A Dream Green House Bath Room

When I was growing up I often went to the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) which is one of the premier botanical gardens in the United States, located in the Bronx in New York City. It spans some 250 acres (100 ha) of Bronx Park and is home to some of the world's leading plant laboratories.

Garden highlights include an 1890s-vintage, wrought-iron framed, "Crystal-Palace style" greenhouse by Lord and Burnham, part of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory

 As well as you can image I fell  in love with this Crystal-Palace greenhouse with all of its different garden rooms depicting various climates and simulating the plants found in that region.--  I went there every chance I could. I took various classes offered in  horticulture and botany.  I always imaged myself living in an earth friendly greenhouse--  the dreamer that I am.

 Well I am still dreaming, however my dreaming is becoming more of reality with green friendly products -  that offer a combination of natural and industrial materials to make it possible. 

I was ecstatic when I found this  stunning bathroom 

on  Apartment Therapy

Teak bath

The Teak bath from  the Water Monopoly Company is hand made using traditional methods in the Highlands of Scotland by a boat builder. I would love the feel of the wood, I image it would be so much warmer and feel better on the body then the hard surface of a traditional tub.

The Moss Carpet

Mini Lawn In Your Loo
  The Moss Carpet bath mat by Designer: Nguyen La Chanh is made from imputrescible foam called plastazote, the mat includes ball moss, island moss and forest moss. An earthy experience, no doubt.  I wonder what my cats would do with it?

 The Sink Basin

If you cannot find that old world sink that makes your heart sing this is a wonderful alternative create an old-world designed bathroom with the Square Vessel Sinks by J. Aaron. These sinks are constructed from cast stone and are available in Standard Matte style. 

Ann Sacks' St Michel limestone tile inspired by ancient paving stones..

Taking its cue from reclaimed antique paving stones, St. Michel is an authentic reinterpretation of these ancient surfaces. The dense limestone offers a buttery palette of cream and yellow. I love the look of these tiles when wet in the picture above with the Teak tub.

 Watch for more trends on design ideas inspired by greenhouses and gardens coming up 2010

Both design images of the greenhouse trends can be found on Apartment Therapy
For more on details and product information for this wonderful bathroom go to Apartment Therapy .

Fin

Magpie Tales # 7 - Reawakened Memories

Swirling and rolling around – before sunrise to a thousand stars in the sky
This color - I think you know the one I mean - yellow with a sweet perfume

The sun may be a little warmer today,
While I drink in the joy, for I dare not stop
Dizzy dancing and watching the icicles melt away

Swirling and rolling around –waking up our sleepy heads
Bend and shiver reaching out with ghostly arms to feel

The brush of a curious hummingbird-
whirling and twirling

Stealing our sweet perfume
To spring showers and crazy March winds
Going to bed in wet clothes
That will dry outside in the morning sun
Something of their sweetness reawakens memories 

of a long time ago

image from http://magpietales.blogspot.com/

For the pretty yellow daffodil will soon reach

the apex of its bloom.
That draws me near to them   
While we are all dizzy dancing in our heads    

Fin
Visit Magpie Tales to read what wonderful Tales other writers and poets have spun  using this photo prompt. http://magpietales.blogspot.com

The Promise of Spring Time

Love is a springtime plant that perfumes everything with its hope, even the ruins to which it clings.
Gustave Flaubert 

The Temple of Concord has long been destroyed by its original 34 Greek columns still remain today-Not far from Sicily you’ll find Agrigento, an area that was a critical part of the Greek empire during the 8th c BC.

We have just entered the Vernal Equinox meaning the vernal point — the one the Sun passes in March on its way from south to north —that  is used as the origin of some celestial coordinate systems.The Vernal Equinox, around Easter, holds special magic, ushering in the return of warmth, and with it, spring is seen as a time of growth, renewal, of new life (both plant and animal) being born.  Coincidentally, Christianity marks this time as the anniversary of the Resurrection.

We are taught in school that the Spring season is therefore connected to the Vernal Equinox meaning the vernal point, the distance from and position of your location in connection with the sun. Although this is seemingly true it isn't nearly as enchanting as the Greek mythological version of the making of spring.

Image of Persephone

Persephone mythological story is well-known today, and has great emotional power: an innocent maiden, a mother's grief over her abduction, and great joy after her daughter is returned. It is also cited frequently as a paradigm of myths that explain natural processes, with the descent and return of the goddess bringing about the change of seasons.

Image of Hades and Persephone

When Hades snatched the maiden Persephone from a flower-strewn meadow and carried her down to the underworld to be his wife, her mother, Demeter, goddess of agriculture, heard her daughter’s screams and raced to help her, but in vain. Demeter wandered the earth, mourning greatly. 

