Weekend Meanderings No. 116 | Aphids, Austen, and an Irish Village for $22 Million

Bugs in the garden, baby birds on the porch, two films worth marking your calendar for, and home tours that will make you want to pack a suitcase

Nobody told me about the bugs. I knew about the rabbits and the deer, the heat and the water but if someone mentioned bugs it went in one ear and out the other. As much as I do not like snakes I do not like bugs. This week while walking in the circle, checking on the growth and the flowers I noticed one plant that looked forlorn, right in the middle. I could see it from the window like a beacon, leaves drooping, and a few yellow. When I bent down to check the milkweed it was covered in yellow aphids, not just a few, the stalks and the backs of all of the leaves were covered. I looked on Google for help and then I went straight to the experts at NC State. They agreed with my assessment and part of my Google treatment, when I got to the part about buying lady bugs online I was quickly shut down. The milkweed is being treated, so far the only thing that has been harmed in my native wildflower garden is the aphids, let’s hope nothing else invades.

It’s just, my pups and the birds today on Weekend Meanderings. Juliet is taking six weeks off to finish her degree, and Kim is in Canada at a wedding but you can still visit and enjoy their past posts. I have lots to share and keep you busy over your morning coffee.

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Movies

Just in time for the 4th of July, and America’s 250th birthday, Young Washington arrives in theaters July 3. William Franklyn-Miller stars as a twenty-two-year-old George Washington, long before the Revolution, long before the presidency, when a single mistake on the frontier thrust him into the center of the French and Indian War. The cast includes Mary-Louise Parker, Kelsey Grammer, Andy Serkis, and Ben Kingsley, and the film premiered at the Tribeca Festival earlier this month. It is the kind of movie that reminds you our greatest leaders were not born certain of anything. They were young and terrified and made terrible mistakes and got back up.

Mark your calendars, friends. Based on Jane Austen’s iconic masterpiece, the trailer just dropped for Sense & Sensibility, starring Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor Dashwood and Esmé Creed-Miles as Marianne. Caitríona Balfe plays their widowed mother, Fiona Shaw is Mrs. Jennings, and George MacKay steps in as Edward Ferrars. Directed by Georgia Oakley with a screenplay by Diana Reid, this is a fresh adaptation from Focus Features and Working Title. If you loved the 1995 Emma Thompson version (and I did), October 16 cannot come fast enough. Only in theaters.

In the Garden This Week

Wandering Hampstead in rose season | Visiting Mottisfont gardens Rose season was a bit early this year in England, but while it was still going strong, one of my favorite garden channels visited a few stunning gardens and historic homes. First, a day in Hampstead, one of the most charming neighbourhoods in London, including Fenton House, a National Trust historic home and garden with an eclectic collection. Hampstead is almost like being in a countryside village. Then, a day trip to Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire, another National Trust site whose walled garden is home to old rose varieties and is, by all accounts, an absolute show-stopper. If you love roses and old English gardens, this one is for you.

A Stunning Cape Cod Shade Garden 42 Years in the Making Retired horticultural professionals Marcia and George Chapman have spent forty-two years transforming a backyard of pitch pine and scrub oak into a series of beautiful garden rooms connected by winding paths and hidden destinations. Colorful shade-loving plants, moss-covered stone walkways, mature trees, handcrafted containers, and a reclaimed greenhouse full of character. Forty-two years. That is devotion. That is love made visible in the ground.

Inspiration

This one stopped me. Jacqueline Gourevitch was born in Paris in 1933 and fled France with her family in 1940 to escape the Holocaust, making her way through the Pyrenees, Spain, Portugal, Cuba, and finally Ellis Island. She is now ninety-two years old, still painting in her Lower Manhattan loft, and she has been painting clouds for over sixty years. Her work is in the collections of the Museum of the City of New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Academy Museum, and many more. She studied at Black Mountain College, was included in the 1973 Whitney Biennial, and once demanded a window seat on an airplane so she could study and draw the cloud formations. I love everything about that. To see more of her work: jacquelinegourevitch.com

House Tours

Caroline from Homeworthy travels to Athens, Georgia to tour the collected home and garden of artist, product designer, and Garnet Hill design partner Susan Hable. Susan and her husband resurrected this property from a falling-down structure into a serene creative sanctuary. This is a home that feels completely secluded even in the middle of a busy neighborhood, and there is something deeply appealing about that.

Rebeka Russell, publisher of Manderley Press, welcomes us inside her London family home, built in 1868 by architect Philip Webb, the same man who designed William Morris’s Red House. The home was once the residence of author William Hale White, who would take tea in the downstairs music room with William Morris himself. Rebeka and her family, with the help of designer Ben Pentreath, have restored this house with Morris wallpapers, antique furnishings, and collected pieces that reflect their shared love of literature, design, and craftsmanship. She has also transformed the former scullery, complete with its original 19th-century floor, into the headquarters of her publishing company, where she produces beautifully crafted editions of forgotten literary classics inspired by houses, buildings, or landmarks. I could move in tomorrow. For more extraordinary home tours, visit homeworthy.com. To learn more about Manderley Press: manderleypress.com

If you have a spare $22 million you can be the new owner of an Irish village called the Cliff at Lyons. I am not making this up. The Village at Lyons is a 20-acre estate in County Kildare, about thirty minutes from Dublin, currently operating as a five-star boutique hotel. Rose-covered cottages arranged around garden courtyards, a library, a spa, orchards, waterways, and a water mill. The land dates back to the Kings of Leinster in 760 AD, the buildings were built in the 1820s, and the late Tony Ryan (yes, the Ryanair founder) spent over a decade restoring every stone cottage and courtyard. I do not have $22 million. But a girl can dream. For more in formation see the listing.

That is your meanderings for this week, friends. It is just me today, but I promise Juliet and Kim will be back before you know it. In the meantime, I am going to check on my milkweed, read a book and possibly look up real estate in County Kildare just for fun.

Have a wonderful weekend.

What are you watching this weekend? Any garden battles of your own? I want to hear about them, we can cheer each other on.

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