making up is hard to do
I know. I owe you posts for November 10, 11, 12, and 13. I know. And I am working on it. I have a gazillion photos to share with you, and at this very moment I am cleaning them up (on another computer) and getting them ready to upload on FLICKR, so you, gentle garden blog readers, can see them.
It was warm and sunny and fine for garden tours in Los Angeles. 77 degrees. We had great presentations by Mark Rios, Joseph Marek, Nancy Goslee Power, Sasha T., Judy Kameon, to name a few. On Sunday, we toured gardens along the Sunset Boulevard corridor from Santa Monica to Los Feliz. Unfotunately, in the two most extreme gardens, we weren’t allowed to take pictures. Not to worry. You didn’t really miss much.
Of the unphotographed gardens, the first one, by Mark Rios, was stark. Green turf, concrete, stainless steel and a handful of crepe myrtles. A more generous way to label it would be to call it crisp. Like in fresh dollar bills. Left me absolutely cold. I will say, the finish work was fastidious. The components of the home and garden were absolutely perfect in execution. Incredible workmanship. But cold. I mean, I couldn’t live that way. I collect stuff. Like books and friends. And dust bunnies. There wasn’t even a dust mote to behold.
The other unphotographed garden belonged to Abe Summer (Sumner?) a famous entertainment lawyer. He jokingly referred to the garden as “the garden that Jack built”. Jack being Jack Nicholson. Hubba Hubba. Abe was a bit of a jerk. We had our lunch on the lawn at Abe’s place, but get this, we were not allowed to sit on the furniture. The LAWN furniture. Can you believe it? That totally pissed me off. That and the Andre Boccelli or whoever was screeching from a very bad speaker system. My take on this place: don’t invite me if I am not good enought to sit on your stupid furniture. I was on my best behavior. Next time I will make sure I get some mustard smeared on Abe’s fine Sunbrella fabrics. This was a tudor style mansion, matching guest house, oval pond, tea house, tennis court, viewing deck for the tennis court, koi pond, scary hillside garden with a 10 mile hike to the top (just kidding), steep as the face of a cow, and nice enough. I am not even going to be charitable here. Jerk.
On the fabulous and fun side, I had the most charming seat mate on the bus: Shirley Bovshow. We are talking major Garden Diva here folks. You may know her as one of the Garden Police. Shirley has her own show on the Discovery Channel, yup, the Garden Police! Like, dial up 119 for Shirl. She can fix you up. They rework tired, unkept, uninspired gardens in Los Angeles. She has a megawatt smile and a heart of gold and may be one of the most dialed-in, hard working divas I know. I loved sitting next to her on the bus. Tune in for her upcoming blog on Garden Voices, and check out her show Thursday nights, 8PM, Discovery Home channel. You go girl!
Photos coming soon……….
Hey Girl!!! Yes, we had a great time sitting on that bus together. Thanks for your generous report about me. I have some photos of our outing that I want to share with you but I have no email address!! Contact me via email and I will share with you.
If you have not had the pleasure of meeting MaryAnn, she talks just the way she writes. Her personality is bold and funloving and she had no trouble sharing her opinion about various issues near and dear to her heart. MaryAnn, I enjoyed your rants and many raves too. Please keep in touch. I may become a garden tour junkie like you some day.
I’m with you Mary Ann. Those post modern, crisp as a dollar bill gardens leave me cold, too. Reminds me of Versailles–a garden to be looked at, not lived in.
And Shirley, any friend of Mary Ann’s is a friend of mine.