that I give it! It's only the beginning... I get a couple more weeks before the full show... and a couple months of loveliness after that.


Cymbidium Orchids

Before you start thinking that I live in some kind of dreamland... I would just like to say that it all balances out. Last night I found out I have some kind of electrical short in my bathroom... and I'm still not on speaking terms with my fridge and dishwasher.

Sigh... and now I'm about to fly to NY to see if that finance group position is really a good move.

Does anyone want to live here? All this and more can be yours at the lovely Casa de Bonnie... courtesy of the fabulous graphic artist/retail exec who put it all together two years ago.