Image of Demeter Mourning

She caused a vast barrenness to fall upon the land. Flowers withered, grain died. A delegation of gods urged Demeter to relent and come to Mount Olympus, but she remained on earth, inconsolable. At last Zeus saw that he himself must intervene and dispatched Hermes to the underworld with instructions.

 Image of Persephone with pomegranate

Hades knew he could not resist and relinquished Persephone, but he persuaded her first to eat a few pomegranate seeds, which obliged her to return to him. Hades has Persephone for four months of each year and then releases her topside.

 Spring accompanies her return.

Fin

Magpie #6 EVERY DAY MAGIC

EVERY DAY MAGIC!

My mystical magical friend
you are filled with every day surprises
When I wasn’t looking there you were,
Beside me all the way through the night 

From the moment I woke up
through some magic moments shared between us
I don’t fully understand, that allows us
to keep cadence with each other.

You cast a protective spell around us and 
built a  rainbow bridge right to my heart
sturdy and strong , safe and secure
with hammer and fastened nails

Right under the milkyway and moonlight night
I see your smile and feel your warm caress

feeding my soul with wonder and delight

as you lay beside me all through the night

Visit Magpie Tales to read what wonderful Tales other writers and poets have spun  using this photo prompt. http://magpietales.blogspot.com

The Romantic Stage!

"If we seek the real source of the dance, if we go to nature, we find that the dance of the future is the dance of the past, the dance of eternity, and has been and always will be the same"     --------

"The movement of waves, of winds, of the earth 

is ever the same lasting harmony"

"The true dance is an expression of serenity; it is controlled by the profound rhythm of inner emotion". 

"Emotion does not reach the moment of frenzy out of a spurt of action; 

it broods first, it sleeps like the life in the seed, and it unfolds with a gentle slowness".

"The Greeks understood the continuing beauty of a movement that mounted, that spread, 

that ended with a promise of rebirth".

"The Dance - it is the rhythm of all that dies in order to live again; it is the eternal rising of the sun."

" It is the mission of all art to express the highest and most beautiful ideals of man.
To express what is the most moral, healthful and beautiful in art" - 

"This is the mission of the dancer, and to this I dedicate my life."
All quotes by Isadora Duncan, in the The Art of The Dance

 Fin

images found on google    quotes by Isadora Duncan- Art of the Dance

An Irish Affair - Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a Castle?

 Kinnitty Castle in Offaly is located in the center of Ireland 

and at the foothills of the Slieve Bloom Mountains.

The castle has been made into a 37 room hotel.

The Broighter Collar (Gold Torc)
(National Museum of Ireland)
Gold Lunula, Used to Fasten Cloaks
around the Neck (c.2500-1200 BCE).

National Museum of Ireland.

 We don't have to be of Irish ancestry to enjoy the beauty of Ireland's Castles. Nor do we commoners have to wait for a royal invitation -- 5 star B& B castles are available to transform us into having a living experience with all the fabled Irish Fairies and the  Leprechauns  who are by the way the  'wee' people" in Ireland,  whilst  we  stay in legendary Castles that housed Ireland's former Kings and  Queens. 

The Tara Brooch (c.700 CE)
Notice the Celtic Interlace Designs.

 

Ashford  was found in 1228 by the 
Anglo-Norman de Burgo family

This astonishing castle is situated in the beautiful countryside of County Mayo and is in the heart of Ireland’s most spectacular scenery. Ashford  was found in 1228 by the Anglo-Norman de Burgo family after they defeated the native O’Connors of Connaught. 

 
The Broighter Collar (Gold Torc)
(National Museum of Ireland)

The de Burgo’s built several such castles throughout the province but Ashford remained their principal stronghold. 3D tours  and virtual tours of the castle is available on their website.  It is worth spending some time on their website for a look see -- it is truly a magnificent place. It is now available as a Bed and Breakfast,  and stunning place in which to have a wedding, or just a magical place to stay.

Sun Disc, Maybe Used as a Button or
Brooch (c.2500-1200 BCE). National
Museum of Ireland.

Ballyseede Castle is located on its own 
thirty acres of gardens and woodland in Tralee County Kerry. 

Ballyseede Castle was the chief garrison of the legendary Fitzgerald’s, Earls of Desmond, many of whom refused to swear allegiance to the crown, which resulted in the infamous Geraldine Wars that continued intermittently for three centuries and concluded with the beheading of Gerald, 16th Earl, in the Demesne of Ballyseede and whose head was exhibited in a cage on London Bridge. A picture gallery of the castle is available on their website 

I will leave you with this Irish Blessings! 

May you always have...

Walls for the winds

A roof for the rain

Tea beside the fire

Laughter to cheer you

Those you love near you

And all your heart might desire.

Fin