Weekend Meanderings No. 114 | Mom on the Porch, a Graduation Worth Celebrating, and a Potter in Hawaii Who Stopped Trying to Prove Anything

My mom is here, the wrens have four blue eggs, my nephew is graduating this morning and I found a potter in Hawaii who made me rethink everything I believe about ambition

I am smiling from ear to ear, first because I have my mom here. No matter how old you are you are never too old to enjoy the wisdom and love of your mom. We start the day with our respective chocolate and coffee on the front porch listening to the birds, watching them splash around in the bird bath and land on the new flowers, the bees buzzing and the wrens flying in and out of the porch wreath. Yes, there is a new clutch of birds. At this point just four blue eggs, but soon to be fuzzy chicks. We talk, laugh, reminisce and just enjoy one another’s company. After dinner we do the same thing, except there are bats flitting about and we talk until our eyes droop and we can barely stay awake. It is the best gift.

This morning we are off to my nephew’s graduation. I could not be more proud of this young man. Five years ago we almost lost him. He was hit by a car while riding his bike, flew over thirty feet and landed on his backpack but hit his head at the same time. He was life-flighted to Chapel Hill and stayed there for two weeks. After that came six months of therapy and after that years of tests and check-ups for his brain. This morning this amazing young man will receive his diploma with honors and is off to college. There are so many adventures ahead for him and I am so excited.

Ok, enough about me. Kim, Juliet and I have lots to share this week. Let’s meander.

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The Lost Kitchen

I shared Erin French’s book on Monday Musings and enjoyed it so much I thought I would share this today. In this episode, Erin prepares to close out a memorable season at The Lost Kitchen with a special menu built around last of the season ingredients. She connects with local farmers to source everything, and the care she puts into every plate is extraordinary. Erin followed her passion and opened a restaurant in her hometown of Freedom, Maine, and travelers from all over the world make the trip to experience her cooking. There is something about the way she moves through that kitchen that makes you want to drive to Maine immediately and put your name on the waiting list. Watch the full episode here.

Home Tours

On Homeworthy this week, a 1905 Australian farmhouse with gorgeous gardens. In New South Wales, television producer Mel Macpherson found a crumbling homestead called Longfield that had sat abandoned for decades on a hilltop overlooking the Northern Rivers. She brought it back to life, preserving its history while adding a thoughtful contemporary addition. Salvaged timbers, found objects, family heirlooms, archival photographs. Furniture built from the original veranda wood. Vintage treasures inherited from her mother. Every room tells a story of craftsmanship and memory and place, and the result is a home that feels both timeless and completely alive. For more extraordinary home tours, visit Homeworthy. Watch the full tour here.

And if you love a renovation story with an artist’s eye, meet muralist Liz Allison. From one viral video to a full career painting murals in some of the world’s most beautiful homes, Liz has channelled her talent into murals, bespoke delft tiles and interior design. In this episode of Get to Know Alabama, host Courtney Hancock takes us through Liz’s 1911 craftsman cottage in Birmingham, a passion project she shares with her carpenter husband, and into her studio where the magic comes to life. I loved every minute of this one. Watch it here.

Wanderlust

I could not love this cottage tour more. A peaceful June wander through the beautiful cottage garden at Smallhythe Place in Kent, one of the most enchanting Tudor buildings in the Weald. The property dates from the late 15th century, and in June the garden reaches one of its most beautiful moments, with roses, cottage perennials and wildflowers creating a tapestry of colour around the historic buildings. The walk takes you past the Phyllis Bide rambling roses cascading over the cottage entrance, through the wildflower meadow, past the historic thatched barn theatre connected to Victorian actress Ellen Terry, and along a long rose pergola that is one of the most beautiful garden views I have seen. No music, no narration, just birdsong and the summer breeze. If you love English cottage gardens and peaceful countryside walks, this one is for you.

Flower Arranging

If you are challenged, like me, in arranging flowers, Ellen Frost will be able to help us both. In this video she takes on a customer request for a high end floral design using locally grown flowers, and the result is elegant, sophisticated and anything but rustic. She walks through vase selection, colour theory, focal flowers, line flowers and how professional techniques work together to create something worthy of a country club or a special occasion. What I loved is how she shows that locally grown flowers can be just as refined as imported blooms, and often far more unique. Practical tips you can actually use the next time you bring home flowers from the market. Find Ellen’s YouTube channel here.

Jennifer Owen

Jennifer Owen is a Maui potter and ceramics teacher whose life has taken shape through clay, not through scale or constant growth or the pressure to turn every creative act into a career strategy. Teaching gave her a livelihood, but it also gave her something rarer, the freedom to make work without asking whether each piece could sell. Her ceramic work is shaped by salt firing and the unpredictable beauty of the kiln, and she says she no longer needs to prove anything. Ambition, she suggests, can become a trap. It is a film about pottery but also about the quiet politics of enough, and it asks what a creative life looks like when it is rooted in attention instead of achievement. I think many of us will see ourselves in this one. Watch it here.

Embrace Aging with Amy Grant

After decades of releasing new albums every few years, Amy Grant went mostly quiet. In the time since her last album of original songs in 2013, she has survived several harrowing medical emergencies, including a traumatic brain injury. Now she is back with a new album, The Me That Remains. In her conversation with Rachel Martin on NPR’s Wild Card, she says she felt she was doing her audience a disservice by not writing about this phase of life. If you grew up listening to Amy Grant, as so many of us did, this one will mean something to you. Listen here.

At the Cinema

What can I say, I love a romcom. Voicemails for Isabelle lands on Netflix on June 19 and it is already at the top of my list. Jill copes with her sister’s death by leaving her voicemails chronicling her chaotic life in San Francisco. When the number is unknowingly reassigned, an elusive Austin real estate agent begins receiving the hilariously confessional messages. More here.

Before you go, tell me, what are you watching this weekend? Have you discovered a garden video that transports you somewhere beautiful, or a documentary that made you think differently about how you spend your time? And are the deer behaving themselves in your garden?

Have a wonderful weekend, friends.

Don’t forget to visit Juliet at Make Mine a Spritzer and Kim at Northern California Style — we always have lots to share.

If you enjoyed this post, I would love it if you shared it. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterestand X — I would love to have you along.

